Coastal Andhrapradesh

A trip to coastal Andhra Pradesh was due since I watched movie “”Godavari”” back in 2009. The enchanting river Godavari made a lasting impression on me after watching the movie, Godavari. The best season to visit is during October – Feb as the weather can get very hot in summer. During the schooldays when I learnt about the ports of India, Vishakhapatnam was another place that I always wanted to visit. The rice belt of Coastal Andhra with rivers Krishna and Godavari was tempting enough to plan a trip to Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, and Vishakhapatnam from Bangalore. There are plenty of trains travelling to these stations. My research on the various trains were not that “good” and hence resulted in booking a train to Vijayawada, which goes through Chennai adding three hours more to the journey time!

We boarded the train Sangamitra express from Bangalore cantonment on 19^th December 2015 in the morning. I was pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the platform!  Probably an impact of Swach Bharath?! The waiting room was also very clean! Train arrived on time and the travel time of 10 hours was kind of getting on the nerves for the last two hours! The rice belt starts as soon as we enter Andhra Pradesh with the vast fields stretching on both sides.

We de-boarded in Rajahmundry at 10.15pm and again were surprised to see the station clean! Outside the station while walking towards the auto stand, we were surprised by the cleanliness! We took a prepaid auto the hotel at Vijayawada. Our hotel was at M G Road in Vijayawada which is about 10 mins from the station. The first impression that one gets is good when one sees the well laid wide roads, service roads on either sides. M G Road of Vijayawada is very long probably 2 -3 kms long!

Next day we went for a half a day sight seeing at Vijayawada, which is on the banks of river Krishna. Like in any other towns and cities of India there are temples to see in Vijayawada. We went to the hilltop temple at Mangalagiri and then went to see Undavalli Caves. The Undavalli caves must be dating back to the 3^rd/4^th Century BC. It is a mutlistructure stone building, the second and third floor houses stone carvings depicting of avatars of Vishnu. There is a huge statue of Ananthashayana. Sadly, there is not enough light to see the huge statue and all of us were using our mobile flash light to get a glimpse! 

Undavalli caves

I liked the caves and the inside carvings. I hope there is more information available to tourists on these caves in terms of guide and good lighting to see the statue of Ananathashayana. Thereafter we went to  Kanaka Durga temple crossing the Prakash Barrage across river Krishna. For those who are interested in watersports and other activities Bhavani Island is beckoning.  The other interesting site is the upcoming Amaravati, capital city of Seemandrha and the Buddha excavation site. Unfortunately, the local drivers know the place where the statue of Buddha is now standing, newly constructed by the current Dalilama. The driver would not take us to the archealogical survey of India site where excavations of Buddhist settlement exists. However, we went to the museum and needless to say, it was very interesting and informative.  The road to Amaravati is through the lush fields of plantains, cotton, flowers, paddy….!

The city of Vijayawada was vibrating with shops getting ready for Christmas and new year! The road to Rajahmundry from Vijayawada also gives you the feel of prosperity in the area in terms of agriculture. Rajahmundry is the place where you see Godavari at its best! The long running river (1465kms) increases its width in Rajahmundry looking more like an ocean than a river. We went to the Sir Arthur Cotton Museum passing the bridge across Godavari. The bridge itself is a site to see, first of all it is long and the train and road bridge one above the other! The train runs below and the road is built on top of the train bridge. The museum of Sir Arthur Cotton gives an insight to the Dowlaiswaram Barrage built across Godavari which has helped channelize the river water to the districts of Rajahmundry and around! The museum was good and Sir Arthur spent almost his life in India working across Pamban ridge, Krishna river to Godavari river harnessing the river water by building barrages and bridges.

