The Big catch

Destination : Kuntal Falls,
Distance from Hyderabad : 230 Kms
Route : NH -7 Hyderabad to Nagpur
Major Places in between , Nirmal , Kamareddy
Place to Stay : Sri Krishna Residency Hotel , Ph : 08734 244255 (Nirmal)
Other place: Hotel Thirumla
Best Season to Visit : Aug to October end (Monsoon Season)
Must be Aware: Carry enough food items , water , Snacks from Nirmal ,as falls doesn’t have much options.
Tenting Option: can pitch a tent both in Kuntala and Pochera ,
Caution : Must be beware of sudden water flows during monsoon
Contact Person at Falls : Po Shetty , Security

Our trip 1 :
Day 1 : Hyderabad – Nirmal (Friday ) 220 Kms
Day 2 : Nirmal – Kuntal _ Pochera- Kuntala (40 Kms) Stay in Kuntala Falls
Day 3 : Kuntala – Nirmal – Basar – Nizambad – Hyderabad ( 320 kms)

Trip 2 :
Day 1 : Hyderabad – kuntala - Hyderabad ( Morning 4:00 Am to Evening 6 PM)

At the peak of monsoon we decided to check out some waterfalls, we initially thought of a day event, and after much Google search, we found couple of amazing falls. Falling from a height of 42 feet makes kuntala one of the highest falls in Andhra Pradesh.




We are leisure travelers, seeing things and enjoying at snail speed doesn’t bother us. We started on Friday evening catching the NH – 7 towards Nagpur. Half the distance of 230 kms was covered in no time as we were driving in four lane national highways. We decided to have dinner once we reached outskirts of nirmal city . Dhal Makhani and Roti were really good at manpreet Punjabi dhaba. They offered good food though it was small dhaba.

We managed to get a room in hotel Thirumala as sree Krishna residency were occupied. We had a good sleep at night . We started the day pretty early and headed towards Kuntala . The Highway from Nirmal to Kuntal was under construction at time ( Now its finished) . We knew that our first stop point should be Neelima Punjabi Dhaba. Neelima Punjabi Dhaba is last stop for any kind of food you will have before kuntala falls. Apparently the same dhaba is the landmark as you have to take right from the highway toward kuntal falls from here. We would suggest , that we should carry food from nirmal . Caution Neeliam Punjabi Dhaba doesn’t have any kind of snacks.



We started with few paratha and Rice in morning and headed towards kuntala. We decided to come back to nirmal on the same day as we thought we do not have much activity to do there . Once we reached kuntala we were just taken back by the massive flow of the Falls. As this was peak of the season the gushing sound of water were amazing. The falls flowing between the woods was a pure delight to watch.



We managed to get a make shift stay arrangement near the falls. We confirmed the security that we would be back by 6 in the evening. We decided to check the other falls (pochera) mean time. As it was lunch we again decided to have lunch at Neelima dhaba . By this time the Dhaba guys were spotting a weird looks, Which we could imagine that probably we were the only people to taste their food twice. Anyways Masala rice and Tomato rice weren’t a bad option.

We reached pochera late noon and decided to stretch our legs a little amidst the mighty falls. The volume of water flow was really high during these days. We were just wondering about the Tenting place which my friend did once facing these majestic falls.



We realized we were late only when the sun really came down , By this time the clock had already clocked 6.00 , Oops we were late. We knew we had to pick food from the same dhaba guys before reaching Kuntala. We managed to pack some rice , for now Neelima dhaba guys were sure that they are making one of the amazing food , as we were having food for 3rd consecutive time on the same day. Apparently they would have realized that people don’t have any other options.



By the time we reached kuntala village it was completely dark and clock stuck 7.00 , we picked the security and headed 4 km towards the falls. When were were trying to check our make shift guest house we realized that we didn’t have power. Enjoying camp fire for a while without light seems to be a good idea , but what’s like sleeping in a pitch dark amidst Indian python and Bears. We decided to try our luck by calling the helpers back again from the village. We then separated ,Two of the guys along with the security headed towards the village to check for the helpers and also get some candles in case. Other guys had to wait near the guest house.

After 40 min of struggle in getting helpers, getting candles and trying to fix the electric city , We accepted that sleeping in dark is rather the only options left out. We then headed towards the other guys. We just then heard lot of bear chasing story from the watchman. We weren’t surprised to see other guys kind of sprinting towards the village. We casually said the possibility of they stepping on bear or python. With few gasp !they then managed to settle down controlling their heart beat.

Late evening started with casual songs and munching of food. The night was getting stronger and the insects were starting their day. We decided to check the fishermen who were preparing the net for the big catch of the night. They said they usually catch during night as the fish tends to come on the surface during this time. We decided to walk down 480 steps at midnight amidst woods. We had to make sure that were not stepping on any of the reptiles, occasionally ensure we are not chased by a bear.

We reached the falls with brisk walk of 20 min. we found that 6 fishermen were waiting for their turn. They said they would typically go for a run every 2 Hours. The mean time they were using for catching quick naps. Honestly to set a trap for fish in 150 feet cold water at night really needs something. We eagerly waited till the guys did their catch. After some time we heard good smiles and few fishermen emerged from the dark. They said they really had a big catch , they even offered us free fish from their hard work. we would say that after seeing such an struggle we would never take it for free.

