Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Pondy

I want to blog about my first hitchhiking trip, even though I haven't completed my Mangalore Express and Big Fat Indian Wedding blog.It all started when Piyush and myself were returning from Sirsi to Hubli after Guru's wedding. Like every other post travel discussion, we wanted to kick start our plans for the next weekend. However, both of us felt that our weekends were draining every penny out of our bank balance. Yet felt the urge to travel and see new places especially with the following weekend being a long weekend . And then the thought struck us, why not hitchhike and travel to Pondicherry. The entire week we had our hands full with office work and had no time to discuss and formalize any plan. With no clue on possibility of hitchhiking from Bangalore and no idea on Pondicherry it was nothing less than a perfect adventure.

At 7:30PM Feb 26th, Friday, we set  out from Koramangala to Electronic City with the hope of finding a free ride to Hosur or Krishnagiri from there. After reaching Electronic city we walked a few kms towards Hoskur Gate in search of dhabas or petrol station where we can strike a conversation with truck drivers. My attempts to convince truck drivers of TN and KA registration lorry and Piyush's at MH registartion were in vain. We however did not give up and stood at the signal near Hoskur Gate waving at truck drivers but turning our head away at Buses and cabs. After an hour, we decide to take a bus and try our luck at Hosur. We caught the first bus and got down at Atibele where we again gave a shot at catching a truck. Surprisingly one of the TN truck drivers stopped and offered us a ride till Hosur. Delighted we hopped in and shared a short conversation with him describing the imaginary story of how we missed our scheduled bus at Bangalore and now traveling without money to Pondy.  Since he was heading to a warehouse in Hosur, he dropped us at the old bus stand and bid adieu. We were happy with our first hitchhike but far from our destination. Rejuvenated with energy we continued to walk away from the city space continuously waving at passing by trucks. As we walked we found a roadside dinner spot, filled with truck drivers. We inquired the cook outside the shop if we can help us with finding a ride to Krishnagiri. He warned us against it as the truck drivers were drunk. Undeterred by his warning we walked little away from the shop and continued to wave at trucks. One of the trucks stopped, he had spotted us at the shop earlier and asked us to hop in. Only after did I sit next him did I realize how drunk he was. But faith we had. We told him the same story about missing our bus and asked him if we can drop us at Krishnagiri. Unluckly he was just going to take a diversion away from Hosur and offered to drop us at the new bus stand. Either he was so kind or totally sloshed, he went to the extent of offering us money for our travel to Krishnagiri which we politely turned down!. The new bus stand was in every way the wrong place to find a free ride. First, the road runs down from the bus stand making it impossible to expect a lorry to stop. Second, even if they stop they are brilliant enough to give you the advice to take a bus at the stand. Our only hope was to convince a truck driver while they stop behind a bus. We then walked behind the bus stop and continued our waving. By this time we gained some confidence at sticking our hands stretched into the highway at oncoming traffic. And then came Khalid. While we were concentrating at the trucks, little did we noticed a Scorpio pull behind a bus and the driver looking at us. The moment we spotted him, we rushed towards him asking for a ride to Krishnagiri. He drove at 120Kmph and reached Krishnagiri within an hour. Khalid was a wonderful person, who even took the pain of getting off the highway to drop us at the bus stand.  But we preferred to walk back to the toll gate on the highway to catch a truck. Nearly for 90mins we tried our luck at more than 100 trucks that passed by. Evey one seemed to be heading towards Salem. At around 1:30AM we gave up and took a bus to Tiruvanamali. We reached T'malai at 4:00AM and took another bus to Tindivanam. From Tindivanam took our bus to Pondy bus stand.

At 6:45AM we were at P'cherry and we immediately set off to the beach. On route to the beach, we saw the Annai Ashram and some of the prominent P'cherry administrative buildings. After a few snaps of the morning sun and the beach, we not only finished our breakfast at Le Cafe but also made good use of the rest room for morning duties and brushing our teeth. We then walked to the tourism office and inquired about the heritage walk. One of the annoying things about P'cherry was the persistent Auto drivers and their attitude. One of the auto drivers kept following us as we walked along the beach offering a package deal for the day. Frustrated, we took the auto for showing us chunnambar beach, Auroville and one of the old churches.

Chunnambar beach surrounded by the backwater was picturesque. From there we set off to Auroville. True to the saying, it was really an International village with unspoiled environment and a healthy mix of wonderful people. We had our lunch and waited for our passes to visit the matrimandir. Provided an opportunity, I would love to spend few months here and enjoy some time away from civilization and meeting new people. We had to rush through the Auroville beach as the heritage walk was about to starts at 4:00 from LeCafe.Our walk started at 4:30PM and learned a lot of interesting information about the old french buildings.,like the cafe was the old French Port of entry office. After our walk, we returned to the beach with the hope of convincing the LeCafe guys to provide us the terrace for spreading our sleeping bags. But before that we wanted to take some photos of the french consulate building. While Piyush took off with his lens, I brought some peanuts and sat at the bench in front of the french conulate enjoying the view of the beach. Within a minute, I had a cop charging at me with his stick asking me to get going. Only then I realized how close I would have resembled a terrorist with a huge backpack, untidy look and sitting outside an important building. Thanks to my tam, i was able to cool the cop down and convince him that I was just a tourist but not without him checking my backpack.

After that, we gave up on pitching at LeCafe and headed back to the bus stand in search of a budget place to stay for the night. After some 2 hours of walking down the road asking every single hotel, we decided to catch a bus to Chidambaram.  At 12:00 we found a budget room for Rs.200 at a lodge near Chidambaram bus stand. After a good 6 hours sleep, we had a quick bath and went to Chidambaram temple. While returning we met a fake fakir who wanted to guide us through the temple. Even though we knew he was fake with his breath still smelling of last night alcohol, we followed him. With nothing else to see in Chidambaram, we took a bus to Tanjavur. Piyush was awestruck by the magnificent temple and did not mind getting his foot burnt by the flaming rocks. Unfortunately we were late as the sanctum was closed. After good 2 hours of photography and prayer, we set off to Trichy hoping to catch a comfortable ride back to Bangalore.

Trichy bus stand was crowed and there were no tickets available in any of the private buses. We took a local bus to Salem and decided to try our luck there. But after a few hours of hassle, we managed to grab a seat in Bangalore bound bus. Tired and exhausted we reached Bangalore at 4AM. After a good 20hours sleep on Monday it was back to office.




8 comments:

  1. this one is special man. well written. it reminds me of funny and weird situations like police guy checking r backpacks, banaras family asking me to click d pics, crazy auto driver, guys who gave us free rides etc..

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  2. Yeah!! I totally forgot to write about the Banaras family asking you to take pictures.. Lol.. that guy really took you for a camera man!! We should have charged him! :D

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  3. A well written travel guide!

    Nice pics dude

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  4. Too hilarious to believe it! All I could say is:
    if(TRUE == PondyExperience)
    {
    /* Awesome! */
    }
    else
    {
    /* All the best! You've got a great future as a fiction writer! */
    }

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  5. Thanks Durai!
    @Ravi: Dai.. Dog!

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  6. Hi, In order to travel cheaply in trucks, i have an idea. Regularly some trucks will be carrying parcel items or vegetable good. concentrate on them. vegetable trucks shuttle on daily basis and Parcel trucks on weekly basis. I hope this is useful. Thanks.

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