Day 13 (Apr-24) : Bhittarkanika

I had decided not to take my camera in this place. What a forest!! No words can describe it! I cannot explain what a magnificent place this is. The entire lush green mangroves pass besides the lonely river. Millions of birds chirp to show their existence however only a few are seen. A naturalists's paradise with strangler figs, eight types of colourful and majestic kingfishers. We had a great start for this trip due to the good chance of sighting the salt water crocodile. On one train, we nearly walked for around 2 hours. It was worth it. We actually saw the water monitor lizard in the place! We were hearing some rustling near a natural pond. Mom and dad thought it was a waste of time and went ahead. I decided to stay behind. Guess what! Out comes a water monitor lizard on a tree. I called out to dad to take a photo. By the time he came, the lizard was entering the pond. He did take a good shot of the lizard using his huge lens. We saw 5 out of 8 species of kingfishers. However, we could take pictures on only three of them. The picture of the common kingfisher is pretty shaken though.

We ate in a place inside the forest. There was a crocodile hatchery there. We got a nice picture of the little things. The other adult crocs were huge. They passed close to the boat. So, due to the fixed zoom DSLR of my dad, all the photos of the bigger crocs have gone out of the frame.  We got an extremely good photo of the rare brown winged kingfisher.  I repeat again, the beauty of the place can only be understood visiting it!

Water Monitor Lizard

Brown winged kingfisher

Greater Egret

                                                                                                                 

  That's me!!

      Lesser Adjutant stork

    

Monkeys on the trail

Pied Kingfisher

White throated kingfisher

Strangler fig with host tree dead and gone!

Eagle

Baby saltwater crocodiles in hatchery

Greater Egret in flight

Day 12 (Apr-23) : The craters filled road to Chandbali

We left for Bhittarkannika, the first national park on our way. It is basically a mangrove forest. Next only o the Sunderbans. The road to place was initially pretty good. But later on, it turned out to be the worst road in our trip until now. Reminding me of the Kunjum pass (see my older blog). I am planning to take a photo of the road on our journey back to the place. The rural area by the road had thatched roofs, children were playing cricket in the dry fields. On child (a very happy creature) was completely naked and was playing cricket with his friends. Neither him nor his friends seemed to mind his state!

We saw parts of really large trucks being carried by other trucks that were large themselves!

We are presently living in a very rundown Orissa tourism hotel in a place called Chandbali just outside the forest. The room is a non-A/C one. The fan has little power and everything it seems is in a state of disrepair. Let’s have the taste of this part of India also.

Tyres of really large mining trucks being carried by other trucks.

Village scene on the way to Chandbali.

Day 11 (Apr-22) : Konark and Bhubneswar

We left Puri and went directly to Konark. The temple was a superb building. The older, bigger temple was said to have a magnet. It would hold the temple together and also allow the iron idol of the sun god to levitate in the air. This magnet however would distract the ships from its original path. Hence, the British not realizing the value of the magnet, removed it. The temple tumbled down soon afterwards. The inside of the smaller temple to has been closed due to the problem of falling stones. The intricate designs on the temple are unparalleled. The clear beauty, geometry and astrology of the temple amazed me. Just imagine, in the 16^th century, when the magnet was still there, how the temple would look. In a dark hallway of many intricate carvings, right in the centre is an idol suspended in air, the rays of the sun falling directly on the idol. The sun’s light falls on one idol in the morning on another in the evening and on a third during sunset. The wheels of the temple are sundials using which we can tell the time with accuracy of three minutes. Our guide was also an interesting fellow, he was aged 84 years.

We then visited the Lingaraja temple. It too had the characteristics of a Orison temple. However, it was much better preserved than the Konark temple as it was further away from the sea.

I have been a complete fool! In my hurry, I deleted all my photos from Konark. It included an angle experiment, and the photo of our 84 year old guide. Papa has a photo of the guide from the back. A pity.

We then went to Bhubaneshwar. We went straight to the Nandankanan Zoological Park. We saw tigers, leopards and all the big cats. The typical big striped house cats you see in a zoo. The real things in the wild have a completely different atmosphere. However, I dragged my parents to that place to see if they had any new animal I didn’t know. To help my G.K :)

Our 84 year old guide at the entrance of Konark temple

Side view of the temple. Renovation work was going on.

Intricate carvings

These wheels are around 12-15 ft tall!

Statues from the walls of main part of temple that tumbled around 22 years ago

He almost looks alive!

Day 10 (Apr-21) : Trying for a dolphin

We left early in the morning for Satapada, the place to see the Chilika lake Dolphins. We reached the place at around 12 pm. We ate in a dhaba, following the rules of authentic cuisine (see earlier posts). The food was good. We took a boat and left the place. In the middle of the lake, our driver stopped at a place. A guy from another boat came to us with a tub full of oysters. He took one in his hand and broke it. And wow a pearl!!!! He gave the price of the peal to be Rs.55. Every 5th oyster had a pearl. Every 15th had a black pearl. Our excitement took over us. One thing I noticed was that those pearls were not completely round but the guy told us that the oyster made the pearl that way. We believed it and bought a good amount for it.

The big truth : 

The pearls were fake!!! Unfortunately, we got to know that when it was already too late.

Well, we did see dolphins, but it wasn't very good sighting. We couldn't take a single good photo of the Dolphin. But we did get a good sighting of the red crab and a school of small fish that kept jumping out of water. Few things to remember for future trips:

• When you get costly metals, stones, etc at very cheap rates, always think that it is too good to   be true.
• Everything the nature makes is 100%  PERFECT. I realised much later that the pearls must be perfectly spherical for it to be pure.
• A loss once made is lost forever. Don't think about it much just learn your lessons and move on. All Izz Well

Stopping at a dhaba for lunch. The car was an object of curiosity for some

Ready to cast the net

This *black pearl in the shell" got us all excited!

