[vikram31]

We went on a recent road trip to cover parts of the East Coast in Tamil Nadu and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of beaches and food!

Planned to land in Chennai, spend a day catching up with friends and try local cuisine before departing to Mahabalipuram and onwards to Puducherry.

Day 1: Mumbai to Chennai by flight – Self drive rental for local food



After browsing local options like indusgo and popular ones like zoomcar and Revv, finalised on MyChoize as they were offering a good selection of cars at the best prices. My pleasant recent experience of renting a self drive in Kolkata was another reason to go for them. Flight was on time and the driver was promptly there at the private car pickup area. For those who have not travelled to Chennai much, there are 4 terminals at the airport where Terminal 1 and 4 are used for domestic flights, Terminal 2 is used for international flights and Terminal 3 is non functional. We arrived at Terminal 1 and my co passengers on Terminal 4 (around 5 minutes walk from each other). To get to the private car pickup, one needs to cross over near the food court opposite the arrival terminal where there are shaded (much needed) waiting areas for private pickup. Our car was a 7-8 years old MT Hyundai Creta with close to 140k kms on the ODO. Despite the age, the car looked clean and drove smoothly.



Given we were looking to head out to Mahabalipuram the next day, we decided to stay at the Park Plaza, OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road). Thanks to this location, we circumvented a lot of the city traffic barring the last mile construction activity on OMR for the metro. One inconvenience was that there were hardly any U turns and to travel across the road for a 150 mtrs destination, one needed to drive for 2-3 kms and take a U-turn. Our first day in Chennai was to follow the simple travel route – Eat – Sleep – Repeat and we did that to the T. After a smooth and early check in at the hotel, we kicked off our food train with one of Chennai’s finest vegetarian restaurants – Geetham’s at OMR, just across our hotel. With our hometowns being Delhi and Mumbai, our focus was to try as much local cuisines as possible without falling into the trap of standard north-Indian fare. We tried their standard South Indian offerings – Idli, Vada, Podi Dosa, Onion Rava and the taste was nothing short of exceptional. Infact, we made it a point to give a score to the Dosas and kept comparing dosas across the trip with Geetham’s setting a stellar benchmark!





Washed down the delicious meal with rose milk and an excellent filter coffee post which an afternoon nap was on the cards. To beat the heat, we deployed the coy strategy of not stepping out of the hotel while the sun was out and spent time playing board games and cooling off in the pool.

We chose to visit another excellent vegetarian choice on OMR for dinner – Astoria. An excellent choice for the standard fare, we added a set dosa to the meal which was an interesting dal based fermented pancake with a stew that was the standout dish of the evening. Food was excellent, crispy and loaded with yummy chutneys but if compared to Geetham’s we will give our lunch option higher marks.






Both restaurants were just 5-7 minutes away which gave us ample time to return to our rooms for some legendary UNO battles before napping by 10 pm.

Day 2: Highway sightseeing and drive to Mahabalipuram

To get to Mahabalipuram, one needs to drive to the ECR (East Coast Road) which was only 10-15 minutes drive from our hotel and simply start driving after turning right for an hour or so. However, the ECR is full of recreational activity pitstops which include a mega aquarium, a cultural museum, water park, adventure activities and a crocodile park! With temperatures bordering 40 degrees, we decided to skip the adventure activities and water park and decided to pick 2 activities for our drive on day 2 – the VGP Marine Kingdom and the Dakshina Chitra Museum, both 15 minutes from each other and right on the highway to Mahabalipuram.



VGP Marine Kingdom – The mega marine tourist attraction became the highlight of our day as we were pleasantly surprised by the massive collection of fish in a huge environment with international standard facilities and cleanliness. The entire facility has excellent air conditioning which is a huge relief from the heat. Tickets cost approximately 700 INR per head which sounded high initially but we later realised was offered much more than its worth. We were welcomed by huge tanks with small to medium size fish some of which I had not seen despite already having been to similar facilities in Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand before. One walks into open pools where one can look through the glass to spot some excellent creatures chilling. As one walks further, the facility is divided into river live, shallow sea life and deep sea life. At the end of the huge tanks, there is a tunnel walk where one can spot huge deep sea creatures swimming around us in 180 degrees! After spotting sting rays and sharks all around us, the tour ended with a concession stand where we treated ourself to some hot popcorn and cold coffee. Overall this 30-40 minute time spent was way better than expected and we would recommend this as a must do activity if you are in Chennai.
















