Orissa Trip

Trip to Orissa

It was planned as a 4 night and 5 day trip (including the travel). The plan was to visit Konark, Puri, Chilka lake and Bhubhaneshwar(BBS) and the places around in this trip. The trip started off from Visakhapatnam (in Andhra Pradesh State) and ended in the same place. To know about the sight seeing places in Puri, Konark and BBS, visit this link.

Day - 1

We reached Khurda Road around 2:30pm and then took a passenger train to reach Puri. We reached Puri by 6:00pm. Though Puri is just 44km away from Khurda, since it was a passenger train, it took about 2 hours to complete the journey.

As with any tourist place in India, as soon as we got down the train, lots of coolies/auto/cab drivers wanted us to take to the hotel of thier choice. However, we managed to go to the Orissa Tourism counter in the railway station to seek advise on the best place to stay. The lady in the counter was helpful and told us to stay in any hotel on the "Sea Beach Road". She also advised us not to stay in hotels on C.T. Road. True to her advise, the view from any hotel on Sea Beach Road is bound to be spectacular as the hotels face the sea. Hotel Puri seems to be very good choice to stay as it offers a range of rooms to suit different budgets (I did not stay here as I did not know this earlier :). There are several others to stay as well on this road and if you go in an off-season, you can reach Puri and search for the hotel of your choice on this road. We, however had to rely on the auto driver and he took us to a lane near to sea beach road and told us this is the nearest hotel to the Sea and we had to check-in to that. Though it was near to the Sea Beach Road, I can definetely say that we missed on staying a hotel opposite to the Sea. Additionally there is a big bustling market at Swargadwar Junction on the Sea Beach Road (this is 5 minute walk from Hotel Puri).

Some tips on Hotels :-

Hot water to take bath is necessity in Puri, specially if you visit in winter. So, insist on hot water facility. That too since you will have to take baths around 5:30-6:00am daily, insist on room delivery for hot water (many hotels are old and rooms do not have in-built gysers)
Puri has a concept of 10% surcharge on the final bill for hotels. So, check with the reception BEFORE hand. Most hotels say that the rent they offer is inclusive of "everything". So, check about this specially. Otherwise, it might imbalance your budget.
Most hotels have 7:00am as checkout time. So, try to reach Puri early morning so that you will not lose money on one day.

After check-in (around 6:30pm), we freshened up and went to the Puri Beach and spent time till 9:00pm there. We bought tickets from the OTDC (Orissa Tourism) counter to visit Konark, BBS and Chilka lake. From Puri, Konark & BBS will be covered in a single 1-day trip and Chilka lake is covered in a separate 1-day trip.

Some tips with respect to tour booking -

If you have time (5 days) and money ;), it is best to visit these places by a taxi as the tour operators by bus will not give you enough time to see the places in peace. However, beware! taxi drivers may happily cheat you and not show you all places.
If you prefer the bus travel, I advise you to go with OTDC and not any other private bus operator.
I also advise you to pre-pack the food for breakfast & lunch, if you travel by bus. The OTDC bus will stop for breakfast and lunch near the sight seeing spot(s) itself. Thus, if you bring pre-packed food, it will save you some time in ordering and eating which can be spent near the sight seeing spot.
It costed Rs.600 for us to cover a 44km distance by a taxi. This should help you plan your budget if you plan to travel by cab. In my view, if you have your own vehicle, that IS the best mode of conveyance,except that you will get tired.

