Hyderabad Weekend Trip: Pillalamarri and Alampur, Mahabubnagar.

Dear Friends,

I am coming back to blog tales after a short hiatus.
I planned to go to a small summer vacation before the school reopens and decided to go to kurnool trip for 4 days. I planned to cover the places of Pillalamarri, Alampur, Yaganti, Belum caves, Mantralayam and Adoni. Since the focus is on Hyderabad weekend, I will cover up the details of Pillalamarri and Alampur and share my experiences how these two places can be planned in a single day.

I know the USP of pillalamarri site is a large banyan tree. I was not sure whether it's really worth to see it because I was under the impression that do I need to travel that much long and spend time just to see a big banyan tree? So I clubbed this in my kurnool trip but found out to be a surprise pleasant site.

Giving the details below how I planned the trip:

1) Mode of travel: Car (hyundai i20).
2) Start time: 8.30 A.M.
3)  Distance : 100 kms
4) Time to travel: 1 hour 45 minutes.
5) Return time: Evening, same day.

We (me and my family) started from Hitech city and took the outer ring road near Gachibowli. From outer ring road it's a traffic free journey till our destination. I switched on the GPRS in my mobile and headed towards Kurnool highway. Near Jadcherla we need to take right turn, so we get down from the highway bridge and took a right turn. From here onwards it is a normal two way lane and there will be no sign boards or milestones showing about Pillalamarri. But my GPRS is showing the same route. I crossed checked with locals whether I am following the right route or not. They confirmed me the route is right.

On the way crossed a railway lane and reached Mahbubnagar. Took a right turn at one of the junction and found a welcome board of Pillalamarri. After few kilometers I reached the spot. There's a good parking place available and I parked my vehicle there and took the tickets at the counter. It was around 10.15 A.M when I reached the site.

At the counter I enquired what places we can see and came to know that apart from the tree, there's a mini zoo and temple. So bit relief to me because apart from big tree there's also other places to see.

After a few steps we were into the park and found the banyan tree. This tree is really big and we were surprised to see how branches of trees are rooted into the grounds and emerged as one more tree thus making it visible as a large banyan tree. Came to know that this is a third generation tree.

We were not alone and saw few families already occupying the places under the shades of the tree. It was a working day but good to see these visitors. We roamed the place and my kids climbed the branches. My kids were very happy to see such a kind of tree, why not? it's a unique tree and we cannot see nearby our localities.

Under any shades of such tree, the primary activities of the visitors is to eat and dine. We too completed our breakfast. Now don't expect any hotels or restaurants in this site. We need to carry our own food and drinks. The toilets are totally unhygienic and I recommend to use the mini zoo toilets as these are much better than near the tree.

Following are few pics of the banyan tree for your glimpse.

 

There's a tomb in the site but I don't see much significance for this one in the site. So after spending substantial time we moved towards zoo. We need to take the tickets again and visited the mini zoo. The mini zoo contains small bird sanctuary and a deer park.

The bird sanctuary has some colorful birds and after clicking few snaps we moved to deer park. We found two deers at the long site and one deer came to us running, expecting some food. We don't want to feed the deer with human eatables and fed some leaves. We were very happy that deer came for us and spent some time for us. Took some close up shots of the deer. 

I am not posting the snaps of birds or details of zoo as I don't want to spoil your fun revealing everything. I will post the deer snap shot which came very near to us.

 

So we completed the site seeing in two hours including the breakfast. Now the time is around 12.00 and we have resumed our journey to our next destination.

Pillalamarri is a perfect destination for a short weekend trip from Hyderabad. In 5-6 hours we can complete the sight seeing and return back to Hyderabad by afternoon.What else, you can plan a movie or shopping in the evening also. If some one wants an extended site seeing one can add Alampur temples which is 2 hours journey from Pillalamarri and 130 Kms.

I switched on the GPRS for direction to Alampur and it showed a different route to Alampur avoiding the Bangalore highway. But I preferred the highway route and returned back to this route and switched on the GPRS again. This time it showed the highway route directions.

We need to take left before 30kms from Kurnool and by the time we reached it's around 1.30 P.M. The parking place is congested but I managed to park the vehicle. We came to know that temple is closed during that time and it will reopen at 2.00 p.m. again. We spent half an hour time finishing the lunch for our kids and checked the dam near the temple. After 2.00 p.m. the temple is opened and we completed the formalities. Following are few snapshots of Alampur.

