Papi Hills
We started at around 3 AM , the entire journey was a 24 hour one.
So we started on the bike loaded with food and lot of water , actually bottles of water. So once we crossed the Khammam border I picked up speed, we agreed on going to some average to smoothen the bike ride.
We had this culverts like the white ones on the side of the road to rest the backs as I know back is going to ache like hell.
Praveen did try the bike and he didn't get it smoothly I told him how to do it , he easily understood and caught up with it soon.
We reached Bhadrachalam by 6 AM where we were able to get the first breakfast , I guess I had masala dosa while he had poori .
We lost our directions of the road as the road felt too weird . So I gave my internet as a share while praveen checked the google maps on his android phone. We were on the correct route. As we were going through those tribal areas we realised that it was a day for elections and wow there was hell lot of security, it was a Z security force.
As we moved away from the main road and went to the road for kunavaram we found a nice mirchi field where we took pics, it was quite a pleasant scene when we saw godavari beside us , we did stop to take some pics.
Just before we reached Kunavaram we saw a snake and was the most poisonous one "Cobra" on the road . Well we just went away , later we felt like we could have taken a picture of it.
As we reached yet another bridge where we stopped like crazy and took Sabari the river pictures, we were asking ourselves why there were no more boats at kunavaram ? A local answered that parking is hard and also there is very less water in the summer for the boats.
so VR puram was the place we were supposed to go , it was the real tribal route where we lost the entire cellphone coverage area .. and was it wild? It was and the ride almost felt it like it was worth the effort driving on a bike, it was a paradise .. a single road well tarred but not a single vehicle in sight.
Ofcourse there were also nice views of godavari but it was dangerous to stop as passing vehicles dont have a place in all those twists and turns .. oh yeah it was small ghat road.
We were for a shock as we reached the boat place there were lot of tourists waiting it was a completely disconnected area where we were told to buy as much water as possible , we purchased some soft drinks but we had to wait for quite some time for the boats to start.
The best thing is we didn't take the AC boat but we decided to take the normal boat with normal people , we were asked many times and I had to refuse as its quite silly moving in and out and how the hell are we going to enjoy the atmosphere with closed windows ?? Later i realised they had also an option to come up and probably the quality of service might be good but it was just too pointless even to consider.
The only sad thing was the waiting time and the temparatures was rising we were kind of thinking on taking the morning trip but later got to know its only one time stamp thats 11-4 or something like that they even offered us breakfast and we could buy cooldrinks in the boat itself whenever we want the poor kids saved them in ice packs and they were selling it for quite cheap and I didn't even think a second while buying limca. The stupid multiplexes of the city fleece us for no good reason.
As we waited in the front there was a big speaker and I bugged them a lot to decrease the sounds and my co passengers supported me . The gang who was heading it was also quite sportive . Me and praveen were like two photographers crazily taking pictures of every damn thing which looked close to a scenic beauty.
We went on to the place where the whole place was shown including where the damned polavaram dam would start. We did stop by the perantalapalli and the sand dunes. I distictly remember these two places and some people got down to stay there for the night and some people also had the option to catch a boat to rajahmundry which definitely would be a thing of past as we are pretty sure the river wont be navigable after the dam.
We started at perantalapalli where we climbed up and I was at the temple sitting outside in the rocks while I told praveen to check it out. I sat there seeing all the people from other boats including the upper class rich people who came on the AC boat and I had to chuckle at their stupidity. I sat on a rock , folded my trouserss and was relaxing my legs in the cool water. Ohh yeah i had those damned shoes which I removed. Many people did come and enjoyed the cool stream while the adventurous gang went up . We were told not to go up and disturb them , well I didnt want to disturb them but hell we did come all the way here and my memories of that place weere quite fresh after 16 years or so !!
