Walking by the Rocky beach promenade at Pondicherry.

Perched on the Coromondal Coast of the Bay of Bengal , Pondicherry  is an ideal weekend getaway destination  from Chennai and is visited by people from all over the world. One can saw , it's a love child of french and Indian culture.

  Pondicherry is an union territory of India after 1954...Earlier was a french colonial settlement. Its french legacy is preserved in its french quarters with tree lined streets, mustard coloured colonial villas and chic boutiques. Simply strollingdown these streets can give the travelers  an insight into the fairytale charm of Pondicherry. A seaside promenade  runs along the Bay of Bengal and passes several statues including a 4 mts high Gandhi Memorial  and also Amedkar memorial  by the promenade. Topped with authentic  french bakeries , bohemian  stores and cobbled stones pathways that r delightful for a leisurely stroll or bicycle ride ...evening r so heavenly by the beaches at Pondicherry  that everyone visiting  the place will find  it worth visiting.......

My experience:

      Though it's my 2nd  visit to this union territory of Pondicherry but I was quite excited to see the makeover of this city...Its after a gap of 20 yrs that I was visiting this city and could find so much changed look though the french colony looked the same but traffic has increased 4 fold now....I had booked a night stay at Shunbaga  hotel and convention centre which is located in the heart of the city...compared to any 4 star property , it looked quite luxurious....Basically  we were on a road from from Chennai to Rameshwaram  and Pondicherry  was a stopover on our way .....By the time we reach the city it was almost evening...after getting freshened up , we thought to hit the beach instead of sitting in the hotel room after a  day long drive across from Chennai to Pondicherry  via Mahabalipuram via ECR...

Roads in the french colonies r mostly baricatted  by night fall from vehicles  ..somehow we drove to the rocky beach parking and then started walking across ...since it was a day prior to holi , the moon dazzled the beach and the waves .....the wind touched my face and I forgot all those tiredness of a day long journey  across....clicked  few snaps as I walked down to the promenade.....seeing so many people enjoying their walk in leisure , I really felt so good at heart  ...  then stopped for dinner at a south Indian restaurant  by the promenade  before heading for the hotel as next morning  we had appointment  for a visit to the Auroville international village and Matrimandir  in the early hours......

    It had been a relaxing leisure moments by the sea under the beautiful blue sky & a full moon  and the waves & myself .....its really refreshing. 

MY FIRST VISIT TO VAILENKKANI CHURCH ( TN)

Vailenkkani Church  is called the BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF GOOD HEALTH,is a Marian Shrine , located in a small town of Vailenkkani  in TamilNadu ( South India) . Devotion to  Our Lady Of Good Health of Vailenkkani  can be traced to the mid 16th century and is attributed  to 3 separate miracles at the site surrounding  the Basilica. 

  Being a Roman catholic Marian Church , itsdedicated to our lady of Good Gealth , Virgin Mary , is depicated  wearing a Sari.

       The Basilica  is built in the Gothic style architecture  and contains 3 chapels as well Our lady's tank, church museum , Priest residence, offering centre, station of the Cross ,station of the Rosary, Shrine mega mahal and Vailenkkani  beach .

My experience: 

  Basically  I was on a round road trip from Chennai onto Rameshwaram via Pondicherry   and then from Rameshwaram to Madurai onto chennai  from 7th March'20....Vailenkkani  visit was not in my itenary also ...As we were driving from Pondicherry  to Rameshwaram  on ECR ie East Coast Road , while we were near to Cuddalore, my vehicle driver asked  me  , whether I am interested to visit Vailenkkani Church  as we will be crossing over Vailenkkani in a while 's time ....I had earlier never been to Vailenkkani  though explored TamilNadu quite a bit long years ago ....I simply couldnt resist  the temptation  to see that beautiful  church about which I heard a lot before ......... it was around 1 pm when we entered Vailenkkani  town....The town is full of churches everywhere  and finally it's the Basilica....simply WOW!!! . ..I have earlier seen the Cathedral at Goa  but this was simply huge and I was awestruck  by its first glance  .....my driver dropped me at the parking and I felt that this town is getting a makeover as lots of construction  work on here and there ...  then as I entered the premise of the Basilica   , its gothic  style architecture  got me on my knees .....I kept framing each and every corner of this beautiful  building  in my lens ...against the blue sky this white building  looked picture perfect ....Since it was sunday , mass was on at the prayer hall and I took this opportunity  to pray a while there before I left for a walk upto the Vailenkkani beach  thru' the market place while was bit clumsy.. Even the beach was pretty crowded and I simply didnt feel like going into the waters instead enjoyed icecream standing by the beach side.....being a tourist place , I was thinking that their must be lot of restaurant  but it's not the case ...I simply failed to eat the Veg thalli at the church canteen ...though rice was good quality but the vegs didnt go good to my taste and I had to push back to my vehicle instead to head for Rameshwaram...

