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Warangal food, sight-seeing and shopping options
The following been listed below in the order of distance · Bhongir fort -------80 KMS (all distances from hyderabad) · Yadagirigutta temple-------90 KMS · Pembarti------100KMS · Kolanupaka a jain temple · Jangaon. “Ram” from Ramayana once visited this place!!!!!!!!! · Warangal 150 KMS · Ramappa lake and ramappa temple 220 KMS After covering a stretch of about 80 kms from our residence we reached the 12th century made Bhongir Fort. The fort is built on an isolated gigantic rock. The fort was earlier known as Bhuvanagiri. We did not climb the fort; instead we decided to have scrumptious breakfast. I guess its good to reach this place early moring or late evening, as there is no shelter from the sveltering heat up there. Also (I think) its better to come in groups as the place looked isolated from below!!!!!!!! The small fort has nothing much to show except the panaromic view of the neighboring places which it offered at 500 feet above the ground. …. As told to us by the locals…. Guys you may try going up there!!!!!!!!! Guys following this Itinerary…please eat well…. There are no other good place to eat on the way till Warangal… not that I can remember of!!!!!!!!! Our next desitination was Yadagirigutta, home to a hill temple. After Bhongir watch out for the left turn you need to make under a huge sculpted archway where the road leaves the main highway to proceed to the temple. About 3 kms before the foot of the cave temple is a shrine to Shiva, which has an enormous, and hugely kitschy, Hanuman-Shiva concrete statue straddling the courtyard. You can actually see the top of Yadagirigutta from there. Keep going. The drive is uphill and because it was a Saturday the place was crowded and we had difficulty in parking our vehicle The temple: The sanctum of this hill temple is a natural cavern on the hill. Jwala Narasimha, Ghandabheranda Narasimha, and Yoga Narasimha are held in worship here, in addition to a silver image of Lakshmi Narasimha and a shrine to Aandaalamma. There was a huge crowd and so we took the special darshan ticket, we could speed up the process other wise we would have to wait in the queue for another 3 hours. This is one of the very famous temples of Andhra Pradesh .Wow!!!! what a sacred start to our weekend!!!!!!!! The next stop was Pembarti, which is about100 km from Hyderabad and about 60 kms from Warangal. It is famous for statues, carvings and castings made of attractive copper alloys like bronze and brass, which are famous all over the world. So the statues in the Manhattan hotel or Tokyo corporate office may be from Pembarti .U can buy beautiful pandaans (betel nut carrying boxes), ittar daans (scent containers) but what I liked the most was the brass lamp. It’s a must stop for lovers of Indian crafts otherwise u may skip this halt. We just had a brief 15 min stop to check the art center and also stretch ourselves. The people are very lazy and won’t show you unless u ask……they have their clientele and are not bothered if u just drop in for a dekho….. Be alert as the village is a tiny hamlet u may miss while driving.!!!!!!!!! Very close to Pembarti ….. You have to take a detour of about 8 km to reach Kolanupaka. This was the second capital town of Kalyani Chalukyas during the 11th century AD .The 2,000-year-old Jain temple of Mahaveer is a famous place of worship for Jains in the country. The temple is embellished with beautiful images of Thirthankaras. The 5ft high image of Mahavira is entirely carved of Jade. It was a nice quiet place but by the time we reached this place, it was hot and we were tired. The road to this temple is full of potholes, a stretch of shops on either side, a railway crossing and no traffic control. We landed in a Catch 22 situation and had to move towards the temple, as there was no way we could turn back. With no offence to the Jain community, I thought we could have skipped this detour. We must be one of the few Non-jains to have visited so many Jain temples in India!!!!!!!! Next stop was located at a distance of 10 kms from Jangoan. . It was the Sri Ramchandra temple Jeedichal The temple is an ancient one and legends goes that, Lord Sri Rama visited this temple on his way to 'Lanka' (Sri Lanka) after separation from his wife Sita. People also believe that, Rama has killed the 'Maricha' who was in the guise of the Magis deer. A boulder namely 'Ledi Banda','Jeedigundam' and 'Palagundam' the two pushkarinis for the holy dip of the pilgrims are seen here. Well we had to drive further and we were not prepared for the holy dip. We visited the temple and left…it was getting hotter…and getting out of the car was impossible now. We had seen so many temples that we were having a feeling that we were on a pligrimage…but this temples that we saw had familier names from the Ramayana which we just read in books…so the thrill of seeing the places live took us to this temple!!!!!!! Anyway we soon reached Warangal ……we were expecting a deserted town but the Punnami hotel (run by the Andhra Pradesh tourism department) where we had booked a room for ourselves was bang opposite the regional engineering college, but outside the city centre. (A big disadvantage) But booking at this place was the biggest mistake. Guys travelling to this region do not stay here… The rooms are basic with a window AC with little cooling and lots of noise………it has no running restaurant. …And no one comes here other than government officers. The staff is not helpful at all. The best place to stay and eat is Hotel Ashoka and it is in the city centre ………. We had already paid in advance in Hyderabad and so were left with no choice. We had all our meals in Ashoka; our hotel was not ready to serve even the morning tea. Please learn from our mistake!!!!!!!!1 And yes stay where ever u want according to your budget but remember to book yourself an AC room in my opinion… it is hot here, all round the year!!!!!!!! Hotel Ashoka, Hanamakonda is the best hotel to stay Ph: 78491. Hotel Ratna, Warangal. PH: 60645. Hotel Shankar, hanamakonda. PH: 79196.are some more which u may try. STD Code: 08712