Not many people do long drives in India - for one because you have a wide range of options for public transport - trains, buses, planes, and secondly because you don't get roads like the UK motorways or the US Interstates. Driving is a hassle here, irrespective of the newly built Golden Quadrilateral - a network of high quality roadways connecting the four corners. And that's why this first attempt of mine to drive all the way to the Chilika Lake (in Orissa) from Kolkata, a total distance of around 1200km (up and down) was unnerving to say the least. But I gathered some courage and took tips from other travellers on the Team-BHP forums and planned for the trip.
23rd January, 2009 - Kolkata to Rambha (Chilika)
It took us almost four hours till one in the morning to pack our bags after coming back from work at half-eight in the evening. And you can imagine why. It's just a couple of dresses for me and my wife, but for the kids you need a bagful of clothes. Add to that a bag of nappies, babyfood, snacks for the long drive, travel utensils contained in a bag from the National Trust (UK), two camera backpacks, a tripod and what not! The rear boot of the car (it's not a big car, a small Suzuki Swift VXi) was full, the front passenger seat packed with bags, and with three passengers (my wife, and two kids - Rik and Riti) at the back, we managed to start at six in the morning, with eyes still sleepy - an after effect of staying up till late for packing and waking up at four in the morning. It was almost quarter past seven when we hit the Bombay Road (NH6) past the Kona Expressway after filling up the tank.
The roads were still fairly empty - the tourists haven't started yet. It took us less than an hour to reach Kolaghat where we were stuck in the age-old traffic congestion because of the ongoing roadwork on a bridge which has been converted into a one-way route. They stop vehicles on both sides and release one side at a time, and it results in huge queues of vehicles which grow worse as the day breaks. You'll find vendors selling tea, coffee, snacks and what not right on the highway. We had our morning tea there, and luckily didn't have to wait for more than half-an-hour in the queue. The road was empty beyond Kolaghat again (I guess most tourists take the route towards Digha and Mandarmoni beach) and we reached near Kharagpur shortly. The NH60 starts there and runs towards Balasore - it's a nice concrete road like in the UK and fairly empty. We had our breakfast in a dhaba near Belda where the people were still cleaning their front-yard at half-nine. After crossing Belda, we reached Daton, after which Orissa starts. The first halt was Jaleswar, where the Orissa Goverment perform an "official theft" from all private registered cars with non-Orissa numberplates. Aparently, from November 1, 2008, they have implemented a law whereby all private vehicles coming into Orissa will have to pay a road tax based on the unladen weight of the car, and the minimum period of this tax is six months - even though you are going for a holiday of may be three or four days - which I think is ridiculous. I've seen some complaints about this on the Team-BHP forums and I tried to argue with the taxman, but had to give up because the rest of the travellers on other vehicles started paying out the tax, which was more of an extortion than a legal tax. But I must acknowledge that the taxman was really cool-headed as he kept on smiling and repeating the law infront of around twenty odd angry travellers swearing at him. I've atleast been able to force him to provide me with a copy of the law with his name and designation, and am thinking of filing a PIL (which people say is quite easy to file, although I have no idea what happens after that).
Anyways, we lost about an hour at the checkpost because of the arguement, and it was around eleven when at last we started on our way towards Balasore. And the normal Indian roads take over from there - a stretch of 60km from Balasore to Bhadrak. If you are only used to UK motorways, then you might find this stretch shocking, but for us, it was okay - especially because we got used to Jessore Road (NH34) which is the only way to my in-law's place. It was nothing worse than NH34, except for thirty odd diversions. The worrying bit was the driving habit of some people - throughout Orissa you'll see the four-lane NH5 being used a two parallel roads, with vehicles moving up and down on both sides - irrespective of what all the rules and your driving sense says:-) Good road starts again after Bhadrak, and we increased our speed, reaching Panikoili at around 2pm, where we had our lunch with alu paratha and kadhai paneer. Feeding the kids is always troublesome and time-consuming, and we could only start at quarter past three, with still 40km to go till Cuttack and then around 30 km till Bhubaneswar and then 100 more kilometres from there.
23rd January, 2009 - Kolkata to Rambha (Chilika)
It took us almost four hours till one in the morning to pack our bags after coming back from work at half-eight in the evening. And you can imagine why. It's just a couple of dresses for me and my wife, but for the kids you need a bagful of clothes. Add to that a bag of nappies, babyfood, snacks for the long drive, travel utensils contained in a bag from the National Trust (UK), two camera backpacks, a tripod and what not! The rear boot of the car (it's not a big car, a small Suzuki Swift VXi) was full, the front passenger seat packed with bags, and with three passengers (my wife, and two kids - Rik and Riti) at the back, we managed to start at six in the morning, with eyes still sleepy - an after effect of staying up till late for packing and waking up at four in the morning. It was almost quarter past seven when we hit the Bombay Road (NH6) past the Kona Expressway after filling up the tank.
