Vizag - the city by the shore

The city of Vizag located on the eastern coast of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has long been known for its port and nice beaches. It has pretty fair weather considering the fact that port cities in India are normally very hot and humid and not conducive to "holiday" in.

So we were pleasantly surprised with the temperature in the fourth week of October which was around 28 degrees C. Which is not bad if it is not too humid. But you do have to travel in an airconditioned car to be comfortable if you plan to do sight seeing around the city. Not that we were terribly interested in discovering the city. We had a fixed plan. Spend some time on the beach. Go visit the church on top of the hill, take a drive around the place and see whatever it is they show you in a guided tour. There are plenty of them to choose from.

We took an airconditioned coach from Hyderabad to Vizag which is an overnight express and reaches in the wee hours of the morning. You do have flights but at that time they were issues with the Airline that had a service to the airport. These days there are atleast 3 airlines that have flights to and from Vizag. The airport though has had issues of flooding in the past and has been known to close down after a severe downpour. Besides we wanted to enjoy part of the journey and what better way to enjoy a train trip than by taking an airconditioned sleeper coach on the Indian Railways. It is an enjoyable experience.

The view outside our hotel window - we insisted on one with a view of the Bay of Bengal. The whole stretech of road in the foreground is rimmed with 5 star hotels so you do have a great choice to choose from. All with pretty decent rooms.

There are many places to see including a zoo and a submarine museum, which is an actual soviet era diesel submarine the INS Kursura (a foxtrot class submarine) placed smack on the Ramakrishna beach and converted into a walk in museum.

We liked it...before we got inside. It was my first opportunity to get a first hand view of a real sub, and no not like they showed it to you in the movies. Gosh it was so claustrophobic. Just enough place to move your self. Everything was so cramped and crowded. There seemed to be thousands of valves and pipes and gauges all around and you seriously had to be bored of the outside world to be in one of them. And of course everything about it looked BIG. I always imagined submarines to be less taller than they looked at least if you parked in on the beach. This reached a height of almost 25 feet! This boat had a maximum range of almost 20 thousand miles. Fancy going around the world in those cramped conditions. Well some people liked it I guess.

It was on Sunday that we decided to visit the Roman Catholic church built in honor of Mary the mother of Jesus - at the summit of Ross hill. It is worth visiting. Situated right on the summit of Ross Hill it has a commanding view of the entire city and the sea. I've not known of another parish office that has a better view. The parish priest who lives there may never get tired of the view outside his window. The church itself was built while the British still ruled India. To get there you have to travel via the road that leads into the port and past the docks. The entrance to the church is via a small winding road built into the hill that rivals Lombard street in San Francisco, not as colourful and well known but none-the-less enjoys a charm that begs to be discovered. As you climb the hill (and it is a good half a mile or so till you reach the top), you pass by the "Stations of the Cross" with each station depicting the passion of the Lord Jesus, built into the walls. After you reach the top -which is easy enough if you travel by car -but tests your athletic ability if you hoove it, you see a nicely built almost cozy looking church. It is actually a regular parish with masses every Sunday et al., so we went for Mass on Sunday there and then drove back into town after spending an hour or so there admiring the view.

We liked the spot so much that we returned to take a few pics of the church at night.The port of Vizag is nestled amidst the Eastern Ghats. Ships actually sail pass Ross hill and then turn west into the mainland to enter the port area through a small channel. So you got a magnificent view of those huge [panamax vessels sailing majestically past you like in a parade. It was a fascinating sight to someone who never saw a ship in his entire life. A liitle earlier and I probably would have been a sailor now.

The next day saw us visit the Golden Sands beach which is tucked away beyond a small boundary of coconut palm trees that seem to form a necklace around the beach.

There are a couple of eating joints and places to sit so that you could order some snacks which are mostly Indian fast foods like fried chillies, spinach fried in a batter of cornflour, samosas which are patties with a vegetable mix in them and triangular in shape. The beach is clean and surprisingly so. People are rarely seen in swim suits here. In fact most come fully dressed and at the very most get their feet wet. We did see a couple of brave souls go in for a swim, but otherwise you have a lot of couples with or without children so they just walk around chatting, eating playing on the beach or taking out photographs.

We spent around a couple of hours and then went back to our hotel. We were due to return to Hyderabad the next day and decided to spend our day lazing it out at the hotel. We ordered room service and watched a movie in our room. Thus wrapping up our rather brief but exciting trip to Vizag.

Chris Francis

May 8th, 2008