Orissa - tales - part -1
It has been 2 months and couple of days since we returned from our trip to Orissa. To be writing the travel tales this tale without forgetting details implies -it was an awesome relaxing trip :P
And it had its fair share of drama , boredom, the stupidom of us in not looking into certain details and of course the stupid thing turning out be a blessing in disguise :P .
Here we go -
Day 1: 25th Dec -2013 - All packing done, Sanja tries to push in as much toys as she can :). I on the other hand is busy - churning out rotis, sabzi, MIL /FIl are busy packing tamarind rice , curd rice and chutneys . My parents in between call up asking when are we starting , and preparing snacks for the trip. The SIL & family dropping off loads of biscuits , cakes etc . The food baggage alone filled up one big gab :P . All for a 20 hour train travel with 8 hours gone in sleeping :).
The drama - Now with regular tickets we had got hold of only the sleeper class tickets for 3 of us . But with parents insistence - we tried to get AC tickets in takal- so we ended up having 3 sleeper class tickets, 1 3rd AC confirmed ticket and 1 3rd AC in waiting list. With this status we boarded the train in Central. Even before the train departed, we found that the waiting list ticket got confirmed now. So now
3 sleeping class ticket , 1 AC ticket in B1 coach, 1 AC ticket in B2 coach. The sleeper class was getting too crowded with unreserved ticket holders as well. And so I went to the B1 coach and asked people for adjustment.
Somehow after loads of confusion we took all our baggage to one AC coach, dumped our things. Then somehow we managed to get both seats in single coach but separated by couple of seats :P.
We had a good time shuttling between 2 places. This was first time Iam experiencing all this shuttling - whattension fun it was .
While I had a good night sleep, Sanja sathachified S - appa I want to go to restroom, appa move a bit , I dont have place to sleep, Dum falls sanja's legs on the S .
And then on the second day after having our tea in the train, we landed in Bhuvaneshwar.
Day :2 - Bhubaneshwar - to - Puri .
Temples galore .
We accumulated Puniyam ( good karma) by visiting many temples here.
Sanja was so pissed off that the uttering the word temple was enough to push her over the edge of her temper :) .
So we took a room just for freshening up, had a decent breakfast in a small hotel and proceeded to seeing the Abode of Gods (Bhuvaneshwar).
The roads are well laid out and you get a feeling that you are in the 90's of Chennai. The lanes are less crowded, the buildings are small and there is no glass covered buildings towering over us .
So what all we visited -
a- Udayagiri , Kandagiri - These are rocks with caves craved out for the Jain priest settlements. The tour guide was saying there is a hidden tunnel in the caves used by Ashoka, but we left that out and explored the place on our own. It was quite a trek to the top and Sanja scrapped her elbow putting the end to our enthusiastic trek :(.
And then we proceeded to Bramheswar, Mukteswar temples. While Puri jaganath is the symbol for the Orissa architecture, these temples are way better than it. You see vast temple complexes and intricate architecture everywhere. By this time Sanja was irritated and we just had a glance at Brahmeswar and other temples scattered across Bhuvaneshwar on our way to the most famous temple -Lingeshwar. What we didnt like were- the stinking smell around the deity - with people offering everything to the God , the so called priests make it difficult for us by haggling for money.
Our driver Biju (I think) took us to a decent vegetarian hotel and we experience the Odissi cuisine - Dalma and vegetable curry.
With the craze for anything Ashoka ( after having read one of the novels based on the secrent nine) , was full enthu to see Dauligiri. The place were there is a stupa. Legend has it that the river flowing nearby turned red during the kalinga war. The stupa has been renovated by a team from Japan. Various statues of Bhudda in different positions , The emporer Ashoka asking for forgiveness , and becoming a disciple of Bhudda are portrayed here.
And then we proceeded to Puri. We stayed at Ananya resorts. Excellent place to stay and the evening we spent at the Puri beach.
And of course the shopping started right here. Got some awesome emborided kurtas and Prui jaganath logo t-shirts.
Sanjana had a great time at the beach. And so ends the day 1. Looking forward to meeting Jaganath, Subhadra and Veerabhadra . We can see the temple dome from our hotel room. The lighting is not as impressive as in some of the photoes we see , but the temple is visible.
Day 2: We get up early around 7 AM ( early for Srini /Sanjana considering they are on holiday) and ready ourself to see the Lord. Now to go and have a dharshan ( a quick one at that) we need the priests help , so a guy came with us and took us striaght to main temple and within 15 min we had done our dharshan. The grandeur of the temple left us awestruck but then we were disappointed with the crowd management, again the priest haggling after money , the poor maintainence of the temple.
Most of the sculptures are damaged. The broken pieces with intricate carvings are replaced with blank stones. But still to have built such a huge temple long time ago leaves us proud of our ancestors.
We then proceeded to Konark, The sun temple. Loads of conspiracy theories , stories circulate regarding the ruins of this temple. The pathway to the temple approx 1 Km is full of shopprs delight.
Enough has been said about this temple architecture in Wiki, so Iam skipping that part. But then when we left this place, we had a heavy heart- what great places are getting ruined either by nature, by man and in this case by both. We are lacking the artmanship to preserver these temples , the glorius architecture. If I had stayed longer I would have actually cried :(. And so with a heavy heart we went to the Chandra bhaga beach.
S and Sanja built the sand version of the temples and we had a happy moment playing in the sand and right at noon time .
People planning to buy soveniors and stuff do bargain a lot. We saved quite a bit of money by bargaining. The stuffed animals / flowers made from rope were really cute.
We head back to our hotel and again went shopping to buy some more T-shirts as gifts.
