_1.jpg "Dune Eco Village near Pondy")
Being
a long weekend, we decided to go out for few days from city. I generally like going
to beach resorts near Chennai in ECR road for a peaceful stay. Since I had been to
GRT Temple Bay & Fisherman’s Cove in Mamallapuram, Ashok
Resort in Pondy I looked out for a different resort. After reading
about Dune in The Man magazine, I narrowed down on Dune
Eco Village in ECR Road at Pudhukuppam, Tamilnadu near Pondicherry University.
Dune is a Eco friendly resort with most of the materials used for construction being
reused and with little chemicals as possible. They say they used more lime stone than
cement, Solar water heaters, the doors & furniture are from old houses, no tar
roads inside the property and so on. Each of the rooms are different than others and
with unique characteristics, the room we stayed had a nice display of Golu (coincided
with the seasonal holidays as well). The resort provides 2 cycles for each room for
the guests to go around the huge property (over 30-40 acres) on the Bay of Bengal
sea shore. The food in their F.U.N (Food U Need) restaurant promotes the hypotoxic diet
of by a French biologist (from their brochure I learned his name was Doctor Jean
Seignalet).
I liked the fact there was no Satellite connection in the room – so no boring TV Soaps
and Serials that my wife can watch or the usual Pogo/Cartoon Network for my son. Each
room had a small TV with built-in DVD Player and you can borrow DVDs from the restaurant
for free, they boost a collection of over 1000+ titles on various Genres. They have
programs to entertain the kids in evening like Milking the Cow, Pot Making, Sand Pit,
etc.
The room rates are expensive especially for an Indian tourist, guess the rates are
fixed primarily with Foreign tourists in mind (I am in disagreement to this practise,
Indian Resorts and Hotels should make it attractive if India wants to attract more
tourists, India happens to be the most expensive tourist destination even for Indian’s
in South East Asia region). They also have programs for Meditation (everyday free
for guests) & Ayurvedic Health treatments (some of which for 14 days were priced
at few lakhs of rupees!)
The items where Dune has to improve:
-
ECO friendly tag doesn’t mean cutting corners in service & providing poor amenities
– they need to improve on the quality of the Television, Cycles, Furniture's, Bathroom
Amenities they provide
-
Providing a Mobile Phone to all guests instead of In-Room Intercom is a good idea,
but they need to ensure the signal is good. I had to step out of the room every time
when I needed to talk to reception or to FUN restaurant (which was very near to our
room, so I went directly to speak to Chef)
Overall, I will certainly recommend Dune Eco Village for spending few days (not worth
for shorter stays of 1 or 2 days) to relax. Service by staff was generally very friendly,
good ambience and nice food.
