We moved to Hyderabad in September 2013 and in October decided to do a quick weekend getaway. Unfortunately there are not as many weekend getaway options from Hyderabad as from Bangalore. But still we thought of exploring whatever options we had.
One of the options that seemed interesting was Nagarjunasagar. I was a three hour drive from my home. We left on Hyderabad on a Saturday
We started with the ORR (Outer Ring Road) and then followed Google Navigation till we were on the main road to Nagarjunasagar. As i look in hindsight, it seems that we took the ORR and Nagarjunasagar Road as shown in Google maps. The road condition was unexpectedly good (I am comparing it to highways in my native place). The ORR is like an expressway. Even on the state highway, the traffic was not heavy and I could easily drive my i10 at 80 kmph.
When we started from Hyderabad, it was drizzling. But as we moved towards Nagarjunasagar, it was a heavy downpour. That's one of the reasons that it took us a bit longer to reach (3.5 hours). It was raining incessantly and we thought that our short trip would be screwed.
We had pre-booked the Haritha Vijay Vihar Resort NagarjunaSagar through the APTDC website. The cost was around Rs.2,500/- per night which was okay considering the kind of rates that hotels charge these days. While we were about to enter the room, it was drizzling. We see rivulets in the resort itself. So even the bell boy did not turn up (not sure if they have someone for this purpose considering that it is a government property). The room was spacious with view of the Nagarjunasagar lake. The bathroom was not that great.
We unpacked the food which we had brought along with us (pooris), as it was not a good idea to step out for the restaurant in the rain with my 3 year old kid. By evening around 4 PM, the skies were a bit clear and it was just drizzling. We thought of what we could do in the next 2-3 hours. We thought of going to the Ettipotala waterfalls. It took us about 30-40 minutes if i can remember correctly to reach the waterfalls. We also had to pay an entry fee of about 20-30 rupees some distance before the falls. I had already read about this (being unauthorized or what...) on another blog but still shelled out the money as it was getting dark and there was no time to haggle.
As soon as we stepped out of the car, a monkey jumped into our car in search of food while our kid was still on the rear seat. My god. It would have taken the monkey 2 seconds to get into the car from the rear door on the right and come out of the left side from the front door carrying an empty packet of chips which was kept in the bottle holder. My wife literally screamed, i was also shocked and other people came to our rescue. Thankfully none of us was harmed.
We were advised by the people standing there not to carry anything especially polythene bags as it would attract monkeys. We just carried our umbrellas as it was still drizzling, purchased the entry tickets to the waterfall and went in the resort campus. APTDC has another resort here. It is cheaper but I would not recommend this to anyone especially with kids. Lot of monkeys and it is at a very deserted sort of place. Due to the rains, the water in the waterfall was muddy, though the expanse was good because of the rains for the past few days. Generally you see a waterfall from its bottom when you are so close to the waterfall. But here you were at a higher point than the waterfall. It was okay and would have been better without the monkeys.
We returned by about 7 and after a break in the room went to have dinner in the restaurant. We ordered North Indian food and it was okay - better that we had expected. Post dinner, we went back to the room and retired for the day.
The way it had rained the previous day, the next day was a pleasant surprize for us. It was a perfect weather that one would want on a holiday. Clouds but no rain. Pleasant breeze. This made the environs of the resort look even better. We did an extensive photo session. My kid was busy playing in the water in the resort as it was flowing into the lake. All of us had great fun that day.
We also went to the point where boating is done in the NagarjunaSagar lake but did not opt for it. Took photos of the dam on the way.
Again, on our return journey, we took a lot of photo shoots stopping at various places on the road. Everything seemed so fresh and lively.
Overall, it was a nice weekend getaway. Would recommend visiting during the monsoons when the weather is good as nice weather would add more fun to the trip.
