Pocharam - The Bird Sanctuary

Place : Pocharam Bird Sanctuary, Medak Dist, Andhra Pradesh.
Distance: 120kms from Hyderabad.

Places to see: The Pocharam Wild life and Bird Sanctuary are the two things any nature lover would like to see, but apart from these places there is a very huge Church which falls under the Medak Dist. In order to visit the wildlife sanctuary or the bird sanctuary you would need to take approval from the forest officer. Another thing which one must see and enjoy the feeling is the super old house which is known as the Inspection Bungalow. It’s a house which was built in the year 1418A.D. but it is still in pretty good condition.

It’s my Bhabhi who discovered the place of course from Internet and then we planned on visiting this place in the next coming weekend. I started googling the route and my brother checked on mapmyindia and finally we found the route it was a pretty clean and straight route. We started around 5o’clock in the morning on a Sunday and to our surprise we were there in Medak in 2hrs though we drove pretty slowly and we were very happy about that. The people there unfortunately couldn’t guide us to any inspection bungalows or something but whatever we had as printouts from google map we started moving further finally we reached the destination.

Few things to keep in mind when you go there:

• On the way you will find Narsapur forest and in my last few trips I have encountered some things like people sleeping on the road at night, you might feel you should help them but a strong suggestion DO NOT GET OFF FROM THE CAR, as this can be a false prank and you might be attacked.

• Try to keep your speed slow when driving through the forest though the roads are amazing and you will feel likely to speed up but it’s for the safety of the animals in the forest and always stop whenever you see some animal crossing the road. I have encountered few and those were real treat to your eyes.

• The route to the inspection bungalow is off track from the mail road you have a very small signboard showing the direction to the Inspection bungalow follow that it’s a village route and It will take you to the Inspection Bungalow.

• In the inspection Bungalow you have lots of monkeys and I have seen few snakes Just be careful always remember if you do not harm them they won’t hurt you.

So.. back to my experience …. We reached the inspection bungalow around 7:45AM. It was a beautiful morning lots of birds chirping sound of water and just the peace you look for when u go for an outing. We had some stuff with us to make tea my mom and dad started doing that while we (me my brother and bhabhi) started exploring the place. The view from the house is awesome you can actually see the islands I always wanted to and I still want to go to that place with a boat with me so that I can do some boating out there. Anyways so we got in the water it was amazing absolutely crystal clean. It was FUN !!! then mom and dad joined and after we got off the water we played for sometime ventured the house and then we started way back home. This was the first time when I went there. I went there once with a very good friend of mine it is still the most memorable trip for me. Then I went with Avik .. and then there is this trip in which I lost my car key in the DAM (till now the most hectic and tiresome trip..)

It’s a place which is 2and half hours away from the city and a place where you would just want a bottle of wine and the sketchbook..

Ettipotala Waterfalls - waterfall with trecking adventure.

Place : Ellipotala Waterfalls, A.P., India

Distance : 183kms, apx 10-12kms from Nagarjuna Sagar. Usually people visit Nagarjuna Sagar and Ettipotala waterfalls on the same day itself.
In my case I went there twice,,, when just to checkout the place on the way to nagarjune sagar... I think i din mention that in my last blog... But it was just for 5 mins to check the place.
Place to eat: You have a restaurant from AP Tourism where you can eat some common stuff.
So my journey began with my friend this time. It was me and my friend we started around 5:30AM on a Saturday morning.. It was an amazing weather to travel and explore the nature. I already knew the route so it was pretty convenient we had breakfast on the way. I was pretty well loaded with the trekking stuff because the last time i saw the place i was absolutely determined that i will go down to the water though there are boards of crocs in the water but I was way to determined to get down the mountain.
So, we did a locha here.. I knew that if i go the right way i am not going to be allowed to go down so we took a LONG route and went to the other side on the waterfall and then the adventure began. People usually climb up we were climbing down trust me its even scarier than climbing up. quite a few times we slipped but finally the place where we reached was absolutely worth it. U see in the picture the BIG rock beside the water fall we were sitting right there.. Gawd it was amazing.
Then came the bitter truth we had to climb up oh by the way We did not happen to encounter any Crocodile so we were pretty fortunate.. If u do this do at your own risk. So we started climbing and to find out the easier way when we reached on top we realized we are probably 2kms far from where i parked the car.
We were dying out of hunger so we had whatever was there in the car to eat and then we started way back home.
It was the only trekking experience i had in hyderabad but it was absolutely worth the effort and the risk i took.

