orissa tales - part2
Day-3 - To Gopalpur.
We had early breakfast at Ananya resorts and started towards the beach town of Gopalpur. Enroute we went to the famed Chilka lake. We boarded a private ferry that takes us to the Kali temple in the island right in centre of the chilka lake. Sanja was all enthu to spot the dolphins. We had to tell all white lies saying the dolphins are there but we wont be able to see them in this part of the lake.
The lake is clean for starters but then again we humans are a nuisance here. The water surrounding the Kali temple is filled up with algae and all sorts of plastic waste. The temple itself is very dirty with slippery floors , flowers kumkum strewn everywhere. We dont know how to protect our places period. I was totally disgusted with the people's attitude here. Eating stuffs and throwing the waste into waters.
Thus we completed 3 hours of boat ride. S, me and Sanja ended up with a headache from the hot sun and salty water drive :(. We had the food in the only hotel available, the atmosphere was a bit creepy but the food was awesome. The quantity of food for the amount paid was large. We ended up wasting the food and were not so happy with this. Large portions are served in these places.
Then we travelled through Brahmapur and ended up in the Swasti Resorts that was in need of complete makeover / renovation. The rooms are old fashioned ( nothing to complaint about) but it would have be better to have hotel without any cracks being displayed.
Sanja fell in love with the billards board here. She wouldnt leave the said place till we left Gopalpur. We invented the hand billiards :) here , who needs sticks when we have our hands ;). It was comical to see Sanja cry everytime someone else took over the billiards board. She wanted to have it all by herself. So Sanja passed her time watching Chota Bheem and playing billiards.
Now you can see this place had nothing to see and so we were stuck doing things within the hotel.
There is the famed Gopalpur beach for namesake. We made the trip the day we landed and it didnt impress us as the other beaches did.
So we were sorely disappointed in this place and the first day itself we were thinking how are we going to spend another day here.
As if this disappointment was not enough the next day held its store of bad experiences :(.
By this time we were fed up Rotis, fried rice, finger chips - this was the standard menu we could choose from the menu card as our options were restricted .
So the next we headed to the famed Taptapani springs. Now we alll including Bijju sir had great expectation out of this place. We thought it would have many springs, free flowing water and we all would have a good bath there. So we packed extra dress for Sanja and Srini. After 5 hours of journey we landed at a dump of a place. It was overcrowded , dirty and there was no spring in sight. All we saw was water trickling in a pond below a Durga idol. We were hugely disappointed. Then we planned to go the Tibetan settlement, but people coming from that direction dissuaded us. Apparently that place fell in the Naxal area , and it would take us 2 -4 hours to go and come back. We didnt want to take the risk. So it was a total waste of time. Nearby we saw a deer park, had a palatable lunch and scolded our tour planner for not letting us know these things. We again went to back to the beach, walked along the sea shore and eagerly awaited our departure from Gopalpur.
The next day Bijju was sweet enough to compensate for the bad yesterday and showed us some more temples (to dismay of Sanja ;) ). We tried our luck at Chilka lake , wondering if we could take the ferry to see the migratory birds. The ferrymen said it would be waste of time as the Govt of India has totally restricted the area after the people stoned these birds some years back. And it was here that Sanja lost her second teeth :). How she lost the first one is another post in itself. We were joking all the way back, Sanja submerged her tooth in Chilka ;).
We had a good night stay at Bhuvaneshwar VITS. We did some local shopping for Orissa papads and tasted the Ramphal of the place. The next day we bought some these fruits for sampling at home. Bijju dropped us at Bhuvaneshwar station. We boarded the train to Chennai. It was fun time for Sanja watching Frozen a dozen times. Jumping around in the upper berth.
We had early breakfast at Ananya resorts and started towards the beach town of Gopalpur. Enroute we went to the famed Chilka lake. We boarded a private ferry that takes us to the Kali temple in the island right in centre of the chilka lake. Sanja was all enthu to spot the dolphins. We had to tell all white lies saying the dolphins are there but we wont be able to see them in this part of the lake.
The lake is clean for starters but then again we humans are a nuisance here. The water surrounding the Kali temple is filled up with algae and all sorts of plastic waste. The temple itself is very dirty with slippery floors , flowers kumkum strewn everywhere. We dont know how to protect our places period. I was totally disgusted with the people's attitude here. Eating stuffs and throwing the waste into waters.
Thus we completed 3 hours of boat ride. S, me and Sanja ended up with a headache from the hot sun and salty water drive :(. We had the food in the only hotel available, the atmosphere was a bit creepy but the food was awesome. The quantity of food for the amount paid was large. We ended up wasting the food and were not so happy with this. Large portions are served in these places.
Then we travelled through Brahmapur and ended up in the Swasti Resorts that was in need of complete makeover / renovation. The rooms are old fashioned ( nothing to complaint about) but it would have be better to have hotel without any cracks being displayed.
Sanja fell in love with the billards board here. She wouldnt leave the said place till we left Gopalpur. We invented the hand billiards :) here , who needs sticks when we have our hands ;). It was comical to see Sanja cry everytime someone else took over the billiards board. She wanted to have it all by herself. So Sanja passed her time watching Chota Bheem and playing billiards.
Now you can see this place had nothing to see and so we were stuck doing things within the hotel.
There is the famed Gopalpur beach for namesake. We made the trip the day we landed and it didnt impress us as the other beaches did.
So we were sorely disappointed in this place and the first day itself we were thinking how are we going to spend another day here.
As if this disappointment was not enough the next day held its store of bad experiences :(.
By this time we were fed up Rotis, fried rice, finger chips - this was the standard menu we could choose from the menu card as our options were restricted .
So the next we headed to the famed Taptapani springs. Now we alll including Bijju sir had great expectation out of this place. We thought it would have many springs, free flowing water and we all would have a good bath there. So we packed extra dress for Sanja and Srini. After 5 hours of journey we landed at a dump of a place. It was overcrowded , dirty and there was no spring in sight. All we saw was water trickling in a pond below a Durga idol. We were hugely disappointed. Then we planned to go the Tibetan settlement, but people coming from that direction dissuaded us. Apparently that place fell in the Naxal area , and it would take us 2 -4 hours to go and come back. We didnt want to take the risk. So it was a total waste of time. Nearby we saw a deer park, had a palatable lunch and scolded our tour planner for not letting us know these things. We again went to back to the beach, walked along the sea shore and eagerly awaited our departure from Gopalpur.
The next day Bijju was sweet enough to compensate for the bad yesterday and showed us some more temples (to dismay of Sanja ;) ). We tried our luck at Chilka lake , wondering if we could take the ferry to see the migratory birds. The ferrymen said it would be waste of time as the Govt of India has totally restricted the area after the people stoned these birds some years back. And it was here that Sanja lost her second teeth :). How she lost the first one is another post in itself. We were joking all the way back, Sanja submerged her tooth in Chilka ;).
We had a good night stay at Bhuvaneshwar VITS. We did some local shopping for Orissa papads and tasted the Ramphal of the place. The next day we bought some these fruits for sampling at home. Bijju dropped us at Bhuvaneshwar station. We boarded the train to Chennai. It was fun time for Sanja watching Frozen a dozen times. Jumping around in the upper berth.
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