Pondy Travelogue

A trip to the nearest beach was our calling on the occassion of our 8th Wedding Anniversary.
8 glorious years....
Goa being afar and Pondy being just a few hours drive away, we decided to drive down to this seemingly sleepy little town-beach country-side.

Pondicherry or Puducherry as it is now known, is a coastal town in Tamil Nadu, about 275 kms from Bangalore nay Bengaluru; the route via Krishnagiri, Chengam, Thiruvannamalai, Ginjee being the most popular and the nearest - not necessarily the best, though.

The place has many colonial buildings, churches, temples, and statues; the well planned French style avenues, still preserve much of the colonial ambience. The French side is cut like a cake while the rest is like any other typical Tamil Nadu town.


25/06/10, 04.45 am Left home for Pondy. Odometer read 75,260, with a full tank.
By any standards, on a weekday early morning, the traffic on Hosur road was heavy. We navigated thorough the countless trucks of various sizes, crossed Hosur just a sun was peeping out, and quick enough to reach the A2B outlet near Chinar in about 1 hour.
We were really looking forward to the breakast fare at this petrol-bunk-hotel combo, as I read extensively that decent food is a scarcity in the route that we chose to drive on. Also, during many other trips along this place on Hosur road we missed it.
Darn! we were 15 minutes early and the A2B was yet to open.
Had to skip breakfast; we drove on, past the Krishnagiri Toll-booth and on to the Gingee route.
7 am, reached Uthangarai - a nondescript town enroute; found a Tea-kadai with a brass boiler, vibudhi smeared owner-cum-tea-maker,  et al. 2 cups of sugary tea cost 8 bucks and some queer looks from local customers.

8 am, Chengam
Potholes get bigger nd nastier. Mangoes being sold, but shops not ready yet as its too early! Short break, refreshments.
9 am Thiruvannamalai
Heat and dust begin; seems like this town is getting a major underground piping done all over as all roads are dug-up right in the middle. Scores of pilgrims going around the Annamalai Hill in what is caled as Girivalam (To complete one full round of the road round the hill, it is around 14 kilometres. People from all walks of life, both young and old religiously go round the hill on the Full Moon Day. It is said to bring in abundant peace or calmness for the mental well being and also refreshing for the physical fitness).

Impressive Gopurams on the perimeter of Arunachaleswarar temple;
We got misdirected towards Villupuram by an 'educated-looking' local; half-the way into the route,  the entire road was dug-up and ther was no way to go through; just hten a traffic constable re-directed us towards Gingee. 40 mins lost; the heat takes its toll & A/c comes on.

10:15 am Gingee fort. Magnificient view. Quick Pix. Tamarind tree lined roads. Shady in parts, makes difficult to see potholes - nay craters -

11:00 Tindivanam
Road w-i-p, numerous diversions. Searing heat - a/c ineffective.
ECR being conected to this road hence the multi-lane road; maybe once completed, it will be a pleasure to drive on - meanwhile, it is a pain

11.40 Puducherry, Odometer reading 75,560.

12:15 pm Hotel Atithi check-in. Neat hotel, spacious rooms taste-fully decorated and adequate, Rooftop infinity swimming pool an added attraction. Calls itself  a Business-class hotel, owned by a Sri Lankan chain - Aitkins Spence.

2 pm Lunch; delicious stuff, good spread.

3-5 pm slept like logs.

6-7.30 pm: Promenade - a 1.5 km walk-way.

Now this is one grossly exaggerated Tourism Gimmick. Every scrap/piece of Pondichery Tourist information mentions this road as a must; not really so. That the loal govt decided to renovate the walkway didn't help the already cramped street; no parking and vehicles (only public vehicles as Govt vehicles have the privilege of breaking every law that is made by them) not allowed to drive in the evenings upto 10 pm. The sea here is very rough and wave after wave crashes on the boulders, as if putting on a show for the visitors. The curio shops are, well, as in other places, meant to rip off any one who wants to burn pockets or are very deep so cannot be burnt. All said and done, most of landmarks are on this Rue. Gandhi Statue, old pier that is mostly submerged, Dupliex statue, Old light house (built in 1836 AD),

8 pm: Dinner and sleep.

