What life are we dealing with everyday?A life we lead is the life we were taught to live,at times we are forced to.The daily routine,the frustrations of professional and social life. The mundane self existence often compels us to do things that one would hardly expect. Who on earth would have planned a trip to vizag during summer vacation,a painfully scorching idea,but I did exactly that.
Actually the idea for this trip came out of blue one evening in early April,2016.we are due for a trip to North Sikkim this October and the massive Ladakh tour next year and one wise person would always save some extra money for that and accordingly the summer vacation trip was never in our mind,or should I say in our consciousness.But as I said the daily boredom will hit you and hit you badly in your little uncomfortable subconscious zone. But why Vizag?Simple...because we had and we shall have lot of mountains and snows and alpine forest and.........So what to do?Let face the summer folks...
24 th May,2016 ,we boarded the Shalimar-visakhapattanam SF express and reached vizag exactly 15 hrs and the first thing we noted is the heat and second thing,well vizag station is a high speed wifi zone!!well nothing of the two must have amazed you,anyway.
The beautiful roads triggered the idea of hiring a bike and roam about the city especially the Beach road in Vizag.Said and done,In this era of internet its not so difficult to find a good bikers forum who let you take their bikes for hire and Vizag has quiet few of them.So by evening we were ready to hop around the city with my wife on an well serviced Apache RTR 150.Believe me the best part of this tour was this bike ride specially along beach road through hill slopes on one side and the beach on the other. The bike enthusiast visiting vizag,this is highly recommended and this comes quiet cheaply.For a whole day hire...500 to 1000 rs depending on the bike and ofcourse the fuel is yours. Two things that I noted while riding the bike.None bother to wear a helmet which I dint like and there is no traffic signal except some very busy roads, so at times I had to face problems at crossings,sometimes pulling of brakes at unwanted time but also noted that other fellow drivers were quiet OK with that as that might be a regular experience for them.
The next day we went to the RTO complex bustand at 9am. We already reserved the "Heritage tour package" by AP tourism and throughout the day they took us to Simachalam temple,the boating park,Thotla konda(ruins of budhhist monarchy atop a hill), rushikonda beach, Marine museum,Navy museum,The renouned Kursura submarine.For some unknown reason visit to vizag port was cancelled and we didnt bother either as the heat was taking a good amount of toll on us. AP tourism had other packages like Visit to dolphin nose (a part of beach taking the shape) ,light house,wardha beach but we didnt opt for that.For those going to vizag at good time of the year should visit Wardha beach and bheemli beach apart from common beaches like RK beach(ramakrishna) and rusikonda beach.
RK beach is the heart and hub of vizag and for obvious reasons the most crowded also.The beach road along the RK beach is very very well maintained,clean and a viewer's delight,thanks to GVMC(Greater Visakhapattanam Municipal Corp.But to me,the beach is not so clean and well kept.
We are already on the 3rd day and we checked out early morning and boarded the train to ARAKU at 7.05am.The train journey was a good experience.As the terrain slowly gaining altitude the train ride became more and more enjoyable with the terrified screaming of small children and frightful girls and overenthusiastic boys, when the train passes through those dark tunnels,some 60 odd of them.The initial enthusiasm fades out into regualrity when those tunnels came so frequently but that was a special Journey.We reaached Araku by 11 am.
The weather in Araku was pleasant but not cool enough.Much relieved from heat that we are,went to the nearby Coffee museum and yes you are in the right Place to sip through some delightful coffee in different tastes and genres.We had Arabian coffee,A little bitter to my liking but very refreshing.There is also a Tribal Museum depicting the day to day life of the tribals of Araku valley.We had good time with a boat ride there. Araku was remebered for a good little intoxicated evening with a mug of beer atop the terrace of our hotel with magnificient view of the Eastern Ghats bathing under the twilight.
We preferred to come back fron Araku via road.This morning it was lot cooler thanks to some late night smart shower.On the way back to Vizag via road there are lots of place to visit.The zigzag road may evoke the memory of sikkim or a nanital.Anyway on the way you would expect to visit Golikonda view point,a telegu film shooting spot,the coffee garden ,the titliguri waterfall and also some other waterfalls,the name I forgot.The main attraction ofcourse is the Borra Caves.The name 'borra' comes from oriya word - deep and the cave is really deep ,a grand creation of mother nature,where the limestones are dissolved by rainwater over years to form such a huge cave inside the hill.The archeological department took great interest and that was quiet evident. The "stalactite"and "stalacmite" that we used to read in our geography books were infront of you.Two important advise are,always take a bottle of water with you because one has to go down 100metres and then come up.The return back to surface is very very difficult unless you have that big lungs of a rock-climber.A nd the 2nd advise is dont take a guide unless you are well versed with the southindian pronounciation.
The last day of our trip,we were lodged in the beautiful hotel in Rusikonda.When I say beautiful,its only because of the great location of the resort and not the service of the hotel.Throughout our tour we stayed in the hotels of Andhra Pradesh Tourism,but the worst possible service was provided by this rusikonda resort.However the view of the sea from atop a hill was great and we gladly forgave AP tourism only for that.Despite being so close to a sea all through last 4days,we suppressed our desire to lunge into the waves but not this time.We played with the waves,we danced with the waves,we cuddled with the waves with the fullest of satisfaction and enjoyed every bid of stay in rusikonda beach.
