INDeco Resort Hotel, Mamallapuram, South India

Living here in Chennai, we’ve been down to Mamallapuram any number of times. I’ve written about it in previous blogs. Each time we go there’s more to discover. One of my titles reads ‘GRT Temple Bay Resort’ which rightly deserves much more than a mention (even if it is way too expensive for us retired folk).

We did actually overnight at Mamallapuram some years ago in a place that calls itself ‘Sea Breeze’. The location couldn’t be better. It’s directly on the beach right next to the town’s main attraction, the Shore Temple. The compound is at the end of a wonderfully neat dead end lane. It contains both cottages and rooms, a pool, a restaurant, and gift shop. ‘Sea Breeze’ is relatively new, but lacks the attention to detail and sophistication of the Radisson GRT complex. There’s a certain charm in that though. Whereas ‘Temple Bay' consists of a template that is recognizable anywhere in the world, ‘Sea Breeze’ retains a distinct Indian flavor.

Last weekend we made still another intriguing discovery: The ‘INDeco Hotel’ just south of the World Heritage site. It bills itself as the hotel that is also a museum and is run by the Indian government (that owns some of the best real estate in the country). INDeco too has a restaurant and a pool but it’s a bit of a distance to the ocean - about 5 minutes walk.

INDeco is wonderfully lush, green and shaded. That’s saying a lot for the east coast of India that tends to be arid apart from monsoon season. INDeco - like ‘Sea Breeze’ - is totally Indian. There’s a touch of the exotic here that’s missing at ‘Sea Breeze’ which seeks to be modern. No such pretensions here. INDeco is proud to be old (colonial) school.

I never actually stayed there. Neither did I eat at their multi-cuisine restaurant, ‘Pongamiya’ (named after the Pongamiya Glabra trees that shade the grounds). But from what I’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t mind checking it out. It has, of course the added advantage of its government affiliation which in my experience has always served us well throughout India.