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Local at Vizag (30.10.24)

This was a day purely devoted to Vizag sightseeing, and the net threw up a number of options of beaches, museums and temples. We also found that the city was practically divided by a canal and places like the Dolphin Nose Lighthouse, Yarada beach etc were around an hour away, whereas we were staying in the Rishikonda/ RK Beach area.

Simhachalam temple
An hour away from our hotel, moving away from the seaside, this Vishnu temple (Narsimha avatar) is located on a small hill of 800m, architecturally beautiful and with a good view of the city. But like in most temples, there is a rule of no chappals and no cellphones. So I could not venture deep inside the campus as I need my chappals for my diabetic feet (health of sole is more important than health of soul). Panna sort of believes in 'I click therefore I was'. So we took an external gander, had some delicious medu vadas and coffee, and drove down the hill and onward to Dolphin Nose Lighthouse.
Dolphin Nose Lighthouse
We travelled inward to seaside Vizag once again, sticking to the west side of the creek (which actually widens into a natural harbor for Vizag docks and shipbuilding). The lighthouse is open only 3-5 pm, and we hit it at 12 noon, after climbing a small hill. Requests for opening the gate fell on deaf ears, and the most dedicated rubbernecking did not yield a glimpse of the lighthouse inside. So we left in a huff and carried on to Yarada beach nearby (pic of lighthouse below is from the net).

Yerada beach
There are a couple of beaches on this stretch of Vizag, but they were reached by going downhill again through narrow steep roads and a congested village. We has guessed that this beach might not be very crowded, and we were partly right. Not many tourists, but a lot of fishermen going about their business, a major part of it was directing a boat out at sea, reaching out a rope to them, then hauling on the rope like a dedicated tug-of-war team, with lots of shouted directions and encouragements. We thought a rescue effort was going on and maybe the boat was not being able to come back to shore negotiating the huge waves that were relentlessly rolling in, but that was not the case. The rope pullers were simply helping the boatmen to spread out their net in the sea. Panna said 'They were not fighting for their lives but for their living.' How apt!

We had a simple lunch once again, and Panna was thrilled with her Hyderabadi biriyani. I had a very satisfactory veg thali. The food was only slightly spicy, but what made us sweat was the weather (feels like 37) and the power cut in the area.
Ramakrishna beach
We returned to our hotel for a bit of R&R, and attacked our end of the beaches around 5 pm. Rishikonda beach to our left, we had already seen on our last visit in July, so we went right side to the equally famous RK beach.

The trouble about beaches in Vizag is that bathing is allowed only in Rishikonda beach. We thought we would spend some time here then go across to Rishikonda for a proper bath (Panna that is; I am not much of a sea-bather). But in RK beach itself, Panna got her dose of wetness, wedged between some rocks for safety. We spent an hour on the darkening beach, then picked up a couple of rolls for dinner, back at the hotel.
That closes our Vizag chapter. Tomorrow we leave for Guntur.
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