Borra caves & Ketaki Falls - 30 Oct, 2009

I had my tickets booked for the only train to Borra in the day, the 6:50 am one to Borraguhallu from the Vizag station. I was at the station at 6:20 and the train was there already. Good thing I had reserved my ticket in the sleeper section for 99 bucks 3 days back, as the unreserved section was as usual very crowded. The sleeper was filled up with people carrying on further to stations beyond Borra, while most of the people visiting Borra were in the coaches specially reserved for AP tourism tours. After the first hour of travel, we finally arrived at the hills. The view is completely on the right side, the left side has heavy forest cover right next to the train on a gradient, which doesn’t allow you to see much. The scenery is quite something in the bright sunlight, with the hills, the train passing through all the tunnels (a few of them exceeding 500 meters in length), and at times the single track passing over drops of more than 9-10 floors. As usual I spent most of the time at the gate, with my head out, the only way I know how to travel on a train!

Contraryo to what I’d read, the train took only 2 hours 45 minutes to the Borraguhallu station, I stood there at 9:45 am. Ignoring the jeep touts, there are a lot of jeeps standing outside the small station, I set out on foot. I took a wrong turn at the small settlement there and realized 20 minutes of hike on the roads later that I was en route to Araku valley, so had to turn back and head the other way. The Borra caves are about a km or 2 from the train station, so if you can’t handle a little hike on the slopes in the sun, you better take the jeeps. The ticket costs 30 bucks, and another 100 for a digicam. I was tempted to take a ticket for a reel camera, which was just 20 rupees, as I was quite sure that just like everywhere else they won’t bother to check here at the gates as well. As I’d thought, they didn’t bother to check my camera, but I had honestly paid a 100 bucks already!

At the entrance of the caves itself, you can realize how mammoth the structure would be, the mouth opening in front of you to give you a peek at the few illuminated areas providing a nice shadow dance on the walls. Beware of the rowdy monkeys here, who have their courage imbibed from Hanuman himself, and aren’t scared to lunge at any edible you have out (I witnessed a couple of food grabs by the tailed creatures here). The stalactites and stalagmites formed in the cave really present quite a view at some points. There are a few things that the guides point out, one referring to a rock formation to as, I swear this to be true, a ‘dinosaur’, some other as lion, some even as a Hindu god. The path here is lighted for the majority of the way, with railings on the sides so that the public doesn’t wander off into the deeper portions of the cave. The path towards the left goes to the bottom of the cave (at least till where its allowed), and you even have to bend down in order to pass under a huge boulder leaning onto the path.

The limestone formations next to the path present some sight. The lights at some point reflect orange and green hues which do make for a good snap, if you have a decent camera. In the middle of the cave, there is also a small temple; well its more like a rock formation in the shape of a shivling which is now prayed at a lot. It even has its own Pandit sitting there full time reciting prayers. The authorities have created a flight of artificial steps leading up to this place, I was hanging on to the railings all the time I was walking on this path (imagine being afraid of height inside a cave!). Near the mouth of the cave, there is a big hole in the ceiling, through which you can see a lot of trees, now that’s a site you wouldn’t want to miss, gazing out from the darkness into the trees some 100 or so feet up.

I rested for a bit inside the cave, watching the masses pass by and enjoy posing next to the walls, and then pushed off. My train back was at 4:40 pm, and it was just 1:00 pm right now. Fortunately I got a jeep driver who had space for 1 more person, and he was taking the rest to Ketaki falls nearby. I made sure that we’d be back in time to catch the train, and then joined the group of 10 already in the jeep. (You can haggle a bit with the jeep driver, I paid 70 bucks, though in 75, you can get a round trip from the train station to the caves, Ketaki falls and back) The 7-8 km drive took around 30 minutes due to the rocky slopes, the road is definitely suitable only for a 4 wheel drive, not for big vehicles though. I did see an auto on the way, but trust me, that ride would not be easy on the rear. There was a group of 8 kids coming from Vizag, and I befriended them on the journey. When the driver finally stopped, I could see no sign of the falls in the vicinity, turns out there was a hike of 3-4 km involved, as there was no motorable road to the falls from this point on. So we passed the rail tracks, and huffed and puffed the narrow, hilly route to the falls. I though I was the only one who was having trouble with the hike, but it turns out, all the people I met on the way were catching their breath resting on the roadside. I met a couple of people descending the slope midway to the falls, we looked at each other, no words exchanged, and everyone broke into a laugh at the way we were sweating and panting like dogs, each one empathetic to the plight of the other!

Finally we arrived at the falls, and it was beautiful, a small waterfall, not much water, but deep enough to reach almost your chest at a couple of places. The people were enjoying a lot, since most of them were young kids, shouting out and jumping into the water, posing for snaps. I limited myself to just a few sprinkles on my head as I stood under the falls for a couple of seconds, and my tee and jeans got drenched. The water here was quite cold and pretty soon people were shivering. Thankfully, the route back had plenty of warm sunshine to dry my clothes off. The surrounding forest cover is not that thick, but enough to warrant no un-guided forays. On the way back you can see a few tribals selling pure honey, and a little kid selling amla. I bought a few and shared the bitter fruit with my new formed friends from Vizag. We also posed for a few snaps on the rail tracks on the way back to the jeep, ready for the bumpy ride back.

Lunchtime, and we stopped over at one of the small shops, bypassing the more lavish ones. I sat down to eat on the banana leaf with everyone else, the daal and rice, and the vegetables seemed to be one of the best meals I had eaten, after the tiresome trek. Though I was the only one eating with a spoon, I enjoyed as one of them only, but still unable to match their 2nd and 3rd helpings of rice. I washed it all down with a small glass of butter milk as well, full up to the brim now. The supple meal cost me 40 bucks, a bit pricey maybe because of the tourism effect. With the sun now a light orange in the sky we got back to the station at 4:15 itself, where I said goodbye to my friends as they were staying back in Araku valley. Waiting at the station, I got into a conversation with another outsider there, Mohammed Asif, a chap who had come down from Hyderabad. He was also waiting for the train, and since it was more than an hour late, we sat in the nice evening sunlight and chatted away. The married fellow who’d been working in Kuwait for the last 5-6 years was here without his wife and kids, the former being down with fever. Talked a lot about his life outside the country, his engineering days, his family members near Vizag, and random stuff. When the train finally arrived, it was as usual full to the brim, but I had a first class ticket ( I had reserved it beforehand for 180 bucks so as not to get stuck here out of nowhere, where the trains were rare to come by).

The tunnels in the night, the dark outlines of the hills, the trees that you could still make out in the darkness of the night now, everything, well spent from the doors of the coach, where else?

Vizag day 1 - Oct 29, 2009

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.