The roads were still fairly empty - the tourists haven't started yet. It took us less than an hour to reach Kolaghat where we were stuck in the age-old traffic congestion because of the ongoing roadwork on a bridge which has been converted into a one-way route. They stop vehicles on both sides and release one side at a time, and it results in huge queues of vehicles which grow worse as the day breaks. You'll find vendors selling tea, coffee, snacks and what not right on the highway. We had our morning tea there, and luckily didn't have to wait for more than half-an-hour in the queue. The road was empty beyond Kolaghat again (I guess most tourists take the route towards Digha and Mandarmoni beach) and we reached near Kharagpur shortly. The NH60 starts there and runs towards Balasore - it's a nice concrete road like in the UK and fairly empty. We had our breakfast in a dhaba near Belda where the people were still cleaning their front-yard at half-nine. After crossing Belda, we reached Daton, after which Orissa starts. The first halt was Jaleswar, where the Orissa Goverment perform an "official theft" from all private registered cars with non-Orissa numberplates. Aparently, from November 1, 2008, they have implemented a law whereby all private vehicles coming into Orissa will have to pay a road tax based on the unladen weight of the car, and the minimum period of this tax is six months - even though you are going for a holiday of may be three or four days - which I think is ridiculous. I've seen some complaints about this on the Team-BHP forums and I tried to argue with the taxman, but had to give up because the rest of the travellers on other vehicles started paying out the tax, which was more of an extortion than a legal tax. But I must acknowledge that the taxman was really cool-headed as he kept on smiling and repeating the law infront of around twenty odd angry travellers swearing at him. I've atleast been able to force him to provide me with a copy of the law with his name and designation, and am thinking of filing a PIL (which people say is quite easy to file, although I have no idea what happens after that).
Anyways, we lost about an hour at the checkpost because of the arguement, and it was around eleven when at last we started on our way towards Balasore. And the normal Indian roads take over from there - a stretch of 60km from Balasore to Bhadrak. If you are only used to UK motorways, then you might find this stretch shocking, but for us, it was okay - especially because we got used to Jessore Road (NH34) which is the only way to my in-law's place. It was nothing worse than NH34, except for thirty odd diversions. The worrying bit was the driving habit of some people - throughout Orissa you'll see the four-lane NH5 being used a two parallel roads, with vehicles moving up and down on both sides - irrespective of what all the rules and your driving sense says:-) Good road starts again after Bhadrak, and we increased our speed, reaching Panikoili at around 2pm, where we had our lunch with alu paratha and kadhai paneer. Feeding the kids is always troublesome and time-consuming, and we could only start at quarter past three, with still 40km to go till Cuttack and then around 30 km till Bhubaneswar and then 100 more kilometres from there.
During all this time, it was mayhem inside the car. Whatever toy or book Rik takes, Riti will grab for it, and the reverse is also true. And if she can't get it, she will let out her patented scream, which is sort of deafening to say the least. If one falls asleep, the other doesn't like it. If Rik sleeps, then Riti climbs up on his shoulder and scream - "Iiiiiiiik Iiiiiik", and if Riti falls asleep, then Rik complains - "Why is she sleeping, when will she get up?" And if both are awake, it's a mayhem - a shouting match. After Cuttack, both fell asleep, and it was peace at last, with my ears getting a much needed rest. Sumana too was half asleep by that time. I stopped after crossing Bhubaneswar and had a cup of tea - it was already half-past five, almost twelve hours since we started, with still about 90km to go and it was getting dark. The road beyond Balugaon was again two-lane, and quite bumpy and broken at places. We crossed few hills on our way which looked fairly scenic but we didn't have time to stop and enjoy the view. It was pitch dark beyond Balugaon, and vehicles from the opposite side were coming with their lights on the full-beams (another menace on the roads here - they don't have any consideration for the others). Some drivers would lower their beam when you flick once, most won't care. In fact, a lunatic trucker rushed towards our car when I flicked and as I tried to save ourselves, our left wheels went out of the paved road onto the ground about six inches below the road level with the chasis getting rubbed on the road making a horrible screeching noise. Anyways, I had to be extra careful after that, and reached the OTDC Panthanivas at Rambha (Chilika) at quarter to eight - total time taken a little less than fourteen hours (ofcourse with a total stoppage time of nearly four hours) and a total distance of approximately 590km.
