My last diary post was about how terrible we were feeling without any movie releases, visiting the same malls, and most of the times landing up at the same restaurants/pubs..I just broke the monotony last week! God Bless..
We went to a beach in Andhra Pradesh, 350 kms from Hyderabad. We have been in Hyderabad for more than 3 years, but we got to know about this beach only about a fortnigh before. We had mixed feelings of guilt and excitement at the same time. Guilt because we were sooo lazy not to discover this in 3 years, excited because we had some NEW place to go.
The beach is called Suryalanka Beach. As I mentioned earlier, it is about 350 km from Hyderabad. Having found the destination we scouted for the route. Basic "googling" came in handy. A few posts guided us on the route to the place. However, a colleague had been there and she gave us some useful informaion, including do's and don'ts.
Here are some:
1 Book for a cottage at the beach, before thinking of travelling there. Reason: The beach has only 12 cottages, owned by APTDC. Weekends they are full, and there is NO other alternative to halt at the beach.
So, we booked a room (Rs.1350/-) for a day (25-Apr-09) from the Secunderabad Yatri Nivas. (Yatri Nivas is the AP Govt. owned travel and tourism center in HYDBD)
- Get a route map before you drive down. We went scouting for a route map. A post on team-bhp site helped.
We found out the route to the beach. We decided we will go via Vijaywada. Got a few snacks and started off at 4:30 am from Hydbd.
Here is the route we took.
Miyapur-->>DilsukhNagar (40 Km)
DilsukhNagar-->>Vijaywada (260 km)
Vijaywada--Guntur (30 Km)
Guntur--Bapatla (45 Km) (Take a left turn at HIMA Petrol Pump)
Bapatla-->> Suryalanka Beach (10 Km)
Hyderabad to Vijaywada is the NH9, and the 50 Km drive just before reaching Vijaywada is EXCELLENT. The road is very very good and you will clock 120kmph easily in your vehicle.
It is advisable to leave Hydbd early in the morning, so you can avoid a lot of APSRTC Volvo Buses coming into Hydbd from Vijaywada. And trust me, truck drivers have better driving sense and respect for other vehicles.
Since, this was our first 300+ km trip, we were very very careful and were not racing agains time, it was a pleasure trip.
We reached VJWD by 11 am. Took a few snaps enroute and then headed of to Guntur and then to Bapatla. We reached by 1 pm.
We drove straight into the beach, this is one of the few beaches where you can take your vehicle to the shore. We spend some time there and headed to our room. It was scorching heat and the humidity was badoutside. But the thrill of the journey and being in a beach in AP was a great feeling.
The food wasn't very good but manageable. Evening we were on the beach again. And we planned to visit the Buddha Stupa in Amaravati (40km from Vijaywada). Next day we started off at 9am, reached VJWD by 11am. From VJWD to Amaravati the drive is through green fields and therefore the scenic beauty is excellent. We reached the Buddha Stupa at 1 pm. The statue is an imposing structure and a must visit.
Our return journey began at 2 pm from VJWD and we reached HYDBD by 8 pm.
A very happy, enjoyable, and safe trip. Thanks to God!
Here I am again, wondering when will hey release movies. We have booked tickets for "Confessions of a Shopaholic" for tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
Avinash
