Vizag and Araku : This is one of my trips which I had been planning to do from quite a long time and finally it happens on the occasion of one my friends wedding.
With couple of acquaintances moving out of the country and with one flown away to J.K, Everyone got unglued after the much anticipated release from the project a few months ago.
This was an opportunity to gather on an occasion for the rest of the people who are staying in Hyderabad as a group.
We had to board a train from Secunderabad to Vizag, Everyone had to rush after completing their office work as the train timing was scheduled at 20.15.
With knowing the city traffic, we took a one-half hour as a buffered time and finally reached to station only to find out that the train was running late.
At last the train arrives and we all finally board the train and adjust ourselves in juggling down the seats of other fellow passengers as half of the seats were to the other side of the compartment.
We quickly settle-down and lit up the atmosphere with the cracking jokes on everyone. I didn't participate in counter attacking proactively , I remained silent most of the time as some other thoughts were creeping into my mind.
Finally, we end the session and everyone goes to sleep, As I have the habit of sleeping late in the nights, so I engaged myself by watching a movie in my mobile.
Somehow the train covered up the distance and finally we had arrived to our destination on time.
Vizag is a city which is covered with full of small hill ranges throughout its circumference, unlike the other coastal cities this city is little different in its climatic variations.
Though the climate here is hot and humid due to sea coast, but it cools down a little bit in the evenings giving some exotic views to the people.
The only interesting things to be seen are the couple of beaches and the museum which carry a lot of information on the geography and history of the medieval and contemporary India.
It also gives us the information about the Navy and Air force operations carried from vizag during world wars and indo-pak wars.
There is one more place called 'Kailasagiri' from where you can see the entire city( along the beach view), I believe it is somewhere around 1000ft above sea level giving you a panoramic view of the entire coastal line of the city. The Name is written on the hill like a 'HOLLYWOOD' Style which is in Los Angeles lol :D.
This city was affected with a cyclone called 'HudHud' and the entire city was devastated. Life had become much more chaos to the local residents to survive after the effect, I must admit to the fact that this city had redeveloped again to some extent within a short span of time covering the basic needs to the social life.
We refreshed ourselves in our accommodated hotel rooms and as first things first we started our journey by visiting a local famous temple known as 'Simhachalam'.
The roads in vizag are quite different following a 3-divider roads (2 service roads and 1 main road in middle). So you need to be very much careful while driving on these roads as you can expect any sudden vehicle appearing in front of you out of nowhere.
After spending a two hour time in the temple, we headed towards the kailasagiri region which is on the hill road of the city, This location is worth to watch and it has a train ride and a cable car ride which will traverse across the entire hill to get the panoramic view.
The cable car ride will give you an immense thrill as it slides down from the top of the hill to the bottom of the road, As it starts moving down the hill, you will feel as if you are entering into the ocean from the top heights.
This place is better advised to be visited in the early morning hours as you can see the sun rising from the sea bed and the cool breeze touching your skin will make you feel refreshing.
Soon after that we zoomed across the beach road and went to Rushikonda beach. we halted there to have lunch and immediately followed it up entering into the beach, the waves were so strong and few kids were doing surfing across the waves.
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Look at the road,it was so tempting!!!!
By this time, I realized that I had seen enough number of beaches from west to east coast, I didn't had the patience of entering into the ocean and carry the itching salted content throughout the journey, I decided to stay away from it.
One of my colleague too had similar state of mind ,so we both decided to have some photo sessions in between.
There after we went to museum and then finally winded our day1 with RK beach. Unlike the rushikonda beach, the RK Beach is very crowded giving you the feel of city life.The waves are much stronger and they were touching the edge of the highly elevated sand. All of my colleagues were playing with the water waves to find out which wave was stronger enough to pull across the sand. It was little childish but it had a fun part as we didn't had anything left on what to do with the beaches!!!
As the Evening progressed , we had a meal in the Green park hotel and set ourselves to head back towards room, everyone was very tired and as soon as we stepped across the hotel, we fell asleep.
Day2 was the journey of Araku valleys:
Araku journey was quite different as we had to travel through the tunnels, the train was scheduled to depart early in the morning somewhere @ 6.40 AM from vizag, As the railway station was a KM away from our place , we started from our place at 6.30.
We were dubious in catching the train and we had to run over the platforms and at last we made it. The train started as soon as we entered into it..
All of my friends settled down and were chit chatting. I was busy in watching the nature's beauty and kept myself in taking the snaps of the hills and the small plateaus.
The train journey is the most beautiful part for a trip to araku , as it has to cross some 58 tunnels on the hill ranges.I was always at the train corridor watching the beautiful view of the mountain ranges and the valleys and clicking the snaps.
Here are some of the snaps from the train journey which would make you feel mesmerizing.
The plan was to get down at Borra caves and later to cover the katiki falls.
We had breakfast as soon as we got down and took a walk to borra caves, The borra caves are a million year old caves, you need to be very careful in your foot steps as the ground clearance is not leveled, The deeper you go inside the caves , the air pressure decreases and it stinks a lot. you can't stay at that place for more than 10 min. All you can do is just visit , go inside it , and come out as soon as you can.
After borra caves, the plan was to cover katiki falls, it is situated at a height of some 3500ft above sea level and there is no proper road to reach out to that place. Normal vehicles doesn't ply to that place, All you need is a 4*4 commander vehicles with high suspension springs.
The ride to katiki falls is very very bumpy, though it will give you a difference experience as your body will be in full motion from head to toe.
So if you want to take your cars or SUV's to this place , take it on your own risk,
I had been through so many bumpy rides earlier in the southern parts of Karnataka ( from Mangalore to Kurnool Highway), but never like this.
At some point even the commander vehicles halt and from there you have to take the journey by climbing up the hill. The water falls will be half- a- kilometer from here and it will really test your stamina levels to reach there.
The water is fresh and clean and its very cold,
Katiki Water Falls!
It was like a trekking to reach Katiki Falls!!!
After that we had our lunch and we set our selves in moving on to Araku valley.
We took a road journey after lunch and it started raining as we were entering into the eastern ghats of India.
The Araku valley reminded me of the Coorg Hill station of the Madikeri district in Karnataka
As the roads were exactly in similar fashion.
The only interesting thing will be the journey in the ghat roads, I would like to drive on these ghats if I get a chance. There were not much places to see in Araku region as there was a tribal museum which was closed due to shortage of power and a flower garden which had some worth to visit.
As I could see different kinds of flowers being Floricultured over here.
We reached our hotel by 10 PM as there were lot of traffic jams in between on the ghat roads due to heavy rains.
We couldn't make it on time to our friends reception , as it was already late in the night.
The view before raining!
Day 3 - Attending the marriage of one of my best buddy
Finally the day had come on May3 for my friend, He was busy with his own things, We went to the venue on time and made sure that we had given the attendance to him. He was quite happy in seeing us and so too my gang!!
We had some funny moments at the photo sessions and also during the lunch and finally we gave a good bye message to him.
After that we came to the hotel and relaxed the whole day and finally we boarded a train to Hyderabad that night.
The next trip is to the Great Himalayan Range ( Leh - Diskit and Manali) and I expect it to be the trip of my life.
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