Bhubaneswar Puri Trip-Part II

.... contd.

While back in Bhubaneswar, i was waiting for the 13th of Jun to come as fast it could.

13th of Jun--- 10:30 a.m. Rohan:Aap log aa rahe ho na aaj??
Mondi:Yahaan khoob zor se baarish ho rahi hai pata nahi ghar se nikal bhi paayeinge ya nahi.. we'll let you know by noon.

Now what? After an hour long wait ... I started a chain of telephone calls constantly enquiring about their position.. whether they have left for the station or no? whether they have reached the station? Whether they have boarded the train? etc. etc. Luckily everything fell into place and the troupe was on their way to Bhubaneswar. I was on time at the station dot @ 9.25 only to find out that the train was delayed by an hour which later got extended to two hours. So in the mean time I got dinner packed for didi log.

Train halts! Everybody is very excited and exhausted at the same time. We then go to the guest house, and @ the guest house the plan for the next two days is disclosed. Everybody is happy and I head back to my hostel.

Next morning @ 8:30 a.m the car is parked in front of the guest house. We were to visit two of the most important landmarks of the country (i)The Sun Temple,Konark (ii)Lord Jagannath Temple,Puri. Everybody is into the car by 9. Just as we move out of the city, lush green paddy fields extending till the horizon create a spectacular scene. Enjoying the cool breeze as we move on, we reached Pipli ( for people who are not aware of this place.. This small town is the hub of applique artisans), not in the mood to shop we didn't stop here and moved on. After almost an hour's drive we finally reached Konark.

In the Sun Temple, my new avtaar of a Guide. History of the landmark was narrated to the newcomers. Mondi was busy analyzing all the sculptures on the walls, Roopam was not very interested and was finding places to sit here and there but still tried to keep pace and Tinadi was the one selecting spots to click photographs. An hour and a half later decison to move ahead.

10 min. from Konark , we reached Chandrabhaaga . Now this where we got to see a beach. Earlier when The Sun Temple was built in the early 16th century, the temple was on the sea beach but as time passed the sea receded and is now at Chandrabhaaga (2.5 km from Konark). Tinadi was very excited to have arrived on the beach, the trio raced to the waters and i was left behind screaming, "Yahaan sea bahut rough hai, don't go too near to the waves". They splashed and jumped for half an hour, got tired , had "poido"/"daabh" and we left.

Next stop was Ramchandi mandir, this place is not very famous but since it was enroute we halted. By the time we arrived at Puri, it was time for lunch. So our next stop was Mayfair Beach Resort. Had a lovely lunch in their restaurant "Aquarium" and then we went to beach. The weather was bit cloudy, which came as a relief as we sat on the beach. All of us were thoroughly enjoying the strong winds blowing onto our faces. At around 4 in the evening we left for the puri temple. At the huge gates of the majestic temple of Lord Jagannath, all of us gazed in awe at the splendid structure. It took us around 30 min for Jagannath ji's darshan and then we went to Anand Bazaar ( it is a market inside the temple premisis where the offerings to the Lord are sold) , Mondi bought "khichdi" which was to be the dinner for all of us.

At around 7 having covered all the spots for the day, we headed back to bhubaneswar. On reaching Bhubaneswar, we went out to the market as roopam had to buy shoes for herself, then we went to a restaurant had dinner.. came back to the guest house.. ate the prasad which we bought at the Puri Temple and called it a day.

Next morning at 7, I knocked at didi's room, only to find Tundi was on the bed with fever and she wasn't willing to go. It took us some time to convince her and move on. 14th,Jun destinations were Dhauligiri Peace Pagoda which was built by Emperor Ashoka after the Kalinga war and Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar. We reached Dhauli hill at around 10. At the pagoda, spreading in front of was the vast fields where the war actually took place. We took a lot of pictures there and had a real nice time. Next stop was Lingaraj Temple ( which again is a majestic temple built by King Kharvel and it is only other place in the world other then Amarnath where the Shiva Ling is not man-made).

Mondi said she wanted to visit a zoo, so our next destination also had to follow our current series of majestic and huge landmarks. We went to Nandan Kanan which happens to be the largest zoo in Asia and houses more species of animals than any other Biological Garden. Then we went to Mayfair Lagoon to have our lunch. After a lovely lunch, we came to my university and Mondi, Tundi and Roopam took a small tour of the entire place. I collected my stuff from the hostel and we then stopped at Cafe Coffee Day for a cup coffee and then to the railway station where we were to catch our train back to Kolkata. Thus, came to an end, a really enthralling experience of a short and a reall sweet vacation with Roopam, Mondi & Tundi...

I LOVED IT!!