The drive was wonderful. The roads are mostly good, and it didn't feel long at all. We were planning to take the Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Chengam-Tiruvannamalai-Gingee-Tindivanam-Pondicherry route.
We set out at 8:30 am from home. We also inaugurated the car seat. At this point, I must stop and gloat over my wonderful daughter. This was the first time she sat in the car seat and we were expecting that she would refuse to sit in it. But there was no fuss at all.
We stopped at Konark at Residency road for a drive in breakfast. After that we drove on till Tiruvannamalai where we stopped for lunch. After asking around we stopped at Aryas High Class Restaurant. Don't understand the concept but there was no class at all in that place. D as usual put on her "please say hello to me.." look for all the waiters. It has reached a point where I have to request the waiters, lift-men or any other person helping us with anything anywhere to talk to her. She looks so longingly at them.
Tiruvannamalai has a huge temple. We drove around it. The very scale of it is impressive. After TV we drove continuously to reach Pondicherry a little after 4 pm.
At this point we had no reservations in any hotel. We vaguely knew where we might stay but we didn't know where that place was and didn't have the phone number. But we had the Lonely Planet (Yes, we are like that only!) that had the address of Pondicherry Tourist Centre. So we went there and got the address, maps etc. Getting to the hotel wasn't difficult as Pondicherry is very small and the streets (and maps) are well-marked.
Our hotel was Le Dupleix.
It was the Governor's house during the British Raj. It has been renovated and transformed beautifully into this boutique hotel. We fell in love with this place and the hotel staff fell in love with D. She was immediately plucked out from my arms and we were advised to go and rest. Fearing a meltdown I hovered around to recover my daughter from loving arms and we went into our room.
Our room was lovely and I wanted to jump up and down and squeal,"Its so pretty" but the porter was explaining how to make coffee and I had to be content just looking at H with very bright eyes. The room was duplex (No thats not the reason for the name of the hotel, thats named after a Governor) one - with the bathroom and a sitting area (with red-oxide flooring!!!!!!)downstairs. Winding wooden stairs took us to our bedroom. I got so many ideas for our house from this room. Oh and yes yes; the bathroom! It was red. That stole my heart right away. The bathing area was right in the middle of the bathroom and you had to climb down 2 small steps to get into it.
.....to be continued.....
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