Gandhi Statue with 8 Pillars

One unmistakable learning from the walk was that all roads are called 'Rue', eg.: rue de la Marine means Marine road where Aurobindo Ashram is located

The 8 Pillars with exquisite carving around Gandhi statue on this stretch were taken away by the British from a temple in Gingee Fort.
Ville Blanche - White town where all the colonial buildings exist and well-laid out area like a neatly cut cake.
Ville Noire - Black Town, the Indian side where the houses lined are in typical Tamil nadu / South Indian style with verandahs, large entrance doors and grills with internal courtyards whereever possible.

26/07/2010: Wedding Anniversary

7.30 am Breakfast

8.30 am Varadaraja Perumal Temple (built in 600 AD); Darshan of the Almighty. Clean temple complex, with statues of the Hindu Gods, Rama, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman (said to be brought by fishermen from the sea). The main deity is Venkatachalapathy (Vishnu) with a Narasimha temple and other sub-temples.

 
 
9.30 am Chunambar beach resort. We wernt sure of what to expect. One of the first tourists here, parking and ticket buying was easy.  Only when we wet inside the truth dawned on us: We must take a boat across the back-waters for 20 minutes to reach the beach on the other side.

Chunnambar Beach + backwater

The beach at Chunnambar also known as Plage Paradiso, is located near the mouth of the backwaters. The sand is pristine and the water, clean. It's and ideal place for sun bathing and beach sports. At its closest, the back-water and beach are just a few feet away. Check out the pic along side.

Bebu running into water

Bebu enjoyed the Beach so much that she never wanted to leave and always ran back into the sea-water; so the obliging mother had to comply. She also enjoyed teh boat ride thoroghly, with wind ater vapour and sand flying around.

Wave after wave crashed along the beach - where swimming is prohibited as the waters are very deep closer to the shore.

Another 10 minute boatride took us back to the entry.

Govt of Pondi runs a Sea-Gulls Resort and multi-cusine restaurant; as is true of all Govt restaurants elsewhere, the very sight of it robs you of your appetite, no matter how hungry you may be. Interestingly, there one of the rooms a tree-house of the total three rooms they have. It is on Cuddalore main road and the famous Chidambaram is just 40 kms away from here.

Some amount of driving around, hither and tither took us to the 'gully' that leads to Auroville. Ther is one small direction board showing way to Auroville, and you are sure to miss it; we missed it at least twice and drove up & down on the same ECR road.

12:45 Auroville
 Auroville (The City of Dawn) is a universal township in the making for a population of up to 50,000 people from around the world. About 12 kms from the town and 6 kms from the main road through dense thickets, hutments, winding curves and shady roads.

Matri Mandir

In 1966 UNESCO passed a unanimous resolution commending it as a project of importance to the future of humanity. It is an integrated township of about 1,500 people belonging to various nationalities in 850 hectares; it is still a work-in-progress project - with grand plans for housing 50k people in 2,000 hecrates by 2025.

A km away from the Information center is the Matri Mandir; luckily there are battery-cars that can ferry tired souls to the Mandir.
Matri-Mandir - a golden globe, in the middle of this village - is the main attraction of this place, along with few AuroShops selling everything from hair-pins to dresses, gloves, curios, earrings, etc. - ostensibly all Organic and locally produced. Endless choices for endless pockets.

Auro-Shop

It was conceived by The Mother as "a symbol of the Divine's answer to man's inspiration for perfection". Silence is maintained inside the dome and entire area surrounding the Matri-Mandir is called Peace area. The Peace area in which the Dome is situated is composed of three components: the Matri-Mandir, its twelve gardens, twelve petals and lakes, the Amphitheater and the Banyan Tree.

We couldn't go inside as prior reservation is required, sometimes more than a week in advance.

