Trip to East Godavari (Pithapuram, Samarlakota, Draksharamam, Kotipalli, Kakinada beach) and Vijayawada

29 Oct 2015 
Started for Samarlakota by APSRTC Super Luxury bus from vanastalipuram.

30 Oct 2015
Reached Samarlakota bus stand by 8:45AM
9:10AM got into pithapuram bus(pallevelugu) ticket fare 13rs
After reaching Kukkuteshwara samy temple, I reached the office room paid the fee for accommodation. I have already booked a room over phone. Rs.600/- per day Non-AC.
http://www.kukkuteswaraswamypadagaya.com/accomi.php

The room was really good. It was newly constructed one and well maintained by APTDC.
We took bath, refreshed and reached temple by 10:30AM. We had darshan of Lord Ganesha, Lord Dattatreya, Lord ayyappa, Lord Kukkuteshwara and Goddess Puruhuthika (10th Shaktipeeth).
This place is also known as 'PadaGaya'. One can find the temple history @ http://www.kukkuteswaraswamypadagaya.com/history.php
Everyday 'Annadanam' will go on here. But we planned to visit Sri pada vallabha temple which is near by so we left for Sri Pada Vallabha temple. One can reach Venkateshwara Theatre by local auto Rs.5/- per head. From there it is walkable distance and one can find directions also. But one can engage an auto directly from Kukkuteshwara temple to Sri pada Srivallabha Swami Temple which may cost around Rs.50/-

By 11:30AM we have reached Sri Pada Srivallabha Swami Temple. This is the birth place of Sri Pada Srivallabha Swami, the first complete avatar of Lord Dattatreya in Kaliyuga.
Padukas of swami are situated here and idols of  Sri Pada Srivallabha Swami, Lord Dattatreya and Shri Nrusimha Saraswathi Swami are present in side the garbhagudi.
After Darshan we waited for Annadana. It will start at 12:30PM daily. We were very hungry as we did not have anything from morning except coconut water.
Here coconut water is very fresh and energetic. One should definitely try this.
Annadana/Lunch started at 12:30PM and food was very good and tasty as we were hungry.

We had a plan to visit Draksharamam temple which is 12th Shaktipeetha(Mannikyamba Devi) so after lunch we came back to Venkateshwara theatre and we took sharing auto and we reached Kakinada bus stand by 2:20PM

We went to Draksharamam by Kakinada-kotipalli pallevelugu bus.
The pojari explained the temple story, about Manikyamba devi, the speciality of navagraha here.
By 4:30PM we completed darshan at Draksharamam and had tiffin opposite to temple. Then we thought of going to kotipalli. We waited for bus for some time but as it was too late for us we engaged auto for Rs.250/- to and fro.

We started at 5:10PM for Kotipalli. It is on the banks of river Godavari. There are 2 siva Lingams here one of them is always submerged in water. If we remove all the water it will again fills in within 15 min. One could find some details of this temple @ http://eastgodavari.nic.in/temples/Kotipalli.aspx 

By 6:00PM we returned from Kotipalli and we reached Kakinada by bus by 8:10PM.
We had dinner opposite to bus stand.
At 8:30PM we got into tuni bus going to pithapuram fare is 13rsx2= 26
By 9:15pm got down at govt hospital pithapuram and by 9:30pm reached aptdc room @pithapuram.

31 oct 2015
We woke up early this day and by 6:20AM we had darshan again at kukkuteshwara swamy temple. We offered red and white lotus flowers and chamanti garland. Then we vacated the room and went to samarlakota by sharing auto.

