Beaches of Vizag

Yarada

If one proceeds south from the main city, 20kms along NH5, there lies one of the best beaches of east coast. The way to the beach is superb. A kucha road takes you up the hill where there are few Naval Quarters. The view from the hilltop is awesome. If you are lucky, you can actually see some Tollywood movie shooting.
There are private beaches available at this place. A km away from the beach is the famous Dolphin nose point but one has to take prior permission to visit the place which is under the surveillance of Indian Navy. There are few eco friendly huts, a small park for kids and a small nice restaurant situated here.

Rushikonda
Arguably the best beach of the beach city, it’s around 15km north to the city. It’s flat, safe and is constantly watched by coastal guards. Coconut water is a must have if you come to this hot destination. Daytime temperature can soar up to a whopping 40 C. For lovers of swimming and water sports like skiing and wind surfing, Rushikonda is an ideal destination.

Kailashgiri
Not exactly a beach, it’s more like a natural guarding tower for the beach city, two ways to get to the top of Kailashgiri – Kailash Mountain; by road or by the ropeway. The view of the city from atop is beautiful. While all this makes the ambience suitable for hang out, the presence of huge idols of Shiva-Parvati makes the place worth seeing for the devotes. The Titanic view point, manicured lawns and flower beds, food court, a jungle trail, souvenir shop, telescopic viewpoint and many more make the spot more exciting.

Marine Drive
The drive till Bheemli, also known as Bhimunipatanam is exciting. Once upon a time, the place was headquarters/port of the Dutch, the second oldest municipality in the country. The famous red mud hills are also situated on this route. There is an SEZ which is coming up near Bheemli but one can enjoy the scenic beauty/ rocky beach at the east coast.

PS: Don’t try this at any other beach

PPS: Not only beaches, the only hill station of A.P. – Araku is also situated at a 3hrs drive from Vizag. One can checkout the Burra Caves, Waterfalls, Valleys at Araku. India’s only sub-marine museum is also situated in Walteir. Visakhapatnam, also known as the city of destiny; you will land here at least once in your lifetime, even if you don’t want to.

Daman

On the 31st night, 2008 we decided to make our new year a more memorable experience. Tickets for Vapi were available. The plan was, 6 of my colleagues, and 2 of my MBA friends, were supposed to meet up at Borivali station at 6. My doctor friend, a Manager with a Pharma company. The other one is with an MNC bank. In the Mumbai khitpit, my doctor friend who was supposed to board the train at Bandra at 5.40PM missed it. So, we were 7 now. We all boarded the train. But Praveen never left hope. He intended to come to Daman at any cost. He booked the next train, the Flying Ranee – though he only had 170 bucks – why? That’s a long story. Later he told us how he got into the AC comp and bribed the TT with 150. Anyhow, we reached Vapi at 8.30. Doctor finally reached 8.40. Fighter Jet!!! Vapi is apparently the world's 4th most polluted city, thanks to the industrialization. Daman - our destination is around 12 kms from Vapi. Taxi service is available 24x7 to n fro.
Taxi will cost you 120 per trip. So, the more people you can push inside, the cheaper it gets. We hired 2. Reached Daman around 9.15.The city of booze. A whisky peg is cheaper than chai. We had a light dinner, bought some snacks for the New Year booze party. Also managed to get our hands on some high end premier liquor. Most in the group were non-drinkers. Yet we had bought over 2 ltrs of alcohol. We reached the most famous beach of Daman - Devka. Low tide had taken the sea out of sight on that bright night. It’s a rocky beach. All of us settle down on a set of huge rocks. There were multiple resorts in the backdrop. Each one was having its own New Year bash. In spite of this, the atmosphere was good and surroundings peaceful. We boozed like there was no tomorrow.
At 12, our New Year celebrations started with answering and making few phone calls and ended with kicks on backs and friendly human rides. Party was over around 2. We were feeling kinda sleepy. Mr D however had different plans. As the night passed by, the water level came closer and closer. D was so drunk that he wanted to check the water level at the farthest visible rock at low tide. In short, he wanted to commit suicide. Even Mr P went to give him company. P and D are roommates and Jai-Viru type dost. Anyhow, we managed to save both of em, however D’s cellphone died that night.

Luckily, the still-in-senses-guys managed to get hold of an auto. Miraculously, all 8, managed to squeeze into that thing. We reached Vapi at around 3.30 AM which left us with only 3 odd hours to sleep. Our return journey was at 7 – Flying Ranee. We reached Borivali at 9.30 and attended work on that day.