To go up to the visitors reception area also, one neds to 'view' a movie of about 15 minutes regarding the AuroVille, concept and executon. The Mother, Mirra Alfassa, is the driving force of the Auroville and regarded as an equal to Sri Aurobindo.

Auro-Banyan; Bebu & Mother

A huge Banyan Tree (Ficus bengalensis) welcomes you at the entrance. It is said that on February 28 1968 about 5,000 people assembled near the Banyan tree at the centre of the future township for an inauguration ceremony attended by representatives of 124 nations, including all the States of India. These people brought some soil from their homeland, mixed it in a white marble lotus-shaped urn, now placed at the middle point of the Amphitheater - on which Sunlight passes thru during the day and a Solar powered beam is focussed at night. The sprawling Banyan's more than 100 years old and its diameter measures more than 50 mtrs with numerous branches themselves adding to the spread. It has few stone benches for resting under it and even during mid-day it was cool!

Despite all its wow factor, inadequacies, calmness, et al, all buildings seemed to have been built with a Green-mind; using locally available materials, lot of natural air & light, roomy, minimally painted set in a beautiful landscape.

Numerous eateries, some shady, few in shade - serving indian as well as continental fare, including authentic French & Italian..... we decided not to venture into any.

18:00 Shopping, Downtown.

An M. G. Road at every City, Town and Village must be the one singular achievement of unity across India.

We decided to walk the evening through the shopping lanes of MG Road, Nehru Street, Rue Goubert, Rue Romain, etc. A melange of upmarket speciality stores, roadside eateries, handicraft and leather stores incl the the famous Hidesign and wannabes; few arment shops seemed to cater to foreigners' version of Indian etnhics. We heard that Rue MG's hosts a Sunday fish market in the afternoons and the aroma lingers into late night!

20:30 Famished, returned to Atithi for a quiet dinner and sound sleep.

June 27, 2010

08:00 Left Pondy; trifle later than planned.

09:40 Gingee Fort, Krishnagiri fort

Krishnagiri Fort on English Mountain

We were mesmerised by the beauty of the Rajagiri & Krishnagiri Forts at Gingee. Each on either side of the main road, said to have been built/added by many local kings at various points of time.

Krishnagiri Fort, on what is known as English Mountain as Britishers were occupants for some time.

Rajagiri Fort

Very little information is available, even with the handout from the ASI office that runs the Rajagiri.  Rajagiri fort is more magnificient and approchable, complete with a drive-in road.

Anada Kon, a local chief, is said to have built this fortin 1200 AD; but it came into prominence with the rise of Nayakas of Gingee in early 17th century. The Muslim sultans of Bijapur, the Moguls, the Marathas are always recognised the strategic importance of the fort and everybody always fought hard to retain the fort. The vision of Chartapati Shivaji, became true, as Gingee was the seat of Maratha power for few months when Rajaram fled to Maharashtra in the wars with the Moghuls. Britishers called in "Troy of the East"!

Rajagiri fort with Zig-zag walls

The outer fortification of Gingee runs in a triangular form over the three prominent hillock viz. Rajagiri, Krishnagiri and the Chakklidurg and the intervening spaces. The fortification is about 13 km in length and the fort covers an area of about 11 sq.km and a heght of 600 feet. There are two prominent gateways viz. the Arcot and Pondicherry gates.
The main road actually cuts through the Fort walls; pity - the effects of civilised development must cruelly step on History.

Rajagiri - Main Entrance to Top view

Rajagiri Fort Sculptures

Tourists can tour the entire fort complex for a fee of Rs. 5 and takes about 3 hrs. We planned to take this exclusively sometime later and moved on, awestruck.

Gopuram of Thiruvannamalai

11:10 Holy town of Thiruvannamalai!

We couldn't escape but pay due respects to the holiness of Arulmigu Arunachaleshwarar Tirukkoil.

The enormous eastern Gopuram welcomes inside the Temple complex comprising of many sub-temples, in addition to the main Arunachaleshwar.
Long ques awaited us inside, and in searing hot climate the darshan was not easy.