After mid night big catch we came back to our temp guest house. By now its was pitch dark , before we could lie down the thought of pythons and bear watching us came into our minds. We also had to manage the cold weather as we didn’t carry enough tenting equipment. We decided to light candle every 30 min , till we see light . While others where trying to catch sleep , Lakshman has taken the resp of lighting next candle when the first one goes off. Finally after much fear we managed to catch some sleep after 5.00 am in the morning.

But we just managed to get an hour sleep as gushing water was inviting us for private water fall bath. We quickly managed to get down the falls having a good morning walk. Early in the morning water flowing amidst the woods was really serene. We enjoyed the private water falls for good amount of time.

We then decided to head towards Basar. Though we were feeling hungry none of us were in the mood to eat breakfast for the forth consecutive time in Neelima Dhaba. We headed towards Nirmal and enjoyed south India breakfast in Sree Krishna Bhavan. Not to mention the hot idlis and wadas were flying off the plates. After a pretty heavy breakfast we were on road again towards basar.

The road to basar from Nirmal was pretty bad as they were under construction. The sun was catching up as the day progressed, We were getting exhausted as sun drained all our energy. With many sodas and lime after we parked our car , we managed to head towards the temple. Basar being Sarawathi temple , we were amidst hundreds of kids varying in all ages practicing their writing or praying for their exams.

After a visit to Basar we decided to head towards Hyderabad via Nizampet. We also thought of a quick plan to visit the Nanded Gurudwara as it was only 70 kms from basar. Return journey is never fun , with sun scorching it was really getting painful . We just stepped on the pedal and headed towards Hyderabab

We took a good break in Highway malgudi, Which proved to be a good option. They also had kids play area and lawn to rest. We managed to stretch our legs a little bit before stepping on the gas again. We reached Hyderabad late in the evening. After the quick shower we ended our trip with Four season’s biryani.

On our next one day trip we managed to meet the security guards and handed over all the photos of his along with the fisherman folks. We started pretty early in the morning from Hyderabad around 4 am. We thought we would get day light as usual but apparently we had to drive slowly in the four lanes as the day light came, late as 6.30 . As it was start of December, the volume of the water flow wasn’t that great as it was in monsoon , but it wasn’t a bad choice to go there. We decided to reach there early as we could enjoy the falls without much crowd . We reached falls around 8.30 and we headed straight down. The serene location was wonderful to enjoy our friend’s singing for good couple of hours. The blend of melodies amidst the woods , we socking in water was really enjoyable. We decided to pick some lunch at nirmal before hitting the road back to Hyderabad.

Binoomea: Mysterious Jenolan Caves

We decided to drive to one of the oldest open caves in world on a bright weekend. Jenolan caves are situated at a distance of 175 Kms from Sydney. We have driven along the majestic blue mountains many times , this time we would be heading few more kms ahead of these mountains in New South Wales



Honestly this was my first visit to a helictite or calcite formed caves. This formation has happened caves over 300 Plus million years before. We specifically wanted to Visit the “Temple of Baal” which is supposed to be the most beautiful Caves.



As a general practice we feasted on the breakfast as to make sure we can carry on without food for a long time. We drove via many of the wonderful places or rather named beautifully. The local aboriginal language defiantly carries the smell of old times, but the interesting part is its similarities with our own ancient language. Place like Katoomba if in outskirts of Thanjavor would never been seen as a separate place. Ofcourse my favorite is “wooloomooloo” with many “oo” ‘s .



We just passed on the “Beware of Kangroo” boards but didnt spot one of these jumping in front of the car. We didn’t shy away to take breathtaking pictures of the landscape on the way. But doing so we arrived late of the schedule missing our Temple of Baal

We had to go for other option which included 3 caves including Lucas caves. We arrived just on time for the guided tour, we didn’t have time grab few snacks. We just sipped few cold drinks which we had in our car and waited for the guide to arrive. We just realized after few minutes that the tour had already started. Hmm.. this was not sounding good we again approached the ticket counter to help get the group which has started the tour.



The tour guide took in the other route just for a change. Never mind we were able to catch up with them with a small jog . We entered dark caves now, no wonder the local aboriginals called this as Binoomea (Dark Places). The object to catch our eye was a fossil of perentine , the jaw still opened. Even in dark it gave a wonderful click.

We started to have a view of amazing helictite structure. I was wondering how these amazing structures would be formed. Finally I realized the science behind that was a capillary forces acting on tiny water droplet, a force often strong enough to defy gravity. No wonder every structure was defying gravity.



The most amazing thing which you find is the kind of texture and color these helictite are formed. The amazing color was spotted in “The Minaret” a bright orange color, You can still find the droplet at the tip of the Minaret structure.


The lucas cave also had many Shawls which were more of a actually curtain being floated in the ceiling, probably a interior designer can get inspired from that. The other amazing thing to catch our eyes was a helictite with amazing color of nature.
We could easily spot various bright colors like red, blue, and few transparent strips. The illumination was adding new face to the already amazing color.



After spending few hours and making our digi cam memory almost full , we were kind of tired and not to point out we were really hungry . As we just had breakfast in the morning and its was already 6 in the evening. We weren’t lucky enough to grab something at the food counter which was already closed.