The next day after our breakfast , we headed to Gopalpur. And this is were we messed up by not getting the actual ground reality information.
Will follow up with part -2 post.
And it had its fair share of drama , boredom, the stupidom of us in not looking into certain details and of course the stupid thing turning out be a blessing in disguise :P .
Here we go -
Day 1: 25th Dec -2013 - All packing done, Sanja tries to push in as much toys as she can :). I on the other hand is busy - churning out rotis, sabzi, MIL /FIl are busy packing tamarind rice , curd rice and chutneys . My parents in between call up asking when are we starting , and preparing snacks for the trip. The SIL & family dropping off loads of biscuits , cakes etc . The food baggage alone filled up one big gab :P . All for a 20 hour train travel with 8 hours gone in sleeping :).
The drama - Now with regular tickets we had got hold of only the sleeper class tickets for 3 of us . But with parents insistence - we tried to get AC tickets in takal- so we ended up having 3 sleeper class tickets, 1 3rd AC confirmed ticket and 1 3rd AC in waiting list. With this status we boarded the train in Central. Even before the train departed, we found that the waiting list ticket got confirmed now. So now
3 sleeping class ticket , 1 AC ticket in B1 coach, 1 AC ticket in B2 coach. The sleeper class was getting too crowded with unreserved ticket holders as well. And so I went to the B1 coach and asked people for adjustment.
Somehow after loads of confusion we took all our baggage to one AC coach, dumped our things. Then somehow we managed to get both seats in single coach but separated by couple of seats :P.
We had a good time shuttling between 2 places. This was first time Iam experiencing all this shuttling - what
While I had a good night sleep, Sanja sathachified S - appa I want to go to restroom, appa move a bit , I dont have place to sleep, Dum falls sanja's legs on the S .
And then on the second day after having our tea in the train, we landed in Bhuvaneshwar.
Day :2 - Bhubaneshwar - to - Puri .
Temples galore .
We accumulated Puniyam ( good karma) by visiting many temples here.
Sanja was so pissed off that the uttering the word temple was enough to push her over the edge of her temper :) .
So we took a room just for freshening up, had a decent breakfast in a small hotel and proceeded to seeing the Abode of Gods (Bhuvaneshwar).
The roads are well laid out and you get a feeling that you are in the 90's of Chennai. The lanes are less crowded, the buildings are small and there is no glass covered buildings towering over us .
So what all we visited -
a- Udayagiri , Kandagiri - These are rocks with caves craved out for the Jain priest settlements. The tour guide was saying there is a hidden tunnel in the caves used by Ashoka, but we left that out and explored the place on our own. It was quite a trek to the top and Sanja scrapped her elbow putting the end to our enthusiastic trek :(.
And then we proceeded to Bramheswar, Mukteswar temples. While Puri jaganath is the symbol for the Orissa architecture, these temples are way better than it. You see vast temple complexes and intricate architecture everywhere. By this time Sanja was irritated and we just had a glance at Brahmeswar and other temples scattered across Bhuvaneshwar on our way to the most famous temple -Lingeshwar. What we didnt like were- the stinking smell around the deity - with people offering everything to the God , the so called priests make it difficult for us by haggling for money.
Our driver Biju (I think) took us to a decent vegetarian hotel and we experience the Odissi cuisine - Dalma and vegetable curry.
With the craze for anything Ashoka ( after having read one of the novels based on the secrent nine) , was full enthu to see Dauligiri. The place were there is a stupa. Legend has it that the river flowing nearby turned red during the kalinga war. The stupa has been renovated by a team from Japan. Various statues of Bhudda in different positions , The emporer Ashoka asking for forgiveness , and becoming a disciple of Bhudda are portrayed here.
And then we proceeded to Puri. We stayed at Ananya resorts. Excellent place to stay and the evening we spent at the Puri beach.
And of course the shopping started right here. Got some awesome emborided kurtas and Prui jaganath logo t-shirts.
Sanjana had a great time at the beach. And so ends the day 1. Looking forward to meeting Jaganath, Subhadra and Veerabhadra . We can see the temple dome from our hotel room. The lighting is not as impressive as in some of the photoes we see , but the temple is visible.
Day 2: We get up early around 7 AM ( early for Srini /Sanjana considering they are on holiday) and ready ourself to see the Lord. Now to go and have a dharshan ( a quick one at that) we need the priests help , so a guy came with us and took us striaght to main temple and within 15 min we had done our dharshan. The grandeur of the temple left us awestruck but then we were disappointed with the crowd management, again the priest haggling after money , the poor maintainence of the temple.
Most of the sculptures are damaged. The broken pieces with intricate carvings are replaced with blank stones. But still to have built such a huge temple long time ago leaves us proud of our ancestors.
We then proceeded to Konark, The sun temple. Loads of conspiracy theories , stories circulate regarding the ruins of this temple. The pathway to the temple approx 1 Km is full of shopprs delight.
Enough has been said about this temple architecture in Wiki, so Iam skipping that part. But then when we left this place, we had a heavy heart- what great places are getting ruined either by nature, by man and in this case by both. We are lacking the artmanship to preserver these temples , the glorius architecture. If I had stayed longer I would have actually cried :(. And so with a heavy heart we went to the Chandra bhaga beach.
S and Sanja built the sand version of the temples and we had a happy moment playing in the sand and right at noon time .
People planning to buy soveniors and stuff do bargain a lot. We saved quite a bit of money by bargaining. The stuffed animals / flowers made from rope were really cute.
We head back to our hotel and again went shopping to buy some more T-shirts as gifts.
The next day after our breakfast , we headed to Gopalpur. And this is were we messed up by not getting the actual ground reality information.
Will follow up with part -2 post.
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