Multiple Gopurams of Thiruvannamalai

The temple complex sprawls in about 25 acres and is considered one of the 'Pancha bhooota sthalams-Fire' along with Sri Kalahasti, Kanchipuram, Chidambaram & Thiruvanaikovil.

Temple Elephant Blessings

On the way out, we encountered the Temple Elephant, and promptly sought blessings, from it.

By 17:00, we were home, even though we encounted heavy trafic enroute from Krishnagiry to Bangalore.

Travelogue - A Pilgrimage in Karnataka

Day-1
0500 Started from home
Brrr... cold winds, empty roads, occassional zipping automobiles
We swiftly get on to the infamous Tumkur Road, navigate through (surprising for an early morning)busy road with laden-Trucks, on to the Belur-Hassan highway
0630 Kunigal
0800 Breakfast @ Kamat upachar (120), Hassan bypass
Fog at Hassan. Terrible roads start just after Hassan.

0930 Sakleshpur ghats - incredibly terible roads - 6 accidents; at least 1 fatal.
1130 Netravati river, v.v.dirty. Tens of thousands taking bath, washing clothes, brushing teeth, countless lechers perched at vantage points, unmindful ladies going about their ablutions - all in the name of Spirituality. God! Took a few droplets and sprayed ourselves, to clean our sins, somewhat!
1145 Dharmasthala Temple. Shock! 3 hr long que. Vijayadashami rush; 25 lines of barricades, filled with people to the brim, all wanting to take the Lord's blessings. Arati of Lord Manjunath inersprsed with Animated film Jai Ganesh on 4 LCD tv's in the open waiting hall. Wailing children, overzealous adults (of many sizes, shapes, heights, race, colour, gender), narrow que's - one hall to another - all made it a very interesting experience!
Intense heat, Set prasadam Tkt 150. Water 15. Tons of eatables none taken. Unimpressive temple. No mood to take pix. Burnt pebble pricked feet, tired souls... nay soles! Missing taxi & driver, frantic search, taxi found, but driver sleeping in a nearby van. Skipped lunch.
1630: Enroute Kukke - Thunderstorm, lush green Areca-Pepper farms, Mangalore tile & laterite homes, more bad roads! Roller coaster ride thanks to our fearless merciless driver Krishna, who single belief (other than God) is to drive his Indicab at high speeds & overtake every other vehicle in front, come rain / shine.
1640 Subramanya - mist. Painful trudge to & fro Adi Subramanya temple, Kumaradhara river. More droplets to cleanse ourselves.

Confused indiscipline at main temple.
1st experience at public-bare-upper-body-show.


Huge Ganapathi Temple, just outside Kukke.


1840: Belthangady 37 kms. 1k diesel. No sight of tonite's destination - Horanadu. Dozzz... zzz..
1900: Hey, Dharmasthala 12 kms! R v goin back? Hmm... Nope, just wrong choice of sequence of places.
Anyway... Bad roads, chill weather, synthetic telugu songs' blare continue, lightning flashes at a corner o'the sky. Every1 wants to overtake each car in front, on-coming bus & trucks want to annihilate each of us in the night cavalcade.
1920: Dstla! deviated & took right on to Charmady Ghats, pity cudn't do this beautiful stretch in daylight. Huge temple, Shrirama Kshetra-skip.
1930: Destn 100 kms away!
1945: Ujire - Dasara procession.


More lightning, pelting rain, even more terrible roads... Charmady here v come!
A Place called 'Watekhan' whizzed past!
2315: Reachd Horanadu. Steady drizzle, hundreds of vehicles, Jam.
No hotel rooms! HomeStay at Ram's. Rs. 200 (corner of a hall). No dinner.. famished... crashed instantly into deep-sleep!


Insights: Planning to travel during festive season? Factor in the possibility of teeming crowds, long ques, poor accomodation, no sleep. In fact, it may be wise to not travel at all!
Structural design fault in Indicab. Rainwater creeps up the windshield during high speeds - despite wipers, due to lesser slant than say, an Alto or Swift. This makes it a dangerous car to drive on a rainy night. Mr. R. Tata - are you listening?? I hope the new Indica Vista has good design and build quality.



