A Journey from Divine laps to Nature's - My Trip to Odisha

A morning on the Puri Sea Beach

Well, it has been sometime I last posted. Today, after a long while I have returned with a blog post about my recent trip to Odisha. I took the trip from 21st December, 2018 to 25th December,2018. On the morning of 21st December,2018 which was a Friday, I was on my way to office with my luggage bag. Had to stand all the way to the office as the bus was jam packed! Nevertheless, that day I did my scheduled office and I and my friend were on our way to Babughat Bus Station where we boarded our bus to Puri.
The bus journey was hectic but the morning greeted us with a pleasant surprise. It was 22nd December, Saturday and we almost reached puri! Here's the video which I took when I was in the bus!

Finally we reached Puri Bus Stand after 30-45 mins. From there we took a auto ride to our hotel. So finally we are in Puri and we are ready for the trip to begin!

First Day in Puri

For the first day we planned to first visit the famous Jagannath Temple, for which Puri is so famous! 

Puri Jagannath Temple
Courtesy- Kushal Karmakar

We had to submit our belongings near the gate of the temple and then take entry. Its always better to hire a panda or a purohit to give anjali or puja in the temple. Our panda took fifty one rupees from us. But the bhog was costly and it was eight hundred and eighty one bucks for two buckets of bhog. Bhog was mainly "jive gaja and few nadus".

After that we planned to visit a wildlife sanctuary near Puri. It's name is Balukhand- Konark Wildlife Sanctuary. But we realised that it was late and no car would be taking us down there at that time. Plus, the locals said that the place was not ventured by tourists, one could easily go and venture deep but it was risky. So after a brief lunch we decided to roam around in Puri taking an autorickshaw. It took four hundred and fifty bucks to roam around the city.

Here are some of the snaps and videos...

Shree temple in Puri
Courtesy- Kushal Karmakar

Here's the short video inside the temple. Photography wasn't allowed inside the actual temple.

Old car kept inside the museum in the temple

Then we visited few other temples around the cities.
Beware some temples charge money for entering, and the purohits just snatch money from you once you take entry.

Narendra Tank

We went to a buddhist temple, it was something which we didn't expect in Puri. People went there to create buddhist handicrafts, we were also offered some:

At night, we went to the beach. It was an experience, the relentless cool breeze and the sound of waves was something we cherished a lot! 

Second Day of the tour

Our second day was something very special. We went for a Golden Triangle Tour along with Odisha Tourism Development Corporation(OTDC). We booked for the packaged tour for around 400 bucks. 

We were required to take the auto near Pathanivas Puri which was about a minute from our hotel. We took the confirmation email to the bus conductor. He has the list with seat details and we took our seats in the bus. After sometime our guide came, who kept explaining the tour details and how to go there, what to do, when to return and each and every minute details.

Let's us start with the Golden Triangle Tour then:

Sudam Sand Art Museum:

It is a sand art museum on Puri Konark Marine Drive where eminent sand artist from Odisha, Sudam Pradhan has showcased his works.

The mistress of jungle

We roamed around the museum and found out many such sculptures, arts depicting Odisha.

Relics

Sand art depicting Odisha

Ganesha sculpture on sand

Jagganath sculpted on sand

Here's the overview in video..have a look:

Sand Animation by Sudam Pradhan

Want to know how this was created?

I was lucky enough to have Sudam show us his sand animation skills, here is the complete sand animation video, I had shot that day:

Puri Konark Marine Drive

On the way we captured some beautiful rivers and jungles on Konark Puri Marine Drive, have a look:

Another such river poked us on our way:

Our guide was also telling us the history of Konark Temple while we passed by Konark Lighthouse and Konark Wildlife sanctuary:

Chandrabhaga Beach

Why the name Chandrabhaga? For a beach? Well, the beach isn't the one which was named such, it was actually a river named Chandrabhaga flowing by which dried up and from there the beach  got its name..

Chandrabhaga Beach

We got the Chandrabhaga Beach in some other angle too..

A pristine Chandrabhaga Beach

Konark Sun Temple

Finally after an hour long drive we reached Konark Sun Temple. Well, no need of opening your shoes and depositing wallet and other things, the puja in this temple has long stopped.

The Konark Sun Temple

We entered through the metro type gates and we took entry inside the Sun Temple. Here are some snapshots..