Next day we visited Vuda park on the way to railway station and the journey thus came to an end and so does my very boring description.With saying that the plan for next tour to north sikkim this october is already underway,I,Subhajit Bhakta signing off thanking you for reading.
Actually the idea for this trip came out of blue one evening in early April,2016.we are due for a trip to North Sikkim this October and the massive Ladakh tour next year and one wise person would always save some extra money for that and accordingly the summer vacation trip was never in our mind,or should I say in our consciousness.But as I said the daily boredom will hit you and hit you badly in your little uncomfortable subconscious zone. But why Vizag?Simple...because we had and we shall have lot of mountains and snows and alpine forest and.........So what to do?Let face the summer folks...
24 th May,2016 ,we boarded the Shalimar-visakhapattanam SF express and reached vizag exactly 15 hrs and the first thing we noted is the heat and second thing,well vizag station is a high speed wifi zone!!well nothing of the two must have amazed you,anyway.
The beautiful roads triggered the idea of hiring a bike and roam about the city especially the Beach road in Vizag.Said and done,In this era of internet its not so difficult to find a good bikers forum who let you take their bikes for hire and Vizag has quiet few of them.So by evening we were ready to hop around the city with my wife on an well serviced Apache RTR 150.Believe me the best part of this tour was this bike ride specially along beach road through hill slopes on one side and the beach on the other. The bike enthusiast visiting vizag,this is highly recommended and this comes quiet cheaply.For a whole day hire...500 to 1000 rs depending on the bike and ofcourse the fuel is yours. Two things that I noted while riding the bike.None bother to wear a helmet which I dint like and there is no traffic signal except some very busy roads, so at times I had to face problems at crossings,sometimes pulling of brakes at unwanted time but also noted that other fellow drivers were quiet OK with that as that might be a regular experience for them.
The next day we went to the RTO complex bustand at 9am. We already reserved the "Heritage tour package" by AP tourism and throughout the day they took us to Simachalam temple,the boating park,Thotla konda(ruins of budhhist monarchy atop a hill), rushikonda beach, Marine museum,Navy museum,The renouned Kursura submarine.For some unknown reason visit to vizag port was cancelled and we didnt bother either as the heat was taking a good amount of toll on us. AP tourism had other packages like Visit to dolphin nose (a part of beach taking the shape) ,light house,wardha beach but we didnt opt for that.For those going to vizag at good time of the year should visit Wardha beach and bheemli beach apart from common beaches like RK beach(ramakrishna) and rusikonda beach.
RK beach is the heart and hub of vizag and for obvious reasons the most crowded also.The beach road along the RK beach is very very well maintained,clean and a viewer's delight,thanks to GVMC(Greater Visakhapattanam Municipal Corp.But to me,the beach is not so clean and well kept.
We are already on the 3rd day and we checked out early morning and boarded the train to ARAKU at 7.05am.The train journey was a good experience.As the terrain slowly gaining altitude the train ride became more and more enjoyable with the terrified screaming of small children and frightful girls and overenthusiastic boys, when the train passes through those dark tunnels,some 60 odd of them.The initial enthusiasm fades out into regualrity when those tunnels came so frequently but that was a special Journey.We reaached Araku by 11 am.
The weather in Araku was pleasant but not cool enough.Much relieved from heat that we are,went to the nearby Coffee museum and yes you are in the right Place to sip through some delightful coffee in different tastes and genres.We had Arabian coffee,A little bitter to my liking but very refreshing.There is also a Tribal Museum depicting the day to day life of the tribals of Araku valley.We had good time with a boat ride there. Araku was remebered for a good little intoxicated evening with a mug of beer atop the terrace of our hotel with magnificient view of the Eastern Ghats bathing under the twilight.
We preferred to come back fron Araku via road.This morning it was lot cooler thanks to some late night smart shower.On the way back to Vizag via road there are lots of place to visit.The zigzag road may evoke the memory of sikkim or a nanital.Anyway on the way you would expect to visit Golikonda view point,a telegu film shooting spot,the coffee garden ,the titliguri waterfall and also some other waterfalls,the name I forgot.The main attraction ofcourse is the Borra Caves.The name 'borra' comes from oriya word - deep and the cave is really deep ,a grand creation of mother nature,where the limestones are dissolved by rainwater over years to form such a huge cave inside the hill.The archeological department took great interest and that was quiet evident. The "stalactite"and "stalacmite" that we used to read in our geography books were infront of you.Two important advise are,always take a bottle of water with you because one has to go down 100metres and then come up.The return back to surface is very very difficult unless you have that big lungs of a rock-climber.A nd the 2nd advise is dont take a guide unless you are well versed with the southindian pronounciation.
The last day of our trip,we were lodged in the beautiful hotel in Rusikonda.When I say beautiful,its only because of the great location of the resort and not the service of the hotel.Throughout our tour we stayed in the hotels of Andhra Pradesh Tourism,but the worst possible service was provided by this rusikonda resort.However the view of the sea from atop a hill was great and we gladly forgave AP tourism only for that.Despite being so close to a sea all through last 4days,we suppressed our desire to lunge into the waves but not this time.We played with the waves,we danced with the waves,we cuddled with the waves with the fullest of satisfaction and enjoyed every bid of stay in rusikonda beach.
Next day we visited Vuda park on the way to railway station and the journey thus came to an end and so does my very boring description.With saying that the plan for next tour to north sikkim this october is already underway,I,Subhajit Bhakta signing off thanking you for reading.
Comments
Post a Comment