Dakshina Chitra – Chennai’s Heritage Museum with a deep dive into South Indian ways of life before becoming modern cities and states – You can find out more about Dakshina Chitra at https://www.dakshinachitra.net/. In summary this is a large facility which has created life like replicas of traditional homes from multiple southern regions from the key south Indian states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. As you walk along the 10 acre property, you can step into what would have been a traditional home furnished with local furniture, utensils and decorations. Being in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu setup was the largest with its own street, vendors et al. We were enthused staring with Kerala and visiting the Tamil street with various homes and prayer places which were intriguing and unique. However, the Chennai hear started to get to us as the clock struck noon and we felt our energy zapping and we couldn’t complete our tour of all houses. The facility offers multiple cultural activities for children and adults including pottery, art , puppet making and have a performance area where we were blessed to see some local dances which were melodious and enjoyable. Tickets cost approx. 200 INR per person and there are multiple food and drink options to cool oneself down to beat the heat. After spending an hour, we decided to leave for Mahabalipuram as the heat was getting to be a bit unbearable.





For those who may want to use this place as a lunch pitstop as well, there is a branch of Geetham’s just as you reach the highway when returning from the Museum. Were not very hungry and decided to start driving. We came across a lunch place that offered good vegetarian fare which was not the standard south Indian snacks but multiple rice based options like thali, sambar rice, curd ricem fried rice etc. We ordered sambar rice, curd rice and fried rice and all were pretty good.



In general, we found the food above average on our journey and most places were very clean and quick. Post a heavy rice based meal, we got motivated to get to our rooms at Mahabalipuram and started our 40 minute drive to Chariot Beach Resort near the Five Rathas Monument. To enter Mahabalipuram, one need to pay a local entry tax for INR 75 which seems to be valid only till the midnight of the issuance day till midnight. We did not understand the logic of this day pass but decided to stay within Mahabalipuram borders for our trip.

A quick note on the property – It’s a massive open resort with a private beach that has probably the best location in the town, bordering the five rathas monuments and just 5 minutes drive from all attractions including the sea shell museum, light house, Krishna’s Butter ball, Shore temple and Arjuna’s penance. One can walk to all these places if one can bear the heat or drive to all of them with convenient and mostly free parking everywhere. On day 1 we decided to enjoy the property and spend the rest of the day napping or lazing in the pool.

Decided to go local for food for this trip as well and our first dinner stop was Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Tried similar food and everything from Idlis to vadas to dosas were excellent. Came back satiated from the chutney and sambar overload and went back to some board games before retiring for the day.




Day 3 started with looking at the gorgeous sunrise. The Mahabalipuram beach is super clean with grey sand that is coarse making it harder to walk but excellent to plonk down and watch the waves as the sun comes up. Sunrise was at approximately 6.10 am and it took all of 2-3 minutes from being dusky to super bright forcing us to bring out the sunglasses.

[vikram31]

Day 3 started with looking at the gorgeous sunrise. The Mahabalipuram beach is super clean with grey sand that is coarse making it harder to walk but excellent to plonk down and watch the waves as the sun comes up. Sunrise was at approximately 6.10 am and it took all of 2-3 minutes from being dusky to super bright forcing us to bring out the sunglasses.





Walked back to the hotel around 6.30 am and freshened up for a lazy relaxed buffet breakfast of baked goodies and eggs. Filter coffee was excellent as expected but after having a couple of them I went back to my love for black coffee that did not disappoint. Visited the famous sea shell museum and were quite amazed at the art installations made with sea shells and the collection of giant sea shells over the years. The signature setup was the Singapore merlion that was probably life like with the Gardens by the bay tree setup as well.







Some excellent pictures to click. We also saw huge shells in a separate gallery which were rare and gorgeous. Once done with the sea shell museum, roamed around the local markets for some souvenir shopping. We wanted to get some more Vitamin Sea but also wanted to beat the heat so decided to visit a local shack called flip flop around noon.

The shack is located in a thin lane at the fishermen’s village and parking and turning the car around can be tricky so please plan well. The shack was overlooking the ocean with dozens of fishing boats parked and the short temple as a backdrop. We could not have asked for a prettier place to spend our afternoon. The shack per se was just waking up at noon and did not have anything ready when we reached. However, we were more than happy to wait as they prepared some fresh Masala Chai and snacks and a couple of hours spent here were super relaxing.



Decided to drive back out of Mahabalipuram to the Crocodile Park for some alligator spotting. The drive was just 20-30 minutes and we left post 4 pm tp avoid peak heat. Reaching there around 4.30 pm is also fine (Park officially closes at 5 pm) and we found ample time to roam around enclosures where the twisty creatures were mostly lazing around. Salt water crocodiles, turtles, gharials and a Komono dragon were some of the highlights of the visit.





