Hello my friends! I wish you all are doing well. I am good here and expect the same from you. Not sure but I heard about the new phase of Corona Virus, so I request you all to be safe and take necessary precautions. It's been a very long time since I wrote a blog. I was busy with my personal works so couldn't write but now I am back and came up with many more interesting facts, new experiences and stories.

So today I am here to share with you all about my unplanned road-trip (travel partner- my husband) to the beautiful tourist place “Mahabalipuram” or “Mamallapuram”, Tamilnadu, India. Here, I am going to share you how we started, places we visited, food, best restaurants, stay, precautions that need to be taken, etc.,,, (the entire travel experience).

It's Diwali week and my husband had long weekend (holidays). After diwali, On Nov 6th, morning around 7 o clock we decided to visit Mahabalipuram (always in my bucket-list). I quickly started searching for places to visit, rooms to stay and restaurants. Thanks to websites: tripadvisor.in and holidify.com for the information.

So after searching for good rating restaurants for food and stay, we decided these:

For stay: Hotel MM park-Inn (OYO) located on ECR highway and 3.2km from Mahabalipuram( hardly takes 5min). Easily located, good ambience, polite staff, vehicle parking available. Rating 4.2.

For food: Babu's café , Fish N Fries, Water's edge and My Goodness.

 We got fresh, had our breakfast and started packing. Now I will tell you things you need to pack.

• As we visited in the month of November, here in Tamilnadu it will be Monsoon so do carry an umbrella and raincoat. Besides monsoon, umbrella is must.
• During winter and monsoon, carry woolen and silk clothes. In summers the temperature will be high so cotton is best.
• First-aid kit which must include Dolo-650, Volini or Move spray/gel, cotton, Dettol or Savlon, Soframycin 1% Skin Cream, Band-Aid, Bandage roll. Do carry your medical kit if you are a patient.
• Carry simple clothes, as there is no restrictions.
• Snacks like biscuits, chocolates and water.
• Carry some liquid cash and coins.
• ID proofs- Aadhar card, Driving license is must. If you are a foreigner, you must carry your passport. According to Covid-19 guidelines, every person must carry their vaccination certificate(soft-copy).
• Wet and dry wipes, paper soap, small towel, lip-balm, body-lotion and women do carry sanitary pads.
• Mobile chargers, earphones, power-banks.

After packing, we started around 10 o clock. From Chennai to Mahabalipuram it's 56km via OMR road & 58km via ECR road. We travelled via OMR road. While travelling in the outskirts our vehicle got punctured. Point to be noted : 

• Make sure of petrol/diesel.
• Spare tire and air in it.

Luckily there is a puncture shop nearby so in 10min everything got sorted. We started our journey again. By 1:30pm (13:30hrs) we reached Mahabalipuram. As per my list, we decided to visit “Babu's café ”. It's a small café with excellent food. One must try Non-veg here. After lunch, we went to our room and had rest for one hour. 

Around 4 o clock, we got fresh and visited Arjun a's Penance, Krishna's butter-ball, Lord Ganesh Ratha, Thrimurthi cave temple and Mandaps. These all are located at one place(closes by 5:00pm). Ticket cost per person is rs.40. The place was well maintained and those carvings are just WOW!!. After that, we visited Mahabalipuram beach. Spending almost an hour there, around 7 o clock we visited Indian Sea-shell Museum(closes by 8:00pm). 

Indian Sea-shell Museum is one of the tourist attractions one shouldn't miss. There is a outlet inside where jewelry made of shells & pearls, handicrafts, shells available. It has five museums within- they are-   

• Mini Asia
• Pearl museum
• Fish museum (here 
• Dinosaur museum (children will love it)
• Shells museum

Around 8:30pm(20:30hrs) we had dinner at nearby small restaurant and headed back to room. 

So this is how our first day went guys. Stay tuned for second part. I believe you guys find this useful and informative. As this blog is all about my travel story, I will write about the history and importance of the places I visited in my next blog. Do let me know about the blog in comments. Do not forget to like, share and follow. Thank you!!! :)