Road Trip to Orissa: Day 6

Today is the festival of colours and though I was going to be driving through the day, I decided to add some colour to my life too, that’s why I wore a bright blue T-Shirt. Anyway it was bye-bye Gopalpur and Kolkata here we come (not that I wanted this holiday to end) after a few stops for some more sightseeing.

So up at the crack of dawn and eager to traverse the hundreds of kilometres ahead, we finally got going at 7.40am. The drive till Bhubaneswar was scenic as ever and we did go through some passes on the Eastern Ghats. Though we tried making good speed, parts of this highway are still under construction which did pose an impediment to making good time. All the same we were in Bhubaneswar before noon and our first left off the highway was a visit to the Udaygiri & Khandigiri caves. After being marvelled by the magnificent engineering of the 15 massive caves carved into the hillsides, we headed to the next stop on our agenda of ‘Visit Orissa’. Nandankanan was about 10-12 kms outside Bhubaneswar and once there our main objective was to go on the White Tiger & Lion Safari. Well it’s not really a ‘Safari’ safari, its more like a half hour drive through a reserve in a mini bus packed with people. Anyway fortunately we did manage to spot two spectacular white tigers and four lions. The last of our sightseeing done, we went around a bit of the rest of the zoo and headed back out on our journey homewards.

It was awesome thereafter chewing mile after mile of white concrete highway at speeds of upto 150 kmph. I drove like a bat out of hell wherever I got clear concrete stretches. My wife missed quite a bit of the scenery outside during these bursts of exhilaration and speed with her eyes either fixed on the long road ahead or the speedometer. After we crossed Kharagpur, a little bit of excitement created by me led to a nail biting turn into an Indian Oil Petrol pump as we were probably running on fumes. Well we were running out of gas, and as ironical as it may seem, over a hundred kms back I had mentioned the fact that we might want to fill petrol and now when the needle was hanging dangerously over the empty indicator, we couldn’t spot a single Indian Oil Petrol Pump in sight. Yes, yes I am a little fanatic about brand loyalty and the sorts. After we pulled out of the station, my wife had a good laugh at the fact that for the last 30 odd kms I had maintained a steady economical speed of 100 kmph and she could look out at the scenery. A result of this led to spotting my name, “ROHIT” on the back of a bus.

Shortly after that, as the sun was setting behind us, I relinquished the wheel to her after having driven for over 500 kms. We were about 100 kms from Kolkata and now we could take it easy. We knew it was just another half hour or so to Kolaghat where we planned to stop to grab a bite. While we were driving we noticed truck loads of cattle being shipped to the slaughter house I was guessing. The way they were being transported was such a sad sight.

At about 5.50 pm we pulled into Kolaghat. We were now relaxed and as we parked the car outside Sher-e-Punjab; we decided we could now take it easy as Kolkata was just around the corner. ‘Take it easy’, led to the two of us spending the next three and half hours there eating awesome Tandoori chicken, mutton tikkas and chicken reshmi kebabs with butter naan. More than the food, it was the beer that kept flowing and was more like a victory celebration of our road trip. We finally pulled out of there at 9.30 pm and were back home a little short of 11 pm.

Mission "Road Trip to Orissa" completed.

Road Trip to Orissa: Day 5

The penultimate day of our road trip and we had made a list of places close to Gopalpur that might be of interest. The choice for the morning was a drive out to Maa Taratarini Temple situated 30 kms from Gopalpur atop a hill beside the Rushikulya River. So we headed out and after driving for what seemed to be a while longer than we thought, as it was not really a highway but a narrow road through village after village, we came to a t-point with a large gate on the right. All the way we kept guessing which hill this temple would be on top of as we kept passing one hill after another. Anyway this was the way to the temple and we took it. Just short of the hill, there was a beautiful location to shoot the fabulous colours of the trees as they covered the hill side. From a near yellow tint to a dark green as one kept going up higher. Anyway my shot taken, we proceeded to ascend the hill to reach the summit where the temple was perched. At the base we first came upon a rope-way that one could use to go up and then the entrance of the 1000 steps that one could use to reach the doorstep of the temple. We opted for neither and went up on the steep road in our car.

