Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kolkata
(via Bhubaneswar; sleeper/3AC/2AC ?333/914/1385, 14-16 hours)
Vijayawada
(via Rajahmundry; sleeper/3AC/2AC ?190/495/720, seven hours)
On Mondays and Fridays, the 18512 Visakhapatnam-Koraput Intercity Express heads
near Chatikona, Onkadelli and Chandoori Sai in Odisha.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Around Visakhapatnam
Bheemunipatnam
This former Dutch settlement, 25km north of Vizag, is the oldest municipality in mainland
India, with bizarre sculptures on the beach, an 1861 lighthouse, an interesting Dutch
cemetery and Bheemli Beach, where local grommets surf on crude homemade boards.
Catch bus 999 or 900 (?22, 40 minutes) or a shared autorickshaw.
Bavikonda & Thotlakonda
The Vizag area's natural harbours have long been conducive to dropping anchor, which
helped monks from Sri Lanka, China and Tibet come here to learn meditation.
Bavikonda
(
9am-5pm)
and
Thotlakonda
( 8am-6pm)
were popular hilltop monasteries on the coast that
hosted up to 150 monks at a time - with the help of massive rainwater tanks and, at Thot-
lakonda, a natural spring.
The monasteries flourished from around the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD, and
had votive stupas, congregation halls,
chaitya-grihas
,
viharas
and refectories. Today only
the ruins of these monastic compounds remain, but they're impressive nonetheless, with a
placid, almost magical, air and sea views to meditate on. Bavikonda and Thotlakonda are
14km and 16km, respectively, from Vizag on Bheemli Beach Rd. Vizag's autorickshaw
drivers charge around ?500 return from RTC Complex to see both.
Sankaram
Forty kilometres southwest of Vizag is this stunning
Buddhist complex
( dawn-dusk)
, better
known by the name of its two hills, Bojjannakonda and Lingalakonda. Used by monks
from the 2nd to 9th centuries AD, the hills are covered with rock-cut caves, stupas, ruins
