WANDERLUST: Trip to Bhubaneshwar-Konark-Puri-Chilika Lake : December 2012

Mukteshwar temple, Bhubaneshwar

I have been planning a sight-seeing trip to Orissa (now renamed as Odisha) since early 90s to visit what is called as the golden triangle of Eastern India (Bhubaneshwar-Konark-Puri). But the very thought of travelling over 40 hours in the train from Mumbai and the huge pilgrim crowd visiting Jagannath temple in Puri to an almost unmanageable proportion put me off to postpone the visit. As it is often said, visits to some of the holy places like Chardhams can fructify only when one gets an 'invitation' from the presiding deity of that holy place. This 'invitation' is nothing but an intense urge to visit the place. It happened to me also sometime in early October 2012 that I should make a trip to the golden triangle of Odisha sooner than later. I told my wife about the planned trip to Odisha and being interested in visiting heritage sites, she was more interested than me in the trip.

Puri beach at sunset

Since I wanted to avoid a long train journey and a large crowd of pilgrims in Puri, I decided to take a flight to and fro Bhubaneshwar. After some research, I found that the pilgrim and tourist crowd is normally less after full moon day following Diwali festival (Kartik Purnima) and before the onset of Christmas vacation. So we planned the trip during the second half of December 2012. We were joined by one of my close relatives - a couple who were also the senior citizens like us to make a group of 4 persons.

Chilika Lake

We reached Bhubaneshwar on December 15th by Air India flight which was the only airline having a direct flight from Mumbai to Bhubaneshwar. Our easy paced day to day schedule was as under :

Date & Day	Destination	Time	Mode of Journey	Distance in Km
15/12/2012 (Saturday)	Leave : Mumbai Reach : Bhubneshwar Airport to Ginger Hotel (7 km, pre-paid taxi @350/)-	10.25 12.35	AI.669 By taxi	07
Stay at Bhubneshwar at Ginger Hotel from Dec.15-17, 2012 nights
16/12/2012 (Sunday)	Temple tours –Lingaraja, Parashurameshwar, Mukteshwar, Kedar-Gauri, Raja Rani, Brahmeshwar temples. Afternoon at Orissa State Museum.	09.00 to 16.30	By hired car @900/-
17/12/2012 (Monday)	Visits to Daulagiri, Udaygiri and Kandagiri caves. Shopping in the evening.	09.00 to 14.45 16.30 to 18.30	By hired car@900/-
18/12/2012 (Tuesday)	Left : Hotel Reached :Nandan Kanan Left : Nadan Kanan Reached : Konark On the way spent 45 minutes at Pipli to see chandua handicraft market. In the evening visited Konark temple to see the temple under lightings.	09.15 09.45 12.30 15.45 17.30 to 18.30	By hired car @2800/- for Nadankanan and drop at Konark. By walk	10 65 01
Stay in Konark at Yatriniwas on 18.12.2012
19/12/2012 (Wednesday)	Visited Konark temple for the day view. Leave : Konark Reach : Puri On the way, visited Chandrabhaga beach. Checked in Pantniwas, Puri. Visted Puri beach in the evening.	09.00 to 11.00 13.15 14.30	By walk By Mini Van @700/-	01 35
Stay in Puri at Pantniwas from Dec.19 -21, 2012
20/12/2012 (Thursday)	Visited Jagannath temple for morning darshan and saw temples in the complex including Kanchi Ganesh temple.[photography prohibited]. Shopping around Puri temple Evening at Puri beach	07.30 to 09.00 10.30 to 12.00 17.30 to 19.00	Auto	02
21/12/2012 (Friday)	Leave : Pantniwas Reach : Satapada On the way brief halt at Alarnath temple connected to the myths of Jagannath temple. Boat ride in Chilka Lake for dolphin sighting and visiting the mouth of Chilka Lake to Bay of Bengal. On return halted at Rajhans Island beach. After return, spent some time in museum and acqarium. Lunch at Satpada (Pantniwas) Leave : Satpada Reach : Pantniwas, Puri	07.00 09.30 10.15 to 13.30 14.00 to 15.15 15.15 16.45	OTDC conducted tour @290/- per head. By boat @140/- per head.	50 50
22/12/2012 (Saturday)	Leave : Puri Reach : Bhubaneshwar Airport Leave : Bhubaneshwar Reach : Mumbai	09.00 10.30 13.15 15.20	Tavera @1700/- AI.670	65