The drive up was marvelous as one kept seeing the meandering river below and once we were up there, the temple wasn’t impressive at all, but it did have quite a religious following considering the number of people who were up there offering prayers. The temple itself seemed to be under construction and the huge population of monkeys was quite fascinating. Free food, I guess!

The temple visited there was nothing more to do but head back to Gopalpur, and that too at a leisurely speed. We had time on our hands and nothing to do really. On the way we stopped to see a potter at work making little ‘diyas’. Thereafter I came up with my theory of the speed breakers. There were countless speed breakers on this road and the only way to identify them was whenever I noticed white sand on the road, it meant there was a speed breaker there. I was telling my wife about my theory of how I believed that a little sand probably fell off the trucks as they went over the bumps and sure enough, in a short while we were right behind one such sand carrying truck as it went over a bump and as the back wheel came off the bump a little sand got dusted off just on the breaker which proved my theory right there.

So once we were back in Gopalpur, we settled for lunch on the beach. We decided to try out the mixed fried rice and chilli chicken. Well it was quite interesting to taste the unique preparation. If you think this is Chinese, it isn’t. They seem to use this red masala in any and everything. Anyway it was yum. We just sat there the rest of the afternoon and then took a leisurely stroll on the beach watching the fishing boats come in one after another as the evening approached. Finally there were no more boats out at sea except the 11 we had counted earlier that were moored a little way out.

In the evening, we indulged in some pakoras and beguni while we finished a little bit of the Smirnoff I had left in the back; all this on the beach as the day before. In fact we sat till later and only got back to the hotel past 10 pm. We then went about our business of packing and getting ready for the day ahead. Our long drive back to Kolkata, with two sight-seeing stops at Bhubaneshwar.

Road Trip to Orissa: Day 4

The next morning we checked out at 7 am and as we were getting into the car, the boy who had washed the car, informed me about a dead bird stuck in between the front grill and radiator of the car. So after 15 minutes of struggling, he did manage to get it out. It was a dead mynah and it’s then that we recalled how it must’ve got there. Somewhere between Balasore and Cuttack on the highway, a group of them had flown right in front of the car. We had thought at the time that we might have hit one of them, because while they all flew across at eye level, one of them had swooped really low below our line of sight. We had hoped that it might have flown by. Unfortunately, it just turned out to be another case of ‘bird hit on the tarmac’.

The plan for the day was Konark-Chilka-Gopalpur. So off we went, with a small pit-stop at the Ice Factory before we got on the scenic road to Konark. As we pulled out of Puri, it seemed a bit dreadful as we drove through some villages and narrow roads till we came to the main road that led to Konark. As we sped through the forest lined road which had warnings signs that cautioned drivers of deer & neelgai crossing the road, we didn’t see any. Only beautiful stretches of lush green forests. A couple of rivulets we crossed were just spectacular in beauty. We finally reached the point in the road which was along the beach signalling that we were now very close to Konark. Suddenly the road ended at a wonderful sight of the entire sea and glimmering white sands in front. We turned at a right angle towards the left and within a couple of minutes reached Konark. We parked the car and walked through a straight lane through a market place selling all sorts of memorabilia of Konark temple. Once we reached the archaeological site gates, it was an amazing sight to behold that legendary sun temple of Konark in the distance. The entire site is superbly maintained and absolutely geared to make this a must visit destination on any one’s visit of Orissa. The Temple Gates are a site in themselves, let alone the temple behind it. We went up the gates and I in true touristy fashion began clicking away. Then on my way down again I kept the photography session on. In fact I maintained the tempo all the way around the Temple, till we had exited.

I could write a whole story on the carvings on the walls, but will just leave that for some other time. Actually I can’t help but mention that in a land where sex is taboo, when all the while temples and historic sites such as this have depictions in intricate sculptures of all imaginable positions of sex that it is quite mind-blowing. I kind of realise why sex is such a taboo here. I guess all this kind of stuff, since time immemorial has led to India having the second largest population on the planet. Anyway I was just intrigued by the meticulous work that has gone into each of those sculptures.