We engaged same auto to temple. We had darshan and offered Saree to Bala Tripura Sundari Devi. This is also one of the pancharama kshetra. After darshan we engaged the same auto to Kakinada beach. Kakinada beach is not so good the water is black in color may due to the oil refineries.
There is a AP tourism haritha resort, where we tried for boating but as it was too early the staff did not come. We had tiffin at that resort and exchanged dress as we were wet after enjoying at beach.
Then we reached kakinada bus stand by 11AM and total auto fare Rs.500/-

In 10 min we got into vijayawada deluxe bus.
At 4:00PM @eluru bus stand. I have seen dwaraka tirumala bus from here.
We reached vijayawada in the evening and we put our luggage at cloak room in vijayawada bus stand. We engaged auto till the foot over at kanakadurga matha temple for Rs.40/-.
Though we entered 100Rs. line the queue was full almost and it took 30-40 min for darshan. After darshan we came back to busstand by auto and we had our dinner at shirdi canteen@bus stand. The food was really good. Rs.60/- for plate meals. After dinner we got into hyderabad bus and we reached home by next day morning 5AM.

Trip to Alampur Jogulamba Temple (5th Shaktipeeth)

Alampur is the 5th among the 18 shaktipeethas. It is located in Mahabubnagar district in the state of Telangana. It is 220km far from Hyderabad.

October 2, 2015, Friday.
It was a holiday for all of us so we planned to visit Alampur Jogulamba Matha temple this time. We woke up around 5AM and started by 7AM :). We took the ORR and got down at Exit 15. Then we took road from pedda golconda to Bengaluru -Hyderabad highway via Burujuguda road. From there it is national highway. We stopped at pebbair to have some tea. Then we started to Alampur.

Kuntloor--ORR--Pedda Golconda - Burujuguda - Timmapur - Jadcherla - Pebbair - Alampur X road - Alampur

We planned to have darshan quickly. We had darshan of lord shiva in the form of 'Bala Brahmeshwara' at first and then we went to have matha darshan. As it was Friday, Kumkumarchana was going on and my mother asked me to perform the same. Then I took 2 tickets one for me and one for my sister and brother-in-law. After the pooja, aarthi was given to matha.Then we took prasad and left for hyderabad.

There are lot of other temples to cover inside the temple premises however we could not visit as we had to leave early. One can watch 'Tungabadhra' river as temple is located on the banks of this river. In return journey we tool multiple breaks for tea and we have reached home by 5:30PM on the same day.

Trip to Pune, Bhimashankar, Panchagani, Mahabaleshwar, Alandi and Dehu

It was long time I had been any place. Monsoon just started. So I decided to make a trip to western ghats.

My uncle stays at Pune. So I planned a trip to Mahabaleshwar and other Pune nearby places.

26/06/2015 - Friday
Pune is about 560km from Hyderabad, so this time I planned to go by train. My uncle suggested me to come by Pune Shatabdi. No need to book in tatkal as it will be empty always (except in summer holidays) as the cost is around Rs.1050/- including the catering services. One will really enjoy the trip, specially couples. I booked 2 tickets for my wife and me. We started from Secunderabad station at 2:45PM. We were served snacks & tea at first. Snacks include 1 veg sandwich, 1 alu samosa, 1 sonpapidi, ketchup, sugar, amul milk powder, tea bag and hot water.

The AC in the train was very high. We forgot to bring any blankets. So we came outside the coach and stayed at door for a while and repeated the same for 2-3 time :)

After 8:30PM we were served with Dinner which includes 2 chapati, dal tadka, alu curry, dahi, 1 pickle packet. Pickle as not good but others were good.

We reached Pune by 11:45PM on time. My uncle as waiting for us at station. We went to his home and planned to visit Bhimashankar, one of the Dwadash Jyotirlinga next day.

27/06/2015 - Saturday
Though we planned to leave early for Bhimashankar, we woke up late and my aunt prepared Lemon rice, puri, alu curry, white rice and curd. It was 120km+ distance and we started from home, Kharadi, Pune around 10AM by Waganor Lxi, stopped in between for photos. One can see the beautiful scenes of Bhima and Bhama rivers on the wayand reached Bhimashankar by 1:30PM. Road was good.

