Monday, August 7, 2017

Hyderabad to Basara 1 day trip.

Hyderabad to Basara Trip.

We planned to go basara for my younger son akshrabhyasam, Hyderabad to basara around 210 Km from Hyderabad (Kukatpally), We started from Hyderabad around 6:40 in the Morning and we took Nagapur Highway/NH44, route like – Hyderabad – Medchal – kamareddy – Dichpally – Nizambad – basara.

We took break at kamareddy for breakfast, there are plenty of dhaba’s in NH44, after breakfast we started from kamareddy and reached the dichpally around 9:30AM, until dichpally its NH44 and road is awesome, we have to take left turn for Basara from this point, and 50 KM drive for basara from dichpally. Out of 50 Km 20 KM road is good remaining 30 KM road is not in good condition but you can manage it.

We reached basara around 11:00 AM, as we already booked the satram so we took the room there, there is a break for darshan/aksharabhayam from 12:30 PM to 2:00PM so we planned to visit Godavari river pushkhar ghat for bath. From temple its around 2 KM and there were plenty of sharing autos from temple to reach pushkhar ghat. Water is not so good, we plan to go for boat riding, there were many boats available and per head they charge 30 or 40 depend on persons, they will take you some distance and there we can take the bath and will come back, my kids enjoyed the boat riding. It’s a normal manual boat not pedal or motor boat.

We came back to room, take the bath again, finished the lunch, and went for aksharbhayasam. As that day is, Muala nakashtram and I expected more crowd but crowd is not much. There are two type of tickets for aksharabhayasam 1)1000 Rs 2) 100Rs. 1000 rs ticket will do akshrabhayasam at main temple in front of god Sarasvati and 100 rs there is separate hall . 1000 rs ticket they will allow only two members for extract member they will charge 100 extra. There are Plenty of shop to buy the Akshrabhayasam KIT( 1 Big slate 3 small slates and etc…) they will charge 80 Rs. When you go for aksharabhayasam we need two garlands one for kid and other one offer to god Sarasvati, we don’t know about this but when I enter into the queue there is a board and their only they are selling the garlands and they are charging two much(2 small size garlands they are charging 100 RS, hardly worth of 20 RS) but as we don’t have choice we took the garlands from there only.  

Akasharabhayasam will do like batch wise and it will take hardly 5 to 10 minutes, after that one by one will go to pujari place and he will write on the slate with baby hand. After that, we can go for darshan of God Sarasvati and five more minutes it will take for darshan.

After darshan, there is another place to visit Vyasa Guha just 100 meters from temple.
Came back to room and took rest 1 hour and started back to Hyderabad, we started around 6:00PM and we reached home by 11:00 PM. as it night journey I didn't cross more than 80 speed.


Hyderabad to basara – approximately 210 KM and for me it took 4:30 hours including break. It is one-day trip.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Hyderabad to Srisailam

Hyderabad to Srisailam

After Many discussion with family members finally decided to go Srisailam.

From Hyderabad to Srisailam around 210 Km, We started from Hyderabad around 8:30 in the morning and went from Outer Ring road and took the exit 14 for srisailam highway, so the number of KM are 235Km as we went via ORR. Drive is awesome and road condition is great.

Route – Hyderabad – ORR exit 14 – Kadthal – Amangal  - kalvakurthi- Munnanur- srisailam

We took the food from home as I saw some blogs says there wont be hotels in highway, but on the way to srisalam I saw nearly 10 to 15 dhaba’s.

I reached the Munnanur around 11:30 AM as we took the break at Amangal for break fast.

From Munnanur to srisailam is around 80Km and its Ghat road. We have register our vehicle at Munnanur check post before enter into forest. Registration fee for light weight vehicle is 10 rs and don’t throw away the slip at the end of the Forest check post they will verify the same.

Once you enter into Munnanur forest check post, after 25Km you can find the mallapur village from there if you take left turn and travel 8Km then you find the water falls named Mallela Thirtham.
Mallapur to Mallela Thirtham is just 8KM but road condition is not so great but you can manage… once you reach Mallela Thirtham you have to step down 360 steps to reach the water falls, when I went there the flow of water falls are not so great..

After spending 2 hours of time there then we started to srisailam and its 50Km of Ghat road in the ghat you rarely see the vehicles and you can see plenty of monkeys in the road side, my kids enjoyed the trip..

After 10 to 20 KM you can find the wild life Sanctuary, you can find big tiger picture in front of that sanctuary there they arrange the forest safari, around 20 KM they took you into forest in their vehicle and they charge you 100 Rs per head, timings are 10 AM to 5PM. I missed this one as I enquirer on my return trip.

Once we reached the exit of forest check post they asked the ticket when we took the ticket from entry point luckily I kept the ticket in my pocket, there no need to pay anything that is just checking.

Exit of forest check post village called Domala penta.

Before 17Km of Srisailam we can find the Dam view point, Tea vala and ice cream vala asking you to stop at all view points. There are more than one Dam view points but there is a proper view point which clearly written as view point.

We had spent 30 min, no gates were opened and no water.

Once we enter into srisailam we stopped the vehicle at Sakshi Ganapati Temple and we offer the pray. (All pilgrims generally tend to start their visit to Srisailam from Sakshi Ganapati temple.)

Once we reached the srisailam we took the room as I already booked, (I didn’t find any online room booking from temple site, but we can book the rooms from APTDC site).

After fresh up we went for Darshan, I took 150 Rs ticket and it took me 30 min for Darshan.

Next day we went for local sightseeing. There are 6 to 7 places for sightseeing.

Pathala ganga – just 1 Km from temple and there is a free bus service from temple and there are number of sharing autos. Even you can talk with auto wala and take the package of local tour to cover all the places. But we took sharing auto and went pathala ganga.

There are 800 steps to reach patha ganga, but AP government arranged the Rope way to reach the pathala ganga but it took you some point only  still you need to get down 160 steps to reach pathala ganga. Rope way ticket is 71Rs, there is a facility for Boat riding, either you can take a combo ticket(Ropeway + Boating) or you can take boat riding once you reach pathalaganga 50 Rs per head.

Rope way – I took the rope way ticket and waited for 1 hour. Once I get down I decided to go for Boat riding and I took the tickets for boat riding at Pathala Gana point and Boat riding was 20 min. they took you till the DAM and bring you back.

After lunch we vacated the hotel room and started visit other visiting points as these are on the way back to Hyderabad.

We saw hatakeswarm and we dropped to see the paladhara/panchadhara as there is no water more over we have get down 160 steps to reach paladhara.

We went shikaram, from srisailam it is 8 KM. there is Nandi at shikaram, we can see the srisaila malli karjuna temple gopuram from this point.

We dropped some sightseeing places as forest check post will close.

We started back to Hyderabad with sweet memories.

Note - you can find the petrol pump at munnanure after this you cant find the petrol pump. Please check the Air and fuel before entering into ghat section.

Thanks.
Subhash