Off the back of marathon driving on beautiful highways, we couldn’t really explore the Jewel of the East Coast because night had fallen by the time we entered, so we hit the sack instead. The following morning, it was time to explore Vizag, and so we did. Visiting the famous portside, the industrial area, and then the more touristy spots too. We hit the Ramakrishna beach first, and then headed out to the Victory at Sea memorial.
Another war memorial built to commemorate the ’71 war and victory over Pakistan, this one didn’t display any spoils of war, instead it showcased the Indian Armed Forces’ might with the display of a T-55 tank, an Alizee fighter jet and a missile launcher with sundry surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles on display too. That isn’t all, just a little bit further is the Kursura Submarine museum. And when they say submarine museum, you’d better believe it, because the museum is housed in the INS Kursura, a real-life formerly fully functional sub, India’s fourth one to be precise.
Vizag now explored, we stopped for a quick bite at Sweet Magic, a chain of restaurants in the region, and then turned towards the highways again, this time looking to hit Chennai. A little way out of Vizag we stopped to check out the wares of a roadside fruit-seller (it was mango) and, much to our delight, found a little off-road track leading into god knows where. Off-roading is the Fortuner’s forte so we headed in, kicking up some dust and having a blast doing it. We couldn’t jape around for too long, though, because Chennai was still a long way out.
