All set for another solo vacay!!!

It’s the same pre-vacation panic again. I’ll be always out of something, this time it’s my sunscreen and face-wash. Oh no! And I realized this a little too late as I was packing my rucksack. But then I thought, wait a minute, I’m not going to the Himalayas or anything!!! It’s just Pondicherry, that’s three hours away from my place. Duh, just purchase them when you get there. 

Anyway, so Pondicherry it is! It’s a little town out of Chennai that was once a Portuguese and then a French colony. I’d heard all about how the quaint European culture and architecture has still been preserved well and I can’t wait to explore it! And I’ve got my trusty Lumia, so I’ll be hopefully back with some nice photographs!

I had spent the better portion of today to prepare my itinerary for the next two days (yes, I’m a big-time planner). I do it in Micorsoft OneNote and I like how it nicely syncs to my Windows Phone. And no, I don’t work for Microsoft (though a man can dream). And yes, I understand that you could do this in Google Keep, but it isn’t just as robust. Okay, I’ll stop now. Enough talk of the apps.

So my itinerary usually lists out details such as –

1) Attractions. Grouped by type.

2) Restaurants in town that I plan to eat in. Grouped according to how expensive they are. This time I’m planning to try out as much of the French Cuisine as possible. Croissants, here I come!

3) Localities that I need to check out. For Pondicherry, it’s the French Quarter that I’m interested in.

After this, I open up Google Maps and roughly plot out each location and the distance between them, so I’ll have a better idea and don’t have to waste my time fidgeting with my phone or asking the locals.

I’m not saying I don’t like unplanned trips or on-the-spur decisions. It’s just that when you’ve got less than two days to explore an entire town, best to be as much prepared as you could be!!

So there you go. Wish me a happy journey! 🙂 I dunno how much blogging I’ll get to do over the next two days, but I’ll at least always be connected to the internet through 3G on my phone. The hotel I booked has Wi-Fi that “allegedly” doesn’t work, but we’ll see about that.

Au revoir!!