Me and Pankaj had been thinking about driving down to Pondicherry for last couple of months. Last weekend was the right opportunity for that, as my sister had come to Bangalore. We took Monday off from office and planned for a three day trip. It was a great trip and we covered Pondicherry and Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram). We also had brief halts at Thiruvannamalai, Gingee and Kanchipuram.

Day 1:
We left from Bangalore at 6:00 am and headed towards Pondicherry on NH-7. At Krishnagiri, there are three diversions. You need to take NH-66 (which we did) to go towards Ponicherry). NH-46 takes you to Chennai and NH-7 continues towards Salem.

Our first stop was at Thiruvannamalai. It is the first major city on NH-66. We visited the “Ramana Ashram” where we bought a few books. Around a kilometer ahead of Ashram is the “Arunachaleshwar Temple”. This is a huge temple and architecture of this temple is impressive.Here are a few pictures of the temple.
Our Second stop was at Gingee. Gingee is mid-way between Thiruvannamalai and Tindivanam. The spot can be easily noticed by the huge boundary walls of Gingee fort. We spent around an Hour in Gingee fort. The “Huge granary” and a gigantic “stone throne” were the main attraction. We did not climb up the hill as we were running short of time. Here are a few pictures from Gingee Fort.
We finally reached Pondicherry at 1:30 pm after a journey of about 300 KM. We stayed at a government guest house. It was little away from Main city. There was a beach about 200 meters away from the guest house. Around 5:00 pm we left for the “Aurobindo Ashram”. We visited the main Ashram Building which houses the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo. We bought a couple of books from the Ashram book shop. Ashram is 100 meters away from the sea beach. We spent an hour at the Beach. We did some road side shopping at “Jawahar Lal Nehru Street” next and then headed for dinner. Dinner was at a French Restaurant “Satsang” at Lal Bahadur Street.

Day 2:
We went to the beach near our guest house at 5:30 am. We had two agendas in our list - watching the sun rise and playing football. The sky was full of clouds and so could not see the sun rise. The beach was full of fishermen, and was very dirty. So eveb football plan flopped off. We went to the Ashram and had breakfast at Ashram’s canteen.
Next we visited Auroville. Auroville is on the outskirts of Pondicherry (as soon as you enter Pondicherry on NH-66). There is a small diversion from NH-66 which takes you to Auroville. There was no sign board there, so we missed the turn and had to come back. Auroville is a place worth visiting.
Here are some photos from Pondicherry and Auroville.
Next city on our plan was Mamallapuram. You have to come back on NH-66 (which takes you towards Krishnagiri) and take a diversion from Tindivanam to reach Mamallapuram. We followed NH-45 from Tindivanam, and had to take another diversion at Chengalpattu.
We reached Mamallapur at around 4:00 pm. This is a very small town. We had late lunch at “Hotel Mamallapur Heritage”. Food was delicious. We next went to see the Sea Shore temple. We stayed at “Hotel Seabeach Resort” and had dinner at the same place.

Day 3:
We went to the site of Cave Temples. There are a lot of cave temples (some unfinished) with fine sculpturing work. It is place worth spending a few hours (at least). Krishna Mandapa, Arjuna’s Penance,Varaha Cave Temple, Krishna’s Butter balls, Ganesh Ratha, Mahishasurmardini Cave Temple, Thirukadamallai Temple are some of the main attractions at this site. You can also go to the old Light House and get a few view of the city from top. After Cave Temples, we visited five rathas site. Five Rathas are five temples carved out of stones. All are monolithic structures. We also spent a few minutes at local sculpturing museum. This museum houses sculptures made by students of “Mamallapur College of Sculpturing”.
Here are some photos from Mamallapuram.
For our return journey we took the “Mamallapur->Chengalpattu->Kanchipuram->Vellore->Krishnagiri->Hosur->Bangalore route. We had a brief halt at Kanchipuram. Here are few pictures from Kanchipuram.
We reached back home at 10:00 pm.

Road Conditions:
NH-46 is a pleasure to drive, but with a heavy toll fee. NH-7 is good too. NH-66 is ok with a few bad patches.
Places to Stay:
I will suggest that you stay at one of the Ashram Guest Houses in Pondicherry. These guest houses are very close to the beach, and the main city. At Mamallapuram there are plenty of options for all price range. The town is very small and every thing is spread across a few 100 meters.