Summary : Go to Pondicherry if you have time to kill and nothing better to do. It's a regular Indian small town where trucks jostle with pedestrians while the swirling dust on the road sucks you in its embrace. But, with a few good attractions thrown in to confuse you - which is the real Pondicherry?
Moving in : Train 11005. From Bangalore to Puducherry. Arrived on Tuesday morning.
Moving out : Greenline bus. Took around 7 hours. Roads are good. No hilly roads to make you vomit.
Stay : We stayed at Sunway Manor helped with generous discount dollops from GoIbibo. The service here was great and gives nothing to complain about. They have put some real money in bathroom fittings, AC, TV and other in-room stuff.
Moving around - Autos, Ola cabs and rented 2 wheelers: Ola cabs is present here. Autos are reasonably easy to get but it's always tough negotiating with them. I rented a two-wheeler (Hero Pleasure) from Vijay Arya. Rs. 750/- for 3 days. They are very helpful. The person dropped me to bus stand after I returned the vehicle. Also, when I took the vehicle, he went to great lengths to tell us about what to see, general idea about roads etc. Didn't get a helmet from them though as it's not compulsory there. But it would have helped a lot - given the dusty roads. I did roughly 130 kms and filled Rs. 250/- petrol for that (still a good chunk was left over).
The bad part - traffic,dust and no helmets: There is a lot of heavy vehicle traffic inside Pondicherry. I mean the buses and trucks. I have never seen so many buses and trucks on so few roads. Part of the problem, according to me, is that too many highway roads touch Pondicherry. And being so small, it becomes aggravated. Also, helmets are not compulsory here. So people end up inhaling a lot more dust and smoke. Plus, it looked like, everywhere some sort of construction was going on - unregulated, with no barricades and stuff.
The good part : There was always a breeze flowing around to make riding a bike easier.(February at least). Don't know about other months though.
White town : Adjacent to Gandhi beach, this is the cleanest part of Pondicherry. Very well maintained. Most of the French people live here. It houses Alliance Francaise,The Museum, Bharathi park and some upmarket pubs/restaurants apart from important government buildings.
Pub scene - no nightlife to speak of : If you have seen pubs in Bangalore and Goa, the pubs here will come across as pretty cheap and downmarket, and also empty. Only pub which seemed upmarket was Le Club. And it was fully occupied when we reached there - so couldn't get in.
Offline Google Maps : It will be a good idea to use offline Google Maps for Pondicherry since you won't find the good data connection often.
Eating out : We mostly ate at the hotel. But Cafe Xtasi is too famous to be ignored. They serve Wood fired oven Pizza. It tasted pretty good and different. Once we ate at Le Club too. Zomato has good info though.
Attractions : There are people who visit the attractions in 8 hours. It's possible - since Pondicherry is pretty small. But I would say give it 2 days at least to visit it well. Plus, if you have a kid - you will have to be a bit slow. Here are the places which we visited :
Moving in : Train 11005. From Bangalore to Puducherry. Arrived on Tuesday morning.
Moving out : Greenline bus. Took around 7 hours. Roads are good. No hilly roads to make you vomit.
Stay : We stayed at Sunway Manor helped with generous discount dollops from GoIbibo. The service here was great and gives nothing to complain about. They have put some real money in bathroom fittings, AC, TV and other in-room stuff.
Moving around - Autos, Ola cabs and rented 2 wheelers: Ola cabs is present here. Autos are reasonably easy to get but it's always tough negotiating with them. I rented a two-wheeler (Hero Pleasure) from Vijay Arya. Rs. 750/- for 3 days. They are very helpful. The person dropped me to bus stand after I returned the vehicle. Also, when I took the vehicle, he went to great lengths to tell us about what to see, general idea about roads etc. Didn't get a helmet from them though as it's not compulsory there. But it would have helped a lot - given the dusty roads. I did roughly 130 kms and filled Rs. 250/- petrol for that (still a good chunk was left over).
