Cottage in tirumala.

Ha

As promised i wanted to write a post on darshan of Padmavati Temple and the trip back to Bangalore. Well so just after we finished our darshan of Lord Venkateswara, we returned to our cottage after a walk of 2 kms from the temple to the start of the steps. That is where we got our cottage. Garudadri is what it is called but in Tirumala you will find signboards only to GNC not to Garudadri. GNC stands for Garudadri Nagar Cottage which i realised later.

Similarly ANC stands for Anjanadri Nagar Cottage. and some others which i do not recall now.

Now the process for checkout was pretty easy. But let me give you some details about cottages in GNC or ANC or similar cotttages which have the rent as 50/- per day. These cottages have an attached bathroom thankfully but for electrical points from where we could draw current to recharge your mobiles are not available in the rooms. So if you are running out of battery in your mobile and thought you could rest that night in peace while your mobile safely recharing in the room, you are in for some surprise. The plug points are only available outside the room and that too not necessarily just outside your room.

The architecture of these cottages is such that 3 cottages in the groundfloor are given the same number with the alphabets ,"A","B","C" attached and similarly 3 more on the first floor. i have not seen a single cottage with alphabet "A" appended having the plug point outside their cottage. So you will have to wait outside your cottage while ur mobile or other electrical appliances which need powersupply using the power so that you dont regret losing them while being unattended to.

But the upside of this all is people who do not have cottage can also get their mobile/electrical appliances get power supply without actually needing a cottage. There are like 3 to 4 plug points so that is not a problem.

Now about the cottages, instead of a movable cot all you have is a slab with tiles on the border and fixed. The quality of the mattresses though is now pretty good. You can also get blankets for free but for a fixed deposit of 150/- per blanket from the cottage enquiry room. Bedsheets would not be offerred though. There is not limit for the number of blankets which u can borrow i believe. Only two pillows are offered which come with the cottage. So people who need pillow beware.

So thats about the cottage and the stuff. Now about breakfast one can have it anywhere in those road side canteens which sometimes offer good food. But if you really are looking for a heavy breakfast you have to cover some distance. You will find hotel sapthagiri near the Shopping Complex which is usualy very rush or can go upto Sandeep Restaurant. the prices of the restaurant are damn cheap compared to hotels of the same kind in Tirupathi or any other city. Though they might not have all the variety that is offered in the menu. For people ordering Dosas beware, they would be cold and especially masala dosa. The curry is added after Doas is prepared not while preparing it.

Fruit juices were offered at 20/- per glass which i found to be very expensive. Anyways the service is usually slow. Order for idly which are small, it is served in sambar and ghee. It tastes real good.

So after having a good breakfast from Sandeep Restaurant we came back to checkout from the cottage. To checkout you wil first have to go to the shed from where you collected your key, return the key and he would give you the directions to where and how you can collect your refund of 200/- from. The directions are really helpful and he will ask you in which language you want these directions to be given in. Also he would ask for tips for maitaining the room clean though i do not know how much of the responsibilty he holds for that. Anyways anything between 10 to 20 should be good.

After getting the directions the first stop would be in the enquiry room where the system wil be updated that the room has been checked out from. Here also you might have to pay some money as tips as the guy sitting there would shamelessly ask for it. Sometimes he might be rude if you say you do not have any change. Next stop would be to the refund counter. Since we stayed in GNC, there is a Vijaya bank counter being run just after the Petrol bunk being run by Indian Oil. The processs here is simple just give the reciept and you would be paid your refund money. No tips to be given here. So usually the accomadation cost including these tips would go upto 100/-.