Pondicherry Diary 2: A holiday inside a Colour Palette!!

Bon Jour, Pondicherry!!

 

In this post we cover Day 2 of our Pondy experience:

Imagine:

·        A breakfast only of Desserts, desserts & more desserts!!

·        A café with a huge rickshaw as decoration piece & a shop to die for!! Or a store with the quirkiest flight of stairs we have seen….

·        Random long chats with people we never knew of different nationalities on Hindi films, Indian mythology & so much more…

·        A chance meeting with a couple who live to cook & serve homemade delights & do nothing else in this oasis of peace…

The 2^nd day in Pondy was so much more…

First up, thanks for reading our first post ever & receiving it so well!! We can’t thank all of you enough. We are happy that we could share our travel experience with you without boring you J So moving on from where we left of…

16^th March (Sunday): Pondicherry is an early rise place. I cannot explain in words the peace & quiet of the town early morning at 5.30am – 6am. The best part about this is that while too much of peace & quiet can be quite daunting for many people at times, in Pondy somehow it is a symphony!! You feel so fresh, so centred, so much at peace…it’s like you are in a constant state of meditation!!

So we woke up quite early & after our usual cup of Green Tea, that we prepared ourselves in Gratitude and sipped soaking in the peace (they encourage that and for your facility a neat & clean fully stocked kitchen with tea coffee maker is available…have as many cups as you want)…we headed to catch the sunrise at Promenade….and what a sight it was!!

Equanimity and harmony all rolled in one!!

This was despite the fact that the whole Pondicherry was there again (when do they sleep??) for early morning jog & walk….and traffic was closed yet again to make it a smooth jogging beachfront for walkers. The sight was delightful & soul soothing to say the least, and it was great walking by the rocky beach to see the sun shaping its brush beautifully on the sky & the deep blue ocean below.

 

 

 

 

Post the sunrise we took yet another leisurely stroll in the streets of White Town, just to relax and sit on the roadside pavements to do nothing & soak in the moment of calm. Musafir chose to be comfortably seated on one of the pavements & listen to his playlist.

 

On Musafir:

• Military Pants: Jack & Jones

• Queen T shirt: Bagkok flea market

• Shirt: Benetton

• Beads: Leh flea market

• Watch: Fossil

• Shoes: Crocs from Select Citywalk,Delhi

• Headphones: Bose

While Hasina simply clicked away some more gorgeous frames!! Pondy is full of them:

 

 

 

The Playclan Store (look at the quirky stairs on extreme left)

16^th March (Sunday): 9am was breakfast time!! We headed to one of the most recommended bakery in Pondy that is across the Canal (in Tamil Quarters)….Baker Street.

Baker Street is a superb French Bakery & the best part is…it is so non pretentious J Ambience wise it is not much…but the collection of sweetmeats here was to die for!! We both decided to ditch the regular breakfast that we generally have & just have a “dessert breakfast” for a change!!! J J J I know…we are pure gluttons!! So it was cheesecake, truffles, banana chocolate bread, and vanilla butter muffins…you name it & we had it!! J We didn’t care if we got fat…what are vacations for if not indulging yourself!! Each dessert was better than the other and was rounded up with steaming cappuccinos!!

Happily stuffed, we promptly hired bicycles for rest of the day & went back to our hotel for some relaxed time with our books.

A lovely courtyard, chilled beer & a book…with nobody to disturb you & peace around you…just slip into serendipity & have the afternoon waft by you!!

We also got a chance to meet other guests in the Hotel. Since Gratitude is very select with its guests, you will find a very good & like-minded group of people to hang around & interact with. We met an Estonia based film critic as a fellow guest, who was delighted to hear that Hasina has a movie blog & a book blog too…and the conversation went on to Indian Cinema…and went on & on & on!! We are quite a chatty bunch (as you can see from the length of our blog posts J). Jokes aside, it was an enriching experience to know what World Cinema thinks of Indian movies & what we expect out of our own movies.

16^th March (Sunday): 1.30pm: We were off again into the Town on our bicycles

On Musafir:                                                                      

Cerulean Shorts: Polo Sport   

On Hasina:

Black Ganji: Promod

Flower Power pants: Forever 21                                                                                         

…exploring a café to have lunch in at our own sweet pace. We unanimously stopped outside a café which looked super quirky…Café Des Artes.

