Personal Time Off: Pondicherry – A long awaited vacation and Ideal hangout place for all kind of travellers

 We planned Pondicherry for NEW YEAR 2017 unfortunately didn’t get proper resort even though we enquired two months before. We called many resorts especially beach view resorts but most of them were booked till 2nd  week of January. We decided to book beach resort for 3rd weekend having early check-in and late check-out. Finally, Nature loft beach resort Pondicherry which offered early check –in and late-check out of course with half a day extra pay.

Wow such a cool website with beautiful images of rooms and also reasonable price. If a person looks at the website, images posted in the website and start interaction with the resort staff over phone; next minute will transfer advance amount for booking and yes, we did the same. During our discussion we asked about the negative reviews about the resort. He responded saying, “No madam those images were taken during flood now we have renovated everything and the same images are posted in our website”.  Finally we manage to book Sea view room having triple occupancy costing 4500 for 3 people for 1 night with early check in and late checkout paying half of the amount Rs.2250/.

Few images from Nature loft beach resort Pondicherry website

We booked train ticket in 16573/Yesvantpur-Puducherry Weekly Express and waited for our Journey. Meantime we travelled few other places in Karnataka and finally the day arrived with a problem. It’s nothing but Jallikattu protest all over Tamil Nadu. We called the resort and enquire about the situation they said that no issues we can travel there is no violence its a silent protest. We asked some of our friends from Tamil Nadu thinking lets cancel the trip due to the issue. Even friends said ‘No problem girls, you people can travel without fear’ which gave us confidence to start our Journey.

On 20^th January, we started fom Electronic city around 5:30pm using public transport for 9:00PM train as we know very well about Bengaluru traffic we thought 3hours is enough to reach Yeshwathpur then half an hour we can walk to platform enquiring about our train details. Unfortunately it’s our bad day with heavy traffic; After 1hour 30minutes of our Journey we just reached Forum which is far away from Yeshwanthpur. Definitely we can’t reach if we go by bus so we took cab from shanthinagar and we informed driver that we have to reach Yeshwanthpur before 9:00pm so that we won’t miss our train. He gave confidence that we can reach no problem. We were able to reach station around 9:15pm for 9:00pm train.We rushed to the platform and still train didn’t start and came to know that train was half an hour late.  Finally we boarded train and the train started in few min. 

 As usual we started to chit chat till late night and took our berth to sleep, around 2am people were started to get down from the train. We wake up due to the noise and enquired what happened and where are we. People in our compartment said that ‘we are in Salem Junction, due to Jallikattu issue some people not letting train to move in particular route so better get down and take bus to reach Pondicherry else go back to Bengaluru’. We didn’t know what to do then we decided to stay in the train till morning later will decide our next move. There were also some people along with us. After sometime Travelling Ticket Examiner crossed our compartment we stopped him and asked whether train goes to Pondicherry or we should get down here. He said ‘No, don’t get down the train will start in some time via new route’.

We were supposed to reach Pondicherry Junction by 7:00am but we reached around 11:30am on 21^st January 2017. We booked OLA cab to Nature loft beach resort it took half an hour to reach the resort. Upon reaching there, Google map showed destination reached but we were not able to find the place. Resort was not visible, sea was also not visible we asked the driver is it the exact place he said yes it’s the same and pointed to one building saying that as the resort we are looking for. We were totally disappointed looking at the resort, it was completely opposite to the images provided in the website. We didn’t want to stay there but we were already late and have only one and half day to explore Pondicherry so decided to stay in the independent sea facing room near the beach. We checked the room it was not that much clean so asked them to clean again meantime we went to the beach.

Nature loft beach resort, Pondicherry 

The serenity beach view made us to forget the disappointment caused by the resort. Beach’s blue water and beautiful waves attracts everyone. This place is also surf’s hub in Pondicherry. It’s a perfect place for the surf’s who are interested to do surfing in Bay of Bengal. We spent around 2 hours in the beach giving enough time to clean our room. We visited this beach again on 22^nd morning to visit sun rise, since it was cloudy we didn’t experienced it. Beach was not crowded is the best thing about the place. 

