Trip to karimnagar

Its more than 2 years since my dad has been working in karimnagar and shuttling between his work place and home on every weekend. Many times we thought to go to his place for a weekend trip but always we had to postpone the plans for some or the other reason.

Finally one fine Monday morning deciding not to delay further we decided to pay a visit to my dad's place coming weekend. Since he is a forced bachelor, my mom was hesitant to directly go and visit his 1 BHK flat. So instead she advised that she would go on Thursday and we could join her on weekend. It was quite a fair deal, coz with pihu and shash I cant take chance to give a surprise visit to my dad's place knowing his lovely habits(he loves waste items like valuables, he has his own sweet collection of newspaper, plastic disposable bottles and what not)

DAY 1: Anyways finally on Saturday morning we planned to start by 10:00 am so that we could reach their by lunch. But shash has some important work so he was sure to get delayed and being his better half I am well versed with his habits, so not only a heavy breakfast I cooked lunch as well. We packed everything and started around 12:00 pm.

As usual to keep pihu busy in car we thought of taking our tablet but forgot it at the last minute. So now I was her LIVE tablet, friend, entertainer for the short trip. We thought that it would take 3 hrs but in 2 hrs we covered the journey with short 15 min break for lunch and two short 5 min break for addressing pihu's emergencies both input and output one's :).

Pihu enjoyed the barbecued corn its was simply awesome. We took it from the little stalls on the highway by the villagers. It was direct farm fresh and very tender.

For sometime pihu did all her gymnastics inside the car only. For sometime I taught her game from my childhood "Zip Zap Zoom". Finally we reached Karimnagar and dad came on his scooter on the highway and from there he was our pilot till home. 

Pihu madam was shouting "Nana, O Scooter wale nana, O kumada wale nana" from inside of the car. It was fun how these kids come up with such creative thinking these days. :)

By the time we reached home it was scorching heat so we just decided to take some rest and then go out once the sun cools down.

Then almost around 6:00 pm we came out for a little drive to "Vemulawada temple". It is just 30 kms from the place were dad stays. So its like going to office, but the route was not that good and little isolated area so mom was bit scared. To keep pihu busy this time we took some snacks so that she stays calm and quite. I guess good idea to keep kids calm inside the car, ensure their mouth is busy not by taking but instead munching the snacks. :)

When we reached temple it was almost 7:15 pm. We first went for darshan, since it is Shiva temple Saturday was not a busy day at the temple. We completed the darshan in minutes. The temple has cows within the temple premises, we have seen families taking the cows and doing pradakshina(one whole round around the temple). As per legends, "offering of Cow" to the god, locally called as "Kode Mokku" will cleanse the devotees of their sins and couple will be blessed with children. Since offering a cow is expensive these days hiring for a single pradakshina is what seems as a alternate option. 

But anyways this was not which caught my attention. Some thing much interesting caught my attention. This temple has a mosque inside the premises. MOSQUE inside a TEMPLE ? At first I was like this is some thing very very unique. I got to know from my dad the significance of this Mosque. "It is believed that the mosque was built as a tribute to a muslim devotee of Lord Siva who lived for many years in the temple precincts and breathed his last. "

Prasadam time with Dad.

This temple also has a holy tank, Dharma Gundam, for divine bath, though the water levels were low it was clean enough for people to take a bath. In fact water was being filled in by pipes. Modernization of everything I must say :).

Then we returned to karimnagar, since now shash was familiar with the route the return journey was 15 min shorter. We then went to "Prathima restaurant" for dinner. The butter naan's were exceptionally awesome. 

Wherever we go pihu has to visit the restrooms, so even here she dint spare me of this visit. When we were coming out two things happened. 

1. Pihu was advising another lady to wash her hand and then use tissue paper to wipe up. It was funny and even that lady was smiling and making conversation with my grown up girl.

2. I saw a couple coming inside, the lady was on clutches and the husband dint have a hand. 

I asked the lady if I could assist her, however seeing pihu she said NO and was more comfortable to take her spouses help. 

Life has so much to teach.

Then we returned back to home and went straight to our beds.

DAY 2: Firstly Sunday, a day to relax and enjoy mom made food + the sun was not that kind enough to let us go out. So we decide to stay at home only. Whole day we all spent watching TV, cooking sumptuous meal and taking rest. Pihu was feeling bored so she went out with dad for sometime and then played with dad's house owners kids. 

Then around evening 5:00 pm we packed up for our return journey to Hyderabad, but before that we wanted to see the DAM. So we went to a point where we could enjoy the sunset and the dam view both. It was one of its kind view. As usual it was pihu who enjoys the most. Running on the pathway, posing for pics and playing around.

After the visit to DAM we started back to Hyderabad and that's the end of our weekend trip & the weekend as such.

Pihu's first road trip

Pihu's first long road trip.  A Weekend trip from hyderabad to bhadrachalam on Sep 20th & 21st 2014. 

Bhadrachalam is an important Hindu pilgrimage town, situated on the banks of Godavari River.The town is famous for temple of Lord Rama.

We started by our own car around 1pm and reached bhadrachalam around 8 pm. On the way we stopped at "Highway Food Court 7 at Suryapet", mid-way between Hyderabad and Vijayawada. We ate some snacks here and pihu did lots n lots of masti.

She enjoyed with the chota bheem cutout, check her expression and poses below.

 Below is her nautanki near the garden @ the food court

 Some masti with M

Only family pic...Infact a family Selfie or shall I call it Familyfie. :)

After the little joyful break we started back on our journey. Upon reaching bhadrachalam first we went to TSTDC Haritha resort, the receptionist informed that lots of rooms are available and that the temple will close around 8:30 pm so instead of checking in we directly went for darshan and it was very very peaceful darshan as the temple was empty. We got darshan 2 times and the last seva i.e pavalimpu seva started around 9 pm.  We took tickets and were allowed to sit inside the temple. When we said pihu "jai jai ko jo jo karare"(they are putting lord to sleep) she started singing A, B, C, D (the lullaby I sing for her) :).

After that we took a room in near by hotel(Sri Venkateswara Hotel), it was cheaper than Haritha and decent enough. After freshening up we ate some fried rice and pihu ate dosa. It was OK food, but cockroaches were something which at first were not seen, but suddenly popped up as the food came.

Next day morning after freshening up, we checked out and ate breakfast outside. Dint dare to try the in house restaurant at the hotel. 

Shash and pihu doing masti @ the hotel.

While shash was busy with check out formalities me and pihu were having fun in the car. Wow we got the gundu papa's pic also captured. 

After Breakfast, First we went to Godavari for darshan, no wonder it was dirty. Then we went to temple for darshan since kalyanam was going on little Queue was there so we went to the museum first. Then we took archana ticket and got archana done. For archana we were allowed inside till the main garbha gudi.

Then we purchased some ladoos prasadam and started back to hyderabad around 11:15 am. 

Only pic of ours which we could take @ the temple.

              

We stopped by @ kottagudem for little milk break for pihu.  Then we started back, next stop was at khamam in the spicy restaurant kaveri for lunch. Then we started back and reached home around 8 pm.

And thats the end of our and pihu's first road trip....!!!!!!!!!!