The café, as you can see, has gorgeous wall art and its highlight is a huge, blingy rickshaw as the centrepiece…but that was nothing compared to the quirky store they had inside. The knick knacks like bags, wallets, dresses, t-shirts were so quirky & at quite reasonable price (Hasina wanted to click more pics but was asked not to by the staff…she managed one). Shopping was on!! Hasina bought a Raj Comics – Dynamite superhero jhola bag (she grew up on a healthy diet of Raj Comics thanks to her UP upbringing) & Musafir picked up a quirky tripod bag with Royal Enfield printJ (How we wish they had seated Rajanikanth on that Enfield J We are die hard Rajani fans by the way).

Lunch here was a simple affair…not much to choose from…but whatever was served was good.

Post lunch we wheeled again to find a place to have dessert.

This is the vibe of Pondy…it’s an Eat Street!! There are so many options that it is criminal to have all your meals in one café. Exploring more places is the fun of Pondy.

We came upon a café called Coffee.com. It doesn’t look much from outside but we hesitated & went inside…only to be pleasantly surprised!! What a place….done up in rosewood & like an old English parlor. The lady behind the counter, Pushpa (one of the most graceful, soft spoken lady we have ever met), runs this café with her husband. The couple are true food lovers & that reflects in their cleverly crafted creations…all of it homemade and super delicious.
 

On Musafir:

No Woman No Cry T -Shirt: Phuket flea market

We asked for dessert options & she sweetly told us “well we have homemade natural ice-creams dear, and there is a pineapple cake that I have just baked & it is just out of the oven!!”…now who can resist that??!! Not us!!

The desserts were beyond anything. Their homemade coconut ice cream has to be the most delicious ice cream we have ever had…and the slice of warm homemade pineapple cake was simply heaven. Our hearts full…we came back to the hotel to sleep in a bit.

16^th March (Sunday): Evening was spent in the Hotel courtyard with drinks in our hand & more talks with fellow inmates. This time the topic being discussed was again our favourite – Indian “mythology”. We both have a lot to say & discuss on the topic. However it was astounding to note how people of other nationalities are enamoured by India’s spiritualism & Vedic tales and how much more they want to know…something that we ourselves take for granted. The talks just would not end till we realised it was almost 8pm & we needed to find a good dining place.

We had already zeroed in on Pondy’s old favourite “Rendezvous” as our dinner rendezvous after lot of recommendations from fellow colleagues at work and Anto’s review too. The waitlist for Rendezvous was what one sees in the best of restaurants in metros. But this is not as laidback as Villa Shanti was…Rendezvous is more like a quirky traveller dining place which Musafir loved instantly…it’s chatty, noisy and bubbling with constant excitement and people poring over menus to order almost everything. We finally got a table after 20 mins of waiting (and had a crowd of approx..15 people behind us, waiting too). The menu was simple as opposed to Villa Shanti’s unique offerings, but the food was better than Villa Shanti in our opinion. It was truly food for soul…non pretentious, fun, bursting of spices & flavours!!

Post dinner (we skipped dessert this time J), we headed to the Promenade for a walk. Walk aside, the vista of Pondicherry on a Sunday was so relaxed that we just sat down by the rocks and this time listened to our playlist with our headphones on (did not wish to disturb the quiet of the place for others) while staring into the endless expanse of the Bay of Bengal!!

Some of the songs from our playlist:

·        Aawarapan Banjarapan

·        Jadoo hai nasha hai

·        Ye hai meri Kahani

·        Saagar Kinare

Uff!! the songs were lilting & pure magic in this setting…we just did not want to call it a night despite being tired. It was so safe with couples, families, group of college kids, everyone minding their own business & immersed in themselves, that we did not wish to get up. We cannot imagine spending such time in Delhi anywhere outside our home.

We rounded off the night with our favourite Classical Sufi number – Kangana…a 16 minute Sufi song (MTV Coke Studio Season 1 Pakistan) that melts in your ear like a soft symphony and pulls you in deeper & deeper to an exhilarating end!! You have to hear it to understand the magic of this song.

http://vimeo.com/51063418 (also an OST for Meera Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist)

With great reluctance we called it a night at 12am…as we had to leave Pondy the next day L

17^th March (Monday): Well we did not have to leave until 10.30am. So off we were again early in the morning to cycle around White Town & soak in last of the Pondy charm. We explored some libraries on our way & art & craft museums, one of which exhibits the oldest Shaivya manuscript whose origins can be dated back to BCE!! No photographs were allowed so could not click one.