Serenity beach

Auroville is meant to be a universal town where men and women from all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity.In the middle of the town is the Matrimandir. Matrimandir is equipped with a solar power plant and is surrounded by gardens. When there is no sun or after the sunset, the sun ray on the globe is replaced by a beam from a solar-powered light.

Auroville

The beach was full of people and beautiful rocks. The cleanliness and discipline well maintained in the place. We also visited the graceful and majestic French War Memorial, which stands tall as one of the architectural wonders of Pondicherry. After spending around 1 hour at the beach we decided to head towards French colony. We started walking through French colony experiencing the beautiful French architecture of the building surrounding us. While roaming around, came across Firewood pizza. The pizza has reasonable price and taste is very good, even the small pizza is very big in size and the bigger pizza is too big!

Rock Beach

On 22^nd January 2017, we woke up early at 5:30 am and reached Serenity beach situated opposite to our room. There were few groups of people already at the beach before we reach. Since it was cloudy we missed sunrise view at serenity beach but we enjoyed the cool early morning breeze at the beach. We then returned to hotel, got ready, vacated the room paying remaining amount of 750rs and we didn’t paid extra amount as we checked in and checkout on time.

Sun rise at Serenity beach

We hired an cab in Rs 1800/- for a day from morning 10am to night 8pm which was arranged by staff of the hotel. The places we visited throughout the day were, Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar Temple, Paradise Beach, Basilica Church, Chunnambar Boat House, aurobindo ashram, Cafe de Arts, shopping and food streets. First we visited Vinayagar temple and Aurobindo ashram and spend less than an hour at the place. We then headed towards Chunnamber boat house.

Paradise Beach

Chunnamber boat house is the only access point to Paradise beach and we have to rent ferry to reach the beach. Paradise beach is the most beautiful sand beach in Pondicherry and it is the cleanest beach in Pondicherry. There were many beach games at the island and a small restaurant which was crowded and expensive. We had great time at the beach, spent around 2 hours.

Cafe De Arts

Basilica church

From the boat house we started to Cafe de Arts which we wanted to visit badly because of its beautiful theme and tasty food. We placed our order and started to explore the place, it’s a nice place and staff were so cool. We were walking here and there in the cafe but they didn’t control us. We then took a place in the garden and enjoyed pastries and ice creams. Then we started to Basilica church spent some time and asked the driver to drop us at the shopping street near MG Road. Later we reach railway station and took return train to Bangalore.

Personal Time Off : The UNESCO World Heritage Hampi, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole

Trip to the World UNESCO Heritage sites just happened when we came across beautiful Bhuthanatha temple of Badami in social media. Later we came with the plan to visit The UNESCO world Heritage Hampi,Badami,Pattadakallu and Aihole

Image : Bhuthanatha Temple during monsoon (PC:Wikipedia)

 We started our journey from Bengaluru to Badami in Gol Gumbaz Express at 7pm. In all my train travel post I have mentioned to pack your dinner , Food we get in train will be veg/egg biriyani. We didn’t packed our food this time as we were already late from office we wanted to reach SBC on time. We reached 15min before our train and we parceled dinner from one of the outlet in the station and yes we took biriyani as no other option. 

Next day at 6:45am we reached Badami.It is not main station, if you sleep late night after chit chat with friends better to keep alarm before 6:30am else definitely will miss to get down. Train stops only few min in the station. As soon you come out of station there are many share autos which takes you to different places. We wanted to go to Badami city where we can look for room to stay.We took share auto to Badami city charged 10rs per person and it’s the last drop point. There are so many lodge to stay ,price ranges for decent hotels starts from 1000 for non Ac and 1500 for AC.

We enquired about auto for sightseeing in the auto stand near Badami bus stop, there are autos , taxi AC/Non AC for sightseeing depending on our budget we can opt for options. We took auto pricing 1000rs which covers Pattadakallu,Aihole and Badami temples and caves.