Day 2
0534: Got up & ready in a jiffy! Luxury of a hot water bath - a fire-wood fuelled 'hande' with a flowing tap feeding resh water to it, ensured that all 12 inmates of the house had hot water in the cold environs!
0630: Annapurna Temple,
Q, shirt removal routine. Brought angavastram :) Painful frail voice singing devi shlokas. People sleeping inside temple. Poor facilities to take care of rush during festivals.
0730: floppy idli, water sambar, coffe wit jaggery b/f. Rs 28. 100 to krishna.
0755: Kalasa. Conspiculously empty. 1000 yr old Dakshin Kasi, with strange figures on stone pathway! The town itself is unaware of the legend/s it supposedly holds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalasa

A View of the Kalasa village from the Temple-top.



0900: Kudremukh national park, breathtaking scenery! Someshwar Sanctuary,










1045: Sringeri. A 1,000 yr old legend, enchanting sculptures, temple dates back to 14th Century


Parked in the temple complex was the main Swamiji's Merc. Devi was taken on a stroll (common on all fridays per local knowledge), so no darshan / puja. Left after a walk around & a few pix of the magnificient temple. Star shaped perimetre, yoga and Dashavatara motifs sculpted out of stone.
1225: Agumbe. Shockingly Hot! No clouds... Is this really The Cheerapunji of the South? Unbelievable! but true. A view of the sun-set point, jsut that it was mid-noon.

Terrible roads, steep ghats, zipping vehicles, searing heat!

Away to Udupi... no tar roads. Lost way, went around.
1420: Finally reached Udupi. Heat, dust & long ques continue.
Sri Krishna darshan in a a/c temple! Welcome respite from searing heat & dust, muddy roads. Fabulous Diamond encrusted idol. Meanwhile, Manipal zips away. Prasadam 30.
Hah - the temple chowkidar shoos a few guys removing clothes! :)

1430: Lunch at Annapoorna veg across the temple. 50. Awful taste - so much for the legendary 'Udupi Hotel'.
Sign on a main road at Udupi: "Your taxes in use. Manipal-Udupi road." Only there's none found!

1630: Kollur, Mookambika Temple. No mad-rush. Unassuming, peaceful, but jostling crowds. Quick darshan (compared to others during the day)
Golden Gopuram of the Devi's temple.

A Ganapathy Temple, next to the main complex, with interesting motifs and a Sanyasi in Penance - a candid pic.









Ever misty Kodachadri peak stood serenely behind the temple.




It's already 1730 & quickly getting dark. Going by previous night's experience, we wanted to scourge for accomodation immediately after getting out of the temple.
Random thoughts of staying at any of the guesthouses in this temple town was banished by the 'keepers constant "no accomodation" response. Some even put up permanent boards on their gates saying as much!
Left with no choice... simply drove on to Murudeshwar, in the hope to get a sea-facing cottage & good night's sleep.
Near scrape with a Qualis & TT. Dirt track drive on moon-terrain-craters.
1930: Bhatkal.
2000: Murudeshwar.
Checked into Murudeshwar Intl Hotel. (2.5k,a/c, tv, decent room, with parking-lot-facing-view. None the less comfy. Later found out RNS beach front property was full with weekend party-bandwagon from nearby places, esp. Mangalore & Manipal.
2045: Kamat 'Tarkari' oota 89, in a/c. The only decent veg restaurant at Murudeshwar, overflowing with people. We were told that the 'tarkari' (vegetarian) food that we looked for was available only at this place.
2130: Brisk walk back in a dark alley (the main road at Murudeshwar connnecting main highway and beach/temple) to hotel, few jeering road-romeos. Channel surfing.
The airconditioner made such a racket whenever it started, (given that every hour there was power-shutdown & the hotel's DG supply was inadequate) wondered how would we could catch up on lost sleep....
2220: Zzzz...


