It was not my first time to visakhapatnam. Back in 2016 I was here with my college friends and teachers on an excursion. Now the memories of the excursion are twinkling in my mind. I remember we calculating the number of different species in the famous RK Beach and Rishikonda breach. I still love to memorize the walking through the road in this beautiful Araku valley to go to the tribal museum and the journey to borra guhallu. The local people played flute before starting their daily work on the train to borra guhallu and just enjoyed it without much thinking. The flutes and the folks against the background of passing tunnels of the hills created an amiable ambience.

So, after almost 7 years I again witnessed the stunning Vizag. This time we(ma, baba, Dada,didi, palasada, mamai, pukku, subhro)had such a short time in our hands. We stayed there for only two days(Dec-14th,15th) but we covered almost all the places of interest.

Details of the journey:

13.12.23: From Shalimar station we boarded onto the coromandel express (train no. 12841; time- 03.25pm). My father in law drove didi and me to Shalimar station where my family was already waiting. However, we spent happy hours on the train with great gusto and fun. Being bengalee we could not break the tradition of eating now and then. Sometimes we had ‘paneer pakoras’ while other times we had biscuits.

Then we had our home-made delicious dinner, ‘luchi, alurdom’ cooked by my mother in law at about 8.30pm. Subhro then joined us in Bhadrak. Ma, Subhro and I slept in the B-4 coach whereas the rest were in B-8. After a half sleepy night it was 5.44 am when we reached our destination, Visakhapatnam station.

14.12.23:Then we were received by our ‘Driver dada’ and taken to Beach Edge Guest House which is situated exactly opposite Ramakrishna Beach. We were given a room to rest as we reached the hotel before the check in time.

However, the wide open sea and the orange aura of the rising sun offered strength to be alive once again with so much positive vibes. Beside the beach there were small stalls which offered nutritious foods like boiled eggs, ragi, sprouts chaat etc. We all ate boiled eggs and yummy sprouts chaat. Enjoyed touching the waves with our bare feet. Then we had tea. After that, we came back to the hotel and freshened up. By then our pre-booked rooms were available.

After sometime we all got ready to start the day’s journey.

The places we visited one after another on the first day of our trip are-
1. Simhachalam temple,
2. Kailashgiri,
3. Rishikonda beach,
4.Tenneti park,
5. Visakha museum,
6. Kursuka Submarine museum.

On the way around 10 o’clock in the morning we had our breakfast. We ordered local delicacies like idli, upma, dhosa and Poori(bhatura). Mamai was quite reluctant to have poori because he wanted momo there😆. But when his mamu fed him poori, he could realize that the poori tasted awesome!

1.After having our breakfast we went to Simhachalam temple through the beautiful, neat and clean roads of this city in Andhra Pradesh. We arrived there at 11.30am. From Rk Beach it is approximately 20km away and takes about 45 minutes in the car.

The design of the temple entails the rich sculpture of Indian art. Goddess Laxmi is worshipped here. There are tickets for Rs. 100, 200 and 300 to get the entry into the temple. We bought caps to get relief from the warm sun there and had a nice time clicking photos and selfies.

2. Then we visited Kailashgiri where the famous big white statue of Lord Shiva and Parvati is situated. This place is very pleasant and serene. Tall and small trees in the back of the statue sheltered many birds and squirrels. Besides a playground for children was also attracting our eyes. Pukku and mamai were playing, running and having fun.

We also enjoyed riding the toy train. A view point of kailashgiri beholds the whole landscape of the place which covers the beautiful hills and sea.

3. Then we had a quality beach ⛱️ time in Rishikonda beach. Mamai and pukku bought two sunglasses and posed like heroes and heroines, didi and Palasda made trending romantic reels. Everyone was enjoying the blue sea and the waves.

4. It was then 4 o’clock when we entered Tenneti park. This place is truly awesome. The heavenly ambience melted our hearts in a way that I would like to go again and again to cherish the warmth of this beautiful landscape. I think these pictures would justify a little bit of my saying.

5. Then we went to Visakha museum which has a good collection of naval history and artifacts of Kalingandhra region.

6. The Kursuka Submarine museum was our last destination for 14th December. It was a great experience to see the tools and equipment of the submarine. We were overwhelmed to think how man has used technology in such a good way!