We had a gang who came with us and I was encouraging them to come up with me, praveen caught up with me very slowly and hell we took lot of pics quite nice ones. I did slip and fell into the water for all the jumping and yeah my shoes were wet and I didn't care. Later in the boat I was bare foot while the shoes probaby were stinking lol
Anyways as we came back we did buy our share of crafts and they were pretty cheap and some we did bargain and the most interesting one was a thing where I asked not to put colours and she didn't agree. I explained how its good naturally with just the bamboo coulours and any extra colours would just make it artificial . Luckily a guy was making it and they were convinced thankfully I waited and we got it.
I sat on a bench as praveen took some pics and praveen had some great ideas for pics and I was not so encouraging sadly.
As we went for the lunch back in the sand dunes. I remember praveen jumping into another boat inorder to jump queue, I also jumped off and we were early before our boat started eating we were half way . It was a buffet and wow the biryani did taste awesome and we ate till the hearts filled and I sat on one end of the tent on the ground which to a class like me felt was an appropriate place, me being the trend setter did convince another class of people to follow me lol.
We went down to the river to take pictures of boat rivers and mountains. Our stuff was all in the boat and I was pretty sure no one would take it and I was right ohh yeah we still drank the water from home in order to avoid contamination.
Later as the temparatures rose on boat we were getting comfortable moving around and obviously praveens camera battery has died and so did mine :(
And there was some program starting and we went and sat back as there were some fun games or silly stuff happening , it was the correct thing to go back and see how people are doing.
Praveen sat with camera and his stuff while I went to the end of the boat and infact Papi hills we are done and we are going back to the place where we started . I was seated at the corner where there was quite less place and was a bit scary on the top . I asked for some pics of mine and I did take some people pictures as well .
Later I bugged praveen to come to the rear end and we took hell lot of pics with his cell phone and it was still running :)
It was comiing to an end , so did the boat program which actually to my surprise was very much liked by people and they did give some money back to the anchors .Well there definitely is a cultural disconnect with me :D
We came back actually took our bike scared people by coming in the way of cars on the single road we finally managed to reach kunavaram and we jumped into the water.
I went to buy some plastic covers and i failed atleast something from a shop which had some broken covers while I purchased center fresh. I came back and I lost my bike key as I was about to search for it there was cute little girl and her gang of kids who were asking about the handicrafts we were carrying and we were tired and I was tensed about the key and was explaining it while praveen searched. They were from rajahmundry and came for visiting relatives at kunavaram which made me realise how deep their connections were upstream and downstream of the river.
Hurray praveen found the key while we went to the centre where we purchased some plastic covers small ones and went ahead for better plasic covers shop we did buy them a lot so that the crafts are stable. Balancing them and sitting was the trick. Praveen did get to drive more this time.
We reached a town where we made phone calls and drank some cola and filled water from 2 litre bottle, mama called and the phone slipped and fell on the road it was almost dark and guess what a villager picked the parts and gave to me and wow just a scratch for that fall. We were asked to meet his friend at bhadrachalam.
So it was almost the end when I had to go to the place of mamas friend. I did reach a place where we thought it was this guy and pinged him . Hi I am pavi are you waiting for me .. lol he turned out to be suspicious police and guess what he interrogated me like hell .. I was actually in a good mood so I answered him everything and wow pehle tho mera story itna theda hai .. I could have given him some default story ..felt like speaking truth .. that guy had too many questions lol and lot of inconsistencies in my life probably made him more curious :D
A kid came and led us the way to some palace like house. The guy is an ITDA person while the lady was lecturer mamas collegue. We were given talcum powder and asked to comb hair by and old lady l. WTF I havent heard that dialogue for quite a long time. The freshening up was good as I got hot water and washing my ached face and hands was relaxing.The house was well decorated with nice taste.
Later we sat and were chatting continuously and it was dinner time. hurray I was so happy to have dinner and it was awesome chicken mutton and god knows what !! I did tell mama that it was too good a host .. reminds me of some bad host some time back :D
We reached slowly a bit confused at one place we went off by 10 kms , had to come back a bit.
