Advice on Orissa trip

vpsingh

Me and wife have finally decided on this years long trip , we are going to Orissa via Kolkata. I have been to Kolkata and know the eastern India flavour - take everything very slowly.
Surprisingly most of my friends are amazed on our choice of destination. Although I am amazed why so few people visit Orissa .

Never mind, here is my planned itinerary and I ask for advice from all you enlightened ones out there.

1) Reach Bhubhaneswar early morning. Make a half day trip in city.
2) Full day Bhubhaneswar and surrounding.
3) Chilka Lake
4) Konark and Puri.
5) Gopalpur on sea.
6) Back to home.

Since all places are quite near , I plan to stick to a single hotel in Bhubhaneswar and take taxi or bus to these places.

Well any comments.

Nattusbs

Good choice. However the order of the itinerary needs to be changed - Chilka lake & Gopalpur-on-sea are close by so they can be combined.

I lived in Orissa for 15 years as a teenager. You'll have fun. PM me with your e-mail address and I will give you some typical Oriya sentences to converse with the locals (eg, directions). I am not a native of Orissa though.

Cheers

Nattusbs

Bhaswaran

You cannot visit all places by car and by sticking to a particular hotel in Bhubaneshwar. There will plenty of hectic journey. I do not know how many days you have. But here is my plan.

Take an overnight train, preferably the superfast 2837 Puri Express which starts from Howrah at 22:35 and reaches Bhubaneshwar at 5:30. This is a good train and runs on time (mostly).

In the first day, visit Lingaraj Temple , Nandankanan, etc by a car.

Next day, visit Konark Temple and tell the car to drop you at Puri.

You must stay at Puri and feel the ambience of the place. Keep 2 days for Puri, visit Jagannatha Temple and surrounding temples by autorickshaw and bath in the sea.

(although there is a conducted tour from Puri - Tour 1 takes you to Konark, Lingaraj Temple, Nandankanan, and several other places in a single day and Tour 2 takes you to a whole day outing at Chilika, but I do not prefer this as they give very little time for feel these places)

Next, move out to Chilika, book Orissa Tourism's Panthniwas in advance from your place and stay at the shore of Chilika for 2 days, I am sure you will enjoy it much more. There are two hotels at two different locations along Chilika, if you can stay in both of them, 2 days each. Then get to the nearest railway station or by road go to Berhampur and then to Gopalpur-on-Sea. Stay there for 2 days and come back home.

You can come back to Bhubaneshwar and take BBSR-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, there are several other trains also.

And lastly, welcome to Kolkata.

regards,

Bhaswaran

rangers

Yes..Bhaswaran is correct on his advice.

Bhaswaran

There are two locations on Chilika lake which have Orissa Tourism run hotels called "Panthaniwas". These at Barakul and Rambha. I will let you know the charges of lodging later on. Stay first at Barakul and then move to Rambha. From here catch the train (probably Balugaon station will be nearby) or by bus/car to Bahrampur. You can do boating to specific islands from Rambha on the Chilika lake. If you have to choose only one point to stay at Chilika, stay at Rambha.

Read this about CHilika

http://www.bhraman.com/this_month/chilka.html

vpsingh

Thanks all for your advise.
I am now thinking to stay at Puri and near Chilka lake as well (even though I have a total of just 6 days to spend).
Let me see how I manage :-)

jyotirmoy

Barkul is the place you should stay while visiting Chilka. Try to spend a night in Konark & enjoy the Sun rise at the temple. The beach at Konark is also very nice.

forpras

Bhaswaran is right.In Bhubaneswar also visit the Khandagiri and Udayagiri elephant caves.While moving from Bhubaneswar to Konark visit the Dhauli Shanti stupa built in memory of the Kalinga war fought in the bank of river DAYA and which incident moved King Ashoka to embrace Budhism .Do not forget to do some shopping of world famous applique works canopy's,lamp shades etc at PIPILI which is on the way to Konark and is around 25km from Bhubaneswar.Visit the Jagannath temple and feast on the PRASADAM at the ANAND BAZAR in the traditional way sitting on the floor.
While going back you can take a direct train from Berhampur to Calcutta

vpsingh

Since Orissa is all about temples, I plan to visit quite a few. I love ancient architecture. But I have heard that there are many issues in visiting temples.
Is it true that -
a) You will be fleeced by gangs of fraud pandas (I have really bad experience at Allahabad and I don't want to repeat it even if it means giving Puri temple a miss).
b) They are extremely crowded.

Bhaswaran

True. Avoid Pandas everywhere in Orissa. If you want to give puja, for saving time, you can get one at Puri temple but do not talk to them at the Railway station or Hotel.

There are just brokers for their own meaning of "God and religion", and nothing else.

forpras

In Bhubaneswar do visit the Mukteswar temple which is very famous for its needlework on stones.Take one english speaking guide who will not cost you much but can explain the stories carved on the stone.

Yes,pandas are a problem and try to avoid them.

paladin

This is wonderfully detailed advice! Do you (or any other readers) have any experience of getting to the Simlipal National Park in Orissa. I had been assuming (hoping) that I could come to Bhubaneswar via the Simlipal park, from Kolkata. But perhaps the more manageable trip would be to take the train Bhaswaran recommends from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar and then back-track by hired car, or the like. Any views? Any relevant experience?

forpras

Instead going to Bhubaneswar you can get down at Balasore and take a vehicle to Similipal which is around 90-100km from Balasore.The park opens for visitors from mid november.Please check that before venturing into.Also you need to take permit from the forest department for entering into the park.Please check up the orissa tourism site for further detail.

fatroony

Hi Paladin,

We visited Simlipal National Park on our last trip to India ('05). Found it to be extremely disappointing - partly due to the fact that it was very expensive at the time (Rs 1000 per foreigner - now has been reduced), also the entrance from Baripada side (eastern entrance) was closed at the time, meaning we had to bus it all around to the other entrance.

Spent the day travelling around the park in a jeep - saw a few deer, monkeys etc, but nothing exciting. We did meet a couple who had spent a night or two in the park - they saw some nice birdlife but not much else.

I guess if you are in the area it was quite nice scenery. However, we journeyed down from Kolkata, and it definitely wasn't worth the trip. On the flip side, the locals of the area we very very friendly and no hassling - maybe it was worth the trip for that alone!

travelbabu

Well Simlipal National Park is really wonderfull and full of adventures,,

Total area : 2750 sq km
Protected area : 845.70 sq km
Average rainfall : 2000 mm
Open : 1st Nov -15th June
Best time to visit Simlipal : Nov - Feb
Location and access : Mayurbhanj district, Bhubaneswar 270 km
Baripada 50 Kms

more Simlipal National Park

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Travel Babu
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