Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Day 8 - Bhuvaneshwar to Puri

March16 at EveryTrail
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Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

70 KMs

Today heading to puri. Pretty lazy to get moving and start by 11.30 am. Get the engine oil changed and wanted to visit Dhauli and Ashoka's peace park on the way. peace park first up where the Ashok'en edicts are preserved. Next visited Buddha's Peace pagoda at Dhauli. Was pretty hot walking around the place just wanted to be on the move.

Then saw the board Puri 50kms. So not much riding today so was riding very slow. reached Puri by 3 pm and while checking out the hotels saw an opening to the sea and rode up to there. Ignored bit of sand and soon enough bike lost traction and i weaved left and right to revcover but the the weight at the rear made sure that the bike tipped and fell :(. The bad part is the with all my might i could not lift it. It needed help by two passers by to bring it up. Hope the nexti time it happens sombbody is there to help me! after checking out couple of hotels on the beach settled in Samudra hotel reffered by Lonely planet. Got a nice view of the beach from the balcony and also the beach is just few seconds away. always wanted some thing like this.

Thought of visiting Jagannath temple. But before that went to take a dip in the sea. It was awesome not worrying about the things which we generally leave on the shore, since all the stuff was at room. First the beach looked shallow and thought of going but noticed that there was literally nobody around and ppl afar did not venture in the sea much. Then noticed that though the beach was shallow the current was strong. When sitting a wave of 1 less than feet was enough to push me around. Enjoyed the dip for quite some time and got back to the room.

Hopped on the bike went towards the temple. As the temple drew near it got real crowded with all the devotees from across the country congregated there and a bustling hawker market. Took a pic from outside the temple and being experienced left the camera and fone at the shoe stall!

Got in and boy is the temple complex huge. The central tower really really massive. Even the inner sanctum sanctuary was huge. A priest came and literaly hit me with a stick and while i was was wondering as to why, he passed by. Then he did the same thing to other guy and the guy paid him money for special blessing! Din know the protocol :D In the complex there was busy prasad distribution going on of course for a price. Basically people kept rice, dhall in huge pots and selling it to devotees.

Out of the temple and went to checkout the other side of puri and boy is there a busy beach road here to. Not as exotic as Vizag but this was good in its own way. Spent quite some time on the beach just sitting around and some photography. The weather was much bettor than vizag. That was the day. To chilika lake and Konark tomm.

The Peace park holding Ashoka's Edicts.







Buddhist pagoda at Dhouli



Enroute Puri



Hit the coast again. Puri beach.


Just a step outside Hotel Samudra where i stayed..


The one behind the plantation.


View from my room.


Jagannath temple clicked from out side.


Sights from Puri's beach road in the evening...


Wanna ride?



Puri's Beach road..




Puri light house a lil out side the busy beach section..

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Assam ,you should have balacing wheels fitted for zma :P .
Nice pics pkm , ride safe . Keep going .

vickyr_88 said...

http://www.travelmasti.com/domestic/wb/digha.htm

http://mercureholidays.com/west_bengal.asp


http://rumela.com/travel/digha_go.htm

Arun said...

Chilika sounds nice..! ;-)

Praveen said...

nfs: Hehe i sometimes really feel the need for those :D

Vicky: Thanks for the links :)

Arun: It looked nice as well Will upload those pix.:)

DJ said...

May god give you strength to pick up the bike on your own. May god give you brains not to drop it :)

Cheers,
DJ