Bheemli, Andhra Pradesh

On 9th March, 2009, me and a friend of mine working as an asst editor in a reputed publications planned to explore the red mud hills of Bhimli – also called as Bhimunipatnam. Had seen the same in multiple telugu movies. We had just heard about the place and were not aware of the exact location where to find the hills. Bhimli is famous for fishing – it’s the main profession of majority of villagers. You can get variety of sea food here. You wont find any good restaurant but you are advised to buy the same an cook at your home as per your choice.
As the southern coast gets hot very soon on summer days, we left at 7 AM in the morning. Through out the ways we asked multiple villagers who were less interested in showing us the place and more in getting a free lift. Any how, finally we transported multiple people to finally get to the hyped natural wonder.
To out surprise, or rather shock, the entry was closed for some stupid reason. We later fond out that there was a movie shooting which was taking place nearby and apparently the stupid southie star dint want any interruption. Dint know whether they had taken any kind of approval to stop people from visiting public places. We finally got into out exploration mode. We made out own way, had to climb few trees and squeeze into spine bushes. After 40 minutes of rigorous roadies stuff, we finally got to the place.
It was a sight, never experienced, never imagined. There were these red mud hills everywhere. Actually, the region is full of red hills. The rain water flowing from the top had first created cracks in the hills and which have slowly created channels for the water to flow into the sea. After hundreds of years, when the rainy season is long gone, you can see the empty passages filled with sand and surrounded by monstrous hills. The sight of the hills from the duct is equally breath taking as it is of the passage from atop. We clicked some really nice pics and came back completely satisfied. Full Paisa Vasool boss!!
On the way back, one should also check out the black sand beach near Bhimli. There is an entire stretch of half kilometer where you will find black sand. Even if you dig deep into the sand, the color prevails. Even the water looks black and No, that’s not drainage water directed into the sea.

PS: Through out the marine drive stretch, you can get the local alcoholic coolant – “Kallu”. You can have a sip or two – as long as its not fake – its good for your body and mood.

Elephanta Caves, Mumbai

Almost all the MTs of my Department decided to visit the famous Elephanta Caves, it’s located on an island 10kms from the mainland Mumbai. These caves house rock cut temples dating back to the 5th century CE. These temples were created by carving out rock, and creating the chambers. There are multiple chambers all cut out in a single rock.
The best part of the trip was the jetty ride to and fro. The climate was nice. The ticket costs around 100 bucks and 10 extra for an open sky seat. There are few great snaps to be clicked with the Taj and GOI in the background. Jetties are decent; they also serve snacks on board. It took us around 70 minutes to reach the island. A toy train will make your journey a bit less hectic by taking you to the foot hills of the mountain. One has to climb few steps to reach the caves. Those were monstrous. They still persist even after centuries. There are huge sculptures of few Hindu gods. You also have the company of monkeys who are always looking out for opportunities to snap out any food items from your hands. One can also trek up to the top point, not advisable though on summer afternoons. The view from the top of the island is great. It’s peaceful out there as it’s far from the Mumbai metropolis vicinity – not even visible from here.
We returned around 3PM. You get snacks, cold drinks and collectables along the way to the caves. But food is not good. We took the next available ferry and came back by 4.30. All in all, it was a nice weekend getaway from pollution and crowd. Not to forget, you get a close look at the Trombay reactor, Naval base and Petroleum refinery on your way to the caves.

Sriwardhan and Harihareswar, Maharastra

It all started when I was going through the TOI Mumbai travel , 5th Nov 2008 edition. So the plan was all set on Wednesday for a trip to Shriwardhan on that weekend. Saturday. we have 5 n 1/2 working days a week. We rapped up our work on Saturday around 3PM. There were 6 of us.

• Shailesh akka Sallu bhai
• Prateek aka 56
• Manoj Kumar - the playboy
• Tamal - the rockstar
• Shaswat - the citi banker
• Navkant, thts me

We had rented an Innova for the trip. Two of our other friend Alok and Sumit also left office along with us. The original plan was to drop them in hte midway at Oberai mall and proceed to Mumbai – Goa highway. We started with full of excitement and booze. These activities induced the other two to proceed ahead with us although they were not carrying any extra clothes or other neccesities. So, the final men count was 8.

