Puri-Bhubaneshwar with kid

OTDC @ satpada. Hire a car + driver (unless your friend has a car) - will be a lot smoother than trying to find someone in a place like konarak to take you to your next destination or waiting for the bus.

OK thanks will write back after the trip

Hi there,

I just got back as well from a Bengal/Orissa mini trip with my family (including my 7 yr daughter). For me the highlights were ...

1. Chandipur beach - awesome experience - the only beach where the water recedes 3-4 kms inland!! quite an experience anytime of the day. Add to it the fact that this is quite far from your usual tourist spots, its a surefire winner! There is a beach festival happening between the 5th and 12th of Jan.

2. Lingaraja temple - really stunning architecture... I would rate it much better than the Sun Temple which (in my opinion) pales in comparison.

3. Chandrabhaga beach - awesome beach but the waves looked fairly unpredictable and could possibly be dangerous if you intend to venture in deep. There seems to be a beach sand sculpture festival on till the 5th of Jan.

4. nandankanan Zoo is pretty cool and well worth a visit for kids. Although the safari had massive crowds and was not really worth it. The only white tiger we saw was far away and the lion ambled off into the buishes on hearing the bus approach. The drivers race the bus thorugh the park and that too, so frequently that I bet the lions/tigers get pretty upset and decide to hide away from the constant disturbance. The caged enclosures though are pretty cool with lots of animals/reptiles pretty well taken care of. (made more obvious by the fact that the free roaming langurs are very well behaved, indicating they are well taken care of)

4. ratnagiri, Lalitgiri, Udaygiri corridor - these are some unbelievably amazing excavation sites that are hardly crowded since they are off the beaten track. Well worth a visit. Khandagiri is alright as well and is just on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar - easily accessible by car. The other sites are at least 2-3 hour drive away towards Paradip.

i did not get time to check out Chilka but then I only had 3 days in Orissa.

If you are a devout Hindu, then you should not miss the Jagannath Balaji temple (the famous Rath yatra temple) but be warned, the priests there are extremely hard boiled and consider it their birth right to DEMAND money from you for every visit. Also the crowds are manic in the temple complex for a glimpse of the idol... and all in all its an experience to be avoided if you are with a child or are not religiously inclined. (Unfortunately my wife is, so I had no choice!!!) My poor daughter was traumatised at the end of it and was crying after the 'darshan'

The Puri beach is TERRIBLE...really extremely crowded, shabby and dirty. Best to avoid the hordes.

We stayed at the Saraswati retreat at CRP Square - this is a small boutique kind of hotel where the manager - RK Panda takes personal interest and helps out in everything. The hotel is pretty close to the main markets of the city and the rooms are very comfortable and clean. the room rate was 2000 per double AC room.

At Chandipur, we stayed at the OTDC Panthaniwas which is bang on the beach and has nice grounds for kids to play. All rooms were booked and we had only managed to get the 3 AC suites although I was booking a month in advance! so please check up by calling them. The hotel is worth it and the suites were 2500 per night.

I also got a vehicle arranged daily (needed a 10 seater as we were 9 in total) The cost WITH AC was Rs 10 per km for a tavera. without AC it was rs 9

if you are travelling with a child, go in for the AC option... most roads in orissa are very nice and have minimal potholes but there is a lot of sand on the periphery that tends to fly in and can surely do no good for a little child. (let alone an adult!)

A smaller car like the Indica I believe is Rs 8 for AC

I will post my travelogue sometime later today, hope it helps!

Sidch where is Chandipur beach?

Its halfway to Kolkata ... north-east of BBSR - approximately 230 kms from Bhubaneshwar (BBSR) and 270 kms when coming down from Kolkata.

Chandipur is the famous Missile test firing range (where they test Agni, Prithvi etc) and do note that its a small village really, so getting vehicles out of there tends to be slightly more expensive. For example - it cost me Rs 11 per km with AC for a Bolero from Chandipur to Kolkata as opposed to 10 per km from BBSR to Chandipur for a Tavera.

Here's a few pics of the beach for reference

Thanks, the beach looks lovely. I have a very short first trip so can't manage it this time.

ah its a shame, perhaps sometime later It was an unbelievable experience jogging on the beach at 6-30 pm when the sun had set and it was a hazy dusk. I was jogging on and on and on towards the horizon with no sign of the sea and as the haze enveloped me, it felt like I was running to the edge of the world!! the shore was barely visible and the sea was just a haze. felt as if I was running in a cloud!! Difficult to explain, but it felt as if I was in a time warp.

On the way back, the moon came out like a beacon, lighting the way with Venus holding position right below it. It was pretty amazing

Dear All,

This is Ashish here. I am a new joinee (joined today itself) and this is my first post.

We are looking at a family vacation (our 1.5 yrs old son, wife, mother-in-law, bro-in-law and his wife- both coming in from Nagpur)to Odisha during Feb 4- Feb 9, 2012. The brief itinerary, thats taking final shape, looks like something as below:-
1) Feb 4- Pune to Hyd and Hyd to Bbsr- reaching by 7pm. Stay at Bbsr Panthnivas.
2) Feb 5- my (Mr and Ms) bro-in-law to arrive from Kolkata to Bbsr at morning at around 7. Hence leave Bbsr at about 10 for Chilika by OTDC bus.
3) Feb 5 and 6- sightseeing and stay at Chilika (Panthnivasa)
4) Feb 7- morning start from Chilika to Bbsr, further to Chandipur
5) Feb 7 and 8- stay at Chandipur (Panthnivasa)
6) Feb 9- leave for Kolkata
7) My bro-in-law and wife move on to Sunderbans on 10th morning (we had already covered it 3 yrs back during our Kolkata-Sikkim trip).