Nothing exciting in the temple site to me but may be a joyful visit for a traditional pilgrim. We can wrap up the site seeing here in 1 hour and return back to Hyderabad by evening.

Overall Pillalamarri is a good trip and if we go with minimum expectations we can enjoy the site seeing. Add the Alampur temple visits if you are looking for a full day trip.

If time permits I will come up with details of my Kurnool trip.

Hyderabad Weekend Trip: Bidar Site Seeing

Dear friends, I would like to share my weekend trip to Bidar, Karnataka which is around 130 kms from Hyderabad.

Date of Journey: 11-Jan-2014
Start Time: 10.00 AM AM
Return Date and Time: 13-Jan-2014, 1.30 P.M.
Accommodation: 2 nights.
Mode of travel: Car – Hyundai  i20.

Even though I spend 2 nights and 2 days, one can trim the duration of the trip based on their comfort. At the end of this narration I will provide the different options in exploring the Bidar trip.
To start with, I was fed up with routine trips to places where we will visit temples, forts and other site seeing places. So this time I was planning to do something different and searched google if there were any nearby destinations available for an ideal weekend trip. I came across Black buck, Jungle lodges resort located in Bidar. They are offering a forest/nature exploration camp and also the local Bidar site seeing. I am very much interested to visit a forest exploration from long time and preferred to explore this place as it is very near to Hyderabad.

Previously I tried to visit this place during Dussehra holidays but all the bookings were full. So this time I planned to visit during Sankranthi vacation.
I booked for 2 days and 2 nights package in Jungle lodges resorts and started on Saturday, 11-Jan-2014 at 10.00 A.M. from Balanagar accompanying my wife and 2 daughters. Followed the route of Kukatpally à Patancheru à Sadashivpeta à Zaheerabadà Bidar. I used the google maps navigation from my mobile and it made my life easy. No confusion and no assistance from passerby. Therefore I strongly recommend GPRS navigation for car mode of tranport. I chosen the destination as Jungle Lodges, Bidar in google maps and it perfectly guided me to the destination which is located 5 kms inside the forest.

With respect to the road conditions, after crossing the BHEL tollgate road it is two lane road and we cannot go on high speeds. 70% of road conditions are OK but about 30-40 kms road is pretty bad. Finally it took three and half hours for me to reach the resorts.
After check-in we were allotted cottage number 8 and it is the best cottage of entire Jungle lodges. The lodge itself is located in the forest and adjacent to the lake. The cottage number 8 has direct access to the lake and no other cottage has this facility. This is a execute cottage and cost wise it is higher than others.

The forest experience is first of its kind for us and our entire family immediately enjoyed the serene location and ambience of the surrounding. The cottages are located with beautiful scenic places and one has to experience it rather than sharing it.

Jungle lodges have a planned program and they will engage you with various activities. Below is the list of programs –

1)      Black bucks (deer) site seeing.

2)      Coracle boat ride and bird watching.

3)      Trekking and nature walking

4)      Camp fire and star gazing.

5)      Bidar site seeing (applicable in 2 nights package only).  

6)      Cycling and boating are optional and are charged additionally.

I don’t want to give minute details of these programs as I don’t want to spoil the fun and surprises. All these programs are good and none of them can be missed for a first time forest explorer. The package also includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks including Tea/Coffee. Alcoholic beverages are also available. The food is good and Hyderabadis need not be worried about it.
Below are some pics of the resort and forest –
       

        
The Bidar local site covers the following –

1) Bidar Fort
2) Barid Shahi Garden
3) Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Saheb and ChowbaraGurudwara
4) Underground temple of Laxmi narasimha

Of the above I liked Bidar Fort and Barid Shahi Garden. Bidar is a beautiful town with lots of greenery. It is also blessed with good and wide roads and reasonable traffic. Below are some pics of Bidar site seeing –



Some of the drawbacks of the Jungle lodges are –

1) Television is not available.
2) You cannot use high power utilities like Iron box.
3) Poor mobile network.
Also be prepared to come with the dress code relevant to trekking and forest walk.

Considering the forest life, solar power generation, and not disturbing the forest life I can understand the above drawbacks can be bearable for 1-2 days.

In the below table I am attempting to provide the various trip options and budget involved so that one can plan accordingly.

