It's a relaxed Saturday morning of beginning of year, the sky is bit foggy and temperature is extremely pleasant. If you are in Chennai, the first thing you want to do is pick up a key of your CBR 650 (if your dad is rich) or a Lamborghini (if your dad is really rich) and head south towards the mystical french town of the country on 80ft wide East Coast Road, The famous ECR !
Destination makes no sense on this piece of 'Tar', as every inch you cross is a destination in itself. Lush green rice fields, coconut trees bordering your horizon, Bay of Bengal showing glimpses of blue shades every often, Intermediate huge wetlands with hundred of Storks crossing overhead, Few of tamil villages along the road making sure that you also need to concentrate on your driving a bit, and the super beautiful highway without any divider allowing you race with another Lamborghini shaking grounds at 110miles an hour.
This stretch of the state highway from Chennai to Pondicherry is a portion of Coastal road going further South till Rameshwaram. Though road extending South of Pondicherry is also very scenic, The Chennai - Pondy perfect North-South stretch has the charm of having villages on West side and constant Sea on East side. It is a biker's and super car owner's destination mainly on weekends and it is a tradition to drive till Mahabalipuram (55km South Chennai) and have breakfast or go further to Pondicherry and spend weekend.
Apart from craze of drive, the road is full with varied site seeing destinations of everyone's interest. After you leave heavy traffic in South Chennai, The crocodile park (private collection of more than 6000 crocodiles by the beach) attracts you first. Having a tender coconut outside Croc park, you can head towards unique campus which showcases culture of 4 South Indian state 'Dakshinchitra'. The real scale model houses from Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu tell you about castes, communities, cultures, food, costumes, social status and everything related to South India.
First big destination you hit in 20 minutes after Dakshinchitra is World heritage site of 'Mahabalipuram'; an ancient Shore temple and integrate carvings throughout the city. After warming up your SLR and stomach on beach side Pandav Rathas and light house, you can activate you bird watching instinct and reach Marakkanam lake which is winter home to millions of migratory birds including Painted Stork, Pelicans, Turns, Egrets, Ibis and many more. Just Off the ECR, you can park your 138BHP monster and walk along wet land to get closer to these birds. This waterbody finally meets 'Kaliveli lake' which is heaven for this Siberian guests in December-January.
Apart from these world famous spots, there is one dutch fort at 'Covelong' giving surfing opportunities, Ruins of old mogul fort near Alamparai and a Muslim town called 'Chinna Dubai' because most of the men from the town work in Dubai and send lot of money to their wives who build colourful houses in the middle of nothing.
You are now 25 kilometres away from French town of Pondicherry which awaits you to welcome with beach side boutique hotels, french wine and extra ordinary seafood. After having delicious continental food in one of the many good restaurants on beach road, a walk along the beach at 11pm is must with ice cream or coffee in right on the beach 'Le Cafe'.
Next day, you are free to do some 'family things' like a walk on heritage streets of Pondy, visit 'Sri Aurobindo Ashram' and swim in Bodhi beach near town. Depending on how much beer you did drink on Saturday and how much expert you are in carving your way through thousands of weekenders like you who will head back to Chennai same time, you can leave the town of wonders and head back straight north for the tiring week ahead; most probably with plans to try another restaurant in Pondy next Sunday !
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