Blogs from Pondicherry, India, Asia - page 2

The catch line of the tourism ad was enticing indeed – ‘Give time a break’! For harried souls like us, it was an invitation to eternal bliss. So as the kids ‘called it a day’ for their annual exams, we headed straight to Pondicherry, fondly called Pondy and now more authentically, Puducherry – take your pick! The road journey from Chennai to Pondicherry stretching about 150 Kms. is simply excellent. Cruising along the ECR (East Coast Road) and playing hide & seek with the Bay of Bengal, almost after an hour of leaving Chennai we stopped short of Mamallapuram. Hotel Mamalla was a good choice for breakfast with piping hot masala dosa & idli served with the quintessential sambar. Thanks to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the temples at Mamallapuram appear well cared for. Especially the ... read more

Planning to visit Arikamedu Before going to Pondichery I did a thorough search on Internet to explore all the nearby places. Apart from the usual tourist points like Arobondo ashram, Aroville, Chunamber etc. I found quite a few other interesting tourist points, such as Arikamedu Archeological site, Birampatnam, Ousteri Lake, Tiruvakkarai National Fossil wood park etc. Although I was not sure about visiting those places I just noted down the names, locations/ routes etc. from google map/ other sources in order to try out the possibility if situation permits. Where is Arikamedu Arikamedu is about 8 kms south to Pondichery. One has to go about 6 kms towards south on Cuddalore road and then take a left turn near Ariyakuppam. Then the road becomes narrow and goes through villages. Hence one has to ask about the ... read more

Visiting Ousteri Lake Ousteri lake or Ossudu lake is about 20 kms from Pondichery. Before going to pondichery I had planned to go there by PTTDC (pondichery tourisim) bus. But after reaching pondichery I came to know that PTTDC had cancelled all local tours because of lack of tourists. Even the daily local tour to Aurovil was cancelled. Other tours like Pasumai Puduvai or eco-friendly tour (Ousteri lake, Tiruvakkarai etc.) were out of question. After becoming hopeless from PTTDC we planned planned the trip by a hired scooter. It was a fun driving scooter to an unknown place in a different state. The people were helpful to guide about the road. But we had to ask several people because of our Tamil illiteracy. The beauty of the Lake The lake is maintained by Pondichery Tourusm. But ... read more

There are many beautiful churches in Pondicherry. However, I liked three of them which are very beautiful. They are the sacred heart church, Immaculate conception cathedral and Ariyankuppam church. The sacred heart church This church is located just in front of the railway station on MG road. This is a beautiful church having a beautiful prayer hall. This is not only attractive but also an important landmark.img=https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-2_GuaRT6KtQ/UqMRP56vOhI/AAAAAAAAJ9g/G2WNg_Y5ves/w702-h527-no/umakant-mishra-pondichery-sacred-heart-church-233.jpg The Immaculate Conception Cathedral This is a beautiful church on the Cathedral road or Mission road (picture below). We went there in the evening when there was huge gathering for prayer. img=https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-jxWUu0WpFwc/UqMSIOowggI/AAAAAAAAJ-Q/l106hER34rc/w702-h527-no/umakant-mishra-p... read more

Took a cab into Pondicherry, a town about an hour and half outside of Chennai. We went to town a town called Auroville- we past some old book stores (used) and lots of motorcyles with multiple people. This is where the "Oh oh oh!" game came into play. you can not call out "oh oh oh! if you do not see more than twenty cows on the move. If you do yell the said sentence, then everyone in the car will look and it is basically not worth it if everyone has seen cows... So we pull up at Auroville, and we arrive to a commune where hippies live. I don't quite know how this commune came to be built, but the mission statement begins, "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women ... read more