Reached at 3 AM again !
So we started on the bike loaded with food and lot of water , actually bottles of water. So once we crossed the Khammam border I picked up speed, we agreed on going to some average to smoothen the bike ride.
We had this culverts like the white ones on the side of the road to rest the backs as I know back is going to ache like hell.
Praveen did try the bike and he didn't get it smoothly I told him how to do it , he easily understood and caught up with it soon.
We reached Bhadrachalam by 6 AM where we were able to get the first breakfast , I guess I had masala dosa while he had poori .
We lost our directions of the road as the road felt too weird . So I gave my internet as a share while praveen checked the google maps on his android phone. We were on the correct route. As we were going through those tribal areas we realised that it was a day for elections and wow there was hell lot of security, it was a Z security force.
As we moved away from the main road and went to the road for kunavaram we found a nice mirchi field where we took pics, it was quite a pleasant scene when we saw godavari beside us , we did stop to take some pics.
Just before we reached Kunavaram we saw a snake and was the most poisonous one "Cobra" on the road . Well we just went away , later we felt like we could have taken a picture of it.
As we reached yet another bridge where we stopped like crazy and took Sabari the river pictures, we were asking ourselves why there were no more boats at kunavaram ? A local answered that parking is hard and also there is very less water in the summer for the boats.
so VR puram was the place we were supposed to go , it was the real tribal route where we lost the entire cellphone coverage area .. and was it wild? It was and the ride almost felt it like it was worth the effort driving on a bike, it was a paradise .. a single road well tarred but not a single vehicle in sight.
Ofcourse there were also nice views of godavari but it was dangerous to stop as passing vehicles dont have a place in all those twists and turns .. oh yeah it was small ghat road.
We were for a shock as we reached the boat place there were lot of tourists waiting it was a completely disconnected area where we were told to buy as much water as possible , we purchased some soft drinks but we had to wait for quite some time for the boats to start.
The best thing is we didn't take the AC boat but we decided to take the normal boat with normal people , we were asked many times and I had to refuse as its quite silly moving in and out and how the hell are we going to enjoy the atmosphere with closed windows ?? Later i realised they had also an option to come up and probably the quality of service might be good but it was just too pointless even to consider.
The only sad thing was the waiting time and the temparatures was rising we were kind of thinking on taking the morning trip but later got to know its only one time stamp thats 11-4 or something like that they even offered us breakfast and we could buy cooldrinks in the boat itself whenever we want the poor kids saved them in ice packs and they were selling it for quite cheap and I didn't even think a second while buying limca. The stupid multiplexes of the city fleece us for no good reason.
As we waited in the front there was a big speaker and I bugged them a lot to decrease the sounds and my co passengers supported me . The gang who was heading it was also quite sportive . Me and praveen were like two photographers crazily taking pictures of every damn thing which looked close to a scenic beauty.
We went on to the place where the whole place was shown including where the damned polavaram dam would start. We did stop by the perantalapalli and the sand dunes. I distictly remember these two places and some people got down to stay there for the night and some people also had the option to catch a boat to rajahmundry which definitely would be a thing of past as we are pretty sure the river wont be navigable after the dam.
We started at perantalapalli where we climbed up and I was at the temple sitting outside in the rocks while I told praveen to check it out. I sat there seeing all the people from other boats including the upper class rich people who came on the AC boat and I had to chuckle at their stupidity. I sat on a rock , folded my trouserss and was relaxing my legs in the cool water. Ohh yeah i had those damned shoes which I removed. Many people did come and enjoyed the cool stream while the adventurous gang went up . We were told not to go up and disturb them , well I didnt want to disturb them but hell we did come all the way here and my memories of that place weere quite fresh after 16 years or so !!
