blog Detials

'I am bored,I am bored,I am bored'- I bored Santosh to his very core with these three words from October onwards.So he got fed up and decided on a small trip to Vizag on the Christmas holidays.Five precious days,out of which one and a half will be spent on travelling to and one and a half days to come back.Settling down I started dreaming of sun,sand and a harbor with ships.I had heard a lot about Vizag-Its a compact city,beautiful in winter but humid hot in summer.

Next on agenda was tickets.We tried flights,we tried trains and ended up unsuccessful.'But we have to go'-that was me in my pouty best.We got car rental from Skyout.

I woke up once very early in the morning.The sun was not up,the whole countryside flying by was bathed in that glorious light which means morning coming.I remembered why I loved road trips,for this one glorious moment when everybody is sleeping and I wake up. Went back to sleep immediately afterwards.We were supposed to reach Vizag by 8am,we reached by 10 . Santosh`s eldest brother lives in Vizag so we had a home to get to.And what a home it is,just on top of a hill overlooking the golden sands and the sea.But that comes later.

Now we are riding through the city,and believe me Vizag is a compact city.Once a inconsequential fishing village, Vizag soon became a bustling harbor city after being colonised by the Dutch and later by the British. The whole place is tucked like a bowl between the sea and the Eastern Ghats.The effect shows:

Vizag has become known for its industrial units and now for the simply amamzing number of beaches.The most popular is the Ramkrishna Beach,which gets its name from the Ramkrishna Ashram nearby.And we didnot go there.

Bhaiyya took us to a secluded beach,outside the city limits.I dont want to mention the name or the directions to go there.I want to be a secret keeper for this one.I am jealous of others going there you see, but here are the feasts for the eyes.

Now did I mention that to go into the actual beach we have to climb over a huge sand dune,almost 7 feet high with steep slopes and I bravely helped everbody up then encouraged people down as they were scared stiff??Nah,in fact we did have to climb over a pile of sand I with my eyes closed and screaming,holding on to Santosh for dear life.You see I hate anything on which I have to climb which is not steady.I came down the same way.

Beaches in Vizag: As mentioned earlier beaches abound in Vizag.The most popular is the Ramakrishna Beach,with its aquarium,the Vishakha museum,India`s first submarine museum and the adjacent Kali temple it is a complete family area.But this is non swimming beach.Another famous beach is the Rishikonda beach.This is around 8 kms from the main city and good for swimmers,surfers as well as simple lazers. The beach we went to is called Kalinga. The only landmark I remember passing was the Thotlakonda site,so I guess it was quite off the city limits. Another long distance beach is the Bheemunipatnam or Bhimli.Around 30 kms from Vizag,the drive itself is exhilarating.The beach is calm.There is a Dutch cemetery and why its worth a see is because not only it reminds us of the colonial past but also gives the reason engraved on the stone why the person died.

Day 2 in Vizag was the most interesting.Now Sachin bhaiyya works for the Indian Navy in a very high post, he actually arranged for us to go onboard a EKM class submarine of the Indian navy and an operational Corvette class ship.We roamed all over both the ships,visitng each and every part of it.

We forgot to take any other photographs even where it was allowed.It was awesome.

After lunch the next in agenda was Thotlakonda.After Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,Andhra Pradesh is the next place which has the most number of Buddhist monuments.One of its endearing mark is Thotlakonda,a hill-top site 15 km from Vishakapatnam.It is from this point that Buddhism spread to Sri Lanka and other parts of South-East Asia.The advantage of being a port.Now this is mostly a monastry complex with several rock-troughs.The buddhists call it Syenagiri or the Eagle Hill.You can simply drive up or take the cable car for the ride up and see the reason why.The whole city was visible from up where we were.

A perfect sunset to end the lovely day. There was still one more spot to go to end the day,and that is Kailashgiri. This is the most popular tourist spot in Vizag,and it is evident from the crowd always present there. What`s so special about Kailashgiri?First is the view which means the whole city and Bay of Bengal lies illuminated and open to the eyes from Kailashgiri. As evident from the name it is a hill,so to climb this hill you can drive up,take the ropeway or leg it if you are feeling adventourous.There is a train ride of around 30-45 minutes which shows the hilltops,the sea, the whole city of vizag in all its splendour.And finally the chief attraction of Kailashgiri,the huge statue of Shiv and Parvati.Its is made of white marble stone and they stand on a stone platform and from the feet of Kailash flows a stream.

Day 3: We did a day trip to Araku Valley today.Now Araku is the most famous hill-station in AP and is the most popular still way ahead of the fast catching Horseley Hills from tourism point of view.Around 136 km from Vizag, Araku has waterfalls,streams and a nice view.Araku is accessible by road and by train. Now I had heard that the journey to Araku goes through tunnels,hill sides and streams and that is the best way to go there.Trains run everyday from Vizag to Araku.It is also well connected by road from Vizag and AP tourism runs excursion trips. Or you can also book a car like we did. 3 hrs ride and a hot coffee to arrive in Araku.Now there are so many things to do and see in Araku that a day trip actually cannot cover all.But with time constraints we had to miss a few.

We saw the Tribal Museum First.I have to mention I never saw such a ill-maintained museum ever.The exhibits have no protection,people are simply picking up the displays and putting them back again.We paid 20 rupees perhead to go in. I rather liked the displays.There was hardly any display board giving an idea what each display is about,but it was pretty interesting.