Sir Arthur 

Bridge on the river Godavari

My intention of going to Papikondalu by boat as shown in the movie Godavari, however, did not materialize as my planning was inaccurate. We should have stayed two nights in Vijayawada and 2 nights in Rajahmundry. This would have allowed us to take the boat ride conducted by APTDC every morning from 7.30am and return by 6.30pm. I was not able to get a clear picture of hotels in Rajahmundry while searching in google and was under the impression that the hotels may not be that good. However, while reaching for lunch at Rajahmundry we realized that there are good hotels there!. Anyway, my chance of going a boat ride was missed by bad planning on my part!

Next destination was Vishakhapatnam. The port and naval hub city was always in my places to visit! We took  Patna Express from Vijayawada to Vishakhapatnam. It was approximately 6 hours of journey. Again the train station surprised me with its cleanliness! If we maintain this for another 5 years, I am sure all of us traveling will just get used to being clean! The footfalls in these stations are high and from every walk of life, we need to appreciate that to bring all of them to the same level of thinking is not easy! Hopefully Swach Bharat campaign will unite us irrespective of religion, caste and creed!

Vishakhapatnam impresses by its roads and appears like a well planned city. The weather was good with cool breeze in the night coming from the Ocean. Next day we went around the city and the first site that any taxi person will take you is Simhachalam temple. It is uphill and our taxi driver said that he will switch off air-condition while driving up as that will heat the car engine! We were perplexed and asked him what car is this? He said TATA Indigo. So, the question was, does TATA Indigo has a problem running air condition while going uphill? The driver said, nothing like that all the cars that goes uphill do not switch on the air condition! It took us a while to convince him that he should not switch off the air condition if he wants us as his passengers!

The Simhachalam temple is architecturally very nice and resembles the temples of Hoysala, Hampi etc., King Krishnadevaraya was the patron of the temple and one wonders the empire that Krishnadevaraya kings had in south of India. 

The other notable place to visit in Vishakhapatnam is the Submarine museum by name Kursura. The Russian Submarine used by the Indian navy is now converted into a Museum. It gives a glimpse of life inside the submarine and one feels that how much of ordeal defense services members go through in their service life. Living in the high altitude of Siachen Glacier or in the submarines without bath for 60 days, inside the submarine you can’t even stand straight! 

Submarine Museum

 The other places of interest would be the various beaches and aquarium. I was very impressed with the beach road and the way they have maintained it! The long beach road with wide foot paths is getting ready to host various festivities. Morning walks are beautiful with no vehicles allowed till 7.30 pm. The place is filled with people from all walks of life. It was also tourist season with December holidays and long weekend of Christmas. The whole place was buzzing and we got to know that they were expecting at least more than a lakh foot falls by train during this season. This would mean more than a lakh tourist in Vishakapatnam for the holiday weekend as there are people using other modes of transport as well. My friends are indeed surprised that one can have holidays by going around places like these, but we enjoyed and were impressed with the culture, cleanliness of Coastal Andhra. The new capital city Amaravati was indeed bringing the excitement in the town of Vijayawada. We saw the model city displayed near the ground breaking ceremony area. The creation of the new state will indeed bring renewed interest and opportunities for the people.  India being such a big country and some of the states are really big and having smaller states is of great benefit to the general public.

The next day we went to Arakku Valley and Borra caves. It is a day’s journey to and fro from Vishakapatnam.  The caves are old and for the benefit of the tourists are lit. Arakku valley was a disappointment though! There is a mock village of the local Tyda tribals. As usual the driver refused to switch on the air-condition saying he is going uphill! We had to insist that we will not travel in his car if he does not switch on air-condition! This attitude is something that was funny with the taxi drivers!

In terms of food, Andhra food is very famous in Bangalore and for a vegetarian the choices were very good with “”pesarattu”” for morning breakfast! I remembered, in Udupi,  my Dad, had introduced “”pesarattu”” in a restaurant that was nearby to our shop long back (may be 20 years back!). It was quite popular there too… and now with added variety of upma inside the pesarattu etc.,,, it is quite exciting!

This was an exciting holiday except though I missed the important part of Godavari river cruise! Nevertheless I was happy! There are direct flights from Vishakapatnam to Bangalore to return!