Pichavaram mangrove forest

Hello Everyone...

Hope All of you are doing Good and safe from Covid-19.

Today i am going to share the sweet memories of my trip to pichavaram mangrove forest.

It was a amazing trip with my family. I have shared the beautiful view of the pichavaram mangrove forest in my youtube Channel,

You can find the video in youtube as "Prabha on Wheels Telugu" or simply clck the below link.

Krishna Pushkaralu 2016

we planned to go on the second day of pushkaralu since the first day falls on friday which is celebrated as varalakshmi vratham. after performing pooja at home on friday. we started from Chennai central railway station on saturday morning by Lucknow express and reached the Vijayawada station by late noon. my uncle and niece were waiting for us in station. when  we got down in the railway station two young (girls) volunteers came to help us. they escorted us till we got an auto to the bathing ghats. we thanked the lovely girls and left for the river Krishnaveni.

Exit from the Railway station in Vijayawada

Pushkaram is festival of river that occurs once in 12 years and celebrated for 12 days and is celebrated with much glory.  Like we celebrated Godavari pushkaralu last year at Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, this year Krishna Pushkaralu welcomes us to vijayawada district the hub of Krishna pushkaralu in the state of  Andhra pradesh. we reserved the tickets for my family for the pushkaralu luckily i have holidays since it falls on weekend and independence day follows the weekend. so we felt it is the best time for the holy trip.

Dad and Uncle at Durga Ghat

Pushkar Staff are maintaining the cleanliness

Pushkaralu is a festival of River Krishna which normally occurs once in every 12 years The Pushkaram is observed for a period of 12 days from the time of entry of Jupiter into Virgo (Kanya rasi). The festival is "theoretically" observed throughout the twelve months that the planet remains in that sign, but the first 12 days are considered most sacred as pushkarudu takes holy dip in the river in those days. this year (2016), the celebration of pushkaralu starts on 12 August and lasts upto 23 August 2016.

Mom at Durga Ghat after holy dip

boating in the Krishna river

Media people are covering the Pushkar

people taking holy dip

River krishna from Durga Ghat 

Look at the crowd

waiting for the cab to clim the hill top

after the holy bath in the river, we left the luggages with dad and uncle and went to take the blessings of the holy maa kanaga durga. The Goddess (Maa) is beautifully decorated with glittering ornaments and looks so gracefully holding the trident in the standing posture opposite to the durga ghat. After the having darshan we are thinking how to climb the hill for the darshan of Kanaka Durga Maathaji.The river and surroundings of all the ghats and temple are  neatly maintained.Arrangements are neatly maintained by Andhra Government. Security arrangements are well planned and  executed.

Entrance for climbing the hill 

Colourful lights ready to lit up the river

Lights decoration near the river bank.

Venkatesh and his friends

The PVP Siddartha college students who helped me in climbing the hill.

Stalls on the road opposite to Durga Ghat

Balloonwala stood on the road to sell in big and colourful fancy balloons and dresswala stood next to him.

Drummer

The drummer is waiting to sell his wares by playing the drums whenever children cross that way.

the city of Vijayawada is fully decorated with colourful lights which made the city to glitter the whole 12 days and its a feast for eyes.

All in all, it was a memorable trip, which will forever be framed in our hearts for a long time. My first trip to vijayawada was wonderful and i will cherish every moment of it because of the lovely volunteers. Thank you guys.you made my trip the most cherishable one.

Le Royal Meridian Hotel

Painting that adored the wall of Le Royal Meridian hotel

Black forest is ready to bite

saffron dashed Rasmalai

Colourful arrangements

few clicks at Le Royal Meridian, Chennai

Kalahasti – Pancha bootha sthalam

Kalahasti is one of the pancha bootha sthalams of lord shiva and famous for its Vayu linga, representing wind. Lord Shiva in his aspect as Vayu (wind) is worshiped as Kalahasteeswara.

This temple is also known as Rahu-Ketu kshetra, as Rahu-Ketu pooja is done here to get rid of doshams of the devotees. This temple is also regarded as Dakshina Kasi. 

 My weekend trip to Kalahasti is a wonderful experience with my nephew Hari and my darling Mom.

We started here on saturday evening and went for shopping and munching some street food with my cousins there. Bangles is one of the best item in the top of  my shopping list. So i purchased as much as i can and we roamed around the streets and reached home with loads of snacks for my aunt family and slept as our stomachs are already filled with enough chats and chai.

 Devotional journey started the very next day. Yes at first we went to the temple for darshan. After darshan we had prasadams sold by the temple as we are very hungry due to fasting since morning. As i have office the next day and my cousin had college we are supposed to leave by evening bus. 

Hence we were left with a short time. So we took two bikes and started to roam again crossing the river Swarnamukhi leaving mom behind with the uncle and my little cousin in the bus stop to book the tickets.

First, my cousin suggested to go a nearby waterfalls which is called as Veyilingala Kona Waterfall. It was really a fantastic experience there. We sat on the rocks with our legs submerged in water. Clicked pictures in that dense forest area and enjoyed the water fall. 

We went to the temple near the falls after clicking photos over there we left to suka brahma ashram another peaceful shrine of lord sai ram neatly maintained with a colourful park around the temple which gives a pleasant ambience to the temple with a cool evening breeze. The hightlight of the temple is a huge shiv lingam constructed on top of the mandap.

Crocodile Park

Another Kids day out to Crocodile Bank, which is known as The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology.

This is Crocodile Bank  is located in East coast Road (ECR) spread over eight and a half acres of land and is home to over 2500 reptiles. This is one of the largest reptile zoos in the world. 

The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust is an organisation dedicated to the conservation of reptiles and amphibians in India. It was started when the population of crocodiles in India was almost on the verge of collapse due to excessive killing. Thankfully their efforts have bore fruit and now they have surplus number of crocodiles here.

It has quite a huge collection of crocodiles - from Magar's, Gharials, Alligators, Caimans and many others. Along with crocodiles there are numerous snakes, turtles and lizards. There are more than 1300 crocodiles preserved here in a single bank, a unique feature in India. Toddlers loved to see so many reptiles up close and enjoyed watching them.

Toddlers watching at the bank

A very good place where one can see  different types of crocodiles. Lots of information on crocodile is displayed. The conservation status, their habitat, what they eat everything in detail is given along with the pictures.

Snake out of the hole

Fortunate to have a learning session organised on volunteers explaining in detail about snakes and what precautions and avoidance to be done to get bitten by snakes. How to identify the venomous and non-venomous snakes.  The snake venom extraction is fascinating to watch where we can see the top four poisonous snakes of India. This bank in founded by Padma sri Romulus Whitaker a foreign person who are interested in reptiles manily King Cobra.

There is so much to learn and understand about these beautiful creatures and there are plenty of interesting and educational write ups about each.  The place is not too large and will be easy to walk with children.

The spacious Crocodile Bank grounds are covered by luxuriant coastal dune forest and provide a haven for native wildlife, including large breeding colonies of water birds and a secure nesting beach for Olive Ridley Sea Turtles.

Two Little toddlers

Watching the deer

Calling another nephew to see the deer

To protect the park from unruly and bad behaving tourists there is no food counter inside which is good. Overall a wonderful place to visit on weekends....



TIMINGS & TICKETS

Timings: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm, Last Ticket: 5:00pm, Closed on Mondays

Entry tickets : Adult: Rs.60/-, Children below 10 years : Rs.30/-

Night Safari : Tuesday - Sunday 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm (Book Now)

Tickets : Adults: Rs.200/-, Child below 15 years : Rs.100/-