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