Karthik's Wander: September 2021

Trip Plan

The plan was for 4 days covering the popular cities and towns of Coastal Andhra and nearby - Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Yanam and Vijayawada. Primarily, we were planning to cover places of ancient temples and nature.

Members : Karthik and Sathish Raja

Dates : 10 Sept 2021 - 13 Sept 2021

Trip route

Chennai – Vijayawada – Rajahmundry - Annavaram - Kumararamam - Kakinada – Draksharamam - Yanam – Machilipatnam - Vijayawada – Mangalagiri - Chennai

Day-1 - Chennai to Rajahmundry

As goes our travel plan every time (to make it a grand success!), reach the farthest point first - we planned to reach Rajahmundry on Day-1 starting from Chennai after Vinayaka Chathurthi - just 632 kms. Post a grand brunch, we started around 10:30 AM and the cruise mode was on right from Chennai Outer Ring Road. We had packed some food to have - Podi idli, so we dont run out of time to reach Rajahmundry!

The ECR - NH is quite fantastic to drive on and you get couple of fighter jet landing areas enroute!

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/200821/emergency-landing-in-place-in-chilakaluripeta-and-nellore.html

What else you need for a long drive! Closer to Ongole, we stopped on the NH and had the podi idlies we had with us around 2 PM and continued with the cruise mode; next stop for a tea closer to Vijayawada at 4:30 PM. We were confident to reach Rajahmundry by 6:30 PM; however, the highway work between Eluru and Rajahmundry plus the amazing Godavari bridge on the West side of Rajahmundry made sure we reached only around 7 :30 PM.

Open challenge

The West side bridge of Rajahmundry on the NH is one of the best off-road bridges one can imagine to do. With pits up-to 2 feet and tricks all around, one can ultimately enjoy off-roading experience! Dare to challenge the ride with a sedan!

Rajahmundry

We reached Rajahmundry by 7:30 PM and went to Kotilingeshwar Ghat - one of the 51 Shakthi Peets. However, we learnt that the temple shall be open from Sunrise to Sunset - literally 5:30 AM to 5:30 PM. We then checked into Hotel Urvasi. The rooms were very spacious and absolutely in budget for the comfort offered. Post check-in in Rajahmundry, what else - have a go at street food snacks and the famous rose milk! We spent the next one hour on tasting various street foods - mirchi bhaji, Tomato bhaji and more!

Day-2 - The rally starts

Starting the day by 5 AM, first visited the Kotilingeshwar Ghat; and offered prayers to one of the 51 Shakthi Peets - Shri Vishweshwari Maa, representing the cheeks of the body part. The temple is right on the banks of the massive river - Godavari. There is ghat right in front of the temple. We spent around 10-15 minutes in the temple with almost none in the temple. Around 6:30 AM, we started from the temple and lit the NH towards Annavaram.

Annavaram

Annavaram is around 81 kms (2 hours) on the NH from Rajahmundry towards North. Sri Satyanarayana Swamy is the primary deity and the temple is treated next to Tirupati in the list of Holy shrines for Lord Vishnu. The temple is located on a small hill, called Ratnagiri - a climb for 4-5 hairpin bends - hardly 3-4 kms. The ride to the top is very scenic and its a one-way by the river Pampa.

We did the special dharshan at the temple for Rs.200 each. The dharma dharshan would have take around 1 hour, whereas the paid dharshan took only 5 minutes for us to have a very satisfactory dharshan and seek the blessings. This is truly a must visit temple in Andhra. Very blessed to visited the temple.

We climbed down the hill and had breakfast around 8 AM at a local hotel - Puri/sabji and sambhar vada. The taste was sumptuous and the portion was quite elaborate for the order. We then started towards Pithapuram.

Pithapuram

Pithapuram is around 30 kms from Annavaram. The roads are quite good till reaching the town of Pithapuram. Pithapuram hosts a Maha Sakthi Peet - one amongst the 18 Maha Sakthi Peet temples. The deity is Puruhitika devi. There is a small hut structure depicting a local temple in narrow lanes of Pithapuram. The temple has a small idol claimed to be centuries old and the legend goes like whenever a grand temple was planned to be constructed it was dealt with nature's brutal force or war and never completed. That ensures that the idol is kept in a small hut like structure and worshipped.

Meanwhile, we also visited the other temple by the highway - Shri Kukkuteswara Swamy temple - dedicated to Lord Shiva, popularly known as Pada Gaya Kshetram. At this place, Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva killed Asura called Gayasur. His head reached Gaya (Bihar), waist part reached Jajpur (Orissa) and feet (Padam) at Pithapuram (AP). In these three places, Sakthi Peet temples are situated and Puruhitika Devi's Sanctum is seen in this temple too. We prayed and seeked blessings in this temple too.

Inbetween, we also visited Sri Pada Sri Valli Samasthanam with presiding deity as Sri Dattatreya. We spent few minutes in this temple too before reaching Shri Kukkuteswara Swamy temple.