The Panthanivas was tidy and well maintained - good people and clean rooms with large balconies on the lake side. We were dead tired and simply dropped on the bed after a quick dinner.
24th January, 2009 - Rambha and nearby
I slept with an alarm set on the mobile - with an intention to watch the sun rising over the Chilika lake. At six in the morning, I woke up with my psiatic nerve swollen again - the sky was getting lighter - but it was foggy. My wife decided to watch the sunrise from the balcony and took her post there with her camera, and I walked down to the lake-side. The sun started rising soon after, and people started flocking there - wrapped in sweaters, scarves and monkey-caps (even though it was fairly warm, with the temperature at about 22/24 degrees) - trying to capture the sunrise on their fancy point-and-shoots with their flashbulbs! This was the first time I set my DSLR to the RAW mode and took quite a few snaps - and they seemed rather good.
I came back to our room, had a shower and took our breakfast of toasts-jam-butter-eggs and tea. Then I went to find out about boats for the tour of the lake. The manager of the lodge said that their boats will take us to five nearby islands - but we decided to take the boat on the next day, as firstly we were short of cash (they'd only accept cash) and secondly, it was already late in the morning, and it won't probably be that good on the lake. We thought of driving towards Satapada instead, and see if we can take a boat to the dolphin-spot. We lost an hour because of the unwanted drive to Balugaon to get some cash from the cash machines (the nearest ones) and coming back from there.
A small road went out of NH5 at a place called Pallur Junction towards Satapada. We started on that road and soon after we entered the most remote villages I've ever seen since my childhood visit to Ramnagar, Birbhum - my grandma's birthplace. Narrow roads swerved between muddy houses with thatched roofs and I think not many cars take that route - because people were looking surprised. After lots and lots of turns, we reached the end of the road - Satapada was still 5km, but across the waterway. The next vessel would arrive after two hours - so we decided to take a local fishing boat and go towards the other islands. The boat took us to an island called the Rajhansa (meaning The Swan) - which holds a forest department villa - and a beach which happened to be the most solitary beach I've ever seen. There was miles and miles of golden sand, with not a single piece of dirt anywhere to be seen - and no people other than the four of us - and lots of yellow crabs, who seemed quite camera-shy, and scurried down towards the water as soon as I reached within twenty feet of them. Rik was half-drenched with a wave coming upon him, and Riti started crying - I guess she was scared of the waves and the sound...and didn't come down of her mum's shoulder.
After spending some time on the beach we took the reverse route on the boat again - and got to see the setting sun. The sun was the only worthwhile thing to watch on first day at Chilika - and nothing else - except a swamp - and yes, that solitary beach at Rajhansa. It was almost eight in the evening when we drove down that swerving road again to Panthanivas - had our dinner with chapati, fried potatoes, dal and fish-curry. We planned to take a short boat trip the next morning for bird watching and then drive towards our next stop at Konark.
25th January, 2009 - towards Konark
We again woke up early, had our shower and breakfast and walked down to the jetty to take a ride on a Panthanivas speed boat to the nearby islands. The boat needed to be pushed out of the shallow waters to let the propeller move freely. Even there, the water wasn't too deep and one can see the bottom quite clearly - it would probably be chest height at the most. We saw the Breakfast Island which is a small house built on the lake for the kings to have their breakfast; then an island with some caves which have some deities now; the Bird Island - where we couldn't see a single bird. We were able to see some birds, mostly seagulls on the water, but they all flew away with the boat approaching because of the noise from the boat. And the boat was bouncing so hard that I wasn't able to take proper shots at the birds with the tele lens on my camera. It doesn't make much sense to go bird watching in Chilika - probably Bharatpur is a better bet. And for us it was quite disappointing, because we have been to the Ferne Islands and Seahouses on the North Sea coast where you won't be able to see much of the land because of so many migratory birds.
We came back from the boat trip and started towards Konark, back again on NH5, now driving northwards. The original plan was to take the road towards Puri/Konark from Khurda Road, but the Panthanivas manager suggested another bypass (Jamjat or something like that), midway between Balugaon and Bhubaneswar, and unfortunately, we took that route.
