Pochampally - Rural Tourism project

Pochampally is a village located in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. It is popularly known as Silk City. It is around 60-70 kms from Hyderabad depending from where you start. This is the village from where the Bhoodan movement was started by Acharya Vinoba Bhave and hence this place is called 'Bhoodan Pochampally'. I have been longing to visit this place right from the time I came to Hyderabad but I finally made it in the last month.

On a Sunday morning 3 of our office colleagues and to be joined by 2 others mid-way planned for the much awaited trip. Our main intention was not to buy Pochampally dress material in cheap but get to know how this industry works and the tits & bits; Of course capturing the moments with our cameras. Taking a break opposite to Ramoji Film city, we reached Pochampally around 11 AM. The road though one lane was well maintained.


Reaching there we enquired about the Pochampally Handloom Park. Much to our surprise, the park was closed since it was a Sunday. Cursing ourselves for not doing a reseach before going, we were looking for at least something not to waste our day. Disappointed, yet did not lose hope, we reached out to the localities on where we could get to see the looms. Thanks to the localities and my Telegu speaking friends we came to know that though the park was closed, there are a few houses nearby where they make sarees.


They were eager to take us to the huts and explain the process and the different parts of the loom.We took few snaps here and there with their permission. When inquired about the time to make a single saree, we were told that the total process takes 4-5 days depending on the pattern. But alas, when we bargain on the price of these articles we do not think about the hard toil that is put into the work behind this. Middlemen take away the profit and the original workers do not get the worth of efforts put into it.

I bought 2 silk sarees for my wife and mother from one of them, while one of my friend took a dress material. I was happy that I could at least help them a bit, even if this is a very minor effort.

The Finished Products

We also visited the Rural Tourism Complex which is a display of all the variety of products like dress material and saree designs, pottery, baskets etc available at Bhoodan Pochampally. There is a minimum entry fee to the museum. It also has few hut accommodations for visitors. This is maintained by AP Tourism.

We heard earlier that Pochampally is also famous for its pottery, but checking with the localities we found that there are a few houses where it is made but it is on demand.


There is also an Ayyappa temple on the road on the right hand side, which is worth visiting while returning back from Pochampally. Overall the day went well and I would say, it is worth visiting the place probably not on a Sunday when the Handloom park is open. 
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Dip in the Holy HotSpring - Rajgir

Way back in 1994, when I was a kid we visited the holy city of Rajgir along with my parents and few other relatives. Rajgir, popularly known as Rājagṛha is notable for Buddhism - the abode for Gautama Buddha.

Though primarily a Buddhist pilgrimage, Rajgir is also famous for its hot water springs. It has developed as a health and winter resort due to its warm water ponds. The Saptparni cave is the source of the Rajgir Hot Water Springs that have curative properties (likely due to the sulfur) and are sacred to the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. Here, hot water from seven different springs (together called Saptarshi, or seven sages) merge.

At the foot of Vaibhava Hill, a staircase leads up to the various temples. Separate bathing places have been organized for men and women and the water comes through spouts from Saptdhara, the seven streams. The hottest of the springs is the Brahmakund with a temperature of 45 degree Centigrade.

Devotees bathing in the Brahmakund

These baths are said to contain some medicinal properties that help in the cure of many skin diseases. I have been to various other places all over India where there are hot-springs but this hotspring of Rajgir had its own fame and grandeur.

Like other millions of tourists, we too set out in the morning at around 9 from Burmese Buddhist Temple (place where we stayed). We started a bit early to avoid the rush. It was a walk-able distance from our hotel, however since we had additional clothing's with us we took a tanga (light horse-drawn carriage) to reach the place.

The younger group including me choose to dip in the Brahmakund while our parents chose the spouts. Being kid, we always had the interest of spending more time in the warm water splashing over each other. The kund was already occupied by many people. As guessed the water was lukewarm and we spent nearly 2 hours in the kund. We were told to perform another bath outside the kund so that the sulfur washes out from our body.

It was no-doubt an adventure and a completely new one. I would still like to go and have another dip now after so many years.

Credits: Picture is taken from the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tapodarama.jpg
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Expanding experiences - Elephant Bathing

For the last 3 weeks, I have been writing on the different bathing experiences which I had in the past or would love to have in the future. These are part of the Alive is Awesome Bathing experiences - an initiative of Cinthol.