Even though we felt facilities were not as clean as we would have liked them to be, this was an informative and enjoyable experience and we would highly recommend it. Infact, if you are driving down from Chennai to Mahabalipuram, this can also be a great pitstop along with Marine Kingdon and Dakshina Chitra. Once done with the park around 5.15 pm, we wanted to feed our hungry stomachs again and looked up another place called Sri Ananda Bhavan (different from the earlier one) in the main Mahabalipuram market. Given the earlier experience of Adyar, we wanted to try out the fare but it was not up to the mark or standards set by the earlier one. While the food was enjoyable and the place is very clean, we found the flavor kick and depth missing. After wrapping up dinner washed down with buttermilk we returned to our comfortable rooms at Chariot and retired for the night.




We kicked off Day 4 with an early morning visit to all Mahablipuram historical attractions bunched up in a 2 hour trip.



Started the day with a 6 am beach walk and left right after sunrise at 6.15 am. All historical attractions open up at 6 am and have a common ticket that costs just 35 INR per person that includes a visit to Shore temple, Krishna’s Butter Ball and Five Rathas. We started off with Five Rathas where we were the first visitors of the day at 6.30 am! We used an app called storytrails that explained everything about all the attactions in detail as we walked around them. We highly recommend getting this app instead of a tour guide.






With some excellent morning pictures of five rathas, we drove to the nearby shore temple and soaked in the ocean side landmark.







Krishna’s butter ball and Arjuna’s penance are next to each other and a short walk from the free parking around the area.






The audio tour gave us excellent insights into the historical landmarks and we were done by 8.30 am from all these places after spending reasonable time covering them. Post breakfast, checked out and left for Club Mahindra Puducherry, a short drive away.



The ECR drive is mostly undivided single lane where one cant get much speed but what’s good about the road is that its constantly moving allowing one to average close to 50-60 kmph. We reached Puducherry town a little after noon and decided to have lunch at the one of the most famous restaurants, Surguru.



Located in White Town, Surguru offered some good vegetarion dishes like a lunch tiffin, palak pooris and the usual south Indian fare. Our benchmark was still Geetham’s and sadly Surguru could not surpass it. Lunch was overall enjoyable and post a strong filter coffee we started to drive to Club Mahindra, around 18 kms from the main town.

Probably the only small issue with the trip was how far the resort was from the main town. While totally self sufficient, it was just hard to motivate oneself to drive for 35 minutes to satiate any croissant cravings! We spent the first day chilling in the pool and trying the local restaurant for a mix of north and south Indian food. I don’t want to take away anything from the resort restaurant but after trying the bold unabashed flavors of local restaurants, we couldn’t enjoy the generalized food offerings from the resort restaurant.

[vikram31]

Located just 10 minutes drive from the resort, we found the answer to all our cravings – Hotel Anandha Bhavan to satisfy all our south Indian food cravings. We started off with breakfast here and it was literally our go to place for the rest of the Puducherry trip! Everything from podi soaked idlis and dosas to tiffins to idyappams were legendary and it came really close to Geetham’s in quality and depth of flavor. I am posting some pictures of the scrumptious food we had there and needless to say I will highly recommend it if you are passing by or staying at Club Mahindra.



Idiappams:


Ghee Podi Dosa


Onion Rawa Dosa:


Breakfast Tiffin:


Aloo Poori:


We spent day 5 strolling around the massive property with its private beach and lazed in the pool with a sitdown kitchen right next to the pool with hot crispy pizzas on order! Given our distance from the main town, we thought of restricting our visit to the Promenade and Rock beach one of the evenings and a morning at Eden Beach. We missed registering for Auroville in advance and sadly missed visiting it on this trip.

Promenade Beach is probably the most picturesque part of Puducherry. As you cross through the French quarters and come to the water’s edge, you are greeted with beautiful waves on a no traffic strip where you can walk over sand, the promenade or the open road.






Lined with historical functional buildings, you will never run out of photo ops on the road. Our time to reach there was around 5.15 pm which gave us ample time to roam around as the heat and light died down and the bright lights lit up the space. Here are some photos of the prettier parts of the road.

