My Incredible India Discovery

I recently went to an ECO Beach Resort in Pondicherry called - The Dune. I heard about this one from one of my friends from Pondy and he kept saying it’s a nice place to go to! I finally made it there on my anniversary (wow I wrote my previous post here while I was honey mooning and now It’s anniversary). Anyways, our anniversary fell on a weekend and for celebrating we wanted to go to a nice place which didn’t ask for loads of travel, and bingo! We went to Pondy!
What can I say about this place, I initially thought that it was an over-hyped, over-priced place made for the firangs who visit Pondy and I and Vishnu would probably be the only Indians around! I am so glad i thought wrong! - The place was heaven! It had nothing high fundu about it, a place made with simplicity and common sense. The cottages are not luxurious and hep, but cosy and serene. I must say the place is little expensive, but I also think that it is a trade off for being close to nature. The cottage we took was "The Flex House". It was supposedly sea-facing - but after tsunami, they grew tall trees/bushes in front of the cottages (Govt rule). The cottage would be a size of a one bedroom apartment. The wall and windows were illuminated and the bed was placed right in the center of the room (Like a big box in the middle of the room). The windows would open to a sitting area facing a small lawn which had a tiny lotus pond, a hammock and a bench. We were given 2 cycles and were told to feel free to cycle around the place.
I have never driven a cycle in my life (though I have driven Scooty, Kinetic Honda and every other small bike). I took inspiration from my hubby and sat on the cycle, nervous! After a few meters of cycling (and him running after me) I finally got the knack and Yippppeeee!!!!!!!! I could CYCLEEEEEE! We spent most of the evening cycling and exploring the property. We finally parked our cycles near to the beach and spent hours looking at the soothing water. We as usual got into our funny photos mood and went click click click :).
We came back from the beach later in the evening and as we got into the cottage...Tada...surprise!!!!!! We had a beautiful flower decoration done on the floor. This surprise was given by The Dune staff :) So nice of them, I thought! We spent some lazy hours and finally went for dinner cycling :). As we entered the fully lit restaurant, the manager routed us away from the restaurant to the tables outside in the lawn. As we approached, I figured we were in for a surprise again! Yes, I was right; the table was beautifully decorated and specially reserved for the both of us :) We had a nice long romantic candle lit dinner and were waiting for our huge bill to arrive and that's when another surprise struck us! The manager, the chef and the waiters all gathered at our table with a small cake which said "Happy Wedding Anniversary" and a big card with a big drawing and signatures of all the staff @ The Dune! We cut cake and thanked for their surprises! Both of us surely enjoyed that moment and completely fell in love with the place.
I was happy that we went there to celebrate our special day! We completely enjoyed our short stay and we never wanted to come out from there. The weekend went by in a swift and the next day we were back to the scorching hot city called Chennai and were back to our normal routines as well!
Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/sak.adeeb/TheDuneFeb2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCNz36Mmtkc6cAw
About the Dune: http://www.thedunehotel.com