This week, we visited Pondicherry on a three days vacation.

I started when Somya informed her plan to stay there for few weeks and she invited us to stay with her family. She informed dates in advance. I planned to visit this weekend. Later we got to know that Anjali was there as well during the weekend.

We decided to drive by car. Ookie is now comfortable inside the car. The inflatable bed that I bought when Anu had plaster on her ankle is serving us really well on these trips. Kaalu sometimes gets pretty stressed and anxious inside car, especially during the day time traffic, so we tried calming tablets and they do wonders for her. I should use them during Diwali when the whole country turns into a loud gas-chamber!

Driving car to Puducherry from Bengaluru wasn’t the most pleasant experience, especially in the late evening. Almost half of the route was two lane highway. Overtaking slow trucks or auto and avoiding overtaking cars and buses from the other side was also tricky. A lot of vehicles have very bright headlights these days, including small autos, which makes is very hard to see anything when these lights flash in your eyes. The roads were in good shape and except of a speed-breaker that I didn’t see, most of the travel was without any bad bump. We lost 30 mins inside Bengaluru traffic and 45 minutes in a sudden jam on highway. It took us more than 8 hours to reach Pondicherry!

I think I got some “bio-fuel” (ethanol blended) on the way from a BP/Jio petrol pump. That made car pickup worse and it stinks.

We reached at Somya place around 9pm and slept after having dinner. Next day, we went to a beach. Neither Ookie nor Kaalu enjoyed the beach. It was their first time and both were scared of big waves. Also, late February turns out to be a little too warm to be on the beach during day time. Unlike west coast (e.g. Mangalore, Mumbai), the beaches in Pondicherry are not shallow and waves are bigger, stronger and dangerous.

Kaalu and Ookie didn’t like wave crashing near them! Kaalu liked the little crabs on the beach but fear of waves took the fun away. Ookie enjoyed playing in the sand though and Kaalu would dig some sand and lay on it.

I didn’t find Puducherry to be very exciting. But again, I don’t find cities to be very exciting. Food is good but food is usually good in all cities.

The botanical garden was OK but has nothing worth really visiting. Great for toddlers though. It didn’t have any especial tree or plant to excite me. The flower garden was lame and poorly maintained — I’ve seen better personal garden. The aquarium was also pretty meh but much better than garden. Ookie enjoyed her time inside the aquarium. Sadly, the choo-choo train is broken and is just a show piece now. Perhaps we need the British back to ensure things work?

Beaches are not as dirty as in Chennai but they are not clean either. Occasionally you see broken glass in the sad and put your sandals back on. Our civic senses needs to improve a lot! Also, streets are not walk-able in Puducherry as well, except for one street in Pomegrade beach where they don’t allow cars. I found too many bikes parked on the road most of the time. Bengaluru is definitely worse!

The local food was very cheap and good and the tea was excellent. I am a great fan of tea making in both Tamilnadu and Kerala. Its a shame that Karnataka and rest of the country hasn’t adopt this method.

While coming back, we left at 12:00pm. Diving was a pretty decent experience in late night. I didn’t feel sleepy since Anjali was awake in the car and we chatted whole way. By early morning, we were barely awake. It took us 5:30 hours to enter south Bangalore where we met with decent traffic at around 5:30am! It took me 45 minutes to reach home after we entered Bengaluru. Kaalu was pretty happy to see Jumbi and other friends.