Before leaving if something we would be interested again was “Spine Tinkling Ghost Tours”. Which they say are filled with Mysterious, Legend & Ghost tour The 2 hour 'Myths, Legends and Ghosts' tour may start with Caves House and take you through any of various caves. They say there are so many stories of ghostly sightings and strange occurrences. Never mind next time

Chennai-leh-Chennai

Check the whole store at

http://la-riders.blogspot.com/

Make no mistake, Lake is the boss

We decided to take a tour of upper Michigan, We decided to drive till Tahquamenon Falls from Grand rapids Michigan,



After much of struggle we decided a fall route which we should take to see the wonderful fall colors. We also came across Nat geo’s drives of life time. We did notice a drive from Marquette to ship wreck island in Upper Michigan. We kind of combined both the route. We would be reaching ship wreck island through other end of lake superior. We were kind of prepared for a two day trip. After early breakfast, picking few bags were ready in our corolla



We started driving towards Mackinac island where our stay was planned for the 1st day. As we landed on freeway we started enjoying the changing wood colors. After driving couple of hundred of miles we were getting alarm bells from the belly.



We were about to reach Mackinac bridge, We decided to cross the bridge and have a quick snack. We were welcomed by showers few miles before Mackinac . We were planning for various alternative plans as staying in Mackinac would do no good when it’s raining . I definitely love riding bikes in rains but with the cold I wouldn’t really appreciate this.

We stopped at BK for my own good as I do get some Veggie burgers. We visited information center for various query , We did check the forecast of Mackinac island for next couple of day, As this was early fall there were still few snow showers. We finally dropped staying at Mackinac and headed foreword.



We took a local map from the information center and headed toward Tahquamenon Falls. We decided to stay in Newberry to break the day. As we headed thorough fall route towards Tahquamenon we should accept the fact the drive was really enjoyable except for the fact it was still drizzling outside .

It was not a great day for photography as rain didn’t allow the eager soles to take good pics. I was not worried, we were happily driving though the colored woods in rains occasionally stopping for some snaps.



We stopped at the majestic Lake Superior for some time. Though it was raining luckily I got one of the snaps I would like for a very long time. The lines which I read somewhere kind of echoed as I was watched the calm huge lake “Make no mistake, Lake is the boss”.



We reached Tahquamenon falls, as it was raining, it was pretty cold, we gathered our jackets and headed toward lower Tahquamenon falls. Honestly it was disappointing as in Indian standard we wouldn’t call this a falls anyways we didn’t spend much time there quickly headed towards upper Tahquamenon falls. Upper Tahquamenon falls was not a big falls but the color of trees around made them look beautiful, the color of the minerals made the water quite unique.


As I was more interested in drive rather than the falls, I was not disappointed much. We decided to head further after a coffee. We couldn’t believe our eyes when the GPS lady said more than 100 miles for a star bucks. What there isn’t any star buck???



As we headed further we saw very few towns as were traveled through calm roads. Since our prime motive was enjoy a seamless drive we were enjoying the most of drive. We drove close to 300 miles and didn’t find a good enough place to stay. Our last chance was to check New berry. We believed that new berry would be at least good enough to spend a night. We were let down when we entered the town, nothing much to offer for the tourist, I always hated when people call me tourist, I would like Traveler better.



Anyways based on the unanimous opinion we decided drive 300+miles more even after driving close to 350 miles already. We decided to come back to your hotel were a cozy bed in our room would welcome us. I kind of stepped on pedal at few places as I wanted to see the sun set in lake Michigan. It was unique day where you see three great lakes. Cold evening welcomed us once we reached lake Michigan. We started to wrap our fingers to enable us taking pictures in cold. We found a good spot for seeing the melting sun, we were quickly accompanied by a chink family.



After few snaps we decided to head towards hotel as fast as possible. I really don’t have a problem being a veggie, I somehow manage during my travel but Upper Michigan tested me a lot. To get some veggie option I had to drive 100 miles before stopping at Taco bells. Seeing taco bells gave me the same feeling what Sylvester Stallone would have got when he sees taco bells in “Demolition Man”.



After many volcano tacos with extra hot sauce and burritos we started driving again. We reached our hotel couple of hours past mid night after starting the day early. I had a deep sleep after driving close to 700 miles a day.

Central coast of New South Wales

We decided to do a beach hopping tour, after keeping a watch on the weather forecast we could get one of Sunday which was clear.



After kind of much analysis we decided to visit central coast beaches. We started from our hotel after a heavy breakfast as usual. We decided to stop at the fuel station once we have crossed busy downtown. We were on the way to manly beach we couldn’t spot many of the fuel pumps. Initially we wanted to wait till any of gas station comes on the left side, but as we reached critical stage we gave up and took a U- turn to fill fuel on one of the station.



Once we reached freeway, we started enjoying the picturesque landscapes of Sydney- New castle freeway. It’s just amazing to see such a wonderful landscape and drive though them. We were tweaking our GPS to show us the picturesque roads rather than dull straight road. We were pretty much ok to drive few extra kms to see picturesque roads as we would be driving 250 odd kms just hopping beaches.




