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Araku Valley Reviews

Bangalore India
One eyed view of Araku valley
Jan 03, 2007 11:36 AM 21477 Views

Araku Valley, bound within unknown faces of the Eastern Ghats amidst green fields and haze of clouds. Chillier winters, distance and height separate it from the rest of Vishakhapatnam (just 170km away from here) A majestically designed location for holiday hoppers stands, as always, to be explored just once more. Kirandul Express seems to be the only train connecting the place from Vizag. It leaves Vizag at 7:20AM to reach Araku at around 11:00AM traversing woble-goble round tracks and 32 dimly lit tunnels, the largest being about a km long.


We toured during Christmas Eve and it was a battle getting seats in the train (I would recommend to bribe coolies and assure your seat. There seems to be 11 general bogies, 1 sleeper class and three bogies for the AP-tourism reserved, making it exceedingly difficult to find a seat without a fight) But once you can get seated its a fascinating beautiful ride (though the first one hour seems boring with nothing interesting but after that its a real valley all the way with waterfalls, tunnels, hills, valleys, clouds, and so on) Although a significant beauty holds your journey towards the valley, Its seemingly a narrow town once you reach there.


Bora Guhalu the pre Araku stop would lighten the rush a bit as some tourist unboard here to see a cave of stalactites and stalagmites. But I would recommend to unboard at Araku valley and visit this during come back (arrange for vehicles from Vizag itself and make him wait at the Araku Valley station for the comeback) The next attraction would be to visit Ananthagiri hills having a waterfall and coffee plantations. A good picnic spot and time buster remains to be seen. An hour or two seems enough for the entire Ananthagiri hills. A tribal Museum, seemingly less interesting with boating inside and a 20 buck entry pass stands to be visited.


The museum boasts of having various tribes of the valley in models and statues along with their mode of habitat. Borra Caves is another Ram visited cave (somehow I find all Indian caves having some connections with Lord Rama and Sita). A 20 rupees entry (15 for children) precedes a long queue after which you get down several cascades of staircases to the entry point. The concrete steps is however built towards the entry and not beyond that recommended further for only young limbs. (I would recommend a guide for a complete informed visit of the Borra caves) But we managed to listen to the guides hired by others.


Inside the cave seems to be one hell of darkness broken by some electrified halogens. Various natural erosions have created fantastic cave patters in between (some like the lion, lord Shiva, ram-hanuman stuffs, etc etc. A guide would show you all of them). Some stupendous heroism depiction can be made here by climbing random large rocks some wet some curved, etc. The Indian Railway stone here says that some railway line has gone from above it. A mandir of lord Shiva, a quite dangerous steel staircase which swings when you climb it are among other attractions. The entire visit should take about 2 hours. A sumo ride till here took us till 4:00PM including 1/2 an hour for lunch at the Araku market place which seems to be the only spot for fetching items of needs (e.g. I needed an eye-drop) While you come back there is the TYDA Park.


Pretty costly to visit but promises to be a bird-watching zone where a resort type over night accommodation can be enjoyed. We slipped it by chance of luck and saved some amount of money. We however sneaked from the gate within while coming back. The long 4.5 hour journey back, brought us to Jagadamba Square (where we were living at a decently priced lodge called Anand lodge - pretty gloomy but good enough for living (even for families), and who would care for class in a tour) Over and all Jagadamba area is a marketing zone with the Trinity Lutherine church. It was immensely lighted during Christmas with Telugu carols by children. We spent the evening at the Ramakrishna Beach (3km from Jagadamba).


It’s a decent beach with no food available except juice, samosa and tea. There is an aquarium of various sea livings just opposite to this (at an entry of Rs 20) and a temple of various gods (not goddesses - I learnt that in south India female goddesses are not worshipped for some reason) just opposite to the beach. Otherwise RK beach (Ramakrishna Beach) is a great place for the evenings. The tide is not too dangerous even and the waves are smooth. The beach is straighter than other beaches in Vizag. An entire day spent from 4 in the morning till 8 at night but it was worth the sceneries and enjoyment :) -arnab


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Recent Questions and Answers on Araku Valley

500

Hello friends, I booked (122) rail cum road tour to aruku from vizag for 20th jan 2018. But currently when i checked the same aptdc web site i didn't find any booking inquiries/reservation details for that specific packge. And when I call the aptdc no. they told me that the Rail cum road packge is cancelled and closed for next 1 month due to there agreement issues with IRCTC. And when I asked about my ticket they told me that I have to go by road(bus) by showing that ticket. What to do now??

Jan 12, 2018

By: biswajitmishra991

Answers: 1

500

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