weekends....

Had been to Rampachodavaram – 100 km from Rajahmundry.

The place is not only serene in nature but is also a jaw dropping beauty!!! Yes- more beautiful than the beauty showcased by the oomph factor’d babes in holly and bollywood! The road way to this place takes 2 hours and the roads are also fairly good conditioned.

We set out early in the morning at 5.30 on Sunday 7th of September. The planning was done a week before but could not be executed as none of us were free and this week it materialized………

The day before
At night 10pm I reached Rajahmundry from Kakinada in an hour chasing a maruti swift which zipped past us ….. 4th gear, 80 speedometer and zoom! That’s the way we crossed him and reached Rajahmundry in an hour time (generally it takes 1.5 hours to travel from Kakinada to Rajahmundry or vice versa)

Went to Ramu’s house, RK joined us there and all three of us went to the apartment T/2,3rd floor-the haunted house!!!! (Don’t ask me the story of this original script now…..I can’t even tell u the trailer as RGV would)

Slept happily.

But the sleep that was supposed to mesmerize me did not come as the eyes refused to close with the fear of missing the trip because once closed they would definitely travel into the wonderland and I would have to miss the real wonderland…so I tried not to sleep. How ever, I lost here after a couple of hours and sleep said “I would rather try to relax you till the time you are with me …… and seems that the fairy did some magic and let me sleep….but honest to her words….she woke me up at 5 am and went away blowing me a kiss of freshness and vitality for the days tour!

The day!

Finally the moment arrived when my mobile rang the alarm!! Cukdu coo!!!!!
Others at that point of time were sleeping so I shut my Cukdu coo to silence and tiptoed to get ready! Once ready for the adventure, I woke the remaining participants…… a bit late…. A bit beyond schedule…but that’s the way bachelors and Indians work and we are bachelors and Indians!!!! (Take nothing personally- even I love my country!)

Ready to leave I called up Ramu and went to the place he was waiting along with Nagaveera sir. Wooooo! The Scorpio was also ready…..only the travelers weren’t.By the time everyone joined it was around 6 am- the sun also woke up early today

The trip-on the way!
Enroute our destination, in the Scorpio, it was a chaotic yet jolly atmosphere built.
We all started talking about different topics –quite youthful in nature!

I will be a guide for you for sometime telling you all that I know about these temples as I have visited them earlier also with Ramu. In this trip we could not make it happen as we were short of time.

On the way the first temple that we came across was Shiridi Sai’s temple in Bhurugupudi which is said to be the replica of Dwarkamayee Shiridi and it indeed is. The deity seems to be the replica of the one in Shiridi and it was wonderful.

A little ahead of that was a small town known as Korukonda, famous for the KORUKONDA VARAHA LAXMI NARASIMHA SWAMY TEMPLE (see the pic.in the next page). The uniqueness about the temple is that it has 600 steps which will just fit half our foot or say the foot of a five year old baby will happily fit in. they are quite polished and any mishap could see us rolling down like Jack and Jill! Up above, in the temple, much to our surprise the deity was not bigger than the size of the palm!!! For darshan we have to kneel down and almost sleep half to have a view of the Idol.
The next in the line was Dwarka Tirumala on Thantikonda, the hill. History says that Lord Balaji, the lord of seven hills while wandering around wanted to take rest on this hill. It is said that the moment he set his foot on the hill, unable to bear the pressure, it caved in and Lord Balaji went away. The imprint of his foot can be found in the temple premises.
I have not been to Kashmir and have not seen the heaven there but what ever I have come across here in East Godavari has nothing less than that!

After this the next in line is but a route full of trees and greenery. Welcome to Gokavaram! This would be the route way to naxalite prone areas and a path way to heavenly beauty yet to unfold!

Gokavaram as a town has nothing much to offer and 10 km from there we stop near a temple- Kota sattama temple, the temple of Adishakti Mata where people and devotees from across the district come to give animal sacrifices to appease the Goddess. It’s a scenic beauty here as the temple is enveloped by the mountains and dense forest which at once reminded me of the Jurassic park!

There we all had a darshan of the goddess and after that had brunch before we moved ahead to the forest areas of Maredumilli

On the way, there were some scenic beauties which we could not afford to pass through without having it captured in our cameras. It was a brook by the mountains which attracted our attention-the destination was still afar but in between it was a jhalak dikhla ja!

The road way as such was a ghati (deep ravine on one side) as we proceeded further and the beauty enhanced with every kilometer that our vehicle covered & neared our destination.

well...there is a lot more coming in the next post,journey abhi baaki hai mere dost!.... happy weekend till then...