We were welcomed by few teens getting their tan on Ettalong beach. I felt that I should take an option of “Working form beach” after seeing this laid back beach. After walking across the beach I felt rather than working from here I should rather get a whole year vacation. We were all set keeping our camera’s busy focusing on boats, beaches and waves. We took a stroll for sometimes then decided to move as we were doing a beach hopping. I had to accept the fact that I was little distracted with the people coming to beach while driving.



By the time we reached Avoca we started feeling Hungry. Avoca is a good place to hang around as the beach is situated around the residential areas. Though we had a huge interest to take a crash course on surfing, we didn’t really think of trying surfing in Avoca. Again after few clicks and stroll we decided to move to Copacabana


Copacabana welcomed us, with several local shops and excellent restaurants. As we were already hungry especially me since I was doing all the driving we decided to pick some food. After trying couple of shops I entered the third one with very less hope of finding something veggie. I was even ok with salad for my surprise sweetest thing fell on my ears. “We do have veggie Burger” Oh. This is want I wanted. Restaurant was run by a local couple in mid forties, the food was looking very fresh. I was little doubtful about the veggie stuff then came the surprise. The smell of veggie patty was coming straight from the time I took the plate. I have to accept the fact this was the best veggie burger I ever had. Fresh corn, carrots pieces were popping up from the pattie. Obviously the qty of French fries which I was never able to complete ended up in the bin.



With few more cans of colas and iced tea we headed toward The entrance. After driving few kms we reached a cosmopolitan atmosphere with an attractive town center. We had to obviously accept the claims of The entrance being one of prettiest towns on central cost. The name of the town arrived form the translation of local aboriginal people. We reached few minutes late of pelican feeding, but we were able to spot plenty in the surrounding. For some reason I was so excited to take snaps of pelican. After taking umpteen snaps we took a stroll around the shops. After passing through the tourist oriented shops we decided to drive further.



We crossed the bridge and drove north. We found a picturesque spot to click few snap during sunset. The temperature was dropping rapidly by the time it was time for sunset ,cold weather was making fingers tough. We managed to take few picks in heavy cold breeze and ran to our cozy vehicle.



The place become dark fast as sun went down. Once we started driving I could feel a huge difference as heavy wind was cutting our vehicle. After feeling the heavy wind though window we ensured that they are completely closed till we reached our hotel. After driving for couple of hours it was snack time again. No, No burger again was the unanimous call. We were checking all our options to find an Indian cuisine from our GPS. 6 Kms there is an Indian restaurant said the GPS lady. Eager eyes started browsing though the names board of the stores but couldn’t manage to find the Indian restaurant. Chinese, Mexican, Japanese hmmm.. no its better we stop at a local store was the decision.




I was totally surprised once I got down form the car. I though that these wind which was bending tress would push them in our car. The force of wind gave us a bad feeling . We were quick enough to run inside the store. We squeezed through the door as we were surprised to find a person blocking the doors. After minutes we understood that the person is given a support so that doors don’t fly of the wind.

Can I get a veggie burger?? I was relieved to hear “yes we do have one”. By the time I was about to thank my stars I heard again “Sorry sir ,we are out of stock do you mind to have a fillet” . Hmm I could just think fillet is not vegetarian in my place , I said I am ok with tomato , Lettuce, onions between the breads with couple of slices of cheese. While we were waiting for the order we could see the fries being folded in the Double newspaper. Oh my god !! did we say we want the smallest size apparently there wasn’t any option. We received at least one kilo of fries wrapped in a double news paper. Finally half of it ended up in bin after struggling to eat them.

Once we reached hotel we decided to have a late night Indian snack. Finally ended our trip with masala Dosas.

Grand pacific Drive Sydney

Grand pacific

I have to accept that I would never get bored of this amazing drive. I would have driven numerous times along this road. Be it to watch early sunrise rise in pacific or just to spend a whole day along the grand pacific it’s really an amazing route to drive.

. We started from our hotel after much of feasting over breakfast. I specifically ensured that I am double full and I don’t get hungry till I get next veggie joint. Only on weekend I believe we would do justice being a Marriott platinum member.



After driving through narrow roads of Sydney downtown for few minutes we were cursing towards grand pacific drive on acacia .We didn’t really stop at Royal national park as we just wanted to drive along the grand pacific. We stopped at few places occasionally for pictures and seeing waterfalls.



After driving for quite some time we reached one of the big temple built in top of the cliff. Even from a very distant look anybody can say that it’s a south Indian temple. We decided to stop at the temple and I have to accept for the fact that its one of the most serene temple I have ever seen. You would see less of crowd compared to “Sydney Murugan” temple. Apart from Indian community I was able to spot lot of ABCD ( Australian Born confused Desi’s). I am not sure it just looks weird when you see those guys wearing Indian dresses in a funny way. The most impressive thing in the temple was really the authentic Tamil canteen over there. I could clearly hear people in the kitchen shouting in Madurai slang. I was happy to place order “Anna rendu masala, rendu sada dosai” . Hearing me cashier gave a wonderful smile and our orders were quickly honored . I also picked some “Puli sadam and mixture”. It’s obviously 100 times better than the Hungry Jack’s and Subway’s. Right away I knew I would be stopping at the place many more times at least for the dosai and idli.