Weekend trip to Beautiful Dapoli

Dapoli ,is a small city in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. Its almost 215 kms from Mumbai on the konkan Coastline. Separated from the Sahyadri range by Khed taluk, its seaboard of 50kms stretches from Burondi, kelashi  to Dabhol......

My story of our unplanned trip to Dapoli:

       It was one fine Saturday  morning, woke up to see that due to some water pipeline issue in my city, all taps in our flat went dry ...was very upset to even realise that it's going to be a bad weekend without water supply. After giving a cup of tea , I jokingly told my husband  ," how's my idea to go on a short trip somewhere for the weekend..? & what about driving out to Dapoli, which we haven't visited yet....& unlike other times, an obvious reply , " Yeh , not a bad idea ,but only if u can get ready in 1 hr only to push out...." That's really a big challenge  for me but I took up the challenge.......its though, lot of work...packing , charging cameras , getting ready ,checking out routes to drive down ...Uff!!! But I made it all in just 50 mins time and we were off on the road  ......though, google map was constantly guiding us the route via Khapoli- manpada route from Mumbai to Dapoli , But , instead we took palm beach road to Belapur then towards Ulve and then container road to Patalganga  cross - heading towards Pen- Nagothane- Manpada .....thereafter, took the hilly route as guided by Google Map ( turned out a bad idea though ,to take hilly terrain route instead of driving to Khed via the old MumbaiMumbai-Goa highway).....Anyways , its definitely  a long drive out of 6 hrs until we reached Dapoli around 4pm...We had a short break for lunch on our way to Dapoli , from where we did out resort booking via MMT , at The Fern Samali Resort & Spa at Dapoli.

     After checking in at the resort , without much delay, after sipping in a cup of tea and a quick stroll  across the resort premise, we drove out to the sea beach at Ladghar, which is 5kms from the resort....I simply didnt wish to miss out at the sunset from Ladghar beach....it was quite windy  at the beach , though ,quite a flat beach to drive on.....😃

Enjoyed a lovely sunset at the beach . 

It  was now time to push back to the resort ..To my surprise  ,the weather was quite cold out there.....we both were quite tired after whole day travelling and did  wish to have early dinner at the resort's restaurant itself  as there's nothing around ....The reception informed us that they have arranged for magic show for its guests ....Had a wonderful  evening and then it was time to go off to bed ......Didnt wish to get up early and head for Dolphin watching as we enjoyed that Harihareshwar  last time.....I had the thought that we need to get ready & finish breakfast by 10am and it's another 6 hrs drive back to Mumbai......After taking some beautiful  pics across the beautiful resort & enjoying sumptuous  breakfast  , it was time to kick start our journey  back home but this time we bad sure that we wont follow Google Map instead , drive down 30kms to Khed from Dapoli  and then take on the Old Mumbai Hoa highway ,which is now under reconstruction due to 4 lanning.....Oh , what a beautiful  drive , definitely  it will look amazingly beautiful during rainy season ....it was 5.30pm ,when we reached home ....

What an adventurous,  unplanned  weekend trip it had been ...... sometimes,  I really enjoy such type of madness ..😃....

My first visit to Ambernath Shiva temple.

It was 1stJan 2020 , and I wanted to visit a temple to bring in the beautiful new year with Almighty 'a blessings......Living in Mumbai  for almost  20 + yrs, have been to almost all temples/ shrine in & around Mumbai but , then, thought that my visit to Ambernath  shiva temple is long pending.....Did not have much idea about its location though , but when Google Map is there on my palm ,what's the issue....😃

   Woke up early so that we could start early too as the road near  Shilphatta  near Dombivilli is  always an headache to drive across .......But too my surprise,  that road is now so good that it was a pleasure drive upto Ullas Nagar...thereafter , a little bupping  drive upto the temple complex .

  It's an ancient  temple complex and beautiful sculptures  adorns its wall on black granite rocks...The first glance ,was very impressive...simply loved it ....Tried to capture various parts of the temple Architecture  in my camera  lens  before standing in the long queue  for darshan of the idol in its graba griha......it was huge crowd gathering for darshan of the lord ....After almost 30 mins in queue  could get my opportunity  to pray to lord ....Here , Shiva is worshipped not in ling form but in full body form in Gold .....

Really  happy soul , myself , felt that really I am blessed  to make it for His darshan on this auspicious day...