The road practically doesn't exist - you'll only see potholes all over the place with few bits of original asphalt remaining. I could very well realize why Sheikh Ahamad Ali made Mujataba tie a turban on his head during his epic journey from Peshwar to Kabul - the only thing was we didn't have the turbans on our head. You can only go upto 20kmph at the most on the road, with the car swaying dangerously from side to side - almost like a boat, sometimes tilted on one side as if it would topple at the slightest touch. And this went on for about 55-60km, with dust and potholes being our only companions on the road. And then we ended up on the original road toward Puri, the same one which starts at Khurda Road, and diverts at Pipili, and way better than the road so far. We turned towards Puri and just before Puri we took the Marine Drive towards Konark and finally reached Konark at half past three in the afternoon - around five and half hours from Rambha, delayed by at least an hour and half because of the terrible bypass.
And the crowd at Konark was shocking. I've been to the Sun Temple when I was a kid, and as far as I can remember, there were only a few tourists at that time. Now, it seemed almost like the Book Fair in Kolkata with people everywhere. In fact, if you wish to take some snaps of the Sun Temple itself in peace, you'll be disappointed. I tried for hours, but couldn't take a single snap of the sculpture of the Sun God - instead had to satisfy myself with photos of the rest of the temple. We had a guide, but the guy was busy pointing to certain special sculptures (depicting scenes from the Kamasutra) and asking me to explain them to my wife. And, at last finding a place to try out their legs, Rik and Riti made us run behind them all the time...
The OTDC Yatrinivas at Konark was awful. The rooms were dirty, the bathroom shabby - with loose fittings almost out of their sockets. I asked the room service to send two cups of tea, and they probably noted the wrong room number - whatever they did we didn't get the tea. We ordered food at the restaurant at 9pm, and instead of the promised 20 minutes, we got the food at 10pm, and by that time, Riti fell asleep. To keep Rik awake, I let him watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Cartoon Network - but a couple came in and prompty changed the channel to Star Plus and started watching a wretched award ceremony, totally oblivious of the fact that several kids were watching the Harry Potter movie. We returned to our room at eleven, packed our bags as much as we could so that we could start early in the morning on our way back home - stopping at Bhubaneswar to visit the Lingaraj Temple.
26th January, 2009 - back towards Kolkata
I commented "poor" in almost all points on the comment book and the receptionist asked me why. And I vented my anger from the last night on him. We started from Konark at eight in the morning on our ay towards Bhubaneswar. There isn't much to write about the journey except for the farce about fuel. 26th January is a National Holiday, and all the petrol pumps were closed for the day. But, ofcourse people woule need fuel - especially it was a long weekend and there were loads of tourists - on cars and buses. Some people were selling petrol and diesel filled in cans and bottles infront of the closed pumps right before the eyes of the police, and that too at a higher price - and travellers were being forced to buy. This is called an emergency service, and the same excuse was used to implement ESMA to break the legitimate strike by the petroleum workers just a few days back, but on the other hand, no one cares about the black market created because of the national holiday.
I drove at around 60kmph with the AC at the minimum to save as much fuel as I could. When I started, I had enough fuel to drive upto Kharagpur, and if I couldn't get any more, we'd have to spend the night somewhere. We reached Bhubaneswar at around 10am. You can't take any cameras or mobile phones inside the Lingaraj Temple - and I felt cheated because I couldn't take any pictures, although, the temple had exquisite sculptures. You see, I'm not religious at all - in fact I'm an atheist - but I visit such places just to see the paintings and sculptures and to be able to take pictures of them. While coming out of the temple, I saw that wretched notice - "Non-hindus are not allowed inside the temple" - and my anger started growing and I made a few comments about the notice being extremely racist - and the guards became curious about me. We started from Bhubaneswar at around eleven, driving in the same manner as before - within 60kmph, minimal AC - and finally saw some open pumps after Cuttack where I refilled and was back on road full speed. And again, it was the same mayhem in the car - the shouting match - Iiiiiik etc. - bit of crying too - and we reached Kolaghat at around 7pm in the evening and was stuck in an immense congestion due to that one-way bridge. It took about an hour to get clear of the congestion - we stopped at a dhaba for our dinner with chapati and tarka - and finally rached home at 9.30pm. At last. Total distance covered - 1467km. Time to plan the next trip.
The Panthanivas was tidy and well maintained - good people and clean rooms with large balconies on the lake side. We were dead tired and simply dropped on the bed after a quick dinner.