Day - 2

We had to board the OTDC bus at 6:45am. First, we went to Konark by around 8:15am. The time given for us to visit Konark is 1 hour 20 minutes, including the breakfast in the near by OTDC restaurant!! This time is definitely not enough to visit the majestic construction of the Sun Temple! I believe this place deserves spending of half-a-day at the least. Also, on the way to Konark there are various places one can halt and just enjoy the beauty of sea. Anyway, we quickly finished our "visit", took some photos, had some breakfast and boarded the bus. The next trip was to Dhaulagiri Santistupa near BBS. After travelling for quite some time, we reached the site and we were given 20 minutes to visit the same. The place was crowded with lots of visitors and one will not get any peace here! It is a good structure and lot of Lord Buddha's idols are carved. But I really did not find it worth visiting that deserves so much of travel. The next stop was at the famous Lingaraj Temple of BBS again for another 20 minutes. The temple is very very old and is in a huge area. It consists of several dieties (may be in hundereds) and it is impossible to cover the temple in 20 minutes.Thus we saw the main diety, took some photopgraphs inside the temple campus and returned back. The next stop is at Nandan Kannan Zoo. After having lunch in the OTDC restaurant inside the zoo, the guide has taken us to a trip of the zoo for next 2 hours (till approx. 3:30pm). We have seen White Tigers, Royal Bengal Tigers, Lions and several other animals. Most of these animals are not behind cages and thus can easily be captured in a camera (provided you have a telezoom (200mm)! This is a huge zoo and if you are inclined it is really worth spending one entire day here. After departing from the zoo, the next (and the last) stop for the day was at Udaygiri and Khandagiri Caves and we were again given 20 minutes to visit both the places. Khandagiri was on a steep mountain and I did not even bother to climb that as I was tired and it will take entire 20 minutes just to climb! Udagiri was a set of ancient caves on a small hill. The caves are present in two layers one of top of another!. It is nice to watch the caves in various shapes and climb the small hill. After this, we started back to Puri and reach Puri by around 7:30pm. Had dinner and slept!

Some opinions/tips/suggestions on this tour for future tourists:

I suggest people to visit Konark separately by taxi/bus, spend some time in Konark and the beach. Try to reach Konark during the Sun rise time (or just after that) and it will be a fine experience to watch the Sun temple. Also, this will ensure that you beat the bus tour operators which will crowd the entire area. On your return from Konark, if you have time, you can do local sight seeing in Puri or simply spend the time in Puri Beach and Swargadwar baazar.
Though I did not try, I believe one can hire a bicycle and roam around. I guess this is a good way to spend time.
I found that the OTDC trip is only good for people who want to "count" the number of places they visited (who prefer quantity more than quality). So, if you prefer quality, try to reach BBS on your own (taxi/bus/train) and do a local sight seeing. Spend some time in Lingaraj temple and Nandan Kannan Zoo and several other places in BBS (see the link above). If you do not have time, I suggest you to skip the trip to BBS totally.

Day - 3

We boarded OTDC bus to Satapara (Chilka Lake) around 7:15AM. First we visited Alarnath Temple in Brahmagiri and had the breakfast in some small canteen. We reached Satapara around 12:00 noon. Every one in the bus boarded a motor boat to go into the Chilka lake. It was pretty crowded. We saw good number of Dolphins swimming in the lake. If you have seen the Dolphin Shows in US, you might be disappointed that the doplhins here does not do any acrobatics as they are not trained!. After that we went to Rajahamns Island where the lake meets the Sea. Spent 30 minutes in the island then we reached back to Satpura by 3:15pm. The boat ride for apprx. 2.5 hours was very good. On the way, I learnt that one can stay in some of the islands provided you book early with the OTDC. (I guess I will do that next time I visit Chilka :). There after had lunch in the OTDC hotel and boarded the bus back to Puri by 4:00pm. Reached Puri around 7:00pm.

Some opinions/tips/suggestions on this tour for future tourists:

I guess visitors should spend a night in Satapara than travel back to Puri. This would give ample time for them to roam around different islands. There are lots of other islands where migratory birds are found that can be visited. Thus, I advise one to book a room at OTDC Hotel (Panthanivas) in Satapara and reach there separately by taxi/bus from Puri by early morning. (It takes 2.5 hours journey by road to Satapara from Puri though the distance is less than 60 km; this is mainly due to the extremely bad conditions of the road. So, plan accordingly). Once you reach Satapara, then you can checkin and go on a boat ride to whatever place you have. Chilka lake has various islands to visit and the people at hotel can help you with the choice. You can even extend your stay there if you feel you have more energy left in you to visit more islands.