Grand entrance to the temple

Artworks of Century: Beautiful arts sculpted on the temple

Sun kissed Sun temple: The temple in full view

Wheels of chariot: One of the 24 wheels of Konark Temple

The remains of temple sculptures 

Way to God: Entrance to the temple

Dhauli Stupa

After that we had to take a bus journey for about 2 hours to Dhauli where the Peace pagoda stands erected.

The Symbol of Peace: Dhauli Stupa

The road up the hill was small hence big buses were not allowed to enter. We had to get down the bus and take up a smaller cab up the hill.

Bodhisattva: Buddha in one of his avatars 

Sculptures on the peace pagoda

Gautam Buddha in his meditation: Sculptures sculpted on the peace pagoda

Blast from the past: The symbol of peace

One of the sculptures depicting peaceful life 

A tour around the pagoda was shot by me. Here's the video..

We visited Lingaraj Temple after this which a magnificent temple situated amidst several hundreds in the temple city of Bhubhaneswar. But Lingaraj Temple doesn't allow anyone to visit with mobiles,cameras,leather pouches, belts. Hence we were forced to leave them behind in our bus.

Nandankanan Zoological Park 

Well this was one of the most exciting parts in our journey. I visited the Nandankanan Zoological Park which is a huge Zoological Park in Bhubaneshwar. Our guide made sure we have the taste of the safari ride in the park. Here are some snapshots from the park.

We were lucky enough to witness the tiger and lion. 

In search of blood: Hungry tiger searching for food

King of Jungle: The love of lion and the lioness

Beautiful Creatures: Peacocks feeding from grains

We were visited by a giant black bear in the middle of the jungle. It came so near to our bus, that we could hardly take any photos!

Lone Warrior: A species of monkey showcased

India's only Orangutan: Binny, the Orangutan

Human's closest neighbour: The chimpanzees

A stare to know more: Young chimp

In fight for foods: Deer herds in Nandankanan

Staring at the food : A deer species in enclosure

The biggest bird? Ostrich captured staring 

Lost to Ostrich? An emu stares at the camera

We had encounter with lots of wild animals and we had a nice time in Nandankanan. But I would like to point out that Binny, the Indian Orangutan is suffering from some wound infection. Looking at the orangutan in such a condition was painful.

Here is the link: https://odishasuntimes.com/orangutan-binny-suffers-wound-infection-in-odishas-nandankanan-zoo/

Udaygiri and Khandagiri

This partly natural, partly artificial hills are located near Bhubhaneswar. Udaygiri is known as "Sunrise hill" and Khandagiri has several caves.

Temple on Udaygiri

Sunset on Sunrise Hill

I also captured some moments while going up the hill in Khandagiri..

Thus our day 2 of the trip came to an end.

Third Day of the trip

Our plan was to visit Chilika (Satapada) which is about 50 kms from Puri. It was a wonderful experience. We had booked the tour under OTDC just like the Golden Triangle Tour the day before. We reached the Pathanivas Puri at about 6.30 am and waited for the bus. We followed the same procedure as that we followed the day before. The guide gave is important information.

En route to Chilika Lake our bus halted for sometime midway, for tiffin. There we visited two temples..

Entrance to one such temple

The other temple (Our guide did tell us the names but I could hardly recollect)

After about an hour of travelling we reached near Satapada. It was neat and tidy place and we were taken to OTDC hotel in Satapada where we booked veg thali for 200 bucks(a lot costlier than anything we have encountered so far..)

Then we were taken to the jetty from where we got into a government boat(we were without any life jacket!). About twenty people were there inside the boat and we started our journey towards the sea and river mouth.

Our Burmese visitor: The Irawaddy Dolphin gives us a glance

Overexcited by food : Sea gulls fighting for food

Watery ride : Sea gulls rest after a fight for food

Birds of a feather fight together : Seagulls resume their fight for food

Long Rides : Returning visitors

Reaching out : Seagulls resting on water

En route to Rajhans : Boats travelling to Raj Hans island

Food for thought: Fishing in Chilika

A landscape to remember : Chilika Lake from Rajhans Island

Hiding Crab

Rajhans Island

I shot a video of the beach on Rajhans Island. Relive the moments I felt on the beach!

After this we were on our way back to Satapada and finally to Puri after a hasty dinner.
Our bus was scheduled to leave next day and we reached back home and slept with heavy eyelids flashing the moments we had in these days we spent in Odisha.