 

Post our little tour we hunted down our breakfast option for the morning…The Indian Kaffe Express or as popularly known TIKE!!

We reached TIKE at 8am and it was supposed to open at 8.30am…but such was the popularity of TIKE that we parked our cycles and plonked ourselves on the clean pavement to wait for it to open!! (and did not get bored in the least). I have to say the breakfast more than made up for the wait…crisp waffles, cool ice cream shakes & just so perfect, sandwiches, crepes, fries…we ordered a HUGE breakfast J

Finally, as all things good do come to an end, whether you want it or not…our trip had to end too L

17^th March (Monday): 11.30am – Checked out of Gratitude with great reluctance and left Pondicherry with a promise to be back again very soon!!

MH Rating (on a scale of 5):

Pondicherry:

·        Safety: 4/5

·        Food: 4/5

·        Vibe of the place: Art, culture, photography, shopping (of handmade products): 4.5/5

What To Wear: Like we said earlier, Pondy is not Goa...so the dressing here is more what you would wear in a European countryside rather than a beach on say Miami...this is the difference. It has to be more casual chic with little bit of boho thrown in...as opposed to Goa's very bohemian with party style & risque outfits. Pondy is definitely not the place for risque & skimpy clothes.

Best Time to Visit: Sept end – March end is absolutely fine. After all that it will be very hot.

MH “Cost Quotient”:

Rs.20000-25000/- approx. for 2 people for a 2night, 3 day trip (inclusive of stay, food, liquor etc.) & excluding airfare.

 

Musafir's Bag: Wilson

Musafir's Bag Tag "Aawara Hoon": Happily Unmarried

Haseena's "Benaras Ghat" Bag: AnYahh!!

Next Up: What??!! Did you think the adventure ended??!! Ha – still have something left…coming up!! In the next post J J

 

 

Pondicherry: A holiday inside a Colour Palette!!

There is not one person in India who has not heard of Pondicherry, travelling or not. And what we know of Pondicherry is primarily because of the Aurobindo Ashram, the very spectacular Auroville, and the fact that it was a French colony in the past & still retains that flavour.

For many of us, Pooja Bhatt’s 2003 thriller Jism, opened newer vistas of Pondicherry. Lush with greenery, quaint hamlet & turquoise sea…Pondicherry tourism got a fresher lease of life post that film for many people (not that Pondicherry was any less popular before that, but Jism just cemented it further as a holiday destination). Post that we saw gorgeous snippets of the city in 2012 Academy Award runner, Life of Pi, which again reminded people that somewhere south of this country, is lying a beautiful little paradise that still needs to be explored J

We, Musafir & Hasina, had been contemplating upon hitting this gorgeous seaside city for quite some time & this March, around Holi, we got a good opportunity with an extended weekend. With 3 days under our belt (Saturday, Sunday & Monday), we just unanimously zeroed in on Pondicherry & within minutes booked our flight to Chennai. It was a simple plan, rather a gorgeous plan:

14^th March (Friday): Wrap up your office work & board flight at 8.30 pm. (Musafir Hasina’s party kind of started at the T1 Airport & both were so engrossed in drinking, eating & chatting that they practically sprinted to board their Chennai flight on the last & final call…hehehe)

14^th March (Friday): Arrival at 11.15pm at Chennai airport. Stay the night at a bed & breakfast option close to airport.

15^th March (Saturday): Called for a cab early morning at around 7am (arranged by our hotel in Pondicherry – loveliest hotel ever, more details will follow).

15^th March (Saturday): Drive down to Pondicherry via ECR route. Hands down one of the most gorgeous & lovely route ever, the East Coast Route is a drive alongside the lovely coastline. Imagine lush greenery all through the route and a sparkling turquoise sea playing hide & seek with you one side in your comfortable 3 hour drive to Pondicherry. Also, ECR boasts of some superb breakfast options. With our apetite peaked thanks to the lovely journey we were embarking upon, we stopped at Restaurant Mammallam, which seemed like one of the most popular breakfast joint on the way. Well it was neat, spacious, nice and gauging by the people seated inside, it seems like a very popular drive down & breakfast option for Chennai-ites on weekend mornings. We both promptly ordered a South Indian breakfast thaali. Hasina thrives on South Indian food & has practically lived on a lunch, breakfast & dinner of idli sambhar for days without getting bored even once…she is a  weird North Indian and definitely an aberration J So you can only imagine what delight it brought to her when her breakfast plate looked like this…(pic of breakfast thaali)

 