Day - 4

The day to visit the world famous Jaganath Temple in Puri. We started off around 7:30AM in the morning. Reached temple in 10 minutes and came out of the temple by 12:00noon. It is a huge temple and not many people were there (only a few hunderds). However, the pandas (Presits) are bad and they make you cough up lots of money for no reason. They will ask bribes for every thing, even to go into the temple. You can pay a panda around Rs.100 and he will take you near the diety for a close "darshan". There are many mini temples inside the same compound and at every temple the pandas behave the same way. They just hold your hand, say some mantras etc and demand for Rs 51, or Rs 101 or Rs. 501 depending upon the devotee. If you refuse to pay, they simply start cursing. They even forcibly give you some small idol of the God/Godess and demand money for that. One can easily get distressed with the behavior of the pandas. They are real nuisance. Due to this, I stopped going into the temples. Have the darshan just from very far and come back. Overall, it was an unpleasant experience.

Once we came out of the temple, we roamed in the nearby baazar and bought some souvenirs. Had lunch, did some more shopping, wen to hotel and took rest. Late evening, we went for local sight seeing in an auto-rickshaw. The auto costed us Rs. 120. Though it is high for the distance we travelled, there is nothing one can do about it in such tourist places. As a part of this we have seen few temples again. Gundicha Temple is one among them. This is also a huge temple and is good to spend some time. Any temple you go, the Pandas behave in the same way. You should be very careful with your money. Wound up the day with some more shopping. At the end of it, went to Sea Beach, spent some time and then did some more shopping and left.

Some tips:

Most of the temples does not allow any leather items (belts, hand bags, wallets etc.), cameras etc. At Jagannath temple they do not even allow mobile phones. Though there is a small place near the temple where you can secure these, my advise is to leave all such items at your hotel room and then visit the temple.
Most temples are open only people practicing Hindu Relegion. Visit this page for some details on this.
My sincere advise is to keep some amount of money aside to "lose" to pandas in the temples. Just think that you are donating some money. What ever amount you have decided, carry exactly the same amount in your pocket/wallet. Otherwise, you will definitely end up spending (rather losing) more, apart from losing your peace of mind.
Places around Puri are famous for "Applique Work" and "Pata Chitra" handicrafts. Pipli (25km from Puri towards BBS) is the home for the "Applique work" and Raghurajpur (14km from Puri towards BBS) is the home for Patachitra. It will be a good experience to go to these places directly to see rows of shops and houses practicing the handicraft and selling the crafts.

Day - 5

Checked out of the hotel by 7:30AM. Booked a cab to drop us back at Khurda Road Jn. On the way, we visited Sakshi Gopal temple (20KM from Puri). The temple is for Lord Venugopala Swamy and it is believed that the visit to Puri is incomplete with out visiting this temple. Here also we faced the same trouble with Pandas. But armed with the earlier experiences, since we were expecting this, it did not bother much. The next stop was Pipli. Here we did some shopping for Applique Work. Bought some hand bags and wall hangings. Finally reached Khurda around 12:00 noon. Boarded the train back to Visakhapatnam around 3:30pm.

Some tips on cameras:

There is no fees on still cameras and video cameras at Konark and Chilka Lake. One can use them with out any restrictions
In most of the temples, cameras and video cameras are not allowed. So, it is better to leave them inside the bus or in your hotel room when visiting temples.
In some places (such as Nandan Kanan Zoo, Lingaraj Temple), photogrpahy is permitted after buying a ticket for each still camera, which is around Rs. 10). However, for taking a video camera, one would require to buy tickets of huge cost (around Rs. 500). Thus it makes all the sense to drop video cameras in the bus or in the hotel room when visiting such places.

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Last updated on 8th June, 2004