Pattadakallu
Pattadakallu is one of a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is 22km from Badami and 10km from Aihole which are well known for Chalukya Monuments. It was considered as holy place by Chalukya kings, it is the place where Chalukya kings were crowned . There are many temples built by chalukyas during there rule. At Pattadakallu they built 10 Hindu and Jain temples.

We spent around 1hr in the place exploring every temples. Stone carvings on the temple walls will amaze everyone. Also there is amazing Nandi idol which inspire each and everyone. We wont get proper water , food in this place its better to carry enough water to drink and snacks if required. Apart from temple it is open place so carry necessary things to avoid hot sun.From there we started to Aihole.

Aihole

Aihole has 125 stone temples. It was the first capital of chalukyas. It is said that temples in Aihole were built as experimental structures. As soon we enter first attraction will be DURGA temple followed by manu groups of temples. There is Museum and Art Gallery which is sculpture gallery where we can get good  information about Badami, Pattadakallu and Aihole temple styles.

Roads to Aihole is very bad , every where there is sewage water . In some places the roads were repaired. On the way to Aihole from Pattadakallu we can visit few other cave temples. From there we started to Badami.

Badami

On the way to Badami we visited Mahakuta which is also known as “Dakshina Kashi” then we went to Banashankari temple which was very crowded temple . There is no chappal stand near the temple better to leave chappal in the vehicle if u leave near temple u wont find when you return. Then we started to Badami caves.

There are 1 to 4 main caves in Badami softstone hill. Cave 1 has sculptures based on hindu themes, it has carving of Tandava of lord Shiva in Nataraja avatar. Cave 2 has carving of Vishnu sculptures , it has large sculpture of Vamana called as Trivikrama . Cave 3 is the largest cave among other it also has methology of lord Vishnu. Cave 4 has jain sculptures and cave 5 is Buddhist cave.

Finally we reached the place which triggered us for this entire trip. Bhuthanatha temple, such a beautiful temple before going to temple we sat near kalyani to enjoy the scenic view of the temple and we were discussing that now itself we cant take away our eyes , how beautiful it will be there is waterfall behind the temple. Then we visited temple and there is Museum which we didn’t visited as the closing time is 5pm. It is better to visit all the places before 5PM after that all the temples will be closed.

We were dropped back to the hotel; there is nothing to shop in these places. There are only few restaurants; quality of the food is not that good to comment. After dinner we went to Badami bus stop to check bus to Hampi. There are only 2 buses in the morning one at 5:30am and one at 6:00am.

Hampi

We got up early morning and started to bus stop at 5:45am it was not cold  , bus reached the stand at 6:00am and started our journey towards hampi. We reached hampi around 11am. On the way to hampi we thungabadra dam in which there was no water everywhere its just dried up.we saw Tungabadra steel ltd in hospete from bus then we started to discuss about we studied about this in school and remembered some of our school days , before the conversation was over we reached hospete.

Around 500mts away from the bus stand we saw people running behind the bus we were like why they are running like that then after getting down we came to know that they are auto drivers . They ask too much money to drop till hampi. We decided to take bus to hampi . It is better to go by bus or using share auto from hospete to hampi. We took bus charged 12rs and reached hampi within 20min.

In hampi bus stop again we were surrounded by auto drivers offering one day package , We planned to explore places ourselves since these people were behind us we asked them how much they charge to visit all places when we heard the price we were shocked he said 450rs then asked which were the places he will cover he said few places around then we said 450rs is more then he said government bus takes 500rs per person (not sure if its true or not) I am asking only 450rs per person. We were like “what per person “ we said 450rs per trip itself too much u r asking per person. We said no need we will explore ourselves.

We took a map from the shop cost 5rs and thought to do it on foot. First we went to virupaksha temple which  was closed when we went and they said at 4m it will be opened . Then we grouped the near by places based on the map.

First we went to Hemakuta Hill lies right to Virupaksa temple. On the hill there are many temples built by Vijayanagara empire.These temples were built in pyramid shape hench they are also called as jain temples.  It is one the best place to visit sun set in Hampi. At present,  Sree Gayathri Peetha Maha Samasthana, a religious (DEVANGA) organization is located on this hill.

