Trip to Pondy

I like to visit new places but like any typical Indian house wife, I never got a chance. For almost a year all I could see was just beyond the compound wall of my house. I didn't know the route to even my son's paediatrician. For someone who has been bitten by the travelbug, that was just like being in a prison. But once my son turned one, he wanted to explore the neighbhorhood and then it was not enough for him. He wanted to go beyond that and this gave me a chance to push my hubby to take us on a trip, one that he has been promising for 3 years now. I wanted to visit Pondicherry but he wanted to take his friend's advice and settle down in a resort lazing around.
I was lucky this time as he couldn't get one booked. We checked into a hotel and toured the place by local transport and partly on foot. This way we explored a lot.

My husband thought I will be bored and we will be returning the same day. As we started walking around and spoke to the locals, we got to know that there is more to Pondy than the beer and wine....The area around the Aurobindo Ashram is so green and clean with French colonial architecture that it gave us a feel good walking experience......you can just walk around the park nearby or the beach road that is long and quiet with minimum traffic.

The hotel staff informed us about a boat house en route to Cuddalore. What they failed to inform us was to take enough clothing to enjoy the place more completely. But in spite of that we did enjoy. My son who loves water had a whale of a time. We had to literally drag him out....:-)
Its a place where the river joins the sea. The water is fresh and not so deep.
In the evening, we had a nice long walk along the sea. One thing that should be appreciated is the people's sense of cleanliness. Almost everybody uses the bins and littering and spitting is very minimal. The ice cream vendors have a bin attached to their vehicles. For a place that is so abundant with tourists, it is very clean. A welcome experience for us after visiting our Chennai beach. This years litter on the Marina during Kaanum Pongal was a whopping 60 ton.

The trip was something that will stay in my memory for long as I had been yearning for years to travel....:)