Alive in literal sense is continuing in existence. But is that enough? For me, living like a 'Frog in the Well' is not enough. The essence of being alive comes when you can enrich your knowledge and this is when you are able to fill your life with experiences and adventures. Alive is Awesome gave me that opportunity to explore and expand the experiences.

Splash

In the search of such experiences the concept of Water Parks have become so popular nowadays. Couple of decades back who would have imagined someone going to a water park to get themselves wet. Not only water parks, nowadays resorts also have variety water sports like Wave Pool, different types of SlidesRain Dance with DJ's playing the hot numbers, Surfing etc.


These have become quite common and I at least experience it 3-4 times a year, if not more. I am sure, anyone will agree with me. So we hope to get something different each and every time and the same experience can became boring after a point of time. This was the case for me too..

I have always been willing to travel to Kerala due to it variety in natural landscape and experiences like Staying in a Boat House, Roaming in the Backwaters, Connect with the wild in the Wildlife Sanctuaries etc. Now, when it comes to connecting with the wild, elephant rides are the most common.

Last by not the least, the experience which I would love to experience is the Elephant Bath. Its a bath where you sit perched on its majestic trunk, and the elephant douses you in fresh river water as if you are having a natural shower. Kannur is the place in Kerala where you can have this experience. Elephants by nature is human friendly, but they can be dangerous at times so one should be careful enough in treating them as well. While bathing ourselves we can also rub their back with a brush or probably help them to bath as well.

Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department have also started some eco-tourism packages which has elephant bathing included along with rides and feeding of elephants. I have heard friends telling awesome stories about  how they enjoyed taking dip in the water with the elephants and spending hours without knowing how the time went by and longing to have this pretty soon.

 

Note: One should take care that Elephant is not hurt while doing this.
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Zoobie Doobie @ Taptapani

The place Taptapani is coined from 2 Hindi words “Tapta” means hot and “pani” means water. Rather to say in simple words, the place is famous for its Hot Water Spring. It is situated in the surroundings of a dense forest in the Ganjam district of Orissa.

Way back in August 2006, we planned for a trip to this place along with Gopalpur, the nearest beach location. From Behrampur, we hired a car for the rest of the trip and reached Taptapani in the afternoon. It was rather easy to find our way to the Forest guest house as it was the only one of this sort in the whole area.

Curvy Roads on the way to Taptapani Hotwater Spring

Having late lunch we made our way to the much awaited Hot Spring. We heard that the hot water from the natural spring of Taptapani are attributed with medicinal properties and can be bathed in at the pond created next to the hot spring. It was at a walkable distance from the guest house. Reaching the spot we were rather disappointed to see the hot water spring in such a bad shape. We were hoping to have some amazing experience in the pond.

As night went dark, the rooms booked inside the jungle started getting crowded by varieties of insects and our girl gang refused to stay there. We had to convince the officials to arrange for another room and ultimately got the VIP room with a huge bedroom, a dressing room and a bathroom. Thankfully that room was vacant at that moment.

To our surprise, we came to know that the room had a chamber which had a direct line from the hot water spring. We were still not hoping it to be the best part of the trip until we went inside to see. It was like a small 5x5 foot swimming pool with a dept of about 3 foot which had a tap connection from the hot spring as if a Geyser was connected to the swimming pool.

Image taken from Orissa Tourism Site

The pool was small enough for all of us at the same time and so we decided to go 2 at a time. We realized how bad our decision was after the first turn. Once they were inside the pool locking the main door of the bathroom, they started playing like a kid splashing the water over each other. We had no option to pull them out of the pool. After a lot of shouting and knocking the door they were out after an hour to make way for the other lot. When our time came, we realized why one would not like to come out of the pool so early...Aah!!! It was really refreshing.

Ultimately, when all of us finished we were dead late for the next part of our journey. But, we did not repent though knowing that we had the fun we were hoping to get.

It would however be unfair to relate my experience at Taptapani with any natural geycer after watching the Geycer Bath video below from Cinthol. Like each and every bathing videos posted by Cinthol, this also aroused in me the zeal for such an alive is awesome experience.



To sweat from pores you never knew existed is awesome.

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