Insights: The hinterland of Karnataka is woefully devoid of any development; that we take it for granted in the Cities and even demand of the Government as if its out birth-right. Spare a thought for the villagers or even 2nd / 3rd tier towns, they require basic amenities too, lets begin with better roads, for example.
Bad infrastructure - No Roads, No Power, Poor Sanitation. At least the temples due to which these towns thrive must step in and do whatever it takes to bring it to acceptable levels. During such times as festival season, it is pitiable to see pilgrims sleeping on temple steps (Horanadu) and footpaths / vehicles (Dharmasthala, Kollur).

Day-3

0800: "Mhatobar Shri Murudeshwar Deva" temple. At a little distance is the Humungous, gold & silver painted figures of Shiva, Nandi, Ravan, Bal-Ganesh, and a variety of others. Larger than life, tasteless concrete and paint structures.
World's Tallest Shiva Status in Concrete, the original Murudeshwar's Temple in Gold painted Gopuram and the newly constructed Gopuram.















Candid pix of the beach around the picturesque island.



0820: Kamat tarkari b/f. People sitting on each other to eat lessthan ordinary fare. Soggy dosa, sambar sold out. Can't belive - Kamat ran out of coffee, @ 9am!

Pathetic facilities at Murudeshwar. Very less by way of tourist safety.
Hundreds swimming on beach, parking their vehicles on the beach itself - not particularly a pretty sight. We gave a visit to the beach a miss.

0945 Honnavar. 1000 Kumta. 1015 Aghanashini bridge, SH69 craters.
1115 Gokarna
Very pretty statue of the "Bala Ganesh". Too crowded sanctum, exremely simple exteriors. One last shirt removal routine! :)



Golden beaches. No Kidding! the glistening sand on the beach under the sharp sun actually looked like gold... liquid gold!




1300 Back to Honnavar, deviation to Jog. Tumkur 370 kms.
Dry arid hot weather. Not a single vehicle in sight, just plain pot-holed roads stretching for miles and miles.
Ever heard of beat the horn? Our krishna likes to beat his indica's.
1400 Ghat to Jog bgins. No respite frm heat. I can smell coffee! Nope its just a mirage!! Jog is still 24 kms away + another 304 to Tumkur. Birds chirp lazily, hidden frm view. Smell of fresh water brings some relief frm the boredom. Suddenly a scorpio zips past & vanishes into a turn. Krishna breaks out of his reverie, decides its time to tear the wind & fly away to Blore, only there's a Scorpio to bring down, first, which's now playing hide-n-seek! A-ha wait a minute, gotcha! Ther's a chk-post & he's slowd down, this's Krishna's chance; lo behold, the Scorpio is of to a flier just as the barrier lifts... Dream on.


1445: Jog falls, severely depleted, almost a heavy trickle, magnificient nevertheless. Pix taken, pineapple pieces stockd at 2 a thin slice.
1500: Back on the road, Blore bekons. 371 kms away. Scorpio or not. Btw, he's no where to b seen now. Quite empty road.
1540: Krishna announces lunch time. Hotel Madhura @ Sagar, couple of white chapathis & 1 full meals - 58. Tumkur 300 kms. Krishna falls asleep driving! Its time to take matters, nay steering, into my hands; drive Indicab frm Sagar to Shimoga - not bad.
1730: Tea at Maurya 18. Blore 270 kms, eta 9pm.
1845: Tarikere. Terrible NH206. A signboard reads Blore is 233 kms. Extended eta 10pm, hopefully. V r all pooped out, waiting for redemption. Krishna has other plans, he's just hit a purple patch, & takes off upto 110kmph - but not for long. NHAI has every trick up its sleeve to make our journey miserable!
1910: Somehow reachd Berur.
Still to go: Kadur (1920), Arsikere (2000), Tiptur (2030), Doddaguni - watering hole 2110 hrs. Gubbi (2130). Empty roads at Gubbi, rain b'twn. Tumkur (2145), Kunigal, Nelamangala (2245). As usual, heavy traffic greets us. Ypr jn 2300.
2330: Home at last!!