The bad part - traffic,dust and no helmets: There is a lot of heavy vehicle traffic inside Pondicherry. I mean the buses and trucks. I have never seen so many buses and trucks on so few roads. Part of the problem, according to me, is that too many highway roads touch Pondicherry. And being so small, it becomes aggravated. Also, helmets are not compulsory here. So people end up inhaling a lot more dust and smoke. Plus, it looked like, everywhere some sort of construction was going on - unregulated, with no barricades and stuff.
The good part : There was always a breeze flowing around to make riding a bike easier.(February at least). Don't know about other months though.
White town : Adjacent to Gandhi beach, this is the cleanest part of Pondicherry. Very well maintained. Most of the French people live here. It houses Alliance Francaise,The Museum, Bharathi park and some upmarket pubs/restaurants apart from important government buildings.
Pub scene - no nightlife to speak of : If you have seen pubs in Bangalore and Goa, the pubs here will come across as pretty cheap and downmarket, and also empty. Only pub which seemed upmarket was Le Club. And it was fully occupied when we reached there - so couldn't get in.
Offline Google Maps : It will be a good idea to use offline Google Maps for Pondicherry since you won't find the good data connection often.
Eating out : We mostly ate at the hotel. But Cafe Xtasi is too famous to be ignored. They serve Wood fired oven Pizza. It tasted pretty good and different. Once we ate at Le Club too. Zomato has good info though.
Attractions : There are people who visit the attractions in 8 hours. It's possible - since Pondicherry is pretty small. But I would say give it 2 days at least to visit it well. Plus, if you have a kid - you will have to be a bit slow. Here are the places which we visited :
- Auroville - Head straight to the visitors center reception and ask what to do. There isn't much to do/see here though. You will get a general vibe about the coolness of the place - as people from many countries are living here. There is Matri Mandir here which you can see from outside. Going inside means effectively signing up for a 2-3 hours long meditation session and you have to register for that at least a day in advance. Plus, they don't allow kids inside the dome(Matri Mandir) - so we didn't end up seeing the inside.
- Auroville beach - nothing great about this beach. No one was taking a dip in the water. While on the way from Auroville to this beach, you will get some nice cloth shops (the kind you get in Goa, especially close to the beaches). But these shops are reasonably far from the beach.
- Botanical garden - kids will enjoy this. It has a toy train, an aquarium and pretty good play area. It closes around 5'o clock though.
- Gandhi beach - it's a very well maintained place. After 5 in the evening, vehicles can't enter here. Even otherwise it's very easy to walk/run/sit/relax here. So a pedestrian heaven. Reminds you of Sector 17 of Chandigarh (sans the shops). Rocks to sit on (somewhat like Marine Drive, Mumbai). But not the beach for taking a bath.
- Paradise beach - the only beach where I saw people bathing. And they seemed to have a blast. But nothing like a Goa beach. No bikinis for example. To get here you have to take a boat from Chunnambar Boat House.
- Manakula Vinayagar Temple - A Ganesha temple. Very well built and beautiful. You can buy some nice kids' toys outside. Nearby there are good shopping huts/stalls for women (close to Adyar Ananda Bhavan).
- Ousteri/Oussudu lake - you get a great boat ride to see migratory birds and wetlands. But be careful of Google Maps. This is the correct link. And, be there before 5PM. Also the roads leading there have a lot of heavy vehicle traffic. But worth it.
- Thirukameshwara Temple - a Shiv temple. Actually, it's greatly built. But unfortunately, in Feb 2016 (when we visited), it was going through complete reconstruction. I guess, it will take quite some time to finish.
- Toy Museum - was closed for renovation.
- Pondicherry Museum - close to Gandhi beach. Has a good collection. But surprisingly, a good many important things were lying out in open for sun and rain to ruin.
Last words : There is a canal in Pondicherry which separates White Town from the rest of it. The difference is stark. Once you cross the canal you feel like you are in a different PM2.5 zone altogether. Also, the canal is now defunct and serves as a garbage dump. It's a pity having seen how Amsterdam treats its canals. But visit Pondicherry to feel in control of a place. There are places, for e.g. Goa and Singapore, where no matter how hard you try, you will miss out on something. Not here. People are helpful. Directions and information about a place are easy to find (unlike Chikamagalur).