As there are many places to visit we will group the places into sets which will easy to visit.

Set 1:  Virupkasha temple ,Hemakuta Hill ,Sasivekalu Ganesha,Kadalekalu Ganesh ,Sun set point,hampi bazaar.

Set 2: Krishna temple,Badavi linga,Ugranarasimha.

Set 3: Matanga hill,kodandarama temple,varaha temple, ranganathaswamy temple, purandara dasara mantapa, king balance, vital temple,stone car.

Set 4: Lotus mahal,Elephant stable, hajari rama temple,watch tower, queens bath, Pushkarani.

After coming back from stone car we took auto to visit set 4 places. Then we were dropped to Hospete to kamalapura. From there we took auto to hospete, we finished our dinner and went to railway station and started to Bengaluru.

It is not necessary to explore on the foot there are many options like cycle/auto/taxi to visit these places. Better to spend atleast 2 days in hampi so that you wont miss any places.

We Spent just 2.5K to visit Kanyakumari, Rameshwaram and Madurai

As we completed our trip to UNESCO World Heritage site Hampi, we planned our next trip to Kanyakumari  in march. Yes, in the scorching summer . When we discussed with friends, the only reaction got from most of them was ‘are you mad, trip to Kanyakumari in hot summer’. We were not worried about hot summer; we just want to experience the most beautiful Sun rise and Sun set in the world. As I already know, Kanyakumari is the best place to experience sun rise and sun set.

As everyone accepted, one of my friends was very much interested to visit the ever historic Madurai meenakshi amman temple so we included the place into our list then other said why cant we experience the coastal ride towards Rameshwaram from kanyakumari?At last,  The plan was to visit kanyakumari, rameshwaram and Madurai in 4 days.
    
Journey begins..
On 24th march 2017, started our journey at 5:15pm through Nagercoil Express from Bangalore City Jn. Nagercoil Express doesn't have attached pantry it is advised to pack your dinner or you can book your meal in the train. We packed our meals from home, if that is not enough we planned to buy something in train. If you missed to pack your meal and not booked your dinner in the train when the catering person comes to take order, you have no option other than veg/egg biriyani sold by some vendors in the train.

We reached Nagercoil Junction at 7:55 am on 25th march 2017. When we came out of the station we just saw lots of autos waiting to take us where ever we want. During our plan we decided to go to Nagercoil bus stop from Nagercoil junction and board bus to kanyakumari. There was a bus in the junction, we asked a conductor whether that bus goes to Nagercoil bus stand, he replied this bus goes to Kanyakumari and we got inside the bus. Ticket price was Rs. 12(very reasonable than our city buses) from Nagercoil junction to kanyakumari. We reached kanyakumari at 8:30am.

As soon we got down , we were able to see sea from the drop point in kanyakumari. We wanted to go near sea and spent some time over there as it's instantly addictive but we didn’t as we wanted to keep our luggage and we were hungry too. We went in search of hotel, there were so many hotels in the same lane. Price range was also less, as there are so many hotels and its off season. We took duplex room with cost of 800 and 1000 for Non ac and ac respectively. We booked it for one day i.e., 24 hours.

Kanyakumari-The fantabulous southern tip
Kanyakumari is India's southern tip.A coastal town down south of Tamil Nadu and also known as Cape comorin.The best place to experience the sunrise and sunset over the ocean. The town lies at the point where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean merge with each other. Kanyakumari town is named after the goddess Kanyakumari amman.

