Puri 3rd day –Trip to Utkal Desam-Puri 2nd day –The Garden of heavens(Nandankanan Zoo),Udaigiri & Khandagiri caves,Dauli stupa-(peace pagoda)- Part 2 of sight seeing-2015!!!

3^rd Visit to Nandankanan Zoo!!!

Our vehicle left us at zoo entrance at 10:15 AM accompanied by our guide, here we see many guides who claim themselves as government registered guides and charges around Rs.100 per hour. Nandankanan Zoo is 20 kilometers away in Bhubaneswar city specialized feature of this zoo is animals are kept in natural habitat.. This zoo contains a botanical garden and part of it has been declared a sanctuary. Literal meaning of Nandankanan is “The Garden of Heavens”. This zoo is carved out of chandaka forest, very spacious (134 acre land which includes Kanjia Lake). The zoo is famous for White Tigers. Zoo is very neatly maintained and very clean.The zoo is divided into 2 parts enclosured animals and safari.

As we had time constraint we decided to take a tour in cable cars in the zoo. 

Our first visit in the zoo was to Reptiles Park 

where  we took  a stroll  in the reptile park watching crocodiles ,pythons etc..

Stupidity at peaks!!!!

Our people are experts in graffiti, here some people throwing coins on crocodiles which were taking rest offshore. Coins graffiti  on crocodiles sounds stupid!!!!!!! Come on guys we come to zoo to watch them ,not to do such stupid activities & disturb or hurt them.

Moving forwards  we saw chubby white Tigers  , cheetah &some other cat family species in their enclosures. 

This is the advantage we have with tourism travel people.Due to summer all animals were taking rest at their enclosures due to which we could not see any of the animals.But our guide cum manager managed and asked the maintenance staff  at enclosures to call those animals and show to us.

Safari!!!! Now the Real fun starts!!!

Reached to safari booking office,there are  special  buses to take the people for  safari rides  and ticket costs around 50 rupees per head, for 45 minutes Safari ride.Totally we have four safari’s--Lion,Tiger,Bear,Deer Safari’s.Our guide has collected money from us for tickets and we were