Kharadi - Lonikand - Chakan - RajGuruNagar - Bhimashankar

As it was weekend we hardly got any place to park our vehicle. Then we stood in line for darshan it took around 40 min for darshan. Temple is in valley and we have to walk down. Temple architecture is very good. There is one shaneshwar temple just opposite to main temple. We poured oil on Shanidev as it was saturday too. There is Kanifanath temple behind Shaneshwar temple but it was closed at that time. There is Ram Mandir/Koneru(Holy water) left to the main temple. We visited all these and returned to top. There is Kamalaja Devi temple(Durga Maa) on the top. We visited the temple and returned back. While coming back we stopped just beside a pond, we finished our lunch and took some photos and returned home. We reached Kharadi by 8PM. We finished our dinner and planned for Mahabaleshwar next day. This time we wanted to start early :)

28/06/2015 - Sunday
We succeeded to wake up early :) and we started for Mahabaleshwar. This time we did not prepared any food but wanted to enjoy the locations, beauty of Mahabaleshwar and outside food.

We started from home around 6AM and we finished our breakfast at Hotel Abhiruchi which is on Pune - Satara highway. We visited "Sri Venkateshwara Samy Temple" which is on the way to Narayanpur. We did not jhave enough time and we were eager to reach Mahabaleshwar, we did not visit the "Ek Mukhhi Datta Bhagawan temple, Narayanpur". We had been to that place earlier.
One should not miss the datta temple. It is also very famous datta kshetra.

After visiting "Sri Venkateshwara Samy Temple" we drove to Panchagani.We have been to parsi point initially. And it was very good. Then we visited Sydney Point. The view at this point was amazing. One can see the Krishna and Savitri Rivers Sangamam point. We spent more than 30 min and we captured plenty of photos.

Then we moved to Table land. We enjoyed the horse ride. We have paid 2400 + 100 for 3 persons and we have visited all the places on top of table land. It is said that Pancha pandavas stayed there for some time. There are footprints of pandavas. Lot of cinema shootings happened there. We saw "tiger cave" but we did not see one more cave "pandava's cave" as e were tired. Be careful with the horses you choose :)

After that we had misal pav, vada pav and tea. Then we left for Mapro Gardens where we tasted blueberry, strawberry, chocolate flavoured drinks. There is chocolate factory too but it was closed as it is rainy season. We spent 1 hour there. As it was Sunday there was huge crowd. Then we left for Mahabaleshwar.

We have been to Venna lake boating. Tonight we stayed in a hotel. It was good we took two rooms. It  has a very good restaurant serving chinese/indian food. As we were tired already we finished our dinner and slept.

29/06/2015 - Monday
When we woke up the weather was too good. We finished breakfast and tea. We left for Elephant head point. It was awesome weather and we enjoyed 2 hours watching the nature and capturing the scenes.

We have been to PanchaGanga temple which is the sangama of 5 rivers. There are 2-3 lord shiva temples around this temple. Shiv linga will be in 'Rudraksh' shape in one temple.
The starting point of Krishna river is also nearby. One can find the directions at panchaganga parking place. We have been to this temple and enjoyed the view of Krishna river from there.

After that we finished our lunch and as my cousins had their exams next day we left for pune early.
But there are other tourist places and various temples to visit in Mahabaleshwar.

We have reached Pune tonight.

30/06/2015 - Tuesday
We woke up lately and finished our breakfast. My uncle went to his office and asked us to visit Alandi and Dehu. He left his car for us. Me and my wife finished our lunch too and we started for Alandi, where Santh Gnaneshwar Maharaj took his samadhi on the banks of indrayani river.

Pune to Alandi is just 30km. We reached Alandi with the help of google maps ;) We entered mandir. There was a queue and it was stopped already. After 5 min we were allowed and we had our darshan with in 15 min. We roamed around the temple and in the temple surroundings. We have been to Indrayani river. We bought one "Gnaneshwari, Marathi version of Bhagavadgeetha which Gnaneshwar maharaj wrote".

We asked local people for the "diwar/wall" which Santh gnaneshawar maharaj flew. After sometime we could find that. Then we left for Dehu which is the birthplace of Santh Tukaram Maharaj. We have been to the "Panduranga temple" whom Tukaram maharaj worshipped and there will be "Annadan/free food" held daily in temple. This is also on the banks of Indrayani river.