Kumararamam

Kumararamam (the town is called Samarlakota) is around 16 kms from Pithapuram; however, because of a broken bridge/road, we had to take a de-tour, reaching Kakinada by-pass and then taking an extra 8 km route to Samarlakota. Kumararamam hosts Lord Shiva in the form of Bheemeswara Swamy – a 14 feet Spatika Lingam. The Lingam is very thin/narrow and the gigantic size of 14 feet is witnessed across 2 floors inside the temple. This is also said to be one of the oldest temples of India. The temple's ground floor helps the devotees to see the base of the Linga; one has to be climb few narrows steps to reach the first floor of the temple and see the top of the Linga! Truly mesmerizing!

Kakinada

We then reached Kakinada. The plan was to visit the beautiful beach of Kakinada overseeing the port, drive through the East cost road - by the waves of Bay of Bengal and have lunch.

We first reached Kakinada Beach. The parking place is wide open by the beach. The beach had very low waves and still had a great view with a bunch of ships hovering around the Kakinada port and few industries on the other side. We spent around 20 minutes by the beach on mid-day, it was a pleasant weather with mild drizzles and not-so-sunny day.

We then, guided by our own Mr.Sathish, drove by the narrow (too narrow) roads by the coast. Literally it is by the coast, often waves were spilling over the car as we drive cautiously! Wow, one of the best roads to be on! On one side, it was great fertile land and other side of the road in few feet were the waves of Bay of Bengal. I dare to claim that not any other place in the planet may have such a fertile land and ocean so close by!

We then drove to the city to have lunch at one of the most popular places - Subbayya Hotel at Kakinada. It is said to be the number of varieties that makes it a grand feast! We had close to 35 varieties of food items on the plantain leaf - food was ok with respect to taste.

Post lunch, we were destined to Yanam - one of the regions of Pondicherry.

Yanam

Yanam is popular for the mangrove forests - Coringa wildlife sanctuary - and the river mouth of Godavari entering Bay of Bengal. Yanam was a French Colony for close to 200 years and culturally a part of Andhra by all means. From Kakinada, The Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary is around 15 kms. The parking area can host around 20 cars and few bikes. There is an entry ticket and cameras are not allowed surprisingly; however, mobile phones are allowed. The entry timings are 9 AM to 4:15 PM.

Coringa sanctuary has beautiful wooden walkways and a watch tower to see the dense mangroves. We first climbed up the watch tower and it gave a grand view of the mangroves and the Korangi river running between the mangroves. We then walked around the mangroves hearing the different sounds of insects and birds. It was bad that cameras are not allowed.

We walked around for 20 minutes and reached the boat jetty. We took the 15 minute boat ride leading us to the mouth of the river and returned back. A definitely must-to-see location when you are nearby Kakinda.

Draksharamam

Instead of entering Yanam, we decided to visit the Draksharamam temple and then go to Yanam. Draksharamam is 21 kms from Yanam and the roads were pretty bad - single and narrow roads, with too many broken places. We reached the temple around 5:30 PM.

Draksharamam is a small town hosting one of the 18 Maha Sakthi Peet temples - the Goddess is Manikyamabika Devi. The temple timings are 6 AM to 11.30 AM and from 4 PM to around 8 PM. This temple's main deity is Bheemeswara Swamy - another 14 feet Lingam, similar to the one we worshipped at Kurmaramam - a 2 tiered visit to see the base and top of the Lingam. The temple has good amount of parking area and we had a very good dharshan - no crowd. We spent around 15 minutes in the temple. Kurmaramam and Draksharamam are part of the Pancharama Kshetras of AP.

We reached Yanam around 7 PM. Yanam has very narrow lanes and navigating through the lanes was not an easy job as it was confusing and misleading with many a roads being barricaded as one-way. We had booked our rooms at Hotel Sarva Inn online before entering Yanam. The parking area was quite crampy, but the room was very spacious and absolutely comfortable. We spent the evening walking around Yanam's narrow crowded streets for local street food and dinner.

Day-3 - Yanam to Machilipatnam

We started the day pretty early around 5:30 AM; wanted to see the Godavari river bank and drive Machilipatnam and then to Vijayawada. Yanam has a beautiful river front by river Godavari - called The Beach Way. When we went, the river was running to the brim heavily. We could not reach closer to the river too because if it. However, we walked for few minutes enjoying the morning freshness by the river.

Next, we drove down to a Yanam Obelisk tower. The Tower is around 13 kms from the Beach Way. The tower seems to be built for some purpose and looks like it never served the purpose - it was orphaned.

Machilipatnam

Machilipatnam is around 168 kms from Yanam and the map showed as 5 hours. Unfortunately, the roads were completely ploughed for re-laying new roads and we ended up in one of the horrible drives! We were driving on first and second gears for almost 2 hours - we both took turns to drive!

We reached Machilipatnam around 1:30 PM after the exhausting road journey. There are very few places to see in Machilipatnam - mainly touching upon historical references - Bandar Fort, Kekini Mahal and local eateries.

Bandar Fort

The Bandar Fort was built by Dutch in 16th Century and historically used by Dutch, French and British as the power shifted. Essentially to be known is that this was the first ever fort built on the east coast that enabled business to flourish and help setup colonies in India. Closer to the fort is an Armory, where the East India company secured there arms and ammunitions. The fort is not maintained at all and often locals do not know what it is. The fort is strong enough to withstand several powerful and havoc wrecking cyclones and come of ages really!

We then tried located the Kekkini Mahal on Google maps; location is marked wrongly. We did figure it out by chance and it is under lock.

We then had good meal at RK mess - a locally popular mess. Post lunch, we started out reaching to the NH for a cruise to Vijayawada - our final frontier of the plan.

Vijayawada

Vijayawada is one of the bigger and finer cities of Andhra. It is located around 72 kms from Machilipatnam and takes around 1:30 hours - with heavier traffic, closer to the city. While entering the city, we booked for a premium stay as we were quite tired after 3 days of road trip and specifically, post the Yanam-Machilipatnam route! We booked Red Fox hotel which offered great discount for same day booking. We got it for around 2k as against 4k!

We checked-in and immediately planned to visit the most important place of the city - Shri Kanaga Durga Temple. The Kanaga Durga Temple is situated on the small hillock near the Krishna river. We reached the parking space, available in plenty through the Prakasam Barrage. The temple was expected to be crowded as it was a Sunday evening and also the Lord Vinayaka idols were being immersed in the river after 3 days of Vinayaka Chaturthi celebrations. We read and learnt about the temple facilities and various dharshan options. There is a 7-storey stairs just enabling devotees to climb to the top of the hill. For paid dharshan, at Rs.300 per person; it also includes an elevator trip to the top of the hill and puts you almost into the main temple. Luggages and footwear needs to be left at the hill base. Also, mobile phones and camera were not allowed, however, we saw many of them take mobiles with them and picturing at the hill top.

We opted for the Rs.300 ticket and reached the temple in no time. The paid dharshan enabled a swift dharshan and ultimate satisfaction. The wait time was not of any interest as we would want to be safe during COVID times and also beat the queue. We then walked down from the parking area to the Prakasm Barrage. We spent few minutes seeing the idol immersion and walking across the bridge.

We started looking for dinner places. Vijayawada is popular for branded restaurants as well as locally popular and tasty outlets. We did our research and had few on our list. We opted to keep it simple and reached SSS idly shop. We had to wait in a queue for entry and on reaching inside the hut, we had to pay at the counter for whatever we want to eat and get the bill. The only food that is served here is idly. We had 3 idlies each and the highlight were the softness of idlies and more than that the yummy ginger chutney!

Day-4 - Caves and temples

The final day of the trip included few local sighting around Vijayawada and return to Chennai. Our primary item to do was check-out for the best breakfast and we went to Babai tiffen shop and it took very little time for us to realize that it was the best option! We had amazing pongal - super spicy with jeera, pepper and tons of curry leaves. The coconut and ginger chutney just made it so soothing!

Post the fantastic breakfast, we planned couple of places to visit - Undavalli and Mangalagiri.

Undavalli caves

Undavalli caves are around 10 kms from Vijayawada and easily locatable on Google maps. Undavalli caves are four storeyed 7th century BC rock cut caves for sculptures depicting Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. The caves primarily host Lord Vishnu, few rishis and several unfinished sculptures. The main attraction is a gigantic Lord Vishnu sculpture in reclining position, worshiped by locals.

Mangalagiri

Mangalagiri is a very popular divine destination near Vijayawada, away by 13 kms. This is one of the 8 important Mahakshetrams in India. Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple also known as Shri Panakala Narasimha Swamy temple on a hill, where Lord Vishnu in the form of Narasimha appears as swayambu out of a rock. The deity is offered panakam as the offering and it is said that the panakam cannot be traced back where it goes. Part if it is offered as prasadam to the devotees. The temple is open from 7 AM to 3:30 PM. There is a lot of parking space on top of the hill for cars.

At the bottom of the hill is Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple. The legend goes like Yudhistra (eldest of the Pancha Pandavas) is the founder of this temple. The temple has a gopuram - 153 feet high, one of the tallest gopurams of South India. This temple is open from 5 AM to 1 PM and 4 PM to 8 PM. Cars can be parked on a big parking space.

We then started back to Chennai by catching the great National Highway. The cruise mode was on! We stopped near Ongole at Blue moon Dhabha for lunch around 2 PM. There are no lots of restaurants by the highway; please be mindful of locating a place by not missing anything you see. We reached Chennai around 5 PM.

Distances