Vijayawada Trip

Vijayawada trip

Date : 5-3-2011
Place : Vijayawada
People : Megarajan and Raghavendra

Another day, Another Marriage, this time in Vijayawada.

There is something interesting about caves and I heard there were many caves around vijayawada. Hence the plan was to see as many of them as possible.
These were the ones I had in mind.

[1] Undavalli caves
[2] Mogalrajapuram caves
[3] Akkanna and Madana caves

But I was able to see only Undavalli caves in this trip and I had to miss the others.

Undavalli caves

The undavalli caves were just outside of vijayawada and were well maintained by the ASI.



Description of the undavalli caves



Old Telugu Inscriptions in the cave



Brahma and other associated gods.



anantasayana perumal



Greenery around the caves :



Garuda ;



Not sure who these people are , but they keep a constant watch.




Amaravathi stupa :

In my last trip , I missed this one and I expected a lot out of this. But it turned out be a damp squib with nothing more than a mound.

This is a buddha statue currently being built to make amaravathi more prominent in the buddhist tourist map.








this is model of the stupa which must have been present in amaravathi .




Kondapalli fort


In my many previous treks, though I have not been the fittest of all, I have seen many people struggling hard to climb, and needed help. But today was the day when it caught up with me and I was left gasping for breath and I had to see others waiting for me to catch up. :-( . Somehow with the help of Raghavendra who accompanied me in this trip, I was finally able to climb to the top.




The fort was a big one and it had the nicest of views.






Kondapalli Toys

After we climbed down the kondapalli fort, we spent a lot of time going through the shops in the kondapalli village and finally I didnt buy anything worthwhile.
The toys were many and were very good. I wish they were more popular and they sold more of them.



This was the biggest of them all and was eye catching.

My Travels

Hi,

I am giving the links to my older posts here as I felt it was difficult to navigate around this blog.

1. The After Effects of Tsunami : A Weekend Gone Sour

2. Tirupati Trip

3. Coonoor - Kothagiri Trip

4. Wayanad Trip

5. Guntur Trip

6. Halebid Belur Trip

7. Thekkady - Idukki Trip

8. Munnar Trip

9. Hyderabad - Waarangal Trip

10. Mazhai In madras

11. Pondicherry Trip

12. Caves In/around Chennai - 1 - Goodiyam Caves

13. Kaatupalli Island Trip

14. Waalajah - Arcot - Vellore Trip

15. Chitoor Trip

16. Hills in Chennai - 1 - Chinna Malai

17. Hills in Chennai - 2 - Parangi Malai

18. Temples in Chennai - 1 - Thiruvalluvar Temple

19. Caves In/around Chennai - 2 - Chinna Malai Cave

20. Caves In/Around Chennai - 3 - Vallam Caves

21. Temples In Chennai - 2 - Singa Perumal Kovil

22. Temples in Chennai - 3 - Sekkizhar Kovil

23. Temples in Chennai - 4 - Kundrathoor Murugan Kovil

24. Temples in Chennai - 5 - Thiruneermalai Kovil

25. Tada falls

26. Kollimalai Trip

27. Kannur and Thalassery Trip

28. Nilgris Trek Day 1

29. Nilgris Trek Day 2

30. Nilgris Trek Day 3

31. Nilgris Trek - Murugamalai

32. Nilgris Trek Day 4

33. Nilgris Trek Day 5

34. Nilgris Trek Day 6

35. Kottai Malai

36. Poosimalai Kuppam Aranmanai

37. S V Nagaram Aranmanai

38. Goa Trek Day 1

39. Goa Trek Day 2

40. Goa Trek Day 3

41. Goa Trek Day 4

42. Goa Trek Day 5

43. Goa Trek Day 6

44. Goa Trek Day 7

45. Goa Trek Day 8

46. Goa Trek Day 9

47. Kollimalai Trek Day 1

48. Kollimalai Trek Day 2

Worlds's Most Controversial Destinations

Worlds most controversial destinations

Have a look at the worlds most controversial destinations as of today.

Kolli Malai Trip

People : Mega, Muthu,Babu,Shivanand,Sarpalan,Vijay,Prateek and Arun
Place : Namakkal and Kollimalai
Date : 8 and 9 , Sep 2007

When the time for a Quarterly Team outing grew near, Sarpalan was quick to invite all of us over to his hometown Namakkal and hence thereby visiting Kollimalai also.
So the Team outing was arranged to be Kollimalai.

Places we had visited :

1. Namakkal Anjaneyar Kovil
2. Arapaleeswarar Kovil
3. Kollimalai Waterfalls
4. Kolli Paavai Kovil or Ettu Kai Amman Kovil

Namakkal Anjaneyar Kovil

Though I had previously crossed this temple during my college days, I hwas not able to visit it that time.