Driving few distance we reached “Sea cliff “ bridge. It’s a good place to stroll around unless it mid of day and your in summer. I have to accept it was pretty hot even in Hyderabad standards. I am not sure if really the ozone layer is less there but for sure you feel the heat. From sea cliff we were really enjoying the drive along the sea. We were little refreshed to see pacific after driving though woods for quite some time.



During the stroll in the bridge apart form watching flying automobiles and ocean. I also saw hundreds of door locks . I could understand why would they put so many door locks on each of the pillars of the grill. Once i started reading the embossing i understand that each one of them are being put by a married couple on occasion of their marriage. May be i guess they want to be locked ever after their marriage



We drove for few hundred kms along the ocean after occasionally stopping for SOTC . While returning we took the highway to reach quicker, return journey was little boring as I was just accompanied by music player when my fellow mates were resting.

I enjoyed the drive which made me to repeat few more times, even better ride was when we took the route for watching Sunrise in pacific. We started pretty early in the morning around 4.30 from the hotel and driving woods in pitch dark. We stopped few kms before seal cliff to enjoy the sunrise . The trip was good except for the fact that we had to go to office after the ride.



Again I repeated the drive in Nissan tida couple of months later and also on my birthday in a brand new corolla. Hertz were kind enough to give me brand new corolla for couple of weeks on occasion of my birthday

Kalyani - Forgotten city

Basavakalyan

We started a day before to Bidar, Karnataka . My very trusted darling didn’t give me any trouble, she just turned sweet 16.



We headed to the once capital city of chalukyas kingdom. We were welcomed by the kids playing cricket in front of the fort. I got to accept that every possible vacant place would be converted to cricket ground, but isn’t this 12th century fort a preserved monuments by ASI



We managed to drive between the crickets pitch and kids to reach the gate of fort. It was locked and we couldn’t even find an information counter. As I could not find any small shops selling hot chais and snacks, nor rickshaw wallas waiting to pouch the tourist I realized this place is not visited frequently. After much try to find a way to get inside the fort I realized that it’s rather not visited by tourist at all.



We were trying to act smart we tried to get help of local kids playing around there. Kids demanded 200 Rs to show us around the fort, isn’t this surprising , there’s no official counter to get you inside but the local kids can take you around the place for 200 bucks. We just walked around the fort then realized that only the front portion of the fort spots the mughal architecture looks whereas the fort is strongly built by the chalukyas. You could still spot the statues of god and other celebrated figures.

After walking around the fort we decided to head to narayana pura where once a big ancient temple stood. We headed though the gravel roads for quite some time before reaching the proper roads which leads to narayanapura village. The broken roads didn’t give us any surprise as we were expecting much worse.

As we started to pass to village walls, we had a slight doubt that if these are walls of once magnificent temple. The place was so backward that you would really doubt if the people would have ever seen the IT capital (banglore) of the state. We finally managed to reach the entrance of the Monument after lot of struggle driving though narrow village lanes.



We asked few people if really that was the temple which we were looking into as this didn’t spot features of what we imagined. Most of temples built during those times were built to show mighty power of their kingdom. This one was just one block. We walked few steps away then we realized that it’s rather broken and damaged to such an extended that you cannot put them to a definite shape.

The remaining pieces of destroyed temple lay in pathetic form. Most of the sections of the temple have been converted to houses. There are number of family living under roof of depleted temples. Few of remaining areas which could be recognized were still worshipped.

We just took few minutes break to console our self as our expectation were more, we started taking few clips of local kids over there that were obviously happy to pose. We later started focusing on the sculptured and way there were made. Even though they lie amidst the dust over for 1000 years they still had the grace in them. One could easily feel the laborious work of those sculptures. Various sculptures belonging to Shiva, Shakti, and sons could be found there.




After spending some and when we were bored of taking snaps we decided to move to bidar to check other local places.

Odisha not orissa

Trip Plan:

Hyd to Bhubaneswar(train) >Bhubaneswar> Lalitgir> Bhubaneswar to Konark,Puri (Bike) Puri to satapada (Bike), satapada to Ramba (Ferry) > Ramba to Bhubaneswar (Bike) , Bhubaneswar to Hyd (Train)

Day 1 :
Train from Hyderabad to Bhubaneswar

Day 2 :
Bubhuaneswar to Laltigiri > Udaygiri > Ratnagiri > Bhubaneswar

Day 3
Bhubaneswar to Dhauli>pipili >konark > Puri > Satpada

Day 4 :
islands in Ramba(Chilka) > Bhubaneswar

Day 5 :
Train from Bhubaneswar to Hyd

Day 6:

Home sweet home

Photos:

odisha

Picasa link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/vivekkmurthy/Odisha?authkey=Gv1sRgCLPa7uCemYjakQE&feat=directlink

Day 1:

After lot of preparations we were able to pack our bike and parcel the same in train to Bhubaneswar. As our train's scheduled stoppage was only 5 min in Bhubaneswar we are looking for option of sending our bike in some other train. We didn’t have much of confidence in our Indian railways that they would unload our bike in 5 min. We were funnily discussion the option of taking the bike back from Howrah as trains last stop is Howrah,

Next day we came an hour earlier to ensure that our bike is safely kept in the brake van of our train. Not to our surprise they were yet to load the same, after following couple of times we were sure that they would load our bike.

