Travel from home series: Pondicherry

While Lockdown has forced us to stay indoors, satisfying the travel bug had become quite a task. This is why, MyTravaly, presents you with A Travel from Home Series, to help you explore the exotic travel destinations perfect for this weather.

Pondicherry a city in Tamil Nadu, India is well-known for French influence and its dazzling architecture. The spiritual culture of the city attracts numerous tourists across the world. With several beaches, exploratory activities, and numerous gardens, Pondicherry gives multiple reasons to explore the city.
However, with the increase of COVID-19 pandemic, the city has observed a decrease in travel start-ups and the entire tourism industry.

In today’s digital time, you have several innovative options to visit the city and discover its culture. Among the numerous options, travel from home is the most efficient one. When you plan to travel from home, it’s crucial to have the fundamental outline of places you want to visit and the things you want to cover. In this handout, you are going to explore culture, adventurous places, and cuisine of Pondicherry.

Culture

The people living in Pondicherry are multi-ethnic and thus have a multi-national culture. They have a diverse culture that results in a secular attitude. People celebrate all the festivals with great passion and heart fullness. You can witness the festival of Mascarade in March where people parade on the streets. Masimagam is the festival celebrated with enormous exhilaration by people in the months of February-March.

Places to visit

• Pondicherry Beach: Take a leisurely walk or watch the sunrise in the Promenade Beach. It’s a place where half of the city’s population can be sighted during morning times. The statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center serves as a famous landmark of the beach.
• Paradise Beach: Take a boat to Paradise Beach and enjoy a picnic surrounded by waters. You will find no ideal place other than Chunnambar Boat House/ Paradise Beach to relax. It serves as a wonderful adventure spot where you can do swimming, trekking, fishing, or sight the sunrise from the treehouse.
• Botanical Garden: It is one of the well-maintained parks where many scenes from the movie “Life of Pi” were shot. You can find large crowds during the flower show conducted every year.

Must try following activities in Pondicherry

• Surfing: The number of activities that you would like to add in your travel-post COVID is surfing. On Serenity Beach, you will find two surf schools namely; Kallialay Surf School and Mother Ocean Surf School.
• Yoga and meditation: The visitors enjoy yoga and meditation at Auroville. Additionally, you can visit the Aurobindo Ashram where you will get to know the lives of Aurobindo.
• Scuba Diving: Whenever you visit Pondicherry, never miss to enjoy scuba diving. It is the only diving center that you can find on the East Coast of India.
• You can also enjoy an evening tour by cycle in Pondicherry. Also, you can rent a scooter and enjoy a city ride.

Pondicherry cuisine

People living in Pondicherry follow Tamil cuisine. Whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian, people of Tamil are adapted to good food. The Chettinadu recipe is one of the famous food items that you will find in Pondicherry. After reaching Pondicherry, no one can avoid sambhar. It’s an inevitable dish of Tamils, which is a must to taste. The city is well-influenced by French culture, and thus its cuisine includes French brioches, baguettes, and pastries as well.

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has restricted several economic activities and people to travel from one location to another. With a rush in the number of cases of coronavirus in the country, the immediate impact has been on the tourism sector. The tourism industry of Pondicherry is facing an enormous fall in revenue due to vast cancellations of bookings by travel agents and tourists. The effect of COVID-travel is over the entire world, and thus Pondicherry has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of tourists.