The East Coast Road Trip from Chennai to Pondicherry - Part 1

"I forged myself out of a vacuum. I crawl along the highway on hacked off stumps year after year. Some wonder how and why. I never do". So guess where am I taking you today? 

Recently I came across a small write-up of a frustrated ECR rider, who hates to see the bike riding on ECR. No, no, he wasn't complaining about the traffic or otherwise, but the etiquette of riding with the pillion. (mostly the couples), while people all around stare at you with watchful eyes. :P

But well thats not the only thing to observe on the 140-150 KM stretch for Chennai to Pondicherry. Imran invited me to Chennai for a drive to pondicherry, and I couldn't say No. I had not been to pondi before, and I had heard a lot about this road as well. infact this is part of "Incredible India Campaign" as one of the must thing to do while your'e in india. so how come I miss it. and driving seemed to be the best way to enjoy a coastal road. So on a friday night, Me and Anindita boarded a bus from Bangalore to Chennai. A 10:10Pm bus which dint seems to be visibly around even till post 11, while all the latter ones had already left. The most frustrating part was to see bus taking a route towards Electronic city and stopping at Forum and hosur road for pick-up :( had we known that before, we would have avoided going all the way to Majestic. 

Quite a superfast, This one reached Chennai bus station ( Asia's largest Bus station? ) at 4:30 AM in the morning, Imran was already awake, as His rozas were going on, so he came picked us up soon to reach his house in close proximity to Besant Nagar Beach. I have been to Chennai once before, and for a day, and Chennai this time was no different either. it was pretty humid in the mid  of September. we freshened up, had breakfast and started the day around 10 AM.

There are two ways to explore a place, Cover it all, or spend as much as time you possibly can at one of those discovered or particular places of your liking and enjoy. we did a mix of both. Imran had been on that road a couple of times, Me and Anindita were new, I had a list from my "google research" so we decided on spotting, stopping popular, non-popular, places and pick to spend time wherever we like to. the first stop was Imran's school, on the shore of a river, and then we went to the Elliot Beach, one of the most popular beaches in Chennai. Morning 10 AM on a Saturday, and it was pretty silent with no bird around, after a little cooling around in the water, we started towards ECR. [And from here, let me take you place by place through their headers, and in my favorite present ense.]

Olive Island, Muttukadu 

Numerous amusement parks, five stars, back-water boating, water-sports spots, Thats supposedly 

 one of the major highlights of ECR, apart from what all it offers and wherever I am taking you to. Olive Island as the name suggests is back-water spot on the left of the road around ~30KM on the way to pondicherry. The entry had a gate, and it sounded to me as a Big Community coming up and probably some resorts and factories offshore as well. but for now, the place was pretty quiet, and we could drive on the kaccha road, with little sign of tar here n there, till this spot and even ahead. the green olive water is a beautiful site and so is the overlooking sea from here towards the ride in the photo. a very nice chill out spot preferably in a good weather.

Muttukadu Boat house

Not very far ahead, you'd see the first long back-water bridge and just at the start of the bridge on your right is Muttukadu Boat house. endless back waters and some sky-high buildings on the right side which I notice and go red with jealousy, how lucky they are to get such a nice view everyday. The boat house is a TTDC initiative and is quite a popular picnic spot to try all sort of water sports like jet-ski, pedal boating, rowing and canoeing, etc. but I had done it all, so besides Imran is ready to change my plan of reaching pondicherry, for some  advertisement he sees of paragliding in yellagiri next days, I pull him off and move ahead. 

Covelong Beach ECR

our next  stop is a small village Covelong, after another small backwater bridge another 6-8 KM ahead. I was pretty confused about the name, cuz what i heard sounds like kovalam (which is in Kerala offcourse), This village once set to be a port, but I dint really find any evidence, There were few temporary blue tarpaulin huts with fishermen resting in the afternoon, there was a temple with a long wall in the right on the beach side and then there were few people, like us who were playing with waves in the hot sun. the beach was little rocky and got a superb tide, to get some nice splashes of waves while you stand in line waiting for water to reach you, and well it sure does, and with a surprise. There is a famous Dargah as well, in the village, which one can visit. 

Tiger Caves, Mahabalipuram

Did I miss a spot before reaching here? There was some Crocodiles' park before or after this spot, I don't remember now, and also one of the View point as the road gets a little high, and coastline is visible from here. Well, so our next stop is at Tiger caves, before taking a turn to Mahabalipuram, the grand park area with few trees and the rock formations and arts is what tiger caves is all about.  with the look of it, it seems like auditorium for performances. there are two of these on both left and right of the park and the left on (in the photo) has a Shiva temple carved inside a big huge rock. the beach is close, and in case of high tide, the water does reach the park. There is no ticket to get in to the place.

GRT Temple Bay Resort Mahabalipuram

its almost 1:30 PM and after all the play all we wanted was to feed our bellies. and GRT did the great job indeed. the resort is almost at the entrance of the town, to your left. and indeed is great place to chill, eat on the beach side. the swimming area is inviting and so is the deck, for long hours to spend on the beach.   also the resort has a very engaging view of  the seashore temple  .   but well, for now, all we are interested in the food. and 'The warf' doesn't disappoint us either, good food and reasonable as well, quite an extraordinaire, and hadn't it been so rejoicing an experiences, we wouldn't have spent hours in there of-course. 

After spending ample time lazying around after food, we head toward the main - temple. Mahabalipuram, the famous center of pallava's architecture, exhibiting the art almost 1500 years old.  there  are some of the them which are already submerged in water, due to high underwater currents and coastal erosions.  The 6 structures to visit including the Shiva temple, are the light house, Lord Vishnu temple, Arjuna's penance, Varaha caves, punch rathas and the descent of the ganges. few other archtechture of interests are koneri caves, krishna's butter ball, ramanuja and kodikkal mandapam, adivaraha temple, tirumathi cave and a replica of arjuna's penance.

 I visited only the two, the sea shore temple and the light house and left other places deciding the come back again and spend whole day out there exploring. The light house is one of the most beautiful I have seen, and reminded me of Point-reyes California, with that stone tower and lantern dome painted in red.


Below the light house, there is a cave formation as well, with engravings. which I missed this time, while driving back from the light house, I noticed lot of small sculpture shops, and artisans in that area. 

By the time we were out of Mahabalipuram it was almost 5 and before hitting Pondicherry at a good time, there's one more place I wanted to visit and that was Alampara fort. so we stopped at Tamilanadu Boat house, for a break, called PV for directions to the fort, and moved ahead on the ECR. 

The Alampara fort sure was a surprise and a perfect end of the day, and there is a lot I want to write about it. which has made me decide I'd divide the post and put this and rest of the travel in part -2. so come back and letsee what's in store for the evening and my day in pondicherry. till then.. have fun!


Part 2 Here.