travel Orissa tribal

grace lam

i will travel to Orissa in coming Oct. it's my 6th india trip. i like india very much ! i go to Orissa as i want to see the tribal.
my routing : fly to Kolkata (overnight night train) --> Orissa(visit tribal, join the local tour -6/7 days) --> varanasi (ganges river)2/3 days --train--> kolkata(mother teresa house- 2/3 days) -->back to home

surprise that no inland flight fm orissa to varanasi. that i can only choose to take 16 hrs train to varanasi ? right ?
actually, i hv around 14 holidays. do you think it's good to varanasi in my limit holidays ? or skip varanasi , just go kolkata & orissa.

besides, anybody hv joined the local tour visiting the tribal ? how much for 7 days ? as i hv no idea what price is reasonable to pay(for 2 persons). what tribal & what place is a must to go ? any local travel agent recommend ?

thank you very much !!

vonkla

In 2007 we made an trip through tribal Orissa with http://www.indiatribaltours.com/index.htm. You can send an E-mail with your wishes to Mr Jahir.

We had an wonderful trip and will be back there next year. For more details of our trip see the Orissa part of our travel story in the link below.

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See our travel journal Mumbai-Dehli in three months

grace lam

Hi Vonkla,
well known you traveled orissa in 2007. my traveling date is fix on 29-Oct. did you visit tribal area ? which tribal area is worthwhile to see & which one can skip. i shall stay 7 days in orissa. do you think use thw whole 7 days stay in tribal area ? as i heard someone said visiting tribal will be disappointed. because now is becoming commericialism. what do you think if you visited there.

Scandojazzbuff

Vonkla, I am also planning a trip in Orissa to the tribal area and have been in touch with Indiatribaltours. I am quite surprised to see how expensive the tours are considering the type of hotels one gets to stay in, 1 or 2 stars at the most. I'm not opposed to these hotels, just don't like paying the high price for them. Is it really worth it I keep asking myself. I usually don't take tours preferring to hire a car and driver and settling on a route.

Jorge Reverter

Try with www.orissadiscover.com is in my opinion and by large the best travel agency in Orissa for tribal tours and oddly enough probably the cheapest. Sarat Acharya was the man who is in the famous book of Norman Lewis "A Goddess in the Stones. Travels in India"

I have been with Srat at the tribal areas years ago and I must recommend him. You can have a look at my gallery (older pages) to see quite a lot of tribal pics.

Jorge

vonkla

We made an 10 day trip through the tribal area in south Orissa through places like Rayagarda,Korput and Jaypur.
The trip started in in Visakhapatnam and ended in Taptapani. From there we went to Chilika Lake, Puri, Konark and Bhubaneshwar.

For us it was part of an three month journey, I guess you must choose between this or the other places you want to visit in Orissa. Both will be to much.

This itinerary was the only part of our journey we had booked ahead. We especially asked for a trip away from the most popular destinations and we got it. We even stayed some days in a tent in a hamlet without water and electricity.
We also went to some of the weekly markets that are part of the tourist routes. We arrived there early in the morning just as the markets opened. By ten o'clock, as we left there many other tourists started to arrive.

vonkla

As I wrote above we wanted a tour away from the popular ones and we wrote to several tour operators in Orissa about our wishes.
I believe it was four of them and of these we liked he proposal of Indiatribaltours the best. In both ways: the route and the price.
It was not cheap but we had the luxury of a driver and a guide.

As you, if we need a car we hire it on the spot. I doubt if in this case we could have made the trip we did.
We were satisfied an go with them again next January.

Jorge Reverter

"Haat" or Weekly Tribal Markets never starts early in the morning as the tribals are sometimes coming from their villages very far away. The Haat is not only a market but the place where to meet others from their own clan. Even if few tourist arrive during the morning you should stay until the afternoon when the market is at his height.

Jorge
PD - About the price: some agencies are terribly expensive giving exactly the same service even staying at the same hotels/guesthouses and of course moving with car and driver etc.

Scandojazzbuff

Jorge, Lala at Discovery Tours (Orissadiscover) has already sent me their itinerary and price and they are the least expensive comparing them with India tribal tours (good pricing) and Toshali which is the most expensive. I'll have a look at your pics. Thanks.

Jorge Reverter

If you finally travel with them, I must advice you to be sure that Sarat is the guide, nothing to see with Lala.

Jorge

grace lam

Hi Jorge,

that means Sarat caome along with you in the whole tribal tour.
i've also already asked and Sarat send me the itinerary details.
i think i would join Sarat which the price is comparatively lower. however, if i didn't request any guide, just english-speaking driver. that means Sarat would not come with us. right ??

Jorge Reverter

I think the tribal tours are always guided tours, you are not only contracted a car and driver.

Jorge

grace lam

Hi Jorge,

but, i just employ a english speaking driver & car in my 7-days tribal tour. no guide come along with us. is it ok?

grace lam

anybody been to Gopoalpur-On-Sea ?? is this place nice ? only beach or sea view ? is it worth to take a look in there ?
besides, how about Dauli hill ? which is closed to bhubaneswar. go there by auto rickshaw ?
because after 7 days tribal tour, i would like to spend one-two more days in orissa travel myself. so i'm now planning what other place is worth to visit.
Konark-Sun temple, yogi temple, Dauli, konark village
Puri -Sudarshan workshorp, Jagannath temple
Raghurajpur -Artisans
Pipli-Appliques
Bhubaneswar -state museum, tribal murseum, jain caves, what is Cactus center?
shopping -capital mkt, market bldg, priyardarshini mkt, lingaraj complex, mkt place(Madhusudan Marg)
Udayagiri , Khandagiri

any suggestion which places are better to go first ?

brishti

grace lam:

orissa = temples + tribal belt + artisans.
hence my personal suggestions would be...
konarak sun temple - must...
and heres another temple list for places close to konarak
raghurajpur and/or pipli
bhuwaneshwar - temples in and around

personally - puri can be avoided... besides non-hindus cannot enter the jagannath temple - as far as i know.
as for gopalpur - avoidable as well... nothing there, except the bay of bengal... nothing spectacular about the beach there.



:brishti