Vivekananda Rock
After refreshing, we headed towards Vivekananda rock and thiruvalluvar statue. We reached the ticket counter for the ferry that takes to Vivekananda Rock Memorial.  Ticket rate for to and fro boat journey is Rs.34 per head.  Felt relaxed inside well maintained boating dock in hot summer. There was not much of a rush and we got into the boat in no time. Entry fee to the rock is Rs 20/- per head. The specialty of the rock is that Swami Vivekananda meditated in this rock alone for three days before proceeding to World Religious Conference at Chicago. There is a meditation hall , visitors are allowed to meditate few minutes. We spent few minutes in the hall and came out. The rock has a Mandabam which has a statue of Swami Vivekananda. It also has many book stalls.During our visit to Vivekananda rock we were not allowed to visit Thiruvaluvar statue so we just enjoyed far view of Thiruvaluvar statue and returned from the Vivekananda rock.After coming back ,we had lunch and went to Gandhi mandapam.

Gandhi Mandapam
 Gandhi Mandapam is situated very near to kanyakumari amman temple. It the place where the ashes of mahathma Gandhi was kept before a portion of which was immersed in three seas (Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean) . There is a way inside the mandapam to reach top of the mandapam. we can visit Vivekananda memorial rock, Thiruvalluvar statue, triveni sangam, kanyakumari temple. We spent some time on the top.

Thiruvalluvar Statue
We were speaking about awesome view of thiruvalluvar statue from Gandhi Mandapam and observed there were people near the statue.But when we went to Vivekanda Rock we were not taken to the place. We asked a photographer about the timings to visit Thiruvalluvar Statue. He mentioned that may be due to bad weather they may not have allowed , you can visit the statue using same ticket. Then we went to boating dock and said the same to them. They allowed us directly to visit again. 

I was awestruck to see the statue, such a tall statue (like a skyscraper). We climbed on the steps that took to the top floor of the statue. After reaching the top floor just felt we were lucky so that we got chance to visit the place. One should experience this in life time. After few minutes we were back to the shore.

Sun set
Now it’s time for Sun set, we didn’t want to miss sun set so we started to sun set point around 5pm. We took auto to sun set point, He demanded rs.100, we paid rs.60 since we were going early. After reaching sun set point we came to know that there is sharing cart which takes rs.10 from Gandhi mandapam to sun set point and vice versa(that's a small loss).

Sun set point is Rock beach, we went and sat there for few minutes. There were many people praying to god in the beach in front of church. There was a beads seller, he came near us and insisted to buy beads but we declined. We were discussing about tsunami, the beads seller was listening to us and he started to share his experience about tsunami. He mentioned that on December 26,2004 he experienced ocean limits going backwards and he was able to see big rocks underneath which he has never seen in his life time and started to run away from the place. He said that "Its god’s grace that we are alive after such a disaster" finally he left the place asking us to watch sun set and return back safely.We wanted to settle down somewhere to watch sun set then we climbed a rock , from where we can experience the view directly. Yes, it’s time for sun set. I really can’t explain the beauty , below are few clicks.

 Kanyakumari Amman Temple
We took sharing cart to Kanyakumari Temple , we visited temple felt blessed . From the temple experienced night view of vivekananda rock memorial and Thiruvalluvar statue .

Shopping at Kanyakumari
Now it’s time for shopping, we can shop many things for cheap cost. There are various kinds of decorative items made of sea sells. Different kinds of beads, jewelries made of sea shell. Jute items, sarees, dresses, dolls etc all of cheap price compared to those we get in Bengaluru. Then we had dinner and went to room kept alarm to wake up early moring to experience sun rise.

Sun rise 
Its 5:30am on 26th march 2017, we got up and went to sun rise spot. Before we reach there were already many people at the spot. we felt like OMG we are late. After searching few minutes for place where we can get clear view, we got a place. At 6:21am , sun started to rise up . We planned our trip in summer to experience this moment and successfully accomplished.

Bye Bye Kanyakumari
Its time to leave kanyakumari and start our journey towards Uvari. We didn’t had any idea about the place until I spoken with friend of mine about kanyakumari trip. We got information that there is a place called uvari which is beautiful place with many chrush near sea shore. Then we google about the place and added to the must visit place list. We took bus to vadachery from kanyakumari , from there we took coastal lane thuthukudi bus and got down at uvari.

