Travel Bug - - Pondicherry

 Pondicherry has long been on my list of places to visit and when the opportunity landed I was game. So I took the morning 1030 Spice Jet flight - a really small propeller driven aircraft - and headed to Pondi to watch the U23 match. The Spice Jet sandwich was way better than the Indigo one and I settled down to read Anita Nair's 'Hot Stage' during the flight. Towards the end we went a bit over the sea and swung this way and that before landing smoothly. The all girl crew was awesome.

Walking along the promenade

Rocky Beach

Jyo, me and Nishith

I took a Uber to the SLIMS ground which was some 35 mts away. Funnily every Uber showed the same amount Rs 358- for Inter City travel. One Vijayan showed up after checking with me what the fare was. Pleasant chap so we got talking. Turns out he is from Kanya Kumari, has done his Mechanical Engineering, did an engineering job in Mumbai for a while and then returned to become a taxi driver.

The beach road as it looks

A really nice place

Walk on beach road

'I love this life' he said and it showed on his face. 'I can earn 2000 bucks a day and more if I want to.' Has a family in Chennai - currently expecting a child so wife back in Kanya Kumari. Been in Chennai for four years. Happy go lucky chap. I tipped him an extra 100 for his new arrival.

Baker'sStreet

At the ground our boys played well - though it was frustrating at times. Its a ground set in a Medical College. Pretty decent. We got them down to 8 down. Jyo was all set to visit the White Town that evening and so was Vivek. Jyo's cousin Nishit Shetty was the match referee for the Ranji match so he took us along and dropped us at the hotel. I checked in and dropped my stuff and off we went for a long walk on Rocky Beach. In White Town.

Le Cafe

Yes. It's called White Town. The French Quarter where the French seemed to have built a decent place to live. So its full of nice bungalows, little pubs and eateries, bakeries and such, all within 10 feet of one another. Q. Where should one stay if one visits Pondi? A. In White Town.  

This looked interesting...did I read about it smewhere?

Anyway White Town ends on the Rocky Beach which has a road where no traffic is allowed, so people walk and saunter up and down that road. In the evening its a sight. Now that part of the beach has rocks as breakwater structures to prevent erosion one would think but apparently they cause more erosion. The best thing     We walked along to one part of the beach where there was some protrusion into the sea and took some pics. Every structure looked quaint and old worldly. I think I saw many Aurobindo buildings there, a book stall. Many pubs, bakeries. A beautiful cafe called 'Le cafe', a bakery called 'Baker's Street'.  I saw many boxes with numbers and they did not look like COVID markings so I asked a passerby uncle and he said they had a massive rangoli challenge and each participant had one box!

Live music

We walked a bit, found a nice little place that had a 2+1 offer and relaxed a bit. Then we headed to 'The Secilian' or something like that on the Beach Road where we met their cousin and his partner. We then headed out and met Vivek who took us to someplace called 'Flaming Dragons'. We ended up someplace where there was much  live singing by a very enthusiastic young lady who sang English, Tamil, Hindi songs with equal ease -Ashwathi Ram was her name if I am am not mistaken.

Me, Nishith, Jyo and Vicky

An evening well spent. I am already enjoying Pondi. Back to our hotel 'The Sunway Manor' and a good night's sleep.