Puri-Konark-Bhubaneshwar

There was only a little over a 100 km on towards Puri and the route takes you close to Bhubaneshwar before turning towards the coast and driving towards Pipli and on towards Puri. The trip should have been uneventful, but unfortunately, Aunty ( the affectionate name I use for my female voiced GPS ) decided to take a short cut and ended up directing us down a road that got narrower and narrower as it got more and more crowded. Eventually, we had to concede defeat and with a couple of helpful locals clearing the people out of the way, we reversed back a short distance and then took another road which took us on to Pipli. Reaching our hotel at Puri was again a bit of an adventure. The hotel is at the end of the beach

This picture was actually taken on our way out of Puri

and one drives down the beach road and then turns at a right angle where the beach is curved to reach the hotel. Unfortunately for us, there was still a lot of sand that the cyclone had blown onto the beach road, and while I was not worried with my 4 wheel drive, just 300 mts from the hotel we came to a tempo that had broken down right in the middle of what was left of the road, and with steep sand dune like mounds on either side we did not attempt to navigate around it. Instead, we drove back a bit and after a few false attempts finally reached the resort from the other side.

Early ( the sun rises really early on the east coast ) the next morning (17/11/2013 ) we woke up and went to the beach to watch the sun rise. Took my camera along, but decided to ‘manage’ without my specs. It was really beautiful, and there were a lot of small fishing boats setting out as we watched. Leaving without my glasses proved to be a costly mistake, as it was only much later that I realised that I had forgotten to replace the data card in the camera after looking at the pictures of Chilka lake the previous night. So I have only one picture of the sea at Puri, and that too was taken from the car on our way out of Puri 2 days later.

After a good breakfast we headed out to Konark to see the Sun temple which was built in the 13^th century.

The data card was now back in place, and the lesson I learned at the Puri beach has led to me connecting the camera to the laptop with a cable, rather than taking out the data card, so hopefully I won’t make the same mistake again. The road to Konark was quite picturesque and there were some nice scenic spots along the way.

The road from Puri to Konark

Along the road from Puri to Konark

It was quite hot in Konark, and there were a lot of tourists as well as we had reached Puri/Konark at the full moon when there is always a crowd especially at the Jaganath temple.

The temple was designed to look like a chariot pulled by horses. 

The british sailors called them the white pagoda and black pagoda respectively, as the domes could be seen from far out at sea

One of the wheels 

and We carried our umbrella from the car, and used it to protect us from the sun,

Elaborate setting of the Kanika restaurant

but it was still very hot and we were quite happy to get back into the car and head to Bhubaneswar to have lunch.

Sculpture outside Mayflower hotel in Bhubaneshwar

We chose 2 Oriya thalis ( one fish and one chicken ) and as you can see; they were very satisfying to say the least.

Lunch

Next we drove to the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves which were nearby

Carving on the wall of a cave in Khandagiri

Sun sets over Udayagiri

Khandagiri caves

Khandagiro

before heading back towards Puri.

This time, while passing Pipli we stopped to pick up some mementoes of our trip, and the old owner of the shop proudly showed me the certificate he had received from the govt.

  He also allowed me to take a few pictures of the kind of work that they do.As mentioned in passing earlier, it was a full moon that night and so naturally took a picture from the car of the moon as it was rising.

Next morning we checked out of the hotel and I took this picture from my cell phone of cyclone damage just outside the hotel gate.

We then went to see the Jagannath temple from outside before heading on to the next leg of our holiday.

Jagannath temple Puri

There were huge crowds at the temple

The road outside the temple

and we took some spectacular pictures

from the so-called “library” in a dilapidated building opposite the temple.

The library capitalises on the rule that prevents non-hindus from entering the temple, and one wishes that it was kept a bit better. We had to make a “donation” towards the upkeep of the library and firmly resisted all attempts to go up from the Re. 50/- donation we decided on after seeing the condition of the library.

Then we set off on the next leg of our trip : heading to the ‘Nature Camp Chhotkei’ situated near the banks of the Mahanadi river within the Satkosia Tiger Reserve.