We will also take a moment here & tell you that while nowadays, the cabs & people prefer taking the newly made highway route to Pondicherry, which takes 2 hours from Chennai as opposed to the 3 hour drive of ECR that is single lane, we preferred ECR. For us, our holiday begins with the journey & not the destination. The spectacular charm of ECR is any day preferable and we do not mind spending 1 hour extra to enjoy the vistas we did en route Pondicherry. Drive through small little towns & villages, neat road, lush greenery, sea on one side, you can see cyclists & bikers in groups driving early in the morning on the route from Chennai & living it up!! This is your true “Thalaiva” moment…and the song playing in a loop on Musafir Hasina’s playlist J Well you don’t land in the land of the great Rajani & not listen to this track!! J J J

15^th March (Saturday): 10.30am. We arrived at Pondicherry & checked in our gorgeous stay – Hotel Gratitude.

We have travelled quite a bit (though will never claim a lot), and hands down Gratitude is the best hotel we have ever been to. Its hospitality, laidback charm, beautifully done interiors, the fact that it is an almost 150 year old house and hence a heritage property, its location (it is at Rue Romain Rolland and merely 4-5 minute comfortable walk to the Promenade) all is nothing short of magic!! We were welcomed very warmly by the property’s manager Anto, who is such a warm, hospitable and graceful person that we were instantly connected to Gratitude because of her. On our entrance we were first asked for our choice in black tea or green tea, while we complete the formality of check in. Hasina loved this aspect & has hardly seen it in any Hotel so far. They make you wait in their comfortable little parlour which Musafir especially loved as it was decorated beautifully with quirky curio objects (like a small xylophone version which played soulful music just on a touch) and some beautiful pictures hanging on the wall. The hotel just wafted of delicious aromas of peace & tranquillity and that along with a lovely cup of Green Tea made by Anto on arrival made our wait (which was not long) to check into the room so relaxing instead of stressful, which is normally the case.

Gratitude is like your home, so there are some small rules you follow. Like they have indoor slippers. You can roam the town in your own footwear, but the minute you enter Gratitude you take them off at the entrance & wear the ones provided by the home. We did not mind at all. You do not drink in the room, which you might want to rebel to at first, but then seeing the beautiful sit-outs that Gratitude has & the fact that you can lounge & have your wine easily over there, we saw no issue with that at all. Anto was all grace & warmth all through our stay & made it so memorable. In fact Hasina wanted to book dinner reservations that evening for Villa Shanti, one of the most popular fine dining restaurant & where taking a reservation is most recommended & Anto called in our booked a table for us promptly, which is something again, we have never seen.

Well, post checking in our gorgeous room (that had a floor to ceiling French window, which when opened overlooked the courtyard of our hotel and a tall Mango tree with squirrels playing on it…sigh!!).

We took a tour of the lovely property (pics above) and then promptly changed & headed out all laced with our camera, music, headphones to embrace the town.

Before, reading out our travel dairy to you, let us first tell you one small fact. Pondicherry is basically divided into 1/4^th & 3/4^th. The 1/4^th area before the “Canal” is French Pondicherry or White Town or French Quarters. The 3/4^th area after the “Canal” is Tamil Quarters. Both have its uniqueness, but for the sheer fact that White Town is more charming, laidback, quaint & frankly looks like a mini South of France town with its cobbled roads, beautiful homes and the super tranquil vibe, people generally prefer lounging in that part, and with just 2 days in our hand we did that too. So let us tell you first thing, we did not do Aurobindo Ashram (gasp…horror!!), we did not go to Auroville (we hearda  lot from our parents on that) & we did not visit the Hidesign Store (eeps!! Lazy us!!). To set it straight, we did have all these places in our agenda, but the minute we stepped out of our hotel to explore White Town…well, this happened to us:

    That is Musafir in the frame; On Musafir:

• Lime Green Shorts - Bangkok flea market
• Bag - Wilson
• Footwear - Crocs (Select Citywalk, Delhi store)
• Hand beads: Ladakh flea market

It was like we were in a dream land...homes splashed in most vibrant hues, art & grafitti on walls, cute little shops, gorgeous vistas!! We covered the first day mostly on foot and what a walk it was!! People say there is nothing much to do in Pondicherry, but for us it was like endlessly walking through an art exhibit of a dissident artist, who just decided to take his brush & paint the whole town in colours of eccentric imagination.