A Candid Photo of myself inside the temple taken by my friend Shivanand.



After finishing with the Namakkal Anjaneyar Temple our next stop was Kollimalai.

Places to be seen at Kollimalai :

These are the places to be seen at Kollimalai. I would say this is an exhaustive list. Make sure that you visit atleast a couple of these place when you are in kollimalai.



Trip Upward :

The trip to the bottom of the Kolli malai was scenic and straight out of a bharathiraja movie.



The climb up the hill was a trip into nature full of awesome sceneries.



Video of a Hairpin bend

Kollimalai boasts of having 70 hairpin bends and in one of them many of Large vehicles have no option but to take Reverse gear to turn. See yourself in the below video.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=7UrpUCIxKx4

Seeku Paarai or Suicide Point :

This is one of the Viewpoints that we had time to visit and a good place to enjoy nature.



Semmedu :

This, I believe is the biggest village in Kollimalai and this is where we stayed for the night.

Morning walk :

Couple of us decided to an impromptu morning walk and the result was these awesome clicks.



Pepper plant.



Boating :

Kollimalai now boasts of an artificial Boating place and the boating was pleasant with nobody to disturb us.





Arapaleeswarar Kovil:

The Arapaleeswarar Kovil is a old temple situated near the waterfalls.
It is a "Paadal Petra Sthalam" also.



The temple has a good number of Tamil inscriptions. I am not sure whether someone has taken the effort to decipher these inscriptions.



Kolli malai Waterfalls :

The Waterfalls is the highlight of Kollimalai and you wont regret it after the steep climbdown of some 1000 odd steps.

At The Beginning of the Path to Waterfalls



The main Waterfalls



Video of the waterfalls



http://youtube.com/watch?v=dC2PbRiNWq8

The climb up to the starting point after the bath in the waterfalls is on the extreme side of trekking and can be quite daunting for anyone who is not a frequent trekker.

Resting halfway during the climb up of the waterfalls.



Kolli Paavai Kovil :

The Kolli Paavai Kovil is the most famous temple, haviing a Pazhamozhi to its fame.
The saying goes that "Kolli Paavai sirithe Kolvaal",roughly translating to (kolliPaavai will kill by tempting with her laughter)



The Temple:



Thanks to Sarpalan for his efforts in organising this trip and his family for their great hospitality.

Cheers
Megarajan

10 Most Beautiful Indian Roads

10 Most Beautiful Indian Roads

Hills in Chennai - 2 - Parangi Malai

This is the second part in the "Hills in Chennai" series.

This hill known earlier as Parangi Malai is now more commonly known as St.Thomas Mount after the saint and the church built on top of this hill.

If you would like to have a feeling of travelling(atleast for a short while) in winding roads and blind turns in chennai, you can try this hill. We can travel in vehicles till the top of this hill.

Entrance :



Church :



Story:



This hill offers a nice view of the Madras City and importantly the Airport.
You can get a nice view of planes taking off and landing from the top of this hill.

Velachery Swimming Pool Complex:



TIDEL Park:



Nandambakkam Trade Centre :



Chennai Airport:



Sunset :



The next hill in this series would be Thiruneer Malai.

Hills in Chennai - 1 - Chinna Malai

Hills in Chennai !!!! ?

If you think that I am out of my mind to talk about an hill in the City of Chennai, Sorry, I can show you many hills in Chennai.

This is the first part in the series - Hills in Chennai

Chinna Malai or Little Mount :

This hill is right in the heart of Chennai. Dont think I am joking. This hill is right on the Mount Road or Anna Salai , the arterial road of chennai. The bus stop next to saidapet on Mount Road is known as Chinna Malai or Little Mount and this is where you find this hill. You wont be able to see the hill from the road , but the entrance is there right on the road.



If you ask me where is the hill in the above photo, I would have to say that the church is constructed right on top of the hill. Oh, Do you call that a hill ? Thats why it is called as Little Mount or Chinna Malai. :-)

Before you are back from the shock that a hill is right on Mount Road, give me another chance to give you a bigger shock. Yes I can show you a Cave in chennai.
Whenever anybody says Caves and Chennai , it will be Mahabalipuram , but there is a cave right in the heart of chennai. It is there for you to see in this Chinnamalai.

The church on top of Chinna Malai



Inside view of the church



Entrance to the Cave :

This is the entrance to the Cave where St.Thomas was hiding.



Inside the cave :

This is the inside view of the cave.



Places to be seen in Chinna Malai:



Story of Chinna Malai:







The next hill in the series would be Parangi Malai or St.Thomas Mount.

Cheers
Megarajan