Previous Parts

Part 1: Odisha Road Trip – Prologue
Part 2: Odisha Road Trip – Vizag (Day 1, 2, and 3)

Day 4 – 16/4/2022 – Saturday

This is the D-day, Preethi and I dreamt of when we started planning for the trip, entering the state of Odisha and driving through a narrow passage of Chilka Lake and the Eastern Ghats. We got up full of energy and loaded our luggage.

Hotel Winsar Park Basement Parking – Vizag Stay. My daughter helped me with the cleaning of the car. There you see !! All Shining !! Except for taking the car out, this parking is good enough.

As you see from the maps, we would be going to Bhubaneshwar from Vizag (Vishakapatnam). We will cover two important landmarks today. 1. Border crossing and entering the state of Odisha 2. The drive through the Ghats and the Chilka lake.

With the distance to cover (~470 kms), not that much, we started after having our breakfast. The buffet spread was good and we bid adieu to one of the most hospitable staff and the bull was back on the road. Getting out of Vizag onto the NH16 was not that easy and we had to traverse a lot of traffic signals.

Vishakapatnam Cricket Stadium: MS Dhoni’s first international century

After we took the Anakapalle – Srikakalum highways, traffic dwindled a lot and it is a proper expressway. With beautiful markings and long stretches of straight road, I was able to cruise at 115 kmph for a considerable period of time. We covered a considerable distance by lunch and as planned we started looking out for restaurants. Though we had noted many before starting this journey, soon we realized this was going to be an uphill task as many of them were way too small and some were just huts. Since we did not want to take any risk with food, we decided to get to the next bigger place, Brahmapur, and have our food from either Dominos or Coffee Day instead, keeping hygiene in mind.

We were so occupied talking about food, I just realized we may be right on the border area and there you go. I took a photo of our head unit to capture the crossing.

A closer look at the state borders

We started wondering if there was a board to welcome us. And soon we got the answer.

Welcome to Odisha !!!

We entered Brahmapur and got our sandwiches packed from Coffee day. The town was not that big and getting in/out was not that difficult. I always love river crossings and soon we reached the Rushikulya river bridge.

Rushikulya River

That’s when I realized the mouth of the river that opens up to the sea is where the nesting of Olive Ridley turtles happens. I asked Preethi, why not check it out. The instant answer was yes. I had rough coordinates collected from the web and started moving. After a while, the so-called road became too small and non-existent. I was wondering how am I going to reverse my car here. Nevertheless, I moved ahead and got to a dead end. We got down from the car and out of nowhere saw 10-15 kids running towards us. One of them said, he would help us to get to the tortoise nesting place and we moved with them.

The path towards the beach. From here, you can feel the sea breeze and the saltiness in the air.

After walking for a KM, we reached the place and we were told we have to take a boat to an island to see the turtles. I was not ready to take this adventure with the kid. So we decided to return back to the safety of the car.

While returning back, we could actually see how the river mixes with the sea through the delta.

Multiple small channels and one of the most fertile places

The kids demanded some money for taking us to the entrance. I gave them some tips and did not entertain them much and quickly got onto the car and moved forward. Retrospect, we should not have taken this journey to the nesting center. Now having lost majority of the time, wandering around, I gained speed and soon reached one of the most scenic parts of the highway- Eastern Ghats on one side and the mighty Chilka lake on the other side.

Driving through the mountains

I could not resist taking a photo break at this juncture. Just got down and realized how heavy the breeze was !! Who painted this marvel !!

The mighty Chilka lake

The bull marking its own territory. What a beautiful backdrop. Probably this picture would be better post-monsoon. Lush green. Anyone wants to accompany us?

I literally dragged myself back to the car. These are some of the beautiful memories of a road trip. Then came one of the most tedious parts of the journey with no hotels or anything. We had a quick tea break and the cost of three teas was just Rs 10. Would you believe it?

Then we rode non-stop for the next two hours and by 430/5 PM, we were on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar. It became so dark and made us realize that we were in the easternmost parts of India. Soon the sky opened up and we were welcomed with bolts of lightning, thunder, and rain. Roads were wide enough and we reached our hotel in pitch darkness by 6 PM.

Hotel Pushpak. Though they had parking space, it took me a while to safely bolt the bull into its stable. The check-in process was quite elaborate and took us almost 15-20 mins.

The room was quite big and quite a refreshing change from the Hotel Winsar Park at Vishakapatnam.

My daughter loved that separate Diwan and she started arranging her things there. After a quick hot shower (which had become my routine now), we went for dinner at the in-house restaurant.

Fried Rasgullas

Lord Jagannath

Beautifully decorated wall hangings – My daughter pointed out that these were from Ramayana and Mahabharatha.

Day 5 – 17/4/2022 – Sunday

We woke up leisurely at 630 AM but already by then sun was completely out again reminding us that we were on the east coast. We had our buffet breakfast. The spread was good with parathas and pooris. The only difference we could notice was that the number of meat dishes were a little on the higher side.

Morning plan was to see the Nandankanan Zoological Park. We booked our tickets online. The place was ~20 kms from our stay. Traffic was thin around the city and in 25 mins, we reached the zoo. The place had a huge parking space. At the entrance, I also purchased a ticket for a battery car, a guide, and a safari. This turned out to be an absolutely great decision as he was able to explain each and everything and take us around the park without much hassles.