White Town’s character is not only its tranquillity, but also its quirkiness that is hidden & that needs to be explored. Hence walking or cycling is the best way to explore this quaint little hamlet. We saw many holidayers hiring two wheelers to explore the town, but in our opinion, though we were tempted seeing yellow vespas, that is not the best way. White Town is very small & a motorised two wheeler will end it before it even starts; and since Pondicherry is not as vast as Goa & has so much to explore & find out that you might drive by many cute little cafes, curio shops, hidden art & culture stores and completely miss them. So for us, it was cycling & walking all the way.

How we spent three hours just taking photographs we didn’t even realise. When it was time for lunch, we explored this cute & laidback café…Café La Maison Rose. La Maison Rose welcomes you in with a cute little emporium shop and opens to a gorgeous courtyard straight out of a Mediterranean café J The expansive courtyard is open air & had a huge Tree as a centrepiece (reminded Hasina of Olive at Qutb Institutional Area, Delhi). It has gorgeous little bright chairs in yellow, green & red hues and good food!! We were lucky to get chairs under “the tree” and sipped on cool beer & wine as the afternoon passed away to end it with a sumptuous lunch of French/Italian food J

           Hasina's "round" frame shades: Zara

That done…we walked back to our hotel all happy. It was time to sleep in & enjoy the languid pace of the place J J We never feel this relaxed in Delhi, as we did here.

Evening: We were recommended to buy further liquor from supermarkets & govt. run wine shops in the town (very walkable from Gratitude) as that is cheaper than ordering drinks at the restaurant, where rates were at par with Delhi rates (quite expensive!!) So buying a bottle & stocking is best here. Our hotel promptly asked us to store all our drinks in the fridge to chill them. So we would drink a bit in the evening & then head out.

Another popular perception we have often heard is that Pondicherry has practically zero nightlife…soooo wrong!! See, it is not Goa, so there are no hedonistic beach parties…it is a slice of French countryside, so the nightlife is exactly like how a French countryside would typically have. Grab some drinks at your hotel, then head out for 1 drink at least at a nice little restaurant (our choice was Neemrana’s Hotel D’Lorient, where Jism’s song was shot). Beautiful courtyard with twinkling fairy lights & laidback vibe. We had just one drink & a starter & soaked in the ambience of the place, till it was time to walk down to our dinner reservation at Villa Shanti which is very walkable.

What a gorgeous place Villa Shanti was!! Hasina was too impressed, well..Musafir was okay with it. He is not your typical fine dining guy, but can play along once in a while J. The restaurant is in a spacious courtyard & is lit with candles everywhere. It lacks music, as it encourages people to converse while dining, but some soft music could have been perfect. The staff was all smiles, extremely polite & too busy. The website suggestions were not wrong. Villa Shanti is quite a popular place & when people come here, they come to lounge, chat over drinks, take their time to order & eat & the staff encourages you to do so, irrespective of a throng of people waiting (which is why their last order time – that is time to come & be seated is 8pm, but you can sit there easily till late). One more round of drinks followed J & we took all the time in the World to chat (which you hardly do in busy city lives) while soaking in the peace. The staff is well informed on their menu & make helpful suggestions & we promptly ordered in advance as people here take time in preparing food…it’s the vibe of the city & should not be questioned much. Food was perfection!! We loved it. There were good options for vegetarians, but for a non-vegetarian lover, this is paradise, since being a coastal city fresh sea food is guaranteed & the menu was frankly quite a change from regular, like, I read about a dish of fish stuffed with prawns that seemed tantalising for a true connoisseur of coastal food. The dinner was a lovely affair with lot of flambés being ordered and being lit right on the table. There were collective oohs & aahs on the dancing blue flames, from all the tables when someone’s table had a flambe dessert, with the owner beaming at his choice!! It was truly a special evening J We wrapped our dinner by 10.45pm & headed straight to the Promenade, or the beach. The beach in Pondy is rocky, therefore you sit on the rocks (very comfortable) & just gaze at the moon till late. Pondicherry was super safe in our experience. It seems like the whole town comes to the beach post 7pm & the government does not allow any vehicles at the Promenade at this time. There were lot of couples & single girls sitting & lounging in the Promenade & it was very safe. The evening could not have been better with a low hanging moon, we sitting on the rocks facing the endless expanse of the sea and just listening to the waves roaring & splashing. We wound up the evening by 11.45 when we headed back to our Hotel.

A Perfect end to a Perfect first day!! (sigh!!)

More to follow in the next post from Ek Musafir & Ek Hasina J