Feeding on the prawns caught in the net

Red crabs on the bank

Day 9 (Apr-20) : Lord Jagannath

We took a boat ride early in the morning on Chilka lake and went to a temple island (Kalijai) early in the morning. The ride was okay and I was trying hard to take a pic of a flying bird. I was not really successful. But just check out the pics. the temple was nothing great, but the route behind it certainly was. We actually saw nesting ground of large water birds with adult cormorants and herons  feeding their young!!! Trees in that small area were full with birds and the place had become white with bird’s you know what. I got a few cool pics. Well, talk about luck!

Okay, I'm not a religious fellow. Nor do I agree to the fact that only Hindus are allowed to see Lord Jagannath. But taking all in to consideration, the temple is just AWESOME!!! Never have I seen such intricate carvings to last for 800 years! The idols are at least twice the life size.

We had planned not to do any Pooja, but by his grace, we entered at the right time to witness one of the greatest functions of the temple. A guy climbs up approx 150 ft temple to change the flag up there. This is done every evening irrespective of the weather. Even if there is cyclone!! What skill! Who says rock climbing is only done on mountains!

     We entered the core temple to see the lords Jagannath and his brother Balabhadra(Shankar) & sister Subhadra(Brahma). We were asked to tell the lord what we wanted in our brains that wish is supposed to completed. First, I asked for admission to IIT. Then other things. After a just moment or two there, I said "I don't want anything" I don't know how it came to me, but somehow it filled my heart with content and great pleasure. A pleasure so great, that even forgot my existence for a moment or two.

    Jagannath is the place where the lord is supposed to have been eating, hence, the Prasad here is an entire meal. What taste!! Simple rice but What a taste! The rice is cooked daily in the temple and the Prasad is called ओभोड़ा (aa - bho - dla) the dla part is bit tricky for non-north-Indian Hindi speaking people. So as I was saying, above 4 tonnes of food is cooked in huge containers and then served.

When we went back to our hotel, we saw a lot of lights on the beach. We went there to see a dance sequence for an Oriya movie being shot. It was interesting to see the hero and heroines going through the same steps again and again till the director and choreographer were satisfied.

A game of cards on the banks of Chilka lake

Dogs

Sparrows on the jetty

Prawns farms on the lake

Two birds

The boat ride to Kalijai temple (in background)

Cormorant nests

Dance sequence being shot for an Oriya film

Day 8 (Apr-19) : To Borra Caves and then to Puri

We left Araku early next morning and went straight for the caves. These are natural caves made 3 million years earlier. I have uploaded some pictures but, the fact is, that it was very difficult to get decent pictures in the dark of the caves. Only a few pics of the entire place are worthy to be posted so, you can understand its beauty only when you see the place first hand. 3 Km from the caves, we stopped to have lunch in a roadside hotel. It was just a small hut but the food was excellent.

Well, that was it and we left for Puri. Got stuck in Truck Traffic jam a mile long. Well, we somehow cleared through it taking a bypass to it. The smooth,4 laned Golden Quadrilateral became a broken road under construction showing us clearly that we had finally reached Orissa.

      We had been too ambitious, we couldn't reach Puri. So we stayed at Shree Sai lodge in a place called Balugaon. We ate dinner in a typical rundown   roadside dhaba. Tell you what, we got 1 plate of rice for just Rs.8!!!  Dal was for Rs.2!! The total food for three of us was of Rs.70!! The place was not exactly a W.H.O. authorised clean place but what is the use of eating the same old Paneer in Orissa? Try something authentic. If authentic is what you want, remember this logic :-

• Never eat in a hotel which has a wooden polished door.
• The hotel must not have an A/C
• Better still, only table fans.

Entrance of the cave

                            

Brain in stone. A natural formation               

    

My dad himself is 5'10"

Garuda Formation.

The lighting on this stone made it seem that the cave was enchanted

Day 7 (Apr-18) : The Submarine

 So many things to tell!!

 I cannot fit all of it in this place. We saw the India’s one and only submarine museum. Wow that was so cool! The sailors in the sub must be under constant stress. The place is so cramped, and to keep 75 crew members in it! Those guys must be living on sheer willpower in that place. We also visited the naval war museum. Vizag is a very clean and tidy city. I wish most of the Indian cities were like this.

As mentioned earlier, my two sisters Sharmila and Anuradha gifted two English rock music CDs. The fun part about these is that I cannot understand a word in the music though my father seems to recognize a few of those from his college days! But, the music itself gives a different mood to the atmosphere.

We left for Aruku hills after lunch. It is a small valley with the Borra caves close by. The drive was long, confusing and tiring. But most of all, enjoyable.

Waves on Vizag beach

Outside the submarine museum

Inside the submarine

A Dragon statue by the side of road

Taking a break on the road to Araku

Day 6 (Apr-17) : Visakhapatnam

We left Vijaywada early in the morning. The journey was pretty uneventful except for excellent Andhra style food we found in a small roadside hotel. It was a small hotel. We could not understand anything as everything was written in Telugu but the lady running the restaurant understood that we wanted lunch J. It was an excellent meal!

I relaxed on the back seat. Slept a while as the various patterns in the sky sped past by. The area was quiet green and flourished. The translation problem is still there. We reached Visakhapatnam by 3:00 PM or so. We first went to an APTDC hotel in the city but they suggested that we go to their resort on Rushikonda beach as the location there was excellent. We followed his advice and he was indeed right. The resort is situated right next to the beach. This is the first time I have been on the eastern coast of India and seen Bay of Bengal.

 I didn't click any good photos though

My father outside the roadside restaurant where we had excellent lunch