Uvari
Uvari is a coastal village in the Tirunelveli district in the state of Tamil Nadu in India which is 50 km from Kanyakumari. When we got down we saw a church near to bus stand but that’s not the one we are looking for. Since we didn’t know anything about the place, we asked a conductor about the beach and the church which looks like boat and flight. He directed us a way and even there we didn’t find the place we are looking for. Then we showed photo of the church to person in the grocery shop. He questioned us asking are you people sure that you people came to right place, do you people think this church is here only. We were like what, but Google won’t lie, we answered yes sir, we are sure it’s the same place. Then he directed us to that place. We visited the church and started walking towards sea.We couldn’t help our self from enjoying the strong winds of the sea and the sight of water all around us. The scene of waves was a sight to see. We just forgot its hot summer when we walked towards sea. 

Rameshwaram
From Uvari we took bus to thoothukudi and reached the place at 6:30pm. There is no direct bus to Rameshwaram we have to go to Ramanathapuram and then take bus to Rameshwaram. We reached Rameshwaram on 27th march 2017 12:30am. We took room at sunrise view hotel opposite to temple for 2 days with cost of 1200rs (non ac)and 1800rs (ac) per day.

On 27th march 2017 11am we started towards Dhanushkodi. There is a bus from Rameshwaram temple to Dhanushkoti for everyone hour. We took auto to Dhanushkodi as we wanted to visit few other places on the way . First we visited school where Abdul kalam did his 1st to 5th standard then we went to abdul kalam house and museum. From there we went to vibhishana pattabisheka place , kodandarama temple and reached Dhanushkodi checkpost.We have to go by mini bus to dhanushkoti from the checkpost. Up and down cost for mini bus per person is 150rs. The way to dhanushkodi is thick sand and sea water there is no proper road. 

The  Abandoned Town - Dhanuskodi
Dhanuskodi also called as a Ghost Town. There was a rail link earlier which was fully destroyed in a devastating cyclone occurred. Thousands of people died in that tragedy. Before that incident, Dhanuskodi was only land border between India and Sri Lanka.We can visit destroyed Railway Station, Post Office, Church and other places even now.


According to Indian Epic Ramayana, this is the place where Rama built setu to Sri lanka to conquer Ravana and bring Sita devi back.

From Dhanuskodi to Rameshwaram temple bus charge per person is 12rs. After returning, we visited Rameshwaram temple and started shopping at Rameshwaram.We found all the items which are sold in Kanyakumari are sold here and felt little costly when compared to Kanyakumari. 

Madurai
On 28th march 2017, we started to Madurai through 11:15am passenger train to experience pamban bridge.Pamban bridge is a raiway bridge which is 2km strait. It was India’s first sea bridge. We reached Madurai at 3pm , kept our bags in the cloak room. As we didn’t had much time to explore all the places in Madurai we visited only Thirumalai nayakar mahal and Meenakshi Amman Temple. We spent around 4 hours inside temple , there was huge queue inside to visit god and goddess. After visiting all four entrance of the temple we sat near kalyani for some time discussing about the temple and other discussions. We left temple around 9pm and started towards railway station by walking , shopping , eating street foods. we reached raiway station around 10:30pm. Boarded our train at 11:55pm and reached Bengaluru on 29th march 2017 morning.

Total Travel Expense

Bangalore to  Nagercoil Train ticket	360
Nagercoil to Kanyakumari bus Ticket	12
Vivekannada rock Ferry fee	34
Vivekannada rock entry fee	20
Room rs 800, shared by three	267
kanyakumari to vadasery bus ticket	11
Vadasery to Uvari bus ticket	35
Uvari to Tuticorin bus ticket	75
Tuticorin to Ramanathpuram bus ticket	45
Ramanathapuram to Rameshwaram bus ticket	36
Dhanushkoti mini van	150
Dhanushkoti to Rameshwaram	12
Rameshwaram room for 2 days 2400 shared by three	800
Rameshwaram to madurai train ticket	35
palace entry	10
Total Auto charge	207
Madurai to Bangalore Train ticket	260
Total cost per person	2369
* Food expense and personal expenses are not included