Nagarjuna Sagar - Huge Dam and Buddha Dynasty

Place : Nagarjuna Sagar Dam , AP, INDIA
Distance: 175kms from Hyderabad by road, there are frequent buses also available to reach.

Places to see : The buddha Dynasty about which very few people know, this place was visited by Dalailama himself, there is a tree which is planted by him. Though this place which I am mentioning here is not that famous and not that well maintained but still you can feel the peace there, its apx 5-6 kms off route from Nagarjuna Sagar. U can see the ruins of a Civilization.

It was a sudden decision on a Saturday evening by my family (me+my mom+my dad+my cousin brother and his wife) that we should visit some place. So as usual we started googling for places for weekend getaway from hyderabad. We used to think Nagarjuna Sagar is very FAR and we can not make it in a day and we were looking for a place which can be covered in a day, but later we found that its actually even closer that Srisailam so we just took printout of the map fuelled up the car at night and packed some food....and the journey begins..

It was around 4O'clock on Sunday morning we started for Nagarjuna Sagar on my Indica the road was awesome. The only problem were the APSRTC buses they drive really bad, you feel as if their aim is to crush. Anyways we continues safely and slowly once we travelled around 75% of our distance and we started feeling hungry, so we had some boiled eggs and some breakfast stuff and we started again for our destination Oh i forgot to mention we made tea on the way... by lighting up some twigs and leafs on an aluminium kettle.. trust me its fun try it !!! On the way we Saw the grand NAGARJUNA SAGAR DAM Bridge, the place is extremely scenic so scenic that u just click the camera and its a perfect picture.

In Another 10 mins we reached the place where Dalailama planted the tree and the buddha dynasty existed once upon a time, after taking some pictures we started again for the DAM and we finally reached the boating Jetty. We purchased our Ferry tickets they costed 60/- per head for the trip to the Museum and return included. So we ran and boarded the best place on the ferry we were on the 1st floor of the ferry highly excited. It was an amazing ride though pretty long yet fun. We had some of the greatest sights on the way. We found many Buddha Sculptures and historic things on the way, we crossed islands and then we finally reached the place where there is a park a museum and some remains of the historic civilization.

We got down the ferry did a little of sightseeing and then we started returning, it wasn't as pleasant as that of going but we were still enjoying every bit of it. Then we started way back home. Now the thing is I saw so much of water and I couldn't get in the water because of the scare of crocodiles as you have signs everywhere that there is crocodile in the water but at last I just couldn't stop myself so I stopped the car, ran, and jumped in the water oh trust me it was risky but FUN !!! There was extreme current in the water the stones were rolling under the feet .. and the water was very cold !!

After a nice dip in water I was refreshed and then started the journey way back home.. around 8ish we reached home Safe.. :-)

Surya Lanka - Clean beach of AP

Place - Surya Lanka, Guntur(Dist), AP, India
Distance - 386 Kms by road from Hyderabad,
How to go ? - I went there by Car (road) and by Train. Going by car is adventurous but train is safe and comfortable
By Car - Take NH7 to guntur and then to bapatla from there 17 kms to the beach.
By Train - 5 trains are available from secunderabad to bapatla directly and then from there you can take an auto to reach the beach rs 10 per head.
Where to stay? - I stayed at the AP tourism beach resort and also at bapatla guest houses.
AP Tourism - U need to book the room at least 2 weeks before the arrival it costs 1365(on weekends) and 1155 on weekdays incl taxes.
Bapatla Stay - there are many places to stay in bapatla too but I wouldn't personally suggest for family to stay there they are not that clean.. though they are v economic apx 500 per night.

