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Vizag: clean city by the sea

Visakhapatnam (or Vizag) wasn't on the radar. It is one of the cleanest places we'd been India. I had no idea it was a city in South East India or how to pronounce it. Only learned it existed because when we tried to get our boarding passes in the airport in Sri Lanka to come to India we needed to show an outbound flight. Walking across the boarder to Myanmar wasn't accepted. Next time will remember to book on a site that allows cancellation after 24 hours, but in the early morning panic that didn't happen. Then it turned out to be overly complicated and expensive to cross overland from India to Myanmar, so we decided to use the flights to Kuala Lumpur and come in from the South. Vizag was now in the itinerary.
Get there
We took a train from Puri to Khurda junction. And then transfered to a sleeper to Vizag. There is a waiting room in Khurda upstairs to charge phones and sit.
Eat, drink, sleep
- Sree residency was a great spot to sleep. It was cheaper online. Guys at the hostel were super helpful, although a bit loud until midnight.
- Flying spaghetti factory for some excellent pasta if you are going to treat yourself.
- Park hotel for a drink by the pool or on the lawn to relax
What we did
Arrived at 4:45am, so we hung out in the train station for a bit and then caught an auto to RK Beach to watch the sunrise. Wasn't a super impressive sunrise, despite being a large orangish ball, but what was interesting was all the exercise going on. The road along the beach is closed from 5am to ?? And there were hundreds of people out walking. Couples in matching clothes, women in everything from saris to sweatpants, joggers, bikers, dogs being walked. It's International Consumer Day, so folks were out to bring awareness of consumer rights. A guy came to give us a paper and I took a photo of the number, which came in handy later. It was a really nice atmosphere and way to start the day.

"We matched our outfits!" they exclaimed.

Walkers in Vizag


Held hostage at the Saaket residency

Trying out a fancy hotel 

Last dosa at the Vizag airport

Asserted our consumer rights over poor treatment at the Saaket residency


We'd decided to spend a bit more to get a nicer room, so I'd found the Hotel Saaket for $20 online. We headed there. The walk-in rates were higher, but with online he said we couldn't get into the room until 12pm. We decided to check-in. Then in the room, I saw that the online rate indeed about 1/3 less, so negotiated with the guy to do that but stay in the room now. I was impressed with him saying yes and apparently breaking a rule. However a shit storm happens later with the manager and owner, where they were ridiculously aggressive both verbally and physically. So we reported it to the Consumer helpline and Treebo, who were both really responsive.
The issue at Saaket residency took up much of our time in Vizag, but it seemed that most things to do were outside of town anyhow.

Get out
We flew as this is one spot Air Asia goes, there are cheap flights. To get to the airport, we used Uber because the tuk tuk driver was asking too much. I hope the tuk tuk drivers realize this before the demand plummets.

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