01-04-2010

The Day 13 of our trip started early. We were done with our breakfast by 8 in the morning and were on our way to Taptapani. It is a hot sulphur spring located on an altitude of about 700 Mts. I was the only one to take proper dip there and the rest of the guys just wet their legs. I found the water too hot for comfort initially but it was alright after a while. Rohith, who had hurt his knee in Kharagpur, found the warm water very soothing for the pain.

After the hot spring we went to a Buddhist Monastery at Chandragiri in Gajapati district which was around 20-30 Kms away. We visited the Temple there which was very colorful like the usual Buddhist Temples. At the time of our visit there were a few monks reciting some Hymns and Prayers along with some drums and trumpets. We were pretty hungry by now and went to a Tibetan canteen in the premises there.

It was already 3:30-4:00 in the afternoon. We were looking forward to some Tibetan lunch but the Lady running that place told us that they had run out of Momos for that day. So we settled for Rice with Dal and Subzi. It tasted quite good and made for a satisfactory Lunch. After this we were back in our cars and were looking to reach Vizag by evening. But immediate concern was to get out of the Jungles and Mountains before it was dark as that place might not be very safe because of the Naxal activity recently.

I tried to drive as fast as possible in the ghat sections but the narrow roads didn't help much. The last part of the drive was in the dark. We were in Andhra by then but still not out of wilderness. Another hour of drive and we finally rejoined the Golden Quadrilateral.

While driving we were also making our plans for the next day. One suggestion which came from different corners was to visit the Borra Caves. What we realized that if we were to visit Borra Caves the next day we would have to come in the reverse direction from Vizag. So we decided to stay at Vizianagram instead. We went to this hotel called S.V.N. Lake Palace. It was a decent accommodation. We had our dinner in one of its restaurant and then retired for the night.