I wanted to visit Pondi from a long time, and finally did this Holi! Every Holi I end up planning a quick getaway, knowingly or unknowingly making us not play Holi in this process. For the record, Augus and I have NEVER celebrated Holi together. After days of mulling over and considering the potential places we could go, we decided upon Pondicherry. I was agitated when Augus told “No” to a place that has wildlife, to a place that has beaches and to a place that has mountains. That is almost telling a no for a vacation itself! Meano!
I was determined that I needed a break. A break from breaking my head over “What do I make for breakfast?” (That’s approved by Augus and his parents - mind you, I can count on one hand the number of South Indian dishes for breakfast the entire house agree upon. Sigh!). A break from the talks. The not-so-interesting talks that happen in the house, where all I can say is Ummm and nothing else, while only WTF comes to my mind. A break from all the traffic and the noise and suffocation it creates - I had reached my threshold. So, the first step was the concluding one - I booked bus tickets to Pondi!!!!!
I had to revisit the traveling sites on the internet as I was confused with all the self-education I had provided myself with info about other places I had on my mind (Kodaikanal was top on the list, but considering my knee was still not completely alright, I decided not to go to a place that might tempt us to do a bit of trekking).
I knew all the places I could visit in Pondi - the museum, Auroville, Ashram, churches and the beaches. But I had to narrow it down to a few places due to time constraint and I came up with a tailor made plan, considering our interest level in visiting those places.
The best part of the trip was the White town. The french streets! I could not get enough of them. Fancy saying ‘Rue Damas’ hehe. The houses and mansions in that area were so pretty, painted with pastel colors and dawning french windows, flaunting French ethos all over. Some of the houses were converted to cafes or clubs and had huge gates that opened to a garden that was so welcoming. Augus and I had taken a bike for rent, and we wandered the streets of white town for a million times. We had brunch at this place called “The Indian Kaffe Express” where we had pancakes, rolls and sandwiches. The ambiance of this cafe was very warm and relaxing. We also had lunch at The Le Club, which had everything but good music - good food and good ambiance.
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We visited Paradise beach which had to be reached through a boat ride starting from the Chunnambar Boat House. When the boat ride ended and we reached the shore, I was rather disappointed to see just still water and shelter huts. But the huts led us to the beach and I was awestruck. This was the second cleanest beach I have seen in my life, after Radhanagar beach and Elephant beach in the islands of Andaman. We sat there for hours sipping chilled breezer and looking at the Paradise beach. It was serene and peaceful.
We could make time to visit two of the churches - Domus Dei, which was so French haha! I loved the way it is built, so simple yet appealing. The pillars had delicate work and the exterior was a blend of off white and pale pink. The structure of the building was so unique. Even the interiors were impressive. The other one was Sacred Heart Basilica and I loved the glass paintings done on the interior of the church.
Promenade beach took me by surprise. We went there to take a walk by the beach on both the evenings. There is a French War memorial on the left of the pavement and on the right is Indian War memorial, a cafe and a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. The street is like a thoroughfare, meant only for walking and it is by far the cleanest street I have seen in this country! Almost zero litter and zero traffic and err...no stray animals. The street is brightly lit with bending light poles and they look fabulous at night. On the first day, I could not get enough of this picturesque scene - the dark sky, the stars and the dark ocean with bright full moon throwing its light generously on the ocean making a part of the ocean to gleam subtly. The next night, I was sulky as there was no sight of the moon, and all I could see was darkness - dark sky and dark ocean as if we could not tell where the ocean ends and sky begins. I was disinterestedly eating chocolate cup ice cream and looked at the ocean for a moment when I realized that we had reached there early and the moon was waiting to give me a naughty surprise. At first I spotted a big crimson moon at the end of the ocean - hiding. And slowly it rose higher and higher and got smaller and brighter and took its place to look like how it did the previous evening. This was the first time I witnessed moon rise and it was marvelous. I did not even look at Augus who was busy taking my pictures when I kept staring at the sky and the ocean, the beauty.
We stayed at the St James Court Beach resort which I did not think was worth the money, although it had a lawn that led to the Pondicherry Beach and we witnessed sunrise in the mornings. The food was average and the so called complimentary breakfast was really bad. And we had to wait till we checked in for almost two hours, and in the meanwhile, Augus was helping the fishermen pull the heavy net onto to the shore. It was his quota of workout, he said.
Overall, I had lived to the fullest in those close to 48 hours of my short lived vacation - breathed fresh air, treated my eyes with beaches and sunrise and moonrise and some amazing French architecture and last but not the least - got uninterrupted quality time to spend with Augus. As I read on a hoarding in Pondi, it said “Pondicherry - give time a break” and voila! I did just that!!!
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