We managed to find our seat in a compartment, we were surprised to see 10 people in our compartment, and the guys casually asked us do we have a reservation we said yes. They gave a smile and said okies carry on. We were just curious to know if everybody in the group is going to travel with us in the same bogie. We just cursed us why didn’t we book AC tickets.

Just minutes before the start couple of police guys walked in with the huge group of young kids, they asked the group in our compartment if they had ticket to travel, they showed the police platform tickets. Well built police guys pushed the entire gang out of our compartment and took them away. We could then see only 2 guys sitting opposite to us. We were just surprised how Indian railways could make profit if people start traveling with platform tickets 

The guys in our compartment were traveling to Cuttack after year and half, long time isn’t it? They were more than happy to go home after such a long time. Then funny things started to happen. I have never seen such a powerful mobile in my whole life, the speakers of the mobile were sounding loader than my personal stereo. The quality of the sound was good enough to irritate us or rather the whole bogie. Unfortunately either it was ringing or they were playing some songs. Even the message tone was so loader it ensured who ever were sleeping got up.

After enjoying the train journey for almost 8 hours we were kind of exhausted with the blazing sun, whereas our fellow passengers were still busy with their mobile. I was kind of wondering what would be their battery back up as it already quite some time. Suddenly they pull of a spare battery pack... Oh my god…we have no relief.

Finally we managed to get some sleep,

Day 2:

There were few young kids who managed to wake us up early in morning around 4 AM. They were so excited going to their home that they were shouting at everybody in their sight in railways station. I struggled to manage an hour sleep eventfully waken by those kids whose frequency of shouting has increased as the day started.

We got a wonderful view of Chilka Lake which we have planned to come in couple of day. Now we have 200 people in our bogie instead of 76 as we were traveling form small villages/town to Bhubaneswar. We requested our fellow passenger friends to intimate us 15 min before Bhubaneswar arrives as we need to unload our bike in 5 min.

As the bogies were crowded we could manage to cross only 3 compartments before train reached Bhubaneswar. We literally jumped of the train and ran towards the brake van. We reached brake van to find that it not even opened. We pushed our parcel ticket in front of the officer and requested him to unload the bike. He leisurely summoned few coolies there as asked them to unload. We are so nervous that we were thinking of some ways of unloading the bike before it leaves the station. One of the coolies was struggling to open the brake van door we realized that it was so heavily loaded the door was jammed.

Somehow one of them pushed inside the brake van and pushing the goods that is blocking the door. After managing to open the door we saw that there were many huge parcels above our bike. Shit!! How are they going to move them and unload the bike!!! We were screaming to unload somehow.

4 -5 coolies came from nowhere and they managed to unload the bike after much struggle interestingly all were in less than 5- 6 minutes. Incredible India.

We managed to get our vehicle outside the railways station and headed straight to fuel pump then for hunting hotels. After spending a decent hour we settled in one of the hotel near railways itself.

After refreshing for a while we decided to hit the roads around 11:00 in the morning. Sun was blazing hot and with our maps and cameras we were riding towards lalitgiri,

The travels to 3 Buddhist sites started of very well as we were traveling in NH 5 towards kolkata. The roads were good we were able to cover a good amount of distance (60) in NH 5. We had to take a little diversion from the NH 5 at Chandikhol toward the Buddhist sites.

Chandikhol was decent big enough town we decided to take some break, we had some wonderful lassi served with coconuts , raisins, Almonds,Badam and dates. It was so refreshing that we pounced on it. After 2-3 glasses we decided to settle. We headed towards lalitgiri, then we decided to see ratangiri and uday giri.

After traveling for say 25 kms we started asking direction from every possible person. All of a sudden all signs vanished and were struggling to identify where we were. Struggling with local language we managed to get some direction. After passing hundreds of lorry which has been stopped for checking we decided to ask for direction in a small shop. We were so happy to know that he was speaking Hindi. We asked direction for ratangiri or laltigiri. His first words were “Ratan giri jaana hai to aap idhar kahan aa gaye”.

Already exhausted mind couldn’t take that. We asked him could you please say us the exact direction and landmarks to reach ratangiri. After spending 10 min he gave lot of directions. We took as much as we could. we were about to leave he said there is easy way of going there instead of traveling 25 kms. He said just go with this guy he will take you till the village from the village you can go towards the river. There are small boats available which will drop you at the other side of the river where ratangiri village starts.

We were not sure what we should do , take the long route though bike or take a shorter route which we weren’t heard of. Those village guys convinced us to go along with them. After driving though temporary bridges made of logs, roads of hay we finally reached the river. We said thanks to the guys who was humble enough to show us direction till the river. The local guys at the river were surprised to see us and were enquiring from where we were coming, after much explanation with words and action we conveyed what we wanted to.


They helped us to cross the small river and left us on other side of the river along with our bike and just took 10 Rs as whole, They showed us direction to the sites but warned us to behave properly as there were some incidents of villagers attacking tourist.

Again after asking numerous people for direction we reached Ratangiri. The excavated site was such wonderful thing definetly worth the effort we spent. While returning we made sure we are going to take the right road to reach the Highway.

