Caught the Howrah mail from Chennai central at 11:30 in the night, weird time, I know, but this was the only train I could get at the small notice of 3 days. Spent most of the time lying on the upper berth, the back almost gave way at the end of it all. It had started raining in Chennai when I left and I was praying that Vizag skies be clear. Luckily, it was bright with the sun out in full gear when I landed at the Vizag station at 1 in the afternoon the next day. Its sometimes easier to move around and get a hotel room if you’re traveling alone (though not that easy to get a single room, most hotels have a double bed only that they let out). I ignored the first few auto chaps that came rushing to me and came out of the station complex and got the auto from there; call me paranoid, but I have this feeling that the ones outside might not steal your socks off, perhaps just your shirt. Anyways, this chap proceeded to bring out the rate cards of 4-5 hotels that he kept (seriously, rate cards), after I told him where I wanted to go and what my budget was, I’m sure he’d be on a commission basis with all those hotels, which is not a bad thing to do.
I settled for an economy pick that cost me 430 a day and about 2.5 km from the train station. The location that everyone knew was the 'Big bazaar' next to it, which seemed like a big attraction for all. The problem is with the food though, these hotels don’t usually have an in-house restaurant, and explaining the room service what you need is a big effort in itself. So when I asked for a veg sandwich, which I took 2 minutes to clearly explain to the waiter, he still got me a veg patty, with some really strange stuffing, and instead of coffee, there was tea. And don’t even get me started on what I went thru to explain dal makhani. I eventually decided to eat out anywhere I could after the first meal in the hotel (which I had to take in as I was really tired from the overnight train journey). Since I had drastically cut down on my staple diet of chips and pastries, I had to mostly live on fruits and juices in these trips.
After a good rest, I decided to venture out, getting to the RTC complex about a km off. The autowallahs here charge a bomb as the main road has a flyover being constructed and buses divert off to another road. I asked around and ended up at the Submarine museum next to the shoreline. The submarine was used in the 1970s and beyond and has been converted to a museum for visitors now. The ticket costs 25 and another 25 bucks for photography. It’s a good experience getting to see the interiors of a real submarine, and the personnel there also provide a guided tour free of cost. You get to see the torpedo hatches once you enter from the front, and the intricate mechanisms made my head boggle. Couldn’t help but wonder how they’d know which wire from all those was the one responsible for the malfunction of the lights in the loo. You can see the sailor bunks and the escape hatches as well, the seaman’s diving suit and all the other stuff that I couldn’t understand. The guides here are nice enough to answer your queries. The museum takes about 20 minutes to go through it completely, not a very big submarine, probably 70-80 meters long. Once outside, you can roam at the Rama Krishna beach next to the museum, but since it was still quite sunny, I headed off to Kailasagiri hill.
The auto keeps on the beach road the entire distance from the submarine to the hill, both right next to the shore, and he charges about 30-40 bucks for the 20 minute ride. Now the hill has 3 ways to approach the top, you can either take the road if you have your own vehicle or the bus, you can walk up from the base of the ropeway, or you can take the ropeway. I decided to take the ropeway, which costs you 30 bucks either way. Seemed like most people were either taking their own vehicle or the bus, as the little cabin I was sitting in was only half full. The ride up takes just 2 minutes, and provides you quite a view of the sea shore and the city as you ascend. Seems like vizag shore has its own queen’s necklace like Bombay, which later in the night looked even better. Once on top of the hill, you can either take a toy train ride, which runs on a circular track, or simply walk around.
I was a bit disappointed, as this was like a picnic spot now, children’s playground, small shops selling food, clothes, handicrafts, and the usual litter that most of us spill wherever we picnic. I walked on the train track to the bus stand and parking lot where you can look down to the other side of the shore and far off into some other hills as well. The best way to enjoy here is to walk next to the track, and you can get to the numerous view points from there itself. Some of them are connected by small paths engulfed by a nice green cover, where a few couples try to find privacy. I sat at one of these points for some time, just gazing out and enjoying the gentle breeze coming from the sea, far away from the chatter of all the people. Here the sky was also dotted with a big group of birds, simply flying around overhead in the evening sun, ready to call it a day. In the middle of the hilltop is a white Siva parvati statue some 20 odd feet tall, where people were coming to pay their respects; I passed this place while I proceeded to go the ‘city view point’ on the other side. Here for 5 bucks they lift you up to the 3rd floor of the building there from where you can see the beautiful city and the shoreline as it transforms into the small lighted dots as the evening wears on. The car dots move on slowly from up here, while some people still seemed to be in Diwali mood and bursting fireworks in the distance. This was the place I spent most of my time at, as the public almost stops coming here once it gets dark; but that is exactly when you can appreciate the allure of the city. You can even walk around in the few rocky paths that the hill has (which are not lighted very well, but are a bit desolate if one wants to get away from the noise). The ropeway closes somewhere at 8 pm I believe, so do not be too late otherwise you might have to walk down in the dark; I came down at around 7, while the sunset came pretty early at around 6:15 itself.
Since I had a long day ahead with a lot of train travel involved, I decided to get to bed early at 10 after some dubious edibles (!) again, looking forward to visiting the caves.
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