Konark behind us, we asked for some directions and realised the best way to head to our next destination, Chilka, was to go through a place called Pipli and then get back on the National Highway at Khurda, which is exactly what we did. We kept driving till we came upon a little town where we saw a sign on the left saying Chilka 1 KM. So we turned left and it was about noon when we came out at this kind of pier where there was a little hay shack and all around in the water were boats and beyond that till the horizon, the massive Chilka Lake. We parked the car, hired a boat for an hour and headed out. Halfway through the boat man, told us that for a little more money, he’d take us out to where we could see more birds and probably dolphins too. We hadn’t wanted to do the entire tour which was like 12 hours or so and cost a bomb, but settled for a little more than we had set out to see on the boat. So after about an hour or more we were far away from land and in the midst of ducks who every time we came close seemed to flap there wings vehemently and run on the water. It was a sight to see them skim the water. After the ducks, our boatman pressed on determined to show us flamingos and dolphins. We were worried about getting back and getting on the road again, being unsure how long it would take us to get to Gopalpur. But the closer we got to the bigger birds; we threw caution to the wind and decided to get a closer look at these wonderful creatures.

As we were crossed a point where the water suddenly turned green, we spotted a couple of dolphins. Well to say we saw full dolphins, wouldn’t be correct, what we kept seeing were dol‘fins’ popping out of the water and diving straight back. That in itself was quite exciting. As approached the bigger birds all resting in the shallow waters, a couple of birds hovering above us put on quite a display. They kept hovering above the boat and then diving into the water beside us. It was as though they were all excited and wanted us to click pictures of their spectacular talent of diving into the water like “kamakazee”.

After getting our fill of viewing the birds, we headed back to where we had got on the boat. It was a long way off, so we both caught forty winks on the way back and were fresh again when we hit the road. The drive was quite scenic through some hills and winding roads. We reached Gopalpur by about 5 pm. It wasn’t exactly the way I remembered it, but I guess a decade and a half would change any place.

We found our hotel, which was a far cry from the one we had stayed at in Puri and not exactly what we had expected. Hotel Kalinga is definitely not recommended. But since we had a booking, we stayed. The best part was that when we got there, the people were in shock that we had come. The Non-A/C room we had booked had been given away and they put us up in an A/C room (of course asking us not to use the A/C) and tried to convince us to stay in that room for the next day too and they would charge us the A/C rates. Did we look like we were there to be ripped off? We refused and put our luggage in the room and headed out to the beach. Later we came back and though they tried to convince us to have dinner there, we decided to sit in our car and spend the evening on the sea-side. We popped a couple of beers (drinking even in our rooms was prohibited in the hotel we were at!) and got some snacks from one of the stalls nearby and listened to music in the car with the cool sea-breeze blowing in our faces. We gorged on fried prawns and fish, switched between FM channels all the way from Kolkata & Chennai. We were quite fascinated by the fact that we were catching these channels here.

After we were done, we took a stroll to the beach and sat there for the rest of the evening just enjoying the white surf breaking in the darkness as the tide came in. The sounds were also soothing every time the waves crashed and then receded. At about 9 pm we headed back to the hotel and sat up making plans of spending the next day sightseeing.

Road Trip to Orissa: Day 3

On day three, though we were up and about earlier than the previous day, venturing out was not on the cards. We had heard about some major phenomenon which would attract an estimated 40 lac people to the beach. It was religious thing and the last time it happened was 60 years ago. So the beach was geared up for the sea of humanity. The window of opportunity for a sacred dip was from about 5.15am till 9.17am in the morning and so we just sat around in the hotel, drank some chilled beer, had lunch and I sat out on the porch playing my guitar in the afternoon. I’m glad I had brought it along. Finally after watching the beach for what seemed like forever, I couldn’t resist it any longer and so at about 2.30pm we headed out to the beach. I spent the next 3 hours or so in the water. It was just awesome. I soaked up as much of the surf and sand as I could. Who knew when I would be back to Puri. The day ended with us packing our stuff, eating some more sea-food at the restaurant in the hotel, drinking some more beer and playing some more music.

