Chhattisgarh, a trip report

We visited this region during our trip this January. For this part we had hired a car+driver though a travel-agency, they also planned the Orissa- Chhattisgarh part.
Here is an extraction of our travel diary so you have an impression of the possibilities. I include the days because most markets are held on a specific day in the week.

Saturday. We start in Sambalpur (Orissa) early in the morning, in the afternoon we leave the high-way and go to Sirpur. Around the place there are several old temples and monasteries. In the town itself are numerous temples in various styles. They often stand on the inner court of the houses. From here it is nearly two hours driving to Raipur. A busy industrial town with a lot of pollution in the air.

Sunday. We start at 6.30 AM. The road is good so after two hours we have covered 150 of today's 400 km. At nine o'clock we are in Kanker and take our breakfast and at noon we stop in Narayanpur to visit the weekly market of the Moria people. Colorful as always and few tourist, at least no westerners. We stay there two hours and back on the high-road we stop in Kondagaon. This is a center of the making of terracotta en iron statues, on Sunday nobody is working. At 6.30 PM we arrive in Jagdalpur.

Monday. It is 26 January so there are festivities. We start to day at 8 o'clock and after a short ride we are in Ammguda, a tribal village. There is a big parade of the younger children, shouting and singing. We look at the village life, everyone is very hospitable. We stay a few hours and visit then the tribal market in Tokopal, it is at the other side of Jagdalpur. We arrive at noon and the market is just beginning and again we enjoy ourselves. Nearby is Mumun, a market and cock-fighting place. We have to choose between this and the Chitrakoot falls and go to the latter. To reach them we have to pass Jagdalpur again. Event at this time of the year the falls are impressive.

Tuesday. We are still in Jagdalpur and start again at eight. We first go to the Thirathgar falls, they are inside the Kanger national park, the ticket-office is in Jagdalpur. This is also a beautiful place, we do not go further into the park. After visiting another tribal village we arrive at the Pakhnar market, situated into the woods. At two o'clock we are back in Jagdalpur and drive to Kanker where we arrive at seven.

Wednesday. An early start at 6.30. Thirty km before Raipur we go to Rajim to visit the nice temple over there. The rest of the day we often stop along the road, whenever there is something interesting to see. At five o'clock we arrive in Kawardha a nice small town rarely visited by tourists.

Thursday. About eight we leave to visit the Mandwa Mahal and Bhoramdeo temples It is a ride of about one hour. After we have visited these we go in the direction of Khana, first to another tribal village and then to the market in Chilpi. On our way back we visit another village, Rababa I guess. At five we are back in Kawardha, also there is a market.

Friday. We go to Amarkantak and arrive there after four hours. From here we continue our trip on our own.

Nice Report ! Did you see the twin Ganesha Temple also ?

Cool thanks for this! I will be in this area in November for a wedding.

I am glad that it was helpful.
You probably have seen a more extensive report in our journal From Kochi to Delhi

Have a nice journey

Vonkla, thanks for your trip report.

Ronak.

I am really jealous of your trip!
Brilliant report!