Trip option	Trip coverage	Budget	Remarks
Option 1	If someone is interested in only Bidar site seeing, start early around 7.00 or 8.00 A.M. You can complete your site seeing in 4 hours and can return back to Hyderabad by night 7.00 or 8.00 P.M.	Car – Petrol cost for to and fro will be around 2500 rs. For bus travelers it will be much cheaper and one can hire auto for local site seeing. The cost can be wrapped up in < 1000 rs for a 4 member family.	No nature camp is planned here.
Option 2	Book the resort for 1 day and 1 night. Reach the Jungle lodge by 12.00 P.M and complete their packaged program. Checkout by 11.00 A.M. next day and complete the Bidar local site seeing	The travel cost is same as mentioned in option 1. Additionally one need to pay for Jungle lodge cottage. This will be in the range of 3600 to 4500 per person for one day depending on the type of cottage. Children below 5 years are not charges and for below 12 years the cost is reduced by 50%	This will be a hectic schedule. For car mode of travelers the option of two drivers will make the trip easy.
Option 3	2 nights and 2 days program of Jungle lodges	Calculate the charges for two days. For me the entire cost was around 27000 Rs.	Will be leisure and relaxing trip.
Option 4	Skip the Bidar site seeing and plan only forest camp	As mentioned in option 3.	Not a recommended one as Bidar site seeing will be missed. Suitable who had seen Bidar previously.

Overall the trip is exciting and beautiful. Someone who had previously experienced bigger forest camps or wild life camp may be disappointed.  Such people can plan Bidar site seeing. But for the first timers the forest camp and Bidar site seeing will be a unique experience.

Weekend Trip: Manjeera Reservoir, Medak, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Date of Journey: 18-May-2013

Distance from Hyderabad: 52 kms.

Start Time: 9.30 AM

Return Time: 2.00 PM

Accommodation: Not required.

Mode of travel: Car – Hyundai  i20.

Hi, this time I would like to share my experiences of my weekend trip to Manjeera Reservoir located near Sangareddy. I have read some reviews on Manjeera reservoir and decided to explore it because it is very near to Hyderabad and we can cover it in one day.

I was waiting for this trip because the kids were busy over the last two months in preparing for the exams. Now that the wait is over and summer holidays commenced, I thought this is the ideal time for a short trip. Accompanying my family I started the journey at 9.30 A.M at Balanagar, Hyderabad and taken the route of Moosapet-->Kukatpally-->Chandanagar-->BHEL-->Patancheru--> Isnapur-->Kandi. 

There’s nothing much to tell about the roads or surrounding areas while traveling. We have a toll after crossing BHEL and it will end after few kilometers. Then the journey is on a normal BT road and we just need to beat the regular traffic. There are no beautiful places to stop and also the summer heat started showing it’s effect, so we continued the journey without halting anywhere.

After crossing Kandi, one will come across Sangareddy followed by a big cross road. Here we took a right turn and driven 1km. I haven’t seen any sign boards for Manjeera reservoir and got confused how to proceed further.  Therefore, I halted at a small junction and inquired with a traffic constable about my destination. He asked me to take the left turn at the municipal/water board office (I don’t remember the correct office name, but it is a big govt. office with a big tank??)

After taking this turn, we drive for another 2 kilometers and with the support of local folks finally we reached the Manjeera reservoir. It was around 11.30 PM by the time we reached the destination. My younger daughter was excited because she loves to play in the water and expecting a big fun in the Manjeera reservoir.

There’s a security gate for entering this place and the guard demanded 100 rupees to allow our family and car inside the reservoir campus. With no option, I obliged and entered the campus.  Inside the campus, we will have two metal roads – one road will lead to a temple and another to the lake. As our interest is reservoir, we took the later route and reached the Manjeera reservoir. Few tourists were sparingly available. 

A small museum and a crocodile breeding field set up were available here.  The museum is a small one and nothing much to boast on any of its artifacts. We took couple of snaps and were out of the museum in 10 minutes. Later we checked the crocodiles and able to locate 2 crocodiles.  Due to summer heat the crocodiles seem to don’t have any intention to come out of the water.

 After covering the museum and crocodiles field, we walked towards the reservoir. We took the stairs and walked on the ramp of the reservoir. This is allowed only to a certain extent as the gate is closed. There’s no one available to check whether we can get an access to the other side of the gate. So we had to content with a distant view of the Manjeera River. The river is big but there’s no access to take bath and even the provision of boating is not present.  We couldn’t spend much time on the ramp due to summer heat. My younger daughter disappointed and expressed her anguish saying“Do we really need to travel this much just to see water from a distance”. But I understood this is because of a drinking water reservoir.

