In Orissa

Yay! Finally I get to travel…after a long long hiatus.  Being in Bhubaneshwar for a while, I thought I’ll make most of the opportunity and go see Konark and Puri which were quite close by.

    I’d heard so much about the Sun Temple in Konark, all these stories about how magnificent it looked at sunrise and sunset. It was built for the Sun God after all. The sun’s rays are supposed to concentrate during sunrise, sunset and noon and cast these amazing shadows. Well, thinking I would reach Konark by sunrise (it was only 50 kims away), I asked the cab to pick me at 4 AM. As with all cabs, there was some issue and it was there to pick me up at 4.20 AM and I saw the sunrise on the way at 4.40 AM  I had no clue the sun rose so early (the east coast, yeah I figured that)!!

     Reached Konark at 5.30 AM and it was already so bright! Thankfully there weren’t too many people around and we (a friend came along) could look around peacefully and take in the mind blowing architecture. I know now that at some point I definitely want to go back during the famous Konark dance festival. (There are all these guides who approach you, say no firmly if you don’t want to be fleeced…read up on the architecture, there’s a lot of material out here on the net) . It has been declared a world heritage monument as well. Surely a magnificent sight. 

    After spending about an hour there, we headed to the Chandrabagha beach which was soooo beautiful at that time of the day…hardly anyone around. (I had heard about how crowded it can get later…it is a big tourist spot) We then headed towards Puri driving on Marine Road. The sea on one side and lots of trees on the other side…a perfect drive! Of course reaching Puri was a bit of an anti-climax…even at 7.30 in the morning, the place was teeming with people. And the main temple road had lot of carpentars working on the ‘rath‘ (chariot) for the annual ‘Rath Yatra‘. 

 The minute you park the car, magically a ‘panda‘ materializes. No no, not an animal, these people are like ‘pandits‘ who take you around the temple complex. After bargaining with him on the price (settled on Rs 50) we entered the temple complex. The main temple architecture is typical Orissan style (obviously!) and looks very very majestic. I didn’t like how commercialised it was though…where ever you look they ask for money, you have to pay quite a sum to buy ‘prasad’ for the deity (which they give you later), you even have to pay for tying a thread around the wish tree! When you go to take the ‘aarti’ they ask for money, it’s one thing to leave money there on your own and another to be asked! I mean, it was the heights…it somehow takes away the sanctity of the place with all this. 

   We then headed back to the parking lot in a cycle rickshaw (the town has a lot of them)!! I was quite excited to be sitting in it, but once I sat in  it and saw how difficult it was for him to cycle with 2 people sitting behind, I felt immeasurably sad. He didn’t even tell us how much to pay him, but seeing his beaming smile after we gave him more than what he expected really made our day. Next stop was the beach which had lots of people, so spent just about 10 mins there and headed back to Bhubaneshwar. 

     Since it get really hot n humid as the day progresses, a good time to visit both these places are either early morning or late evening. Well, that was it, my short Orissa sojourn! Didn’t get to see Chilka though. Next time maybe!