We had a gang who came with us and I was encouraging them to come up with me, praveen caught up with me very slowly and hell we took lot of pics quite nice ones. I did slip and fell into the water for all the jumping and yeah my shoes were wet and I didn't care. Later in the boat I was bare foot while the shoes probaby were stinking lol
Anyways as we came back we did buy our share of crafts and they were pretty cheap and some we did bargain and the most interesting one was a thing where I asked not to put colours and she didn't agree. I explained how its good naturally with just the bamboo coulours and any extra colours would just make it artificial . Luckily a guy was making it and they were convinced thankfully I waited and we got it.
I sat on a bench as praveen took some pics and praveen had some great ideas for pics and I was not so encouraging sadly.
As we went for the lunch back in the sand dunes. I remember praveen jumping into another boat inorder to jump queue, I also jumped off and we were early before our boat started eating we were half way . It was a buffet and wow the biryani did taste awesome and we ate till the hearts filled and I sat on one end of the tent on the ground which to a class like me felt was an appropriate place, me being the trend setter did convince another class of people to follow me lol.
We went down to the river to take pictures of boat rivers and mountains. Our stuff was all in the boat and I was pretty sure no one would take it and I was right ohh yeah we still drank the water from home in order to avoid contamination.
Later as the temparatures rose on boat we were getting comfortable moving around and obviously praveens camera battery has died and so did mine :(
And there was some program starting and we went and sat back as there were some fun games or silly stuff happening , it was the correct thing to go back and see how people are doing.
Praveen sat with camera and his stuff while I went to the end of the boat and infact Papi hills we are done and we are going back to the place where we started . I was seated at the corner where there was quite less place and was a bit scary on the top . I asked for some pics of mine and I did take some people pictures as well .
Later I bugged praveen to come to the rear end and we took hell lot of pics with his cell phone and it was still running :)
It was comiing to an end , so did the boat program which actually to my surprise was very much liked by people and they did give some money back to the anchors .Well there definitely is a cultural disconnect with me :D
We came back actually took our bike scared people by coming in the way of cars on the single road we finally managed to reach kunavaram and we jumped into the water.
I went to buy some plastic covers and i failed atleast something from a shop which had some broken covers while I purchased center fresh. I came back and I lost my bike key as I was about to search for it there was cute little girl and her gang of kids who were asking about the handicrafts we were carrying and we were tired and I was tensed about the key and was explaining it while praveen searched. They were from rajahmundry and came for visiting relatives at kunavaram which made me realise how deep their connections were upstream and downstream of the river.
Hurray praveen found the key while we went to the centre where we purchased some plastic covers small ones and went ahead for better plasic covers shop we did buy them a lot so that the crafts are stable. Balancing them and sitting was the trick. Praveen did get to drive more this time.
We reached a town where we made phone calls and drank some cola and filled water from 2 litre bottle, mama called and the phone slipped and fell on the road it was almost dark and guess what a villager picked the parts and gave to me and wow just a scratch for that fall. We were asked to meet his friend at bhadrachalam.
So it was almost the end when I had to go to the place of mamas friend. I did reach a place where we thought it was this guy and pinged him . Hi I am pavi are you waiting for me .. lol he turned out to be suspicious police and guess what he interrogated me like hell .. I was actually in a good mood so I answered him everything and wow pehle tho mera story itna theda hai .. I could have given him some default story ..felt like speaking truth .. that guy had too many questions lol and lot of inconsistencies in my life probably made him more curious :D
A kid came and led us the way to some palace like house. The guy is an ITDA person while the lady was lecturer mamas collegue. We were given talcum powder and asked to comb hair by and old lady l. WTF I havent heard that dialogue for quite a long time. The freshening up was good as I got hot water and washing my ached face and hands was relaxing.The house was well decorated with nice taste.
Later we sat and were chatting continuously and it was dinner time. hurray I was so happy to have dinner and it was awesome chicken mutton and god knows what !! I did tell mama that it was too good a host .. reminds me of some bad host some time back :D
We reached slowly a bit confused at one place we went off by 10 kms , had to come back a bit.
Reached at 3 AM again !