• Alok the silent killer and
• Sumit the psychizo guy

Manuevering Mumbai Traffic, we got on to the Mumbai Goa highway at around 5.45PM. There was this show running on weekly top 100 on some FM station. We kept on driving for the next 2 hours listening and corus-ing to that very count down. I had googled enough to find out best places to crash at Sreewardhan. Well I came accross the Shubham beach resort. Its a rocking place. 200 per head can get you everything as per your choice. The old style khatia/ a tree house or a dormi - sea face. Food is also decent at 100/ meal and 20/ breakfast. Contact @9822789258. We had made a reservation for 8. We reached the place around 9PM. The owner of the place, Nadim is a really nice guy who came upto the main city to receive us. We arranged for a camp fire after dinner. Lotsa booze n night stroll followed afterwards.. 4 of us preferred to sleep in the dormi. The other 4 including me chose to climb up to the tree house. It was too cold, middle of night I slipped into the dormi and had a nice sleep.

We all woke up at aroud 9. After having a light breakfast. We all hit the beach with few play tools. Its one of the cleanest beaches. Flat and safe...We really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we decided to also checkout the nearby Harihareswar.

To our utter surprise, Harihareswar was a fundoo place. There is a temple and a small trek uphill will take you to a poit where a set of steps take you to a rocky sea shore. Nice scenic place. We clicked some good pics and heade for Mumbai. On our way back, we stopped midway to trek up to Western ghats...Few more stops and we were back to our huts by nigh 11PM.

Alibaug and Kashid, Raigad, Maharastra

On 20th December, three of us left our respective work places to get away from the daily monotony.Dr Praveen, the Ranbaxy Manager, Anshumaan and myself. As, ususal one of us got stuck in the traffic. Our googling led us to believe that the last jetty for Alibaug leaves at 5.30PM, which we later realized is only applicable to government operated ones. However, the private/ luxury jettys were leaving till 6.45 PM.

We boarded the 6 PM MALDAR jetty. Ticket was 100 bucks. Nice transport, air conditioned with a snacks shop. It took us around 1 hour to reach Mandwa. Soon we realized that our ticket also includes fare for the bus journey till Alibaug. Another 1 hr. We took an Auto till the beach. There is a nice low budget hotel named Dwarka. The tariff for a 3 bed room would vary between 450-800 depending on the tourist traffic. A restaurent with the same name on the ground floor serves decent veg food. After having a light dinner we headed towards the beach. Liquir here is moderately expensive. A Beer can should cost you around 75 bucks and rest are priced proportionately. The latest you can get alcohol near the beach is 11.30PM. We packed our bags with some of the good stuff and headed towards the beach. There was a high tide which was slowly but surely heading backwards. With in half an hour, we had access to clean sand banks and peace. We walked to the point till it was walkable. We saw few dogs and jackels and lotsa crabs . We boozed till we realized we would be needing more. We came back to the main road and got some more drinks for us. We lied on the beach and recalled our good old days spent at VKRV hostel, Delhi University. As the night went along, we also decide to share some real life ghost stories. I dont remember much of that....

We had to change our plans as we could not manage to get up early on that Sunday. We strolled till the beach and realized that the water level hasnot preceded any further and the Alibaug fort is still some 2 kms inside the sea. Tanga riders were setting up to start the day. We inquired and realized that around 10.30AM, the fort gets accessible. We planned to walk till the fort. We came back to our hotel to change into shorts and when we reached the beach, the water had preceded up to a wopping 0.5 km in a duration of 15 minutes. We started walking towards the fort. The tangas were runnign at a fast speed. The water was only knee deep at all times.

The fort was good. We clicked some really kool pics. After exploring every last corner of the fort, we decided to head towards Kashid, the mini Goa. Time was a constraint, we hired an auto to Kashid and back to Alibaug. 600 bucks in total. There is a birla temple on the way for temple lovers. Kashid was good. Its one of the few beaches in Maharastra with white sand. Crowd was good. We spent an hour there and got back to Alibaug around 6.30. The last luxury jetty was at 7.30 which was already overbooked. We somehow managed to convince teh clerk at the counter and the bus driver and could manage to get on the jetty finally. We reached Gateway at 8.30. It was the day when Taj was reopened after 26/11 incident. Aparently no tourists are allowed to visit Gateway after 7 PM. So, we had a nice view at Taj which stood strong amist all the fireworks. It felt good to be an Indian standing at Gateway facing the Taj Mahal Hotel........

