[mobike008]

Fazal bhai, thats a great piece of info.

Some of the Team BHPians are planning an overnight weekend trip "again" to Srisailam like last year sometime in September ( because that area will be green by then) and this contact info would be pretty useful then.

Also, since you know a lot about Srisailam, kindly do post info if you know when the gates will be open in month of september. Would like to plan a trip around that time period.

Mucho Gracias......

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

Since I plan to start at 7:30am from Shamshabad, I will carry my B'F from home unless I get a lead on some Idli-Vada outlet.

There is an udupi outlet around 50-60kms from Hyderabad on the Srisailam road in a small townI dont remember the name of the town,the restaurant comes to your left.Its nothing big,but looks like a popular stop because I always see a lot many cars stopping there for breakfast.

[Fordmanchau]

Wonderful drive back to Hyderabad from srisailam today. Came back just a hour and half back. It's all lush green in the Nallamalla forest.
Fantastic weather..

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

Aah, Fordmanchau. Hope you are not waiting at Shamshabad today? I am not starting today but after a couple of days, most probably, Wednesday.

I have a choice for stay : (1) Forest Guest House ; (2) Haritha (APTDC) Hotel ; Any guidance

I went yesterday afternoon with parents, stayed at Haritha . Don't have any idea about the forest guest house . But if you are staying at Haritha then please have food outside. Haritha's restaurant is pathetic.
The dhabas outside serve wonderful south Indian stuff, if you are ok with it.

[Dreadnought]

[quote= But if you are staying at Haritha then please have food outside. Haritha's restaurant is pathetic.
The dhabas outside serve wonderful south Indian stuff, if you are ok with it.[/quote]

Heartily agree. Food is pathetic and timings irregular. Dhabas outside are definitely better, but being a temple town it seems, serve only veg fare

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Hyd Traveller and all,

The best place to eat between HYD-SRISAILAM is at Kalwakurty, be it break fast, lunch or dinner. He is better at non-veg dishes.

The name is, ROYAL FAMILY DHABA, owned by ASIF.

It is nearly halfway to Srisailam, after you take the left before Kalwakurty town..the newly built, huge Hanuman statue, this place is known as VELA DANDA, Just as you cross the statue keep you eye on the left to see a blue board with the name ROYAL FAMILY DHABA.

Asif's family cooks there, you are in great luck if his mother is there on the day of your passing.

Misplaced his phone number. My usual practice...when starting from Hyd, give him an advance notice of 2+ hrs. to make what I want, mostly chicken curries, wet or dry. Sometimes mutton (as it needs more advanced notice).

On the way back from Srisailam too call him and let him know what time you will be there and you have fresh food waiting for you. WOW!

If you want to try, give him my reference (Fazal) and take his number and post it here for all foodies, especially Avinash (mobike008) and the rest of Hyd BHP'ians.

What a day today to head to Srisailam!
Regards,

Thanks Fazal Jee. Had a lovely lunch yesterday.

The exact location of Royal Dhaba owned by Asif is not Vela Danda but Jaya Prakash Nagar. It takes just one hour from the ORR - Srisailam Highway Junction at Thokkuguda(?).

Vela Danda comes a few kilometres before the start of the Kawalkurthy bye pass while the dhaba comes just after the end of the bye pass.

When driving down from Hyderabad towards Srisialam, you can use the Kawalkurthy bye pass. The end of the bye pass is a T-Junction where you need to turn left towards Deverkonda (the right is towards Kawalkurthy town).

This is Jaya Prakash Nagar. On the right you will see the Hanuman Statue while on the left is Royal Dhaba, one dhaba among many dhabas located there.

The location on a map is :
Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!

Here is the Board with Asif's Mobile Number (99 495 60 820) [This is the board you will see when driving from Hyderabad towards Srisailam]:


Here is Asif [This is the board you will see when driving from Srisailam towards Hyderabad]:


This is the lunch meal :


Another view of the sabzis and daals :


The extra items, chicken curry & egg bhurji :


The four of us had 7 rotis in total with the tomato chutney, brinjal sabzi, some chutney type dish, daal, rasam, a little rice, a little curd which costed us 70. Chicken curry was 50 while egg bhurji was 30. Bottle of water was 16 and 7-Up was 10 each. Total bill was 201.