We have been to the place where GarudaSanth Tukaram maharaj left for vaikuntha on Garuda vahana.

After that we left for Pune, we finished our dinner, we booked tickets for hyderabad that night. And we reached Hyderabad by next day morning.

My trip to Mahur:

Took Permission on 15th May, 2015 evening :).

Me and my wife started our journey on 16th May, 2015 morning from our home at Kuntloor, Hayathnagar by Swift vdi car. 

Kuntloor - Secunderabad - JBS - Shamirpet - Karimnagar. (4 lane road)

Had breakfast at Karimnagar Geethabhavan. It was very good.

Then started for Dharmapuri. This is not the first visit to the temple but definitely first after my marriage.

We have reached there by afternoon. Car parking fee was Rs.50/-. There was not much rush in temple. We have been to all the temples inside the prangana. Ugra narasimha swami, narasimha swami, venugopala swami, balaji, hanuman, yama temples.

We finished lunch at relatives home. As it was saturday and one more holiday was left we thought of visiting Mahurghad.

We started from dharmapuri - lakshettipet - jannaram - utnoor, the road was good 2 lane road. Telangana state maintained roads properly. Then I have called my brother who visited Mahur already. He suggested not to travel in the night times. So I planned to go to my aunt's home, Chandrapur.

We have started from Utnoor around 5pm and we have reached Chandrapur by 9:30-10PM.

Utnoor - Kerimeri -Asifabad- Chandrapur. Road extension work was going on so there was a delay.

We finished dinner and slept at their home. Next day i.e. 17th May, 2015, we finished breakfast and we two and our uncle who was interested in visiting Mahur started our journey. My aunt prepared Rotis and Lunch for us and we carried them with us.

We took MSH6 - SH 233 route.

Chandrapur - Ghugus - Wani - Kelapur - Parva - Unkeshwar

The roads were not at all good.

At Unkeshwar bus stop itself, there is a famous Shiva temple where variety diseases will be healed with the sacred water. One can find details at http://www.sharabhanghashram.com/

Then we stared for Mahurghad. From Unkenshwar it was around 47km. We reached Mahur by afternoon and we reached to top of Renuka matha hill. We parked our car and took 2 sets of Saree and other puja materials for Rs.700/-. There are around 50-60 steps to reach renuka matha temple and we had Darshan. My wife was very happy after the darshan. There is renuka matha temple and Tuja bhavani matha temple Shivji temple on the top of that hill.

After darshan we took prasad and we came down and went to Datta Shikhar which is the next hill. Everyday Datta bhagwan takes bath in Varanashi, finishes his Bhiksha at Kolhapur and sleeps on this sacred hill. There was a Santh with in the temple prangana. There are Datta padukas on this temple. 

After darshan we left for Anasuya matha temple which is visible from Datta Shikar. It is on other hill.

We reached the temple, parked the car below.There are 100+ steps to reach the temple. There are Matha Anasuya and datta bhagawan murthis side by side. Outside the temple there are lord hanuman temple and Atri Ashramam.

After darshan we came down and as it was summer we had icecreams though they were not good.

Then we started for Ekaveera temple which is the 8th Shaktipeetha.

We came back in the same route Anasuya matha temple hill - Datta shikhar - Renuka matha hill - bottom of the hill -straight road to Ekaveera temple. It is around 10-12km from bottom of the hill. After 10-12 kms take left. You can find the directions in Telugu, English, Hindi.

This temple is very small and expansion works were going on. There we were told that Saree + puja set costs only Rs.150/- and shopkeepers near Renuka matha temple are looting public.

We had darshan of Ekaveera matha and I was very excited, It is the 8th one of ashtadasha shaktipeetha and 5th one I have visited among them.

After darshan and aarthi we had our lunch, rothis and meals. Then we started for Adilabad.

Our uncle stayed in Adilabad at their relatives home and we came to Utnoor and stayed that night in Utnoor in my Brother-in-law's home.

Next day morning 18th May, 2015, we left for home and reached home, Kuntloor by afternoon.

Overall distance : 1200 kms.

Duration             : 2.5 days