Hi Friends. The chronological disorder of my previous post may slightly confuse you as today I have moved the post from "My Diary" tab to Main page and from now onwards I will add any travel related post here only.The date in header is the date when I wrote them.

Let me now continue with the Pondicherry tour.After our one day stay in Chennai, next day morning we started for Koyambedu bus stop at 9.30 after fully loading ourselves with the breakfast served in our hotel.The bus came little later. The first half of the journey was rather dull so I took  a small nap.After an hour or so, Dakshinachitram came on our way.And now I knew why this was unknown to the auto driver.It was at outskirt of the city. Then came the Crocodile park and another amusement park. It took us nearly 5 hrs to reach to Pondicherry bus stop.From there we took an auto to The Retreat Guest house of Aurobindo Ashram.The guest house was just by the sea side promenade .It was so located , that if you are not in a mood to go out, you can spend a leisurely afternoon sitting in the veranda that overlooks the promenade and the sea while having your tea.
As it was nearly 3pm, we were already late for the guest house lunch. So we walked to Le cafe, a beautiful open air  age old cafe by the sea. Here you can have your food while enjoying the sea. Many foreigners were having sandwich-coffee and sunbath. We have ordered one chicken pizza slice and a chicken salad.We liked the pizza slice a lot which was full of fresh tomato, cheese and chicken cubes.
after lunch we came back to our room to have a bath. Later in the afternoon when we came out to take  stroll by the promenade , it was so full of life. As it was the first weekend of new year, the place was in a festive mood and full of tourists.The roar of the sea , the chattering group of tourists , colorful bubble in the air made  it a cheerful afternoon. Traffic was completely restricted from evening  6pm to morning 7 am in the Goubert avenue (the seaside road). So people were roaming carefree and it was like a colorful carnival. We sat on a boulder beside the sea and watched the swelling waves to approach the shoreline and hitting the boulders heavily ,breaking into thousand pieces.As we were tired after the long bus journey and next day we had a plan to visit paradise beach, we went to sleep early.

Day2

Next day morning we took our complementary south-indian  breakfast at hotel(The coffee served was exceptionally good and my husband was really impressed. I loved the fluffy idly and the crispy vada too).After that we booked an Ola cab to take us to Chunnambar boat house, thanks to the taxi service apps now a days.It saved us nearly 300 bucks.From chunnabbar boat house we boarded a small boat along with some 10 more passengers(they made us put on life jackets) to reach the Paradise beach. It was a clean ,lovely ,well maintained beach.

The beach was so clean that we instinctively jumped down into water and play in the waves though we didn't carry any extra clothe or towel to dry ourselves afterwards.However as the sun was quite hot and bright , we dried up in few minutes.No outside food was allowed inside the beach. You can buy it from the only one food junk .They sell a very limited number of items like fried rice ,chilly chicken ,Chowmein ,cold beer and mineral water. We bought only two cans of cold drinks to seat inside the shade of the restaurant. That was actually cheaper than the paid seats under the other shade meant for lying down on the wooden chairs by the sea. However we confirmed that standing under that shade was free.You have to pay 100/- for lying down only.:) :).We spent almost 2 hrs in the beach(as our ticket allowed  2 hrs of stay only).Our return was in a two storied launch. From the second floor of it, we enjoyed a wonderful view of the lake.This time also luck favored us and we got a Ola cab to come back to our hotel.

1.Feb.2016

As I promised last time , here I am sharing my Chennai-Pondicherry tour experience .
Though our main destination was Pondicherry, but we decided to keep one day for Chennai to visit Marina beach. Readers may wonder for my saving one whole day for marina beach, but thing is that I wanted to take a breath before the journey from Chennai to Pondicherry (Long bus journey never encourages me much).
The hotel we booked online was at Wallajah Road,Annasalaivery , very near to the Chennai railway station and later we found out it was also located in one of the most important location of the city. Chidambaram stadium was at a stone throwing distance and Marina beach was nearly 1 km. After checking in at around 10 in the morning, we quickly took bath, filled ourselves with some  dry food we carried with us, and took an auto to Marina beach .
It was already 12 and the sun was at its pick. From the entrance to the beach it was almost 600m or so. The sand beneath my feet was too hot, and with every step, my feet was digging a few inch deeper into the sand. I was wearing a beautiful sandal too. However, as the sea came nearer, I couldn't help to
get down into the sea and feel the warm waves against my feet. Out of ecstasy, i ignored the pieces of wood, electric bulb that were coming ashore with the waves. I played with the waves while my husband took a few snaps of mine.

And then I got up and we started to return towards the entrance when I realized my mistake. My feet now all wet , was getting smeared with plenty of sand with each step. I tried taking the sandals off and walk bare foot and it was even more dangerous, as there were broken glass of beer bottle, sharp end of sea shells here and there. By the time we reached the entrance my husband had to promise me a new pair of shoes to cool me down.

So next we had our lunch at Saravana Bhaban. The food quality was good and we tried almost all the south Indian delicacies. Next we found a Khadim shop nearby. We bought a pair of sports shoes and returned to our hotel to wait for the midday heat to die. In late afternoon we again started with full enthusiasm, now powered by new shoes.
This time we tried some other destination- Dakshinachitram. But instead of pronouncing in ten different ways, we were unable to make the auto driver understand the name of the place. Me and my husband were so frustrated that we blamed each other for not knowing Tamil. However later we discovered Dakshinachitram was at the outskirt of the city .So presently we decided to try on the beach again , this time from a different end. So we took an auto to drive along the beach and took us to the Gandhi statue.

Now the beach has come to full of life. Did I say it was 1st of Jan and Friday. Yes, so as expected half the city gathered by the sea beach to enjoy New Year’s Eve.

A fisherman showing a weird animal..anybody can suggest its name?

We have spotted  dead Turtle

We can feel the heartbeat of vibrant Chennai. From here we decided to walk along the sea towards marina point while viewing the sunset. My husband befriended with a conch seller and they had a conch blowing session together. This amused the people around and in no time a small crowd formed. After much experiment he bought a big conch and as a token of friendship the seller gifted him a small conch absolutely free.
So far everything was ok. But who had conquered the fate? Seeing people to play with waves tempted me to open my shoes again and come down to water.
When I put them on again, sand was still there in my feet.
We ended up our shoes soaked in water and then started walk through the dry sand and you can imagine  what happened to my brand new shoes.
This time my husband also filled his shoes with water and sand.
Out of desperation, we tried to ride a horse to cover the distance to the entrance but there was not enough room for the two of us on the horse back . Besides, my husband was under the  impression that first it would seat and then we will get up on it(He was probably influenced by Jatayu’s camel riding episode in ‘Sonar Kella’). But the owner disregarded his thought saying a horse does not seat and walked away indignantly. So we had to give up on the idea and started walking.

And thus we spent our first  day of 2016 in Chennai, a day full of sand , but still memorable .

I just want to add a few more points :-

• It was really incredible that in spite of such a  massive flood only a few days back, we didn’t see any visible trace of it .
•  Also to our great relief, we got the mineral water bottles on MRP. 
•  Advice to ladies:-Please don't wear any fancy shoe within the beach.Wear only sprots shoe/ snickers.