Now my queries are:-
1) There are 2 OTDC Panthnivasas' (actually 3 if the one at Satapada is included)viz at Barkul and Rambha. From what I could guess from the details that have seen, the one at Barkul is little bit more developed than the one at Rambha. But Rambha Panthnivasa offers better view of the lake.

Will you please guide, which one is better for stay?

2) We plan to take OTDC bus from Bbsr to Chilika and plan to use Trains to move from Chilika (Balugaon) to Chandipur, and from Chandipur to Kolkata. Is this a good idea or it will be better to hire a cab/mpv for these transfers?

Btw, I tried to book this bus from Bbsr to Balugaon using OSRTC online booking portal, but on the date is 5th, the system does not show any Bus service on this route :-( Any thoughts about alternate options here please?

3) We plan for a night-boating trip at Chilika. Is it a good and safe idea?

4) Any suggestions wrto Itinerary?

5) We are thinking of covering another destination once we are back to Kolkata on 9th. How about visiting Kaziranga, knowing that its little far away and probably we will need to take air-route to and fro? Or any other interesting places in vicinity of Kolkata considering we have time from 9th evening till 12th morning? How about Bakkhali / Gadiara?

Sorry for posing so many questions in the first thread itself. Hopefully, experts will not mind.

Thanking you for your time...
Ashish A Uplap

Hi Ashish, I was at Chilika last week and stayed at Barkul at Panthanivas. So are you staying at Barkul? It is a scenic spot and panthanivas has an excellent location, just by the lake.

Also we visited Mangalajodi which has much more bids than Chilika at the moment. So do have a look at this.

http://mangalajodiecotourism.com/

Second the point on mangalajodi ... I've written a bit in detail about it on my blog (in my signature)...some pics are there on mine and Mridula's blogs.

Few other points: Visiting Chilika is possible by bus but will be more convenient by car+driver.

Hello Mridula and Vaibhav,

Many thanks for your time and advice. I did visit your blogs, which were indeed informative to say least..(and made me wonder at the extent one can go to nurture own hobby!) Keep it up..

Mangalajodi is a great idea and we will certainly visit it. The tour-package may not be a good idea with son (1.5yrs) around, so probably we will plan for a early morning or evening trip. Vaibhav, if it is possible, will you please share contact no. of your guide (Mr Sadhu Behara) so that I can coordinate with him and fix the schedule? And yes, Vaibhav, I will also keep in mid your suggestion regarding cab for commuting to Chilika lake...

About staying, thanks for the advice regarding Barkul Panthnivas. I spoke to one of my friends who is from Odisha and he also confirmed the same. So I will finalise this as well.

Btw looking at Mangaljodi reminded me our hunt to 'shoot' a pair of Cranes at Navegaon-bandh a couple of years back and how this pair made us to take a complete-round trip (peripheral) of a lake of size little less than a cricket stadium before we could click them.... I will try to dig the photos and share. It also reminded me of a large birds-flock that I saw during trip to Dapoli (one of hometowns, the other one being Nagpur!!) at Ladghar beach..

Thank you again for your time.

Best regards,
Ashish A Uplap

Ashish

You should speak with Mr Bujabal (the coordinator at Mahavir Pakshi Surakshya Samiti on +91-9937153857 for the boat rides and the guide allocation.

He can also direct better on how to reach Mangalajodi.

If you stay in Barkul, and have time, you may want to ask about village Bhetanai to see blackbuck / deer - the people in Manglajodi can direct you. I couldn't make it. Very very few people end up there as it's not a recognized sanctuary (its a 1.5 hour drive from MJ towards vizag side - since you're in Barkul it should be approachable for you - within an hour). Here's the only web reference I can find: http://www.indianaturewatch.net/disp...e.php?id=60424.

Nice captures.

- Vaibhav

Ashish lovely pictures, any idea what are they?

Thanks a lot everyone..
We are leaving for Odisha tomorrow , will share our experience after coming back..

Hows the weather in Bhubaneshwar and Puri? I hope it is not very cold and same as Mumbai as I expect from coastal cities :-)

We have booked Sterling Resort in Puri and Ginger Hotel in Bhbaneshwar. Hope both are good <fingers crossed>. We 'll book a cab for whole day from Puri to Chilka, Puri to Konark and Puri to Bhubaneshwar (do we get one way cabs from Puri to Bhubaneshwar?)

Must list:
Puri temple (not so keen for any Puja etc. just wanna check the so famous temple),
beach along Sterling only (heard Puri beach is dirty).
Chilka: Satpada (for dolphins / birds if we r lucky or boat ride)
Konark: we'll go in the evening as reaching there with 1 Year boy before sunrise (starting from Puri) would be far fetched thought.
May be then we cover Pipili (giving Raghurajpur a miss) en-route to Bhubaneshwar
Bhubaneshwar: Honey Bakery, Lingaraj temple, Nandankanan Zoo, Khandagiri, Dhauli...

I think that should be sufficient for 4 days

Hello Vaibhav and Mridula,

Thanks for your quick replies and comments about the pics..

Viabhav- thanks for sharing the contact details. I just now spoke to him and updated about our plans. He was indeed positive. And also thanks for sharing the details regarding Bhetanai..lets see if we can make it.

Mridula- I am sorry, I do not have any knowledge about the birds-nomenclature, apart from those that I see regularly in our society premises:-) actually, their count is also reducing a bit these days..

Puneet- All the bestest and Bon Voyage to you:-) We are actually in a similar boat (traveling with baby boys in tow!)

Thanking you!
Ashish

PS- Btw, I read in paper about some surfing-festival that is going to take place along Puri-Konark Marine drive during 7-9 Feb...