On the next and the last day, I decided to explore the ghats on my own while my family went to Viswanath Temple for the second time. The main ghat was a 5-minute walk from the guest house. It was early morning and I roamed the ghats to ‘feel’ Varanasi for the last time. The river, the boats, the flowers in the floral shops, the sages in saffron and the people taking holy bath … all looked so different in the soft light of morning sun. I tried to capture some regular activities along the ghats.
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Here are some for your eyes only… 🙂
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In spite of its zigzag narrow lanes, enough to give you the feel of labyrinths; dirty overcrowded ghats, polluted water, congested roads and no traffic rule at all, Varanasi has its own charm with its age-old edifices, temples and a laid back attitude towards life. It was really a wonderful trip to the holy city in late February when the weather is pleasant. I think this is the best time to visit the place if you want to avoid both the chilling winter and the scorching summer of Northern India.
Gradually our time in Benares came to an end. I chose the Travera of the guest house for extra comfort. Pickup and drop cost us a total of Rs. 1200 which could be cut down to Rs 300-400 if we took auto rickshaws. But I don’t mind that extra bucks for the comfort and convenience of my family.
N.B: If you need to dry your laundries out in the sun don’t forget to clip them tight. Otherwise, you may lose them forever… courtesy monkeys. They have a tendency to grab anything and everything that belongs to human species… 😉 . Take care and have a nice trip!
Majestic… Misty… and sometimes Mysterious – that’s what mountain is to me.
Majestic, because of its greatness.
Misty, because of smoky clouds hovering over it.
Mysterious, because you never know what’s in store in its every bend.
The thought of exploring mountain vales simply excites me. And in India, it is none other than the Himalayas, which is synonymous to mountain.
Sikkim Image courtesy: Sukanya Chakraborty
It has been quite a long time that I have last visited the hills. It was the Queen of Hills, Darjeeling where I had been once when I was in school. The memories of the hill town are still vivid. Now I am a working woman who got busy with her 9 to 6 job. And in the monotony of everyday’s routine my mind often seeks escape from the bleak surrounding of concrete jungle. My eyes are thirsty for a glimpse of the mountain with its snow capped peaks turned golden in the soft morning sun; green slopes brightened with blooming rhododendron and rippling streams running down the picturesque valley.
Well, I am lucky to have found friends who think the same way as I do. What we needed was to sit together and decide where to go and when, because ‘leave’ is a very important factor especially for professionals working in private sector. Our timings had to match. Finally, ‘Sikkim’ was the unanimous choice. We settled with a beautiful place called Namchi in Sikkim while it took quite a few days to finalize the time, which is end of September, this year.
The next few days went in searching for hotels and trains and booking tickets. Then we had a lot of discussion about packing … what to take and what not. The excitement of traveling to a new place is not new to me. But this time it is doubled as I have actively took part in booking hotels and trains which was my father’s department when we traveled together with family.
Now that we have finished with all of the initial arrangements the only thing that remains is the ‘wait’… wait for the day we are going to board the train for Sikkim…wait for the time we reach our destination, Namchi … wait for the moment we set foot on the hills, once again. Waiting never seemed so exhilarating, desirable and fun!
Again the smell of salt waters… again those foaming waves breaking on the shore… again the trailing foot prints on wet sands… I am talking about my recent trip to Vizag. The feel of cool seawater touching my feet was so refreshing… after a l-o-n-g time! I had waited eagerly for this trip for the last few months. The thought of going closer to nature always thrilled me. It was a short but much desired break. We started planning for Sikkim and ended up in Vizag… 🙂
The port city has a rare combination of sea kissing the foot of the hills.
Vizag has a rare combination of sea kissing the foot of the hill – Photo: Moon Roy
We were a large group of eight. Some of my dear friends were there in the group to make the trip even more memorable for me. Starting from Howrah at 8:35pm, February 25 we reached Vizag the very next day at 10:20am. And to my astonishment it was 20 minutes earlier than the scheduled time (quite unnatural for Indian Railway!).
