Vijayawada December 31-January 1

On the next leg of my travels, my train arrived in Vijayawada at 12:15 pm. I had passed by Vijayawada a few times on a train, but I had never stopped in the city. So after checking into a hotel, I walked around the city for a few hours. The city holds no special appeal. I also hired a car and driver for a trip to the famous early Buddhist site of Amaravathi the next day. I did not do anything special for New Year’s Eve.

New Years greetings on a street in Vijayawada

The next morning January 1, I met my driver at 8:30 am. We first stopped at the Undavalli Buddhist rock-cut caves outside of Vijayawada. Such rock-cut caves are common-place in India and typically have rich sculptures in the interior. That makes them rather more interesting than the famous Nabatean rock-cut tombs in Petra, which have spectacular facades but only bare interiors.

The Undavalli caves

The Buddha carving in the interior

We then proceed to Amaravathi. I first went to the main Hindu temple, and then went to the archaeology museum. and the adjacent Buddhist stupa.

The Amaravathi archaeology museum

Next to the museum is the major Buddhist stupa. Curiously, the stupa was lined with small plastic cups for some sort of ritual observance.

The stupa at Amaravathi

The cups lining the stupa

Back in Vijayawada at 1:15, I walked around the city some more, before returning to the train station, where I took a train to Hyderabad that left at 4:15 pm.