My First visit was with my family we drove down to suryalanka..next visit was with my friend.. then with colleagues.. and then with some more friends.. I i have been there quite a few times...
Few best things about suryalanka is the beach .. its a v nice and a clean beach.. not much of crown on weekdays so its always great to go there on weekdays when all u have the few people who are staying at the resort and the whole beach is for you... people are hardly bothered about what u do.. everyone is in their own world.. Its an absolutely safe place to visit... night Bonfire is just the best thing to do... Cottages are v beautiful .. last time when i visited i found they are building another set of cottages which are at a double storied height... so would visit to experience them sometime...
One memorable experience was when i went the first time i saw dolphins there it was winters and we also saw the fishermen fishing it was Huge.. and my mom being a fish lover she truly went mad looking at SO many fishes...
The food at the AP Tourism guest house isn't bad at all.. pretty homely and charges are pretty reasonable.. but if u want the best food u must try VASUKI at bapatla... their Andhra meals are so tasty that u just forget the taste another thing to try is raw fruit pulp and badam milk at bapatla.
This location is my favourite runaway place .. whenever i get tired and exhausted with the concrete life i prefer to run there and hear the sound of the sea and feel the breeze.. it relaxes your soul !!!! And if you are with someone u can get nottie... then .. u know how it can feel ;-)

Sri sailam - Dam and Lord Shiva Temple

Place - Srisailam, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh , India.
Distance - 185kms from hyd(by road)
Road Condition - Very nice to drive ....Scenic with sunflower plantation on both the sides and the mountain ranges.

This was my first ever trip in hyderabad with my best friends(Samiksha and Karan Kapoor)
It was Friday and i was doing 6:30PM to 3:30AM shift so I was in my office and Samiksha called and informing that we are going out to srisailam(heard first time) so i had to convince my parents and come with them... So lied and somehow convinced my parents and thankfully my mom prepared chicken and paratha for us and we started of around 6ish on Saturday morning.

Best road to drive... best buddies.... didi's car new santro... mom made food... and songs from Race (pahli nazar me...) wao it was just perfect.

On the way we saw monkeys lots of them.. and meet deer fed them.. and then we saw the great Srisailam Dam it was a lovely sight. Then was the surprise.. I saw puttu(a round boat made of cane) i believe many of us might have seen in rodies.. after seeing the puttu we crossed the dam and reached Srisailam. We were tired and full of dust so took a shower and and then started the adventure.. We first went for the boating ..the best part was we had to get down from the hilltop on a ROPE WAY.. it was seriously fun... then boating and lots and lots of pictures...

reached home, well home was a dharmshala here we three of us were staying.. thousands of funny incidents.. will try and upload some of those videos..

Then early in the morning we went for darshan bought super tasty laddus.. and then we started way back home...

On the way we stopped beside the river me being a water lover just couldn't resist just jumped in and so did Shammi.. karan kapoor who was scared also couldn't resist and finally made it to the water... that was of course some fun.. and then little puttu ride... then we started coming back home sad and tired :-(

But that din stop me and Shammi to take pics.. KK was of course tired so he sat behind and dozed off Shammi was driving and I was the photographer.. after sometime we realized we should take pictures in the sunflower field so we locked KK in the car and went in the fields.. clicked loads of pics.. when we came back we found KK awake and peeping out of the car window like a puppy.. was v v funny.. then we returned home tired refreshed happy sad.. all emotions together... but must say.. it was the most amazing and close to heart trip !!

The Intro !

A nice sunday morning and lovely weather ... the only thing which comes in mind is a nic journey... a bottle of nice red wine .. some sandwitches... and my sketching pad... and ofcourse my car and the cam !!
Well so thats how i am... a complete traveller...
I prefer when i donot know the destination.. might be just figuring out the route from maps.. get stuck.. get soiled.. and then just right at that moment fix the cam and lock the time..
Have visited some nice places around hyderabad.. truly wish to see more parts of India.. its just soo unexplored... wish to share some nice experience out here so if anyone out there wants to follow my tracks or may be show me some tracks i would love that...
So.. Keep reading !!!!
Saptarshi - hey thats my name.