The East coast Bonanza - Pondicherry

My Kerala fever is not yet over and I have been in Chennai for over 5 days and all I wanted to see is the coastline opposite to Kerala, so cornered an acquaintance and my weekend getaway was the Union Territory Pondicherry (they call it Poudocherry). Few words that come to my mind when I think of Pondicherry are a sleepy, calm, laid-back, slow paced town which is perfect place to unwind your self.

Mamallapuram Caves







We started at about 7.30 a.m in the morning via east coast road. Since Vijay is from Chennai we first went to Mahabalipuram which is like bonanza for someone like me who loves the history, architecture, structure and symmetry. These structure are 1400 years old, I saw quite a few of them like the tiger caves, Elephanta caves, Shore temple built by Pallavas are all geniuses for there remains tell you the strength and the artistic bend of the people . One of the discoveries made after Tsunami was a temple of Karthikey right next to the beach. I am truly awestruck with the detailing and ability to replicate structures over and over again. Another striking feature was the fact that in most cases lion images sculpted on the stones were similar to the lion on Sri Lankan Flag.

We had our breakfast at Anand Bhawan and Vijay made sure I ate everything with hand even the Vada (the salty doughnut :P). It was easy though but just that I never tried it before. We hit the East Coast road where we drove for about 4 hours before we reached Pnodicherry- the place I ahve been dying to see.

Pondi: French Architecture: One of my favourite



Pondi: The Church at the Roadside




Bay of Bengal unlike Arabian sea is very wild and untamed the beaches are rocky and the roar of the sea is 100 times louder. The delightful French architecture is simple, well defined, mesmerizes and is full of color. Most government offices are next to the rocky beach, I wanna get into a govt job their ( anybody listening). We went to see this church along the same road in pink and cream color and amazing idols of Mother Mary and Jesus. We sat there for quite sometime I was admiring the structure the colorful panes in the windows and Vijay was offering his prayers. We halted at Auroville beach which was my first encounter with Bay of Bengal huge waves hitting against the shore.The actually washed foot wear of lot of people in front of me. But I was busy admiring the full moon The sand is grainy and has lot of sea shells. Finally we bid adios to the city.

Truly a nice weekend getaway yet Kerala still top my chart.