The tomato chutney was very spicy and tasty while daal was bland (just perfect for my father). Chicken curry was spicy and went very well with the rice while egg bhurji was very lightly spicy (we wanted it non spicy since my sister and father cannot digest chillies). All in all a good halt for nice food.

The only drawbacks were lack of fans to keep the flies at bay and lack of tandoor which meant we ended up eating tawa rotis.

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

Thanks Fazal Jee. Had a lovely lunch yesterday.

The exact location of Royal Dhaba owned by Asif is not Vela Danda but Jaya Prakash Nagar.

Hyd- traveller,

I guess it is age catching up with me, messing up with names, knowing in the mind what is and writing something else. Yes you are right, the place is called Jaya Prakash Nagar and more popularly or locally known as JP Tanda.

But atleast I got the Hanuman statue landmark,,,right??

That was a very novel way of putting his number.

Remember to call him in advance and specify the type of curry you want, hot and picy , medium, bland etc. I always go for HOT.

Another thing, do keep your appointment for him to take your order next time.

Live to eat.
Regards,

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

I guess it is age catching up with me, messing up with names, knowing in the mind what is and writing something else. Yes you are right, the place is called Jaya Prakash Nagar and more popularly or locally known as JP Tanda.
But atleast I got the Hanuman statue landmark,,,right??

Happens to all all the time. Yes, thanks to the statue tip, I braked exactly at the dhaba.

Will give some more information about Srisailam a bit later.

[hyd_traveller]

Hyderabad - Srisailam - Hyderabad (29/06/11-30/06/11) :

The distance from Shamshabad Airport Turn-Off on NH7 up to Srisailam APTDC Haritha Hotel was 212km as per my car's odo.

The distance from Shamshabad to Srisailam Highway is 17km whether one uses the internal road through the airport (went this way while going) or one uses the ORR (came back this way while returning).






Chilled water bottles, chilled cold drinks, kurkure, biscuits, lays and such other stuff is readily available right through the route.


The toll for entry in to Srisailam town is 30 and the ticket is valid for one day / 24 hours (or so I was told but did not need to show it as I had some Forest Department contacts who were with me so car was not stopped for toll at all).

Petrol is 70.26 at Srisailam while it is 70.64 at Hyderabad.

The ropeway ticket is 50 and is valid for both to & fro journey.


Meals (lunch/dinner) at Haritha Hotel Restaurant cost 55 + tax = 62.50 and the meal includes 2 puris (limited), 1 sweet (limited), rest all is unlimited which are white rice, dry vegetable, wet vegetable, daal, sambhar, rasam, pickle & curd rice. The vegetables and sweets keep changing and rest of the menu remains the same.



Breakfast at Haritha Hotel Restaurant is complimentary with the room (at least with the AC Deluxe) and permits one to eat 2 idlis and 1 helping upma. Chutney & Sambhar is available. Anything more needs to be paid for extra be it more upma, more idli or plain dosa. 1 cup Coffee/Tea is free per head.


AC Deluxe Room is 1300 + tax = 1,432. Sheets are clean, pillows are available, towels are okay (no smell), TV has just a few channels, AC works efficiently. The infrastructure is crumbling and the Hotel is on the way to become pathetic like any other establishment which is maintained by the any Government anywhere in this country.






The evening darshan at the temple at 19:30 are called "touch darshan" where one is allowed to touch one's forehead with the lingam and get blessed. Awesome time to be there.

This gentleman is a Forest Officer who retired on 30-Jun-11 after spending 18 years in Srisailam area. A tarantula (spider) has been named after him as is evident from the word "Thulsi".


The work of an artist near the ropeway on a car which had come for puja.


A wood cooking system at APSRTC Srisailam Bus Stand Canteen.