24th January, 2009 - Rambha and nearby
I slept with an alarm set on the mobile - with an intention to watch the sun rising over the Chilika lake. At six in the morning, I woke up with my psiatic nerve swollen again - the sky was getting lighter - but it was foggy. My wife decided to watch the sunrise from the balcony and took her post there with her camera, and I walked down to the lake-side. The sun started rising soon after, and people started flocking there - wrapped in sweaters, scarves and monkey-caps (even though it was fairly warm, with the temperature at about 22/24 degrees) - trying to capture the sunrise on their fancy point-and-shoots with their flashbulbs! This was the first time I set my DSLR to the RAW mode and took quite a few snaps - and they seemed rather good.
I came back to our room, had a shower and took our breakfast of toasts-jam-butter-eggs and tea. Then I went to find out about boats for the tour of the lake. The manager of the lodge said that their boats will take us to five nearby islands - but we decided to take the boat on the next day, as firstly we were short of cash (they'd only accept cash) and secondly, it was already late in the morning, and it won't probably be that good on the lake. We thought of driving towards Satapada instead, and see if we can take a boat to the dolphin-spot. We lost an hour because of the unwanted drive to Balugaon to get some cash from the cash machines (the nearest ones) and coming back from there.
A small road went out of NH5 at a place called Pallur Junction towards Satapada. We started on that road and soon after we entered the most remote villages I've ever seen since my childhood visit to Ramnagar, Birbhum - my grandma's birthplace. Narrow roads swerved between muddy houses with thatched roofs and I think not many cars take that route - because people were looking surprised. After lots and lots of turns, we reached the end of the road - Satapada was still 5km, but across the waterway. The next vessel would arrive after two hours - so we decided to take a local fishing boat and go towards the other islands. The boat took us to an island called the Rajhansa (meaning The Swan) - which holds a forest department villa - and a beach which happened to be the most solitary beach I've ever seen. There was miles and miles of golden sand, with not a single piece of dirt anywhere to be seen - and no people other than the four of us - and lots of yellow crabs, who seemed quite camera-shy, and scurried down towards the water as soon as I reached within twenty feet of them. Rik was half-drenched with a wave coming upon him, and Riti started crying - I guess she was scared of the waves and the sound...and didn't come down of her mum's shoulder.
After spending some time on the beach we took the reverse route on the boat again - and got to see the setting sun. The sun was the only worthwhile thing to watch on first day at Chilika - and nothing else - except a swamp - and yes, that solitary beach at Rajhansa. It was almost eight in the evening when we drove down that swerving road again to Panthanivas - had our dinner with chapati, fried potatoes, dal and fish-curry. We planned to take a short boat trip the next morning for bird watching and then drive towards our next stop at Konark.
25th January, 2009 - towards Konark
We again woke up early, had our shower and breakfast and walked down to the jetty to take a ride on a Panthanivas speed boat to the nearby islands. The boat needed to be pushed out of the shallow waters to let the propeller move freely. Even there, the water wasn't too deep and one can see the bottom quite clearly - it would probably be chest height at the most. We saw the Breakfast Island which is a small house built on the lake for the kings to have their breakfast; then an island with some caves which have some deities now; the Bird Island - where we couldn't see a single bird. We were able to see some birds, mostly seagulls on the water, but they all flew away with the boat approaching because of the noise from the boat. And the boat was bouncing so hard that I wasn't able to take proper shots at the birds with the tele lens on my camera. It doesn't make much sense to go bird watching in Chilika - probably Bharatpur is a better bet. And for us it was quite disappointing, because we have been to the Ferne Islands and Seahouses on the North Sea coast where you won't be able to see much of the land because of so many migratory birds.
We came back from the boat trip and started towards Konark, back again on NH5, now driving northwards. The original plan was to take the road towards Puri/Konark from Khurda Road, but the Panthanivas manager suggested another bypass (Jamjat or something like that), midway between Balugaon and Bhubaneswar, and unfortunately, we took that route.
The road practically doesn't exist - you'll only see potholes all over the place with few bits of original asphalt remaining. I could very well realize why Sheikh Ahamad Ali made Mujataba tie a turban on his head during his epic journey from Peshwar to Kabul - the only thing was we didn't have the turbans on our head. You can only go upto 20kmph at the most on the road, with the car swaying dangerously from side to side - almost like a boat, sometimes tilted on one side as if it would topple at the slightest touch. And this went on for about 55-60km, with dust and potholes being our only companions on the road. And then we ended up on the original road toward Puri, the same one which starts at Khurda Road, and diverts at Pipili, and way better than the road so far. We turned towards Puri and just before Puri we took the Marine Drive towards Konark and finally reached Konark at half past three in the afternoon - around five and half hours from Rambha, delayed by at least an hour and half because of the terrible bypass.