We took some rest and decided to return back to Hyderabad. By 1.30 PM we crossed BHEL and halted at Hotel Swagath for lunch. After that we returned back to home.

Overall the trip is neither exciting nor boring. In the entire trip my younger daughter liked the lunch at Hotel Swagath. There’s nothing much to see and is recommended for people who are bored with routine activities or interested in a short weekend trip.Nothing harm in exploring such locations - Go ahead and you can cover it in half a day.

Weekend Trip: Kotipalli cheruvu, Ananthagiri Hills near Vikarabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Date of Journey: 07-Jul-2013 Distance from Hyderabad: 100 kms. Start Time: 9.30 AM Return Time: 7.30 PM Accommodation: Not required.

Hi, I would like to share my experiences of weekend trip to Kotipalli cheruvu/reservoir and Ananthagiri hills located near vikarabad. I was searching in the net on weekend trips from Hyderabad and came to know about Kotipalli cheruvu and decided to explore the location. As usual my family will be ready to accompany me and we were ready at home by 8.30 and had a heavy breakfast. My wife also prepared the food stuff for lunch as I told her don't expect good hotels in the journey. At 8.30 my younger daughter requested to attend the parent's meeting also and by the time we concluded the meeting it was 9.30 AM. So we started from Balanagar and taken the route of high tech city --> outer ring road--> exit at appa junction--> Narsingi junciton-->Chilkur--> Chevella and Vikarabad. Before chilkur there's a Mrigavani Deer park and bird santuary is located. We haven't planned this visit, but one can include a short span of time there if properly planned. The route is a double lane road with no dividers and the road conditions are OK. The good part of the journey is that there's little sun shine with cool breeze. After chevella, either side of the roads are filled with lush green trees and get thicker as we reach the vikarabad. We can see beautiful banyan trees with the branches [tarzan ropes] dangling from the tree. We made a small halt and my daughters dangled on the branches. With few haults here and there, we reached Ananthagiri hills around 12.30 PM. On the way we passed through the TB sanctorium and reached the temple. Hanuman statue welcomed us and we parked the vehicle at the premises. I enquired with the parking guy on the places to visit here. He replied to visit the temple, and take the route to the next lane near the temple where one can find the temple pond (called as Koneru in local language) and further away leads into the deep forest. Some one who's interested in the trekking or forest walk can explore this part. After the quick darshan, we reached the pond. The water is not good and hence we dropped the idea of enjoying in the water.Next we moved little deep into the forest and explored the tress and rocks. The dangling huge branches and rocks is a visual delight. After spending around half an hour we returned back to our car. We started to Kotipalli river and it is around 10 kms from the temple. After Dharur villgae we took a right turn and suddenly the roads appeared deserted with no man's land. After going through 4-5 kms we encountered small village there we enquired the route to the lake and came to know that we took a wrong route. So we returned and followed a small metal road lane (kaccha road) near a masjid sign board. After travelling for a kilo metre we found the lake. I was amused by the size of the Kotipalli river. With its huge length,breadth and fresh water and cows grazing at a distant place is a visual delight. The good part is that we can take the car nearby the shore. The area seems to be not a popular tourist spot as the crowd is very less. We picked a spot where rock boulders are immersed in water yet suitable to sit and dip our legs in the water. My daughters started shouting in joy and quickly jumped into water. I too couldn't resist and joined them in the water. After playing in water for one hour I returned to bank. Now the time is around 2.30 PM, I started feeling hungry. Listening to songs from the car deck and in a lake cool breeze I had completed my food on the banks of the rivers . My kids played for marathon two and half hours in the water and finally I asked them to return. They quickly came to banks had few bites of food and jumped into the waters again. They spent another half an hour and returned back to car. After drying up thenselves and changing their dresses we returned to Hyderabad. We lost the way at Vikarabad and had to return back and took the correct way to Hyderabad. The kids were exhausted and fall asleep in the car. Near Chevella rain has started and marking the completeness of our journey. Listening to old hindi and telugu songs I reached Hyderabad around 7.30 PM. Overall it was a fantastic experience. I had visisted Godavari river in Bhadrachalam, Basara, Rajamundry and other popular places in Kakinada but I never found such a big clean lake similar to Kotipalli. All these were filled with dirt and huge visitors. Kotipalli is extremely good with fresh water, huge size and located in a serene place with less people. The other lake I was impressed is Ramappa lake near warangal. This was also a huge fresh water lake but no bathing is allowed there.