Andamaan

This is about a journey to the Adventure island. Island of the I had visited Andaman in the summer of 2006. Me, along with my parents started from Chennai on 10th June. Jet and KF Lite connect Portblair to Chennai and Kolkata. Its a 2 hours jour from either part.

We took a flight from Chennai. Awesome journey. and specially the landing. As one approaches Portblair, you see submerged island, blue water and the runway is situated at the egde of Portblair. You feel like you are being dropped into mid-ocean.

You can take a taxi to nearest market/ guest house. There are a range of accos available in Andaman. Food is a bit costly as the source of these is the main land subcontinent. We went to the SBI guest house – part leased out to SBI and part for other commercial use.
Nice place. The owners were busy planning their son’s wedding but still the reception and hospitality was too good. Most of the residents speak tamil but they are good at Telugu/ Hindi and English too.

We started our sight seeing from the infamous Cellular Jail. The light and sound programme at the end of the day is a must see for every Indian. It portrays the tortures and pains to the path to freedom. The story has to be listened there only....We also had a look at the Guard watch tower which is situated right at the top of the center of the star like structured jail.

There are few more thing you can check out while you are on the main island. There is a sports complex where you can get Rowing Boats, Paddle Boats, Kayaks, Aqua-cycle, Aqua-glide, Bumper boats, etc. and Adventure water sports such as Water-skiing, Wind-surfers, Speed boats etc are also available....

Corby's Cove is the only beach of Portblair island. Its around some 7 Kms from the town. There's the coconut palm fringed beach, ideal for swimming, surfing and sun basking. One can also visit the museums:

• Anthropological Museum
• Fisheries Museum
• Naval Marine Museum
• Zoological Survey of India Museum Museum
• Forest Museum
  

Saddle peak is the highest point of the island. One can get a great view of things around from the top. For some strange reason, we found lotsa cats there...
Not the wild ones though....There are lotsa trek

options available from this place. A 7 km trek will take you the bottom of the peak and back which you can cover in half a day. There are also 1/2 days treks available for people not traveling with parents :(

The rains had started in Andaman. So, we had to rush on the day. Artificial huts as seen in the pic is one of the few places one can take shelter for a short while. After clicking few pics from the top, we left the place....But believe me, one has to have an SLR to make the trip more memorable.

We called it a day and headed back to our guest house. Next morning, we woke up to see the active volcano. The best time to visit the monster was around 4AM in the morning. We got up at 3AM. A taxi/boat trip will get you to as close as 1 km from the volcano. It was freaking hot there. All we could manage to see was some smoke. We came back and completed our sleep.

There’s an NH which connects Portblair to Baratang and other southern islands separated by sea at some places.. Awesome journey. One can see the Jarawa tribes on the way. The protected area will require you to be escorted by forest department jeeps. Boats work as connectors between the islands. Charges – 50Rs/ Car and 5Rs/ Person.

There are multiple attractions on Baratang island. There is a mud volcano which coughs up mud continuously. So much so that you have to actually climb up a mud mountain to see the opening. Smoking is prohibited for obvious reasons.

There is a lime stone cave estimated to be a million years old. The path to the caves is breath-taking. You carry the risk of being stuck at the caves indefinitely in case of a low depression/ Tsunami/ High- tide.

Chidiya tapu is the home for more than a million Parrots. The aviators have chopped the mangrove tree tops to convert it into a plane. One can be there around sunset to experience the homecoming of a lifetime. Lacs of birds come flying down from all directions. Arguably my best experience in life till date.

The locales share their experience and tales of the island country. We got to know that there are multiple breathtaking islands which are restricted from humans/ tourists visits.
We returned to the capital the next morning as the connecting route is operational from 10AM- 4 PM everyday. The journey was tiresome.
The next day we went on a boat trip. It covers 3 nearby island.

Ross Island - Once functional as Japnese buker, is a naval base today. Must see is the 100 odd years old banyan trees which have destroyed and protected the ancient structures.

North Bay Island -

A brief visit to the coral island was fun. Guided scuba diving tours will help you check out some coral reefs. The lush green islands are a treat to the eyes. The third island also had some historic importance which I am unable to recall.

We came back to the capital city that evening. Next morning we had a flight to catch to Kolkata and from there we were to reach Bhubaneswar.

The Tsunami hit islands still has lotsa wonders to offer. A place every Indian must see…..

----------------------------------------