The monkeys – All around.

The Australian Emu

The deer

The squirrel monkey – Look at the innocence in its eyes

Gorilla

The King Cobra

Iguana

Crocodile

Then we were on to the safari. It’s a kind of a controlled area within which the tigers, lions and the bears are allowed to roam. We were taken on a bus.

The tiger from a distance. For some reason, it refused to show his face.

The mighty male lion

Looking at its sheer size and the mere presence, we know he is the King

Black buck – Looking at it, the entire crowd started shouting Salman Khan.

The Nandan – He peeped out on seeing us.

Zoomed-in. Look at his teeth.

His son – Bahubali – Was busy walking.

Zoomed in to his face. Actually, looking at us??

The white tiger

We bid adieu to the zoo and my next plan was to get to the Mahanadhi river (The Jobra Anicut). Having been brought up on the banks of Cauvery, I always have a soft spot for these rivers and they are my lucky charms.

Waters of Mahanadhi

Jobra Anicut seen from a distance

And yes – you have quite a bit of water even in summers

The panoramic view of the river – Sense of calmness. Isn’t it?

The other side of the city is Cuttack. Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack are twin cities on either side of Mahanadhi. After entering another town of Cuttack, we decided to head back to Bhubaneshwar for our lunch. We had already planned to have it at Dalma.

Traditional Odia Thali.

As with the previous days, after a hearty lunch, we came back to the room and slept for a couple of hours. After taking rest, we decided to explore the temples of Odisha. We took the auto instead of going by car.

Temples of Bhubaneshwar

Lingaraj Temple

Lingaraj temple is divided into four important sections. First is the Garbh Griha or the sanctum sanctorum, second is the Yajna Shala which means the halls of Yajnas, third is the Bhoga Mandap, meaning the hall of offering, and the fourth and the last is the Natya Shala which is the hall of dance. The temple also has a spacious courtyard and it has 50 small temples that are dedicated to many other Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu religion. Perhaps the rising cult of Lord Jagannath (considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) which coincided with the completion of the Lingaraja Temple had a role to play. The presiding deity in the Temple is known as Hari-Hara; Hari denotes Lord Vishnu and Hara means Lord Shiva. Since the presiding deity was unearthed from the mother earth (Bhumi in Sanskrit and the deity is Eshwar which is Shiva), the city is named Bhubaneshwar. You are not supposed to carry any leather items or mobile phones to the temple . There is a safe place to deposit them outside.

The Ratha

Since the cameras were not allowed, I circled around after the Darshan to take pictures of the complex. Temple in the background of the setting sun.

Kalinga Architecture

Panoramic view of the outer courtyard

Enroute to Mukteshwara temple, we saw this beautiful Narayani temple

Mukteshwara Temple

The Mukteswar Temple is a 9th-century architectural marvel that is renowned as a ‘gem of the Kalinga School of temple architecture’ and was built in red sandstone. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Like most other temples in Bhubaneshwar, it is adorned with ornate carvings of tales from the Panchatantra, female figurines, and faces of Buddhist and Jain monks with great details in the carvings which makes them almost life-like. Apart from this, there are beautiful latticed windows on the north and south walls of the temple, depicting scenes of monkeys playing.

Parasurameshwara Temple

Situated close to the Mukteswara Temple, Parasurameswara holds its own importance as one of the oldest temples in the city. As per the study of many historians, it is believed that the temple belonged to the mid-7th-century. Their prediction is based on the design and style along with the fact that there is presence of 8 planets on the door of the inner sanctum as compared to the depiction of 9 planets in the later temples. Moreover, it is believed that this temple was built by Madhavaraja II of the Shailodbhava Dynasty and remains the oldest temple in Bhubaneswar. The Shailodbhavas used to worship Lord Shiva and also had equal faith in Shaktism, all of which can be seen by the images embossed on the walls of the temple. Parasurameswara is among those Kalinga Temples which are adorned with both the vimana(sanctum) and Jaganmohan(hall for worshippers).

Kedar Gowri Temple

Kedar Gauri Temple is one of the eight Astasambhu (8 Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva) temples in Bhubaneshwar. There are many legends associated with the construction of this temple. One such legend talks about a couple called Kedar and Gauri who was in love and wanted to marry each other. However, society was against their union and thus they had to flee from their village.

Unfortunately, on the way, Kedar ventured away from Gauri in search of food and was attacked by a tiger which killed him. Hearing this, Gauri jumped into a nearby pond and ended her life. Hearing about this tragic story, the ruling king decided to build a temple at the spot called Kedar Gauri temple.

Dedicated to Lord Kedareshwar (Lord Shiva) and Goddess Gauri, the temple is situated next door to the Mukteswar temple.

With the temples done, we decided to go and have the most famous Lingaraj Lassi. A huge crowd awaited us and though it was a good one, but not comparable to the ones that I had at Amritsar.

Rich creamy lassis

With the lassi done, we did a bit of shopping and returned back to the hotel. For a change, we decided to have our dinner at Truptee Veg Restaurant. In 3-4 days, we started missing our idlis and dosas. We had our Dosas and retired for the night.