Team-BHP - A bit of AP (Andhra Pradesh)

hi all.
another part of the trip was from jeypore in orissa to the aruku valley. i saw the borra caves there but no photos from there were worthy of bhp! too blurry.
leaving the hills of orissa and entering the cauldron of AP was a bit dramatic.
i made it to rajahmundry from aruku the first day. going on the small roads all the way. pretty good condition too. i did note that crossing the godavri river upon leaving rmundry that the water was full blue and deep. its a long bridge there. maybe about 2 kms and winding.
down to vijaywada next for a few days and it was a surprise as the streets are wide and very accomodating. went to their kanaka durgha temple and was impressed by it and its view over the town.
took a really nice drive along a winding country road to amaravatti. an old buddhist site. the way there passed thru some beautiful rice paddies, corn fields and enough red chillies drying in the sun to supply AP for at least a day or two! lots of those chillies in their dishes.
got into hyderabad and was introduced by a now good friend to an expert enfield mechanic and, more importantly, the best places to eat in that city.
i must say that i find the food in AP maybe the best in india that i have experienced. please, no offense to anyone!
the hyderabad biryani was the best i have ever had. from shadabs restaurant. the paradise restaurant for breakfast was great too. the tandoori chicken i had in three different places just melts in your mouth. it is almost worth backtracking just to eat there again.
almost...i would consider hyderabad as the most demanding city to drive in india to date. kolkata has a nice flow, delhi is busy but there is a pattern. but here, it is ruthless. pedestrians need to learn to polevault just to cross a street. hehehe
the salarjung museum is a very interesting collection of things of all kinds. worth a few hours if you are there.
two things come to mind.
if you are driving and see a red traffic light,,,dont stop. someone may crash into you from behind. the light is only for decoration! only stop if a police officer says so and then, only if you make eye contact!
there are no straight roads in hyderabad. really. oh, they go straight for a few meters and then the adventure begins. asking directions is like: ' i want to go to golconda', " you go left and then...STRAIGHT". fine, you go left and then straight until 300 meters later there is a Y and both lanes are full of traffic. so, which way? ask again and so on...
tongue in cheek, but true!
drove from there to kurnool and learned that the town was under 6 meters of water from a flood on october 2nd. my room on the first floor was swimming! strange because the river i saw crossing into town was a dry trickle.
finished up the state in tirupati and saw the temple site at tirumala. nice temple but the drive up and back that hill was a thrill. to enter tiramala golden temple was R300. gulp. but i said to myself. what the hell. i'm here lets do it. then i saw that half of india was trying to cram through the entry and all those people herded thru those gateways and i decided i didnt want any part of it!
anyway, here are some pix. hope you enjoy them.
mitch

1 on the way to mandarmoni with the easern bulls for our anniversary ride. i do have a better packing scheme now.and the leathers are packed deep!
2 aruku valley near the borra caves
3 high speed on the highway!
4 are those going in my dinner? along the road to amaravatti
5 charminar in hyderabad is fully protected!
6 small lane in hyderabd. its straight for the moment
7 entry to golconda fort
8 country lane. beautifully paved and no traffic. my kind of road!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitchontheroad (Post 1784444)

if you are driving and see a red traffic light,,,dont stop. someone may crash into you from behind. the light is only for decoration! only stop if a police officer says so and then, only if you make eye contact!

there are no straight roads in hyderabad. really. oh, they go straight for a few meters and then the adventure begins. asking directions is like: ' i want to go to golconda', " you go left and then...STRAIGHT". fine, you go left and then straight until 300 meters later there is a Y and both lanes are full of traffic. so, which way? ask again and so on...
tongue in cheek, but true!

4 are those going in my dinner? along the road to amaravatti

Hillarious to say the least.

Can't agree more, Not sure if its because of lack of enforcement or because of the attidude of the people, no one seems to care about the traffic rules and generally scorn at you, if you are found abiding the law.

To narrate an incident, I was driving on the right direction of the road, all of a sudden I see a big truck ambling along the left lane from opposite direction(wrong way that too during peak traffic hour), I was forced to stop because I was on left lane and there were cars zipping past on the right lane. And in no time there were more people piling behind me and there was a minijam, This lorry guy had the nerve to get down and abuse me for causing a jam and to my surprise I found the mango people (aam Junta) supporting the lorry guy. I stuck to my guns and did'nt budge, atlast the lorry guy backed out for some distance and made way for me to proceed. This left me boiling with rage, but as usual was forced to cool down and not do anything about it, I mean what can you do, report the incident to the cops, who will be only worried to know if there was a physical damage and if so the value of it based on which some revenue can be generated for themselves or else creating public nuisance, risking lives of people are all insignificant to them.