A beautiful church a few lanes behind the promenade beach:


The lighthouse:


GST Bhavan (Old Customs House):


A french monument (could not figure out why):


An old police booth:


Food stores:



Aurobindo Ashram:



Artistically Parked Vespa:



For food we tried out Croissants, sandwiches, coffee and desserts at Baker’s Street and finished the day at the famous GMT gelataria








Some pics post sunset in night lights:


Meringues by the beach:

[vikram31]

My little one enrolled for some inhouse activities at Club Mahindra and the next day was just relaxed in and about the property. On day 7 we visited the Eden Beach in the morning. Eden Beach is close to the famous Paradise Beach but in my opinion offers similar views and more convenient to reach. Shack culture in Puducherry is nowhere as pronounced as Goa but the beach definitely gave Goa vibes. There is a huge arc installation on the beach which looks excellent from various angles. Even the lookout points gave the beach a classy touch. Here are some pictures from the morning visit.






We spent the rest of the relaxing and playing board games to wrap up early before our departure next day for Chennai airport.

On the last day our route was slightly different than the incoming one:



A much faster dividend four lane road helped us to cover the distance in just over 3 hours vs nearly 4 hours via the coastal road.

However, before our drive we went for one last breakfast to Ananda Bhavan for these scrumptious podi idlis:



Well, that was our one week of podi dosas and vitamin sea. Hope you enjoyed reading!

Here are a few parting pics which I couldnt add as a blog story earlier:

Parked next to a small hatchback at Mahabalipuram!


Another beautiful sunrise at Mahabalipuram:



Another sunrise at Puducherry:
\

Sunset behind the cottages at Chariot Beach Resort:


A quick note on the Hyundai Creta. While the car was old and well run, suspension and NVH levels were impressive. Acceleration was fair. Where the car underwhelmed me was poor handling and wear and tear. The AC wasnt running well and the car hadnt aged well with rattles and underbody sounds. Ofcourse, it could also be a function of how Mychoize maintained the vehicle but it would surely not be a vehicle I would like to own at any time.

[ex-innova-guy]

Wonderful travelogue with stunning photos that perfectly capture Pondicherry's vibrant hues. Instead of making repeated journeys to Goa, people ought to make at least one visit to Pondicherry.

Thanks for sharing.

Sharing pictures I had taken at night of these places.

A beautiful church a few lanes behind the promenade beach:
Attachment 2593960

GST Bhavan (Old Customs House):
Attachment 2593962

Originally Posted by vikram31

A french monument (could not figure out why):
Attachment 2593963

It is the French War Memorial, honouring the World War I fighters who lost their lives to defend the nation. You can read more here.



White Sand Beach Lighthouse

[abs182]

Originally Posted by ex-innova-guy

Wonderful travelogue with stunning photos that perfectly capture Pondicherry's vibrant hues. Instead of making repeated journeys to Goa, people ought to make at least one visit to Pondicherry.

Thanks for sharing.

Sharing pictures I had taken at night of these places.

Attachment 2594009


Attachment 2594007


It is the French War Memorial, honouring the World War I fighters who lost their lives to defend the nation. You can read more here.

Attachment 2594006

White Sand Beach Lighthouse
Attachment 2594003

Attachment 2594005

Your photos bring back memories of my family visit to the place 2 years ago. Somehow the place has never left me. I simply loved the place especially the lovely promenade they have on Paradise beach. The food is heavenly too. I wish the place was nearer to where I stay. Will definitely go again for sure. This time will stop over at Mahabalipuram too. Missed it last time as was short of days.

[Kkumar]

Vow, what a wonderful travelogue with excellent photographs. Nice to see that you had a wonderful vacation satisfying both your mind and stomach. It was surprising that you hadn't mentioned about Auroville because for the majority of the visitors to Pondicherry that is the most important destination to visit.

[raptor_diwan]

Nice travelogue! Happy to see you exploring Chennai. You should also venture in and around Anna Nagar/ Mylapore to experience more flavorful foods here.

[vikram31]

thank you ex-innova-guy - for the update on the war memorial

kkumar yeah kicking myself for not registering but all's well. This is reason to visit again!

raptor_diwan - noted for next work trip to Chennai!

[kkunal.shah]

Wow nice travelogue. Reminds me of our trip way back in 2011, we did the same route. There are so many activities now eg. aquarium, heritage museum which were not there.

Thanks for reigniting some good old memories.

[mah45]

Nice travelogue

It was amazing to see someone visit some of the places that as a local haven't thought about visiting, maybe will do it soon

Btw, our Pondy trips are never done without Pizzas and croissants.
I can confidently say, none of the joints in Chennai can match them
Also, our personal favourite for Gelatos has been the Gelato factory at Auroville.
Somehow we didn't find that flavorful at GMT, although it seems to be tourists' favourite.