VISHAKAPATNAM TOUR

VISHAKAPATNAM TOUR 

I was in Vishakapatnam for 3 days from 28th May 2017 and had darshan at Simmachalam, Kanagamahalakshmi temples in Vishakapatnam and in Sree Surynarayanaswamy temple, Arasavalli and sri Kurmam near Srikakulam and also in Mukhalingam temple.   During this trip, I had also gone on sightseeing trip to Bora Caves and Arakku Valley and also Kailasagiri in Vishakapatnam.  

Simmachalam temple is 17 kms from Vishakapatnam and I took a taxi to go there and also went up the hillock of Kailasagiri which is a picnic spot and returned to Vishakapatnam.  Both these places are very well covered by the State Transport buses and those who have enough time at their disposal can take up this mode.  Simmachalam temple is also on a small hillock and a separate posting has been done in the blogspot at-
http://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.in/2017/06/sree-suryanarayanaswamy-temple.html



                          Simmachalam - Varaha Narasimhaswamy temple

More on Kailasagiri - It is on a small hill and a breathtaking view of seashore on the other side and also the whole city view can be had from here.  Besides it has some entertainment aspects like toy train.  Ropeway an added attraction also is available to climb the hill.  View of the city and the seashore can be had from the rope car.  A huge Siva and Maheswari statue also has been made on the centre of the park.  

Video shows are conducted by Telugu Samskrithika  Nikethanam here.  Parking facilities available on top of the hill and only time taken for taking the car from the parking slot has to be taken care of, especially on holidays.  Some of the photographs I had taken during the trip is added here.  The Doppler Weather Radar Station, Vishakapatnam also is in this hill.

The various beaches of Vishakapatnam are of importance and people throng to these for the evening hours.   The Ramkrishna Beach which is the midst of the town is famous and nearby is the Ramakrishna Mission office.  Sree Kanamahalakshmi temple is just about 5 kms from the Bus complex and she is patroness goddess of Vishakapatnam.  People can perform on their own by offering milk, turmeric powder, Kungumam, flowers and lot of shops outside the temple are selling these.  

      

The second day trip was as planned from the tour package of APTDC and it was train cum road package for a day of Arakku valley and Bora Caves.  The time to report at Vishakapatnam Railwlaly Station was 6.00 AM.  The train was set to departure at 7.05 AM.  There is a small cubicle near the exit gate of the station and near Platform No.1 for the APTDC.  The staff arrived at 5.55 AM and xerox copy of the ticket booked was verified and breakfast pack of two idlis and a Vada and a bottle bisleri water was handed over for each and a tea served there itself.

They also informed that APTDC tourists are to board the second coach from the engine.  There was a guide waiting at the platform near the coach and he took charge of showing the seat numbers of the normal 2nd class sitting accommodation.   Almost 80 people had booked through APTDC for the tour on that day and the entire coach was full.   The train started at 7.05 AM and after a wait of 3 hours, the train entered into tunnels much to the delight of the passengers.  From 8.30 AM onwards, local vendors entered into the train and started selling fruits and other eatables.  The train reached Araku valley at 11.30 hrs after coming across 59 tunnels.  APTDC train-cum-road package's road portion starts from here.  Two buses had been arranged and the first stop was Padmanbah gardens.  Not much to say expect the guide eloguising it with the world war and British.  The next stop was tribal museum.  A place worth to see, whereupon you can get Araku valley coffee powder too. 

                                                      Tribal Musuem

Next is the afternoon buffet lunch provided at APTDC's restaurant Haritha.  A normal vegetarian lunch and soon after that, dance by tribal women arranged by APTDC.   The Next stop was Bora Caves.  This is around 92 km from Vishakapatnam.   One would require good physique to complete the 350 metres depth of this cave.  I managed upto 150 metres and returned back, duly taking into account the steps to be climbed back.   One of the best part of this tour was the bora caves.   It is said that the cave is a million year old and British Geologist William King had found that in 1807.  The deposits in odd shapes seen are said to be of Stalagmites due to water percolating from the roof containing calcium bicarbonate and other mineral mounds.   Same way Stalactites are also formed.  Because of their different shapes tourists have coined names such as Shiv-Parvathi, Mother-Child, Rishi's beard, human brain and Tiger and so on.

                                                    A view of Bora Caves

There are no entry tickets for the Bora Caves and it takes atleast an hour and 15 minutes for an able bodied person to cover the entire caves.    Next was a midway stop for taking tea and the bus reaches Vishakapatnam at 08.30 PM.

I had booked through APTDC for a one day road trip to Arasavalli/kurmam and Mukalingam but want of quoram, the trip was cancelled and this was informed to me in the previous evening.  I enquired some people and they said to take buses from RTC bus stand to Srikakulam for the trip.  Buses ply every 20 minutes non-stop to Srikakulam and majority are ordinary express buses and only a few are luxury buses.  It takes 2 hours and from there an auto for Rs.300/- took to Sree Suryanarayanaswamy temple at Arasavalli and then to Sri Koormavadhara swamy temple at Kurmam.   Since I could not get any taxi to Mukalingam which is 50 kms from Srikakulam, I ventured to go by an auto, when one of the auto drivers offered for it and luckily I decided that at Srikurmam so that the distance is only A GOOD 42 Kms and not the 50 kms.  Anyway 42 plus return to Srikakulam of 52 kms- 94 kms in an auto, I think only I would do it.  He took Rs.1000/-    But I had the satisfaction that I had darshan at Mukhalingam.  There are separate blog postings on Suryanarayanaswamy/Kurmam/Mukalingam.  

Was back at Vishakapatnam by 5 PM taking a bus from srikakulam.
Blog on Srikumaram is at:
http://sarayutoayodhya.blogspot.in/2017/06/srikurmam-near-srikakulam-andhra-pradesh.html

I went to Kanagamahalakshmi temple in the evening and had darshan.  Back to my hotel and started next day morning to Bangalore.                         

I have missed some places.  The APTDC tour of half a day/day  of Vishakapatnam  has a few more places within Vishakapatnam and one of the friends told that is quite good too.  Hence all three tours Arakuvalley train-cum-road, Aravasalli/kurmam for a day and local Vishakpatnam tour can be booked on line in the APTDC site.  In case, the arasavalli trip does not materialise due to want of quoram , then Srikakulam trip can be arranged with a taxi too at Rs.4000/- which would include Mukhalingam, Kalingapatnam also.

                         One more view of Seashore from Kailasagiri

This trip personally was a memorable one as  I had the hospitality of Sri Ravi (and family), who is in the Navy, son of my good friend Shri Ananthanarayanan of Railways.  One of the best places to be in for a family outing on holidays.