And the crowd at Konark was shocking. I've been to the Sun Temple when I was a kid, and as far as I can remember, there were only a few tourists at that time. Now, it seemed almost like the Book Fair in Kolkata with people everywhere. In fact, if you wish to take some snaps of the Sun Temple itself in peace, you'll be disappointed. I tried for hours, but couldn't take a single snap of the sculpture of the Sun God - instead had to satisfy myself with photos of the rest of the temple. We had a guide, but the guy was busy pointing to certain special sculptures (depicting scenes from the Kamasutra) and asking me to explain them to my wife. And, at last finding a place to try out their legs, Rik and Riti made us run behind them all the time...
The OTDC Yatrinivas at Konark was awful. The rooms were dirty, the bathroom shabby - with loose fittings almost out of their sockets. I asked the room service to send two cups of tea, and they probably noted the wrong room number - whatever they did we didn't get the tea. We ordered food at the restaurant at 9pm, and instead of the promised 20 minutes, we got the food at 10pm, and by that time, Riti fell asleep. To keep Rik awake, I let him watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Cartoon Network - but a couple came in and prompty changed the channel to Star Plus and started watching a wretched award ceremony, totally oblivious of the fact that several kids were watching the Harry Potter movie. We returned to our room at eleven, packed our bags as much as we could so that we could start early in the morning on our way back home - stopping at Bhubaneswar to visit the Lingaraj Temple.
26th January, 2009 - back towards Kolkata
I commented "poor" in almost all points on the comment book and the receptionist asked me why. And I vented my anger from the last night on him. We started from Konark at eight in the morning on our ay towards Bhubaneswar. There isn't much to write about the journey except for the farce about fuel. 26th January is a National Holiday, and all the petrol pumps were closed for the day. But, ofcourse people woule need fuel - especially it was a long weekend and there were loads of tourists - on cars and buses. Some people were selling petrol and diesel filled in cans and bottles infront of the closed pumps right before the eyes of the police, and that too at a higher price - and travellers were being forced to buy. This is called an emergency service, and the same excuse was used to implement ESMA to break the legitimate strike by the petroleum workers just a few days back, but on the other hand, no one cares about the black market created because of the national holiday.
I drove at around 60kmph with the AC at the minimum to save as much fuel as I could. When I started, I had enough fuel to drive upto Kharagpur, and if I couldn't get any more, we'd have to spend the night somewhere. We reached Bhubaneswar at around 10am. You can't take any cameras or mobile phones inside the Lingaraj Temple - and I felt cheated because I couldn't take any pictures, although, the temple had exquisite sculptures. You see, I'm not religious at all - in fact I'm an atheist - but I visit such places just to see the paintings and sculptures and to be able to take pictures of them. While coming out of the temple, I saw that wretched notice - "Non-hindus are not allowed inside the temple" - and my anger started growing and I made a few comments about the notice being extremely racist - and the guards became curious about me. We started from Bhubaneswar at around eleven, driving in the same manner as before - within 60kmph, minimal AC - and finally saw some open pumps after Cuttack where I refilled and was back on road full speed. And again, it was the same mayhem in the car - the shouting match - Iiiiiik etc. - bit of crying too - and we reached Kolaghat at around 7pm in the evening and was stuck in an immense congestion due to that one-way bridge. It took about an hour to get clear of the congestion - we stopped at a dhaba for our dinner with chapati and tarka - and finally rached home at 9.30pm. At last. Total distance covered - 1467km. Time to plan the next trip.
3 comments:
Nice trip out there.
Well, November and December are right time to visit Chilika lake for sighting bird, especially flamingos. That's in an island called Nalabana.
I visited there in 2008. But the island was still in water and I have to see the birds from a distance of 500 meters. A binocular is a must.
Well, I write at Ghoomlo.comWill post pictures there in a couple of days.
Excellent writeup. I went to Puri/ Chilka/Konarak last July 2011 with my wife, daughter 10y old and mother. Drove my WagonR from Kolkata - Puri and back but found the roads to be excellent. To avoid the Jaleswar checkopost, we took a diversion before 8KM through JALESHWAR MARKET and took a decent small road parallel to the main road (passes by a Satsang Vihar white temple). Filled fuel at Rs 5 less than West Bengal price.
We are going this December 2011 for a week long trip to coastal orissa with night stays at Kolkata-Rambha-Barkul-Gopalpur-Daringbadi-Taptapani-Tikarpada/Satkosia-Kolkata. Will try to update after return.
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