Mahabalipuram
Trip Start
Aug 27, 2010
1
Trip End
Aug 30, 2010
Where I stayed
Golden Sun Hotel & Beach Resort Mamallapuram (aka. Golden Sun Hotel & Beach Resort)
Read my review - 3/5 stars
Read my review - 3/5 stars
Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
Friday, August 27, 2010
We drove down from Bangalore overnight. We were in Mahabalipuram in the early hours of the morning. The roads were good. I'll try to add the route map to this blog eventually.We reached there without prior reservations, and stopped at a chain of restaurants called Anand, well known for their south Indian breakfast spread. After breakfast and a smoke break, we embarked on our hunt for a place to stay. We needed two rooms. Now, for an introduction to the accomodation tariff in Mahabalipuram, it is worthy to note that most places offer packages for two nights, which may or may not include food. There are couple of star resorts along the beach front, but being a weekend, most of the places were either beyond our budget or booked to capacity. For all future travelers, do note that like all beach resort hubs, Mahabalipuram also has seasonal rates subjective to change. Hence, in retrospect it is better that you do your homework about the place you want to stay in before you go. Most resorts which claim to be on the beach, are actually on the beach; most have private, well kept beaches, hence it is worth the money you are charged (you may find the rates on the steeper side).
After some hunting, we zeroed in on Golden Sun Resorts. It is on the East Coast Road while heading in the direction of Pondicherry. The resort is a decent spread. It has a good restaurant, clean air conditioned rooms with attached bathroom. It isn't very glamorous but is idle for a relaxed holiday. Up until now, I hadn't seen anything about Mahabalipuram that had truly blown me away. But i was in for a big surprise. The resort had a strip of private beach. I for one was very skeptical about the 'private' part, and thought it was just a tag line used to lure customers. But Golden Sun Resorts does not disappoint. The beach, true to it's last word, is completely private, clean and well maintained. It remains open night and day and you can steal into the water or lounge in the sun, anytime. They have nice thatched roof gazebos and the sand is exceptionally clean. What made this trip worth while for us, was actually this beach. Mahabalipuram has sandy beaches, but the time when we visited, the sea was rough and the tide was high. I had a singularly beautiful experience lounging on the beach all day and into the wee hours of the night. Being a full moon night, the beach was bathed in a silver glow and the view of the surf breaking on the shore, incandescent in the silver glow of the moon, was one of the most pristine sights I have seen.
The next day, we decided to drive down to Pondicherry for a spin. But as luck had it, the famous Chunambar Beach on paradise island was swarming with people, and we were only lucky to get out of there as soon as we could. We drove down to Auroville for lunch (one of the best snappers and Tiramisus I have ever tasted).
In retrospect, having seen Pondicherry on two accounts before, it would have been a better idea to idle away our time in Mahabalipuram. Here, the crowd is less, and having the privilege of a private beach, just adds to it. Also the beaches of Mahaballipuram are sandy in comparison to the rocky beaches of Pondicherry and the people here are less presumptuous and more 'Indian' than the 'oh we are so french though we look and breathe Indian' folks of Pondicherry.
All in all,a great vacation, and my best birthday ever, thanks to my partner in crime, Kshitij and best pal Farman.