Road Trip to Orissa: Day 2

Day two, started a bit late. After we had lunch at the restaurant and tried some more fish (Parshey) and some Chingri Malai curry, we headed to the beach. Not wasting any time I was out and about in my swimming costume in the surf. It was just awesome. Then one of the local life guards propositioned that we go out into the sea with him with rubber tubes. We had actually wanted go out on one of the fishing boats, but this would do for starters. So he and another lifeguard gave us two tubes (basically Tyre tubes to put around you) which we merrily got around us and headed out over the breakers. Passing the breakers, bobbing up and down and having the waves come crashing over you is such an exhilarating experience, till you are out deep enough and its calm and you can kick your legs and paddle with your arms in the water way our from the beach. The tide carried us off hundreds of meters from the place we had originally set out from and as we came back to our starting point, we inquired about the boat ride on a fishing boat. In a jiffy after a brief negotiation, our life guard spoke with some fisherman and the next thing we knew he had commandeered a small fishing boat, more the size of a small rubber dinghy and we were on top in the middle with either lifeguard at each end. As we set out holding both side of the little boat with our rubber tubes around us, they negotiated the breakers. Each time we approached one and it broke over us, it felt like going into a wall. The waves washed over the boat and after several attempts to break out of the surf, the little boat was bobbing up and down at sea. The water was suddenly clear and we were far, far away from the beach. We went out till we could see the done of the Jagannath Temple which is situated inside the town. In hindsight I’d say we were brave to go out on a boat like that, which was so flat that we hardly had a few inches of the side to hold on to!

We were just so glad that we had been adventurous enough to get on one of these boats and head out to sea. Suddenly our main lifeguard pointed to the water and before we knew it, he had dived in and voila, he threw up a huge jellyfish between the two of us. We nearly jumped off the boat in fright, but he urged us to feel it and sure enough we did. It felt like rubber. While he climbed back up, we had had enough of that Jellyfish going from side to side between us, so I scooped it up in both hands and sent it back into the water. “That didn’t feel too bad, now did it”, I was thinking to myself. After that we headed back to the beach. If going out was tough, getting back in over the surf was worse than a roller-coaster ride. Several attempts were made, turning the boat around several times. We had to catch the right wave to get back in and avoid the boat from capsizing and getting dashed into the sand. So finally we did and once we crossed over with waves lashing us from behind, we were like a victorious crew coming in from sea after doing battle and staving off the enemy. What made it better was the full house audience we had at the beach watching us come in. They had started building up right from the time we had headed out with the tubes and then when we got into the boat it swelled some more and now it was just short of a stadium crowd watching their favourite football team in the finals. And yes we came in victorious and when we finally were back on land and had settled down on the beach, the crowd dispersed happy having seen the spectacle of two city folk on a fishing boat.

Once back at the hotel, we decided we needed to celebrate with some more and beer was still in supply in the back of the car. But the ice in the box had melted, so we headed out in search of ice. And after gathering some intelligence, we managed to drive to an Ice Factory where locals Ice-cream wallahs, fishermen, and shop keepers bought Ice. So we bought two blocks of ice (OK just to keep things in perspective, they were about a foot long each) and put them in the box and placed the beers on top of them.

While driving back, we decided to check out an eatery we had noticed on our way to the Ice factory. We stopped there and believe you me, if you’re ever in Puri, try this place out. We entered Wild Grass restaurant. It was wild in the true sense. There were Machaans with dining tables and little thatched huts with tables around the main AC restaurant with its rustic look. We decided on a Machaan and climbed up the steps into our own private little dining space for the evening. Though they don’t serve beer, it was arranged for us and we licked our fingers dry on some amazing sea-food, whether it was pomfret or prawns. The service was probably one of the most hospitable I’ve experienced in a long time. Another day of fun, food and frolic, that’s what a holiday should be.