I was all excited to plan a vacation. Going through various travel packages and itineraries, it crossed my mind, “Wait!! The schedule in these itineraries is more or less back to back visting places with very less time to relax and enjoy break time. Do I really need these?”

I wanted a short break so why a vacation, let’s do STAYCATION. That’s how my staycation with friends started with weekend flying to Chennai and drive to Pondicherry.

Listen to the voice of the sea

To make our Staycation a best vacation, we:

Looked for best place to stay relaxed: We wanted a place to relax feeling home away from home. We booked stay in “Taj Fisherman’s Cove”.

Yes, this place is a bit expensive but if you have friends to share expenses then it is really worth.

This is private beach and gives guests very good ambience and privacy to enjoy the voice of the sea, play with the waves, have long walks on the shore and enjoy some fine spa services.

But wait, fun did not finish yet.

In Pondicherry, away from Taj’s luxury and comfort, we booked a Guest house in Auroville, “SAMARPAN GUEST HOUSE”.

Host Donata and her husband were very friendly. This place gives you basic things of life, shelter and breakfast.

This place is so close to sea-shore that you can feel life can still be refreshing by simply reading book swinging on hammock. We don’t need internet or fast streaming online content to stay engaged.

Place is neatly maintained. After 6pm, gates of the property are closed and there is no other help available. So, stock up with some snacks, fruits, juices, bottled water etc.

Going around: When girls are on move, irrespective of how independent we are, our family is always worried about how will you manage? Take cab or taxi, as it is new place. Any friends stay there? Can they come to guide you?

Now, we had different thoughts. WE WILL DRIVE OURSELVES & EXPLORE.

I know it is not easy but we should give it a try to see if it is going to be easy or not. We decided to TRY

That’s how we ended up with Zoom cars and drove around the beach city.

If you are good at driving and have a license, then try zooming around with friends. This entire experience will leave you awestruck, especially drive on ECR Road from Chennai to Pondicherry.

Zoom cars have some very good weekend offers and the cars are in excellent condition. They are punctual with pickup and drop time. Try it next time. It is worth.

Made list of places around: When we go to new city, our immediate want is to cover all the places nearby. We also had similar thoughts but we wanted to do more it in more relaxed way and not run back to back with list of places. We choose:

• Dakshin Chitra: This is cross cultural art and architecture museum. They have glimpses of various housing styles and ethnicity of different living styles. Get more details here Dakshin Chitra
• Promenade Beach: Rocky beach front in Pondicherry. One can get to see beautiful statue of Mahatma Gandhi, French war memorial, Kargil war memorial. The well laid roads and French colony is a sight not to miss. This place has small eateries where you can try continental food.
• Aurobindo Ashram: This is near Promenade beach front. Like any other Ashram, it is very silent, clean and serene.
  

  Visting hours are 8 AM to 12 PM, 2 PM to 6 PM

• Auroville: A spiritual community just near place like Pondi known for swanky parties and lavish enjoyment. The view of Matri Mandir, blew me away. First sight, I felt it like a small alien ship ready to take us to different spiritual world.I could not get inside the mandir but I can bet the experience will be 1000 times more intense than what I had by just looking at it.A day’s stay won’t do justice to this place. We should stay at least for a week to really experience ourselves and seek the unknown us.

  

  We drove back to Chennai and very soon we were back to Hyderabad.

  After a year, I can still hear voice of sea gulls that made our mornings musical and sound of sea waves that gives sense of authority sea has got on us yet how humble it looks giving us chance to thrive with peace