Finding udaygiri and lalitgiri was not such a big effort. Couples of guys were so helpful that after showing us the way they wanted our Hyderabad address  After managing lot of click of bhudda and Buddhist sited we decided to head back to Bhubaneswar. Till evening we were not feeling hungry thanks to blazing sun which made us just thirsty not hungry. As sun went down we started felling hungry . After checking few dhaba’s on the highway we realised that it’s really a hard time to find anything to eat.



We thought we will try our luck in chandikhol as it was big town. We thought we will grap couple of samosa’s before heading to Bhubaneswar. We just managed to take couple of colas and decided to reach Bhubaneswar for dinner.

Our initially plans was to cover couple of temple in Bhubaneswar on the same day. We were little late to reach Bhubaneswar as we spent more time in Buddhist site or rather in our interesting journey to find the sites.

Just few kilometers before Bhubaneswar a guy in his bike just raised his helmet and asked us “Kaise raha, sab ghoom liya” ? at first I was little surprised to know who that guy was though I half heartedly responded him. From my reaction he knew we didn’t recognize him he said you asked me way while going in morning. Wearing a smile still driving in 60’s we said bye to him. We reached Bhubaneswar in decent time around 7.00 we quickly visited lingaraj temple and reached our hotel. After leisure shower wish we had spa, we had a prolonged dinner. I was happy to eat more than my capacity as Panner tikka masala was amazing.

After a good dinner after catching glimpses of T20 match , we hit our beds.

Day 3:

We started of the day early , We were heading towards puri, and We visited Dhauli on the way. After seeing few of Asoka’s rock edicts we traveled towards Hirapur a small village were 64 yoginis temple was there. As it was day we didn’t have problems in finding people for directions.

After hirapur we went to pipili Which is famous for appliqué works. We visited appliqué works village and did a small shopping. We were happy that we bargained a good amount and the shop keep was happy that he has sold things for higher amount.



Once we crossed the village we decided to have breakfast we found a good dhaba. The food was so delicious that we had enough for breakfast and lunch included. The masala dosas were of different flavor than that of south as it had chat masala. The misti and pakodis were the highlight.

We were ready to hit the roads again, we thought of going to konark via puri as we thought that is the only possible road. We just thought we will enquire if they were any shot cut to reach konark. Wow !! the dhaba guys showed a shot cut we were able to save 40 kms!!! Isn’t that great.

After passing through multiple speed breakers and umpteen villages we were close to konark. The sun was already hot , as we were heading towards the shore the humidity was raising high. We were still feeling thirst inspite of emptying 5 liters of water already. We reached konark in mid day with sun exactly in zenith.



We were wondering what we can do to avoid sweating like pig. Holding our cameras was difficult as sweat was dripping from our hands. Pity that we couldn’t take much of picture of sun temple. Not because it was hot but it was heavily crowed. Welcome to India!!! There were atleast 1000 people standing everywhere in monuments in bright red,orange,yellow colors sure to get attention even in long shot photo.

We were looking for “Asli Indian drink” nimbu paani, as couldn’t get we settled for couple of tender coconuts. We started driving toward puri which was at a distance of 40 kms from konark.

On the way we stopped at Chandrapur beach in mid day, isn’t that great, nope we got few good subjects to take pictures. The sailing boat was looking wonderful from a very clean beach. May be I am used to marina and beasent nagar beach in Chennai that the reason I felt chandrapur beach was so clean.

Drive to puri from konark was wonderful , We didn’t feel much of heat as we passed though reserve forest in a pretty good road. We were wondering if we will have glimpse of deer as numerous board were saying “Do not harm deer’s”

We entered puri in a sultry day around 2.00, Road to jaganath temple was huge may be they built it for the car festival. Camera’s cell phone and other electronics were not allowed inside the temple. So we left 50,000 worth of goods for 5 rs ticket with a chapel vendor. Trust is all you need even if it is stranger while you are traveling.

After checking out the magnificent temple we headed to satpada as usual skipping out afternoon lunch. We were planning to stay in satpada in OTDC (Orissa tourism and development) hotel.

As saptapda is famous for dolphin watching and ferry drive we expected the place to be decent big enough. We were all set to end the day in satpada. After driving 60 kms of not so good road we reached satapada around 4:05 pm. Now what !! where is the town/village oh there is nothing much than an OTDC hotel we didn’t know what to do.

As we stopped there was a ferry getting ready to leave. We jumped from our bike and were asking them were the ferry is heading. We just wanted to check if the ferry can leave us in other end of chilka lake. We weren’t that lucky but we thought we were half lucky as ferry was going to half the distance.



We had only 5 min to decide what we wanted to do as that was the last ferry scheduled to depart at 4:10. Should we stay in satpada this night and cross the lake tomorrow or take the ferry now and travel few more km before the night. After enquiring with few people we thought it best to take ferry where ever it goes.



After loading our bike along with numerous vehicles we started to ask fellow passenger where this ferry goes. Surprises in small group because they didn’t expect somebody to just board a ferry not knowing where to go.

We called OTDC,Satpada and got few other OTDC hotels in other end of the lake. We did a soft reservation in OTDC barkul. I thought I had almost all the places in google map I have got, I was wrong. The place where ferry is going to drop us Google maps still doesn’t have the small village which lies in corner of chilka lake. We asked few of the local guys how to reach Barkul which we assumed to a big town.