So, then we came back to our hotel and rested for a while. With the bright and brewing evening I became nostalgic to see the glittering, joyful city and the waves of the sea from my hotel room. I could not stop me from expressing my inner thoughts and scribbled something in Bengali-“এখন সন্ধ্যে ৭টা বেজে ৫৪ মিনিট, দাদা আর শুভ্র সবার জন্য dinner এর আয়োজন করতে গেছে।beach edge guest House এর 202রুম এ আমি এখন একাকী সমুদ্রের nostalgia গায়ে মাখাতে বসেছি।
এর আগেও vizag এসেছি কিন্তু এখন যেনো আলাদা রকমভাবে শহর টাকে পাচ্ছি। এত ঝাঁ চকচকে রাস্তা, রাস্তার দুপাশের সাদা আলোগুলো চোখে পড়ছে। সব বাস্তবতার মাঝেও এত জলজ্যান্ত একটা শহর এত সক্রিয় যে পুরোটাই সজীব লাগছে। হোটেলের জানলা টপকেই ওই কাছেই সমুদ্র। অন্ধকারে ঢেউ গুলো সাবানের ফেনার মতো তীরে এসে আছড়ে পড়ছে; হয়তো কোনো পুরনো স্মৃতি মিটিয়ে নতুনকে আহ্বান জানাতে। মরে যাওয়া অনুভূতি গুলোকে আবারও জ্যান্ত করতে ব্যস্ত আমি তাই লিখেই ফেললাম দুকলি।”

Later, we had our dinner brought by my elder brother and husband from a Bengali hotel. After that, we slept.

15.12.23: We had to arise very early in the morning to begin our most desirable and awaited journey to Borra guhallu by the train Kirandul special which was scheduled to depart from Visakhapatnam station at 6.45am in the morning. But the departure was delayed. However, It was unfortunate that we couldn’t book the Vistadom coach of this train but we were not hopeless to see the passing tunnels amidst the green hills. Almost everyone started whistling and shouting in joy each time when the train entered the dark tunnels to listen to the echoes. Palas Da got down from the train and clicked photos when it was stuck in a beautiful place among the trees and hills before a tunnel. I played tunes in my mouth organ as per Didi’s request. Then, we ate some ‘chana’ and ‘papad’. I remember all were having tea and coffee to keep up the excitement. The clock struck 10.40 and we finally arrived at Borra Guhallu.

Having arrived at the place before reaching Borra caves we finished our breakfast with idli and dhosa.

1. Borra caves: Then we entered the Borra caves after buying the tickets. It’s phenomenal and one of the deepest caves in India. It is located in Araku valley of Andhra Pradesh. The main attraction of Araku is this wonderful cave where limestone and natural groundwater has undergone such an aesthetic chemical reaction that gives us this beautiful creation of nature with a large opening like the adventurous cavity.

We had crossed narrow and wet stairs to reach the temple at the top of the cave. This could be risky for an old person because the gap between two stairs is longer. However we visited the temple and came back by walking through many stairs. Meanwhile we came to know about a funny incident. A naughty money took away my father’s cap from his head and dropped in a place where my father’s hand could not reach. However, with the help of a stick a tall man brought it back to my father. There were many monkeys who are probably more intelligent than men. They even tried to snatch the cold drinks we bought. There are a lot of stalls for sale of many accessories to buy for family and friends. Finally, we ate famous bamboo chicken which was mouth watering indeed and the Bamboo biriyani was also very tasty and yummy.

It took almost 3 hours to cherish the cave’s beauty. 2. Then we headed for a visit to the coffee plantation area in Araku. There we took photos and bought coffee dust for ourselves.

3. Tribal museum : This was the day’s last visit. We roamed around the museum and cherished the garden with different colorful flowers and plants. There were statues of the tribal community where everyone was posing. The culture and daily life of the tribal community is depicted here with many handmade models and drawings. This is a nice place to visit. Now, there are many stalls of crafts for tourists but there were nothing like these before during 2016.

With this our bucket list fulfilled and we started for returning to rk beach.

On the way our car stopped near the rainbow restaurant due to an inconvenience in the wheel. By then it was 7 pm. The journey became a little hectic for us as we could not rest due to the short time. We all took Pan-D medicine in that halt. After a while, the problem resolved and we again resumed our journey.

After having our dinner on the way we returned to the hotel becoming exhausted. Then, no other thing bubbled in our mind except a deep sleep.

16.12.23: Our tour was over and we had to say bye bye to the beautiful smart city. So, we boarded Vasco da Gama- Shalimar Amaravati express(train no.18048) from Visakhapatnam at 8.45 am and returned our home after a train journey of about 15 hours.

We took so many good moments with us to cherish forever.