[Night_Hawk]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Hyd Traveller and all,

The name is, ROYAL FAMILY DHABA, owned by ASIF. It is nearly halfway to Srisailam, ...when starting from Hyd, give him an advance notice of 2+ hrs. to make what I want, mostly chicken curries, wet or dry. Sometimes mutton (as it needs more advanced notice).

On the way back from Srisailam too call him and let him know what time you will be there and you have fresh food waiting for you. WOW!
If you want to try, give him my reference (Fazal)

Fazal Saab, thanks for the superb information. Will stop by Royal Dhaba on my forthcoming trip to Srisailam

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

This is Jaya Prakash Nagar. On the right you will see the Hanuman Statue while on the left is Royal Dhaba
Here is the Board with Asif's Mobile Number (99 495 60 820)

Thanks for updating the location and contact number of Asif.
Did you visit farahabad view point? After the initial showers, the forest must have been lot more green.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

The infrastructure is crumbling and the Hotel is on the way to become pathetic like any other establishment which is maintained by the any Government anywhere in this country.

So very true,we were there recently(of course did not stay)but the hygiene levels are a very big concern at Haritha.The washrooms are less said the better and the restaurant was sad.But then considering the other options in the town,haritha is a 5* !

[Tindrums]

Drove to srisailam on Aug 15
Roads are excellent
if you wish to have a short visit (say temple + ropeway + boating upto the Dam), you can make a day trip from Hyderabad. Start at 5 AM from Hyderabad.

Akka Mahadevi / Farhabad / Istakameshwari will require overnight stay.

Srisailam Main temple can be very crowded on holidays. Take the special darshan ticket.

We also found that the temple authorities are forcing everyone to go through the Devi temple. There is no other exit!

The Devi temple is narrow and congested. The exit process can take more time than entry plus darshan.

While coming back at the ghat section, we took the Achampet road by mistake. It is easy to make that mistake if you dont look at direction indicators and judge by road condition as to which is the main road. However we realised the mistake as the road became very narrow within 2-3 kms.

We also found that at the three main junctions, direction boards (in blue) have been installed. At Kalwakurthy by-pass, On Kalwakurthy-devarkonda road and the left turn after Dindi.

[Night_Hawk]

Originally Posted by Tindrums

Drove to srisailam on Aug 15
Roads are excellent

Akka Mahadevi / Farhabad / Istakameshwari will require overnight stay.

Thanks for the very useful updates.
Btw, any idea how much time (including waiting) does it take to make a Farhabad view point round trip by forest department jeep

Thanks in advance
NH

[Tindrums]

1 hr 30 minutes is the farhabad view point visit duration ( i think it is going to; coming from; and at view point time divided equally).

The forest department has two jeeps. Waiting time cannot be predicted as it depends on their usage.

If you are lucky there may be one standing. If not look for the chap with tickets and book immediately. The jeep seats six and charge is Rs 500.0

[Night_Hawk]

Visited Srisailam Dam on 10th August 2011. Road conditions are Good except for few rough patches in the vicinity of Dindi and at few other locations. Nallamala is lush green.

On the way, had breakfast of hot puris , dal and tomato chuteny at Fazal saab's recomended place i.e. Asif's Royal Hotel.

Spent couple of hours at Farahabad jeep trip and view point

The Dam was full and it was an experience to watch the water roaring out of 10 open gates and tumbling over the spillway. Views of river Krishna flowing in its full glory in a deep gorge were awesome.
The hairpin bend closest to the dam on the left bank was drenched with powerful spray of the tumbling water. People were enjoying this spray of water and mist.
It was a memorable trip.
I apologize for the poor quality of pictures

[Mallya_2010]

Planning a trip this Christmas weekend - 24th -25th Dec 2011. Booked overnight stay at Haritha hotel (online). Will leave by 4PM on Sat and return leisurely on Sunday. Will be accompanied by wife and my 2 boys. Any suggestions on how to plan the trip? No trekking or long walks as my younger one is one and a half years old. Temple darshan is a must. How best to go about it?