Usually I take big pride in my direction sense, as I wasn’t sure where these guys are going to drop us from ferry I was totally lost. I was not sure if we should head south and then west, Or just travel south. Once we get down from ferry. Again we asked some local guys how to go to barkul, They would immediately ask oh.“bodkul” Crazy I don’t know why Bengali and Orissa doesn’t have the same pronunciation in English. Why the hell they would call vivek and bibek or replace a and r with o and d.

An unplanned un imaginable drive of 65 kms took us around 3 hours. How could we do that yes either the village road were too small or just mud roads. I wonder how people live there. Even if there were mere 5 -6 houses you can find an Airtel/Vodafone poster what an telecom development.

Tired and exhausted souls somehow managed to reach somewhere near the National highway. Expecting to see a bigger NH was never been so delightful . Though NH-5 was under construction we were so happy that we reached a place at least we can see on map.

Instead of heading towards barkul, we stopped on ramba where one more OTDC hotel is available Thanks to my direction sense again. Amidst broken roads, small houses lays a huge resort of OTDC. Once we entered the OTDC campus we felt relived, Finally a place to rest.

We found a very helpful manager, We request for an AC room which we needed desperately. Then comes additional wish , “Humko lake facing rooms milega” , for our surprise they said yes.

After refreshing we feasted on the dinner for an hour. Definitely the firangs around us would have thought we guys have been starving for days.

Day 4:

This day was one of better days we had. We got up pretty early after a very sound sleep. We requested for a motor boat around 7 AM. We took a private boat so that we can spend as much as time we want in islands we like.

Few minutes past seven Bijay our boat drive can with a can of diesel, we headed for towards boat he remained us to us pick couple of water bottles as salt water would make us thirsty. After trying coupling of times and chocking bijay was able to start our boat.



Chilka lake is one of the largest brackish lake, we went to various island for close to 3 hours. The best part of the boating was watching Irrawaddy dolphins. We were lucky that we saw many of this endangered species playing happily.

After trying to capture glimpses of the dolphins with cameras in various modes we decided to enjoy the scene in our naked eye. After wonderful dolphin watching we reached our hotel back.

OTDC was courteous enough to us ,they gave us free breakfast. After couple of wonderful aloo paratha’s we were ready to drive back to Bhubaneswar. We were planning to cover a distance of 120 kms in 2 to 3 hours. The NH 5 was really good we are able to reach Bhubaneswar much earlier than we expected.

Visit of Khandagir on the way didn’t workout. We couldn’t admire the caves in blazing hot sun. Again thanks to oriya ascent we couldn’t understand how to pronounce khandagiri. May be we should always speak bangla and oriya eating something so that we can say as khondogiri.



Immediately after reaching Bhubaneswar we headed straight to railway station as we anticipated some problem in parceling our bike. After much struggle with government babu’s we were able to parcel our bike in two and half hours. Much relaxed we rested for some time in our hotel and then headed for some tempels. We definitely want to complete our desire to have vada aloo dum, we headed towards master canteen checked every possible way of getting that. We settled for puchka as we couldn’t find vada aloo dum.

While on return we used all possible words we knew in conveying that we wanted to go to railways stations with the auto guy. My god I don’t we couldnt understand what he said, We could just hear sounds like bodo bodo . We knew he was taking us some other place as he was driving in different direction. After 10 min he left us in railway station but not the side we wanted. We decided its better we spend 6 rs in platform tickets rather than asking direction again. We crossed railways tracks to reach other end of the railways stations. Oh ya its the same railways stations we wanted lucky Bhubaneswar has only one railways station. We ended the day with panner tikka masala and roti and rested in our bed.

Day 5 :

Early in the morning after ensuring our bike is already loaded in brake van we took our seats. Train was more or less empty except for few regular takers. The whole train was empty by the time it reached balegoan. We were getting bored as no comedy characters were on train except us.

Once the train stopped in srikakulam , lot of people jumped into as we realized that it was end of ugadi and lot of people would be traveling back to Hyderabad. Our bogie was full of one marriage gang who occupied 27 seats. Initially 4 guys came and said 2 , 3 , 5, 6, and 8 “kooda manathae”. We could understand that they are sorting and location their seats. Hardly I could imagine hearing the same set of word from same set of people for at least 50 times before train reached Vizag.

We even thought of requesting TTR to give us couple of seats in any compartment which is far from this gang. We expected that they would settle early as there were kids with them. Even at 9.30 PM they were repeating 2 , 3 , 5, 6, and 8 “kooda manathae” . oh my god somebody please help them understand the count of 27. The whole gang settled as TTR made fun of them.

Day 6:

We were woken up early in the morning around 4:00 by our marriage gang. Every body in the gang were ready including kids. Good but why us!!!. Train managed to reach secunderabad after long 24 hours unfortunaly we have put our bike in railways parcel which we would not be able to take until their office opening time 9.30.

Instead of waiting in railway station we headed home and then picked our vehicle. We ended our trip by having lunch in “Anjapar “ one of few restaurants we have left in city. After full Chennai meals we went to office with great difficulties