Destination Rishikonda Beach
An SUV was waiting for us outside the station. We reached the hotel only to keep our luggage and a take a bath. Rest of the day we were busy in enjoying at Vizag’s famous Rishikonda Beach and Kailash Giri. Unfortunately, it was not a sunny afternoon with the sky partly clouded. Still, the beach looked beautiful with roaring waves of Bay of Bengal thrashing the rocky shore!
Photos: Moon Roy
Toy Train Ride at Kailash Giri
The hill of Kailash Giri (‘Giri’ in Sanskrit means mountain) has a well maintained garden, food courts, ropeway and toy-train rides on the top of it. The breathtaking view of the entire coastal curve and the city was what I think the best thing we had at Kailash Giri.
The city of Vizag – photo: Moon Roy
I tried to capture the beauty of this gleaming harbor city at night.
Vizag at Night – photo: Moon Roy
Inside the Submarine
That evening we also visited the submarine museum, a must-see in Vizag. It was a real submarine called INS Kursura. After more than thirty years of service to the Indian Navy the submarine has now been rested. It has been transformed to a museum and is open for visitors.
The Submarine Museum in Vizag
The Journey to Araku
When you are in Vizag a day trip to Araku Valley is a must. We booked tickets for Araku as soon as we reached Vizag. The train to Araku will leave from Vizag as early as 7am next morning. The journey through the hills of Eastern Ghats range was remarkable. The train passed through a total of 52 tunnels with the picturesque Araku valley on one side and the steep rocks on the other. Though it took a long 4 and ½ hours to reach Araku it was never tiring, rather an interesting journey all through.
The journey to Araku Photos: Debasmita & Moon
At Araku we boarded a tourist bus that took us along the winding hilly roads only to stop over the tribal museum and the Gala Viewpoint.
Insight into the Tribal Lifestyle
The collection at the Araku tribal museum tells the tale of local tribes – their culture and customs, their art and occupation. I liked the tribal jewelry, especially the necklaces made of one and two rupee coins. The wood crafts by tribal artisans are simply amazing. Wooden bowls, toys and showpieces are perfect blend of simplicity and uniqueness … ideally reflecting their plain-sailing, free from complicacies rural life. Kudos to them!
Tribal Museum at Araku, Vizag photo: Moon Roy
Viewing Araku from Gala Viewpoint
The view from Gala Viewpoint, the highest point on Araku hills, was awesome. The entire Araku valley bathing in the sun, was visible from there. The vista of lush green valley in the lap of the mountain and the clear blue sky over the top was so captivating, so beautiful that we stood spellbound for a few moments.
The stunning view from Gala View Point, Araku
Borra Cave: the Natural Wonder
Our next and final destination was Borra Cave, a wonderful creation of Mother Nature. Until we reached there I had no idea of what was in store for us. It is a 150 million year old cave that contains naturally created stalagmite formations inside. Exploring Bora Cave was once in a life time experience for me.
Entering Borra CaveInside the Bora Cave, Araku, Vizag – photo: Moon Roy
Stop Over at RK Beach
On our way back to hotel we decided to stop over Rama Krishna Beach or more popularly, RK Beach. The moon was in full bloom and we were dying to see the beauty of moonlit beach. But much to our disappointment it was all neon and halogens that flooded the beach with a dimmed moon over the pitch black sea. However, I couldn’t ignore the glittering garland of neon lights along the promenade. Here is a glimpse.
RK Beach (Rama Krishna Beach) at night photos: Moon Roy
The city, the hotel and the journey everything was so nice except the food. It was ‘awe’-some. .. 😛 :). Anyway, the next day afternoon (February 28) we boarded the train to Howrah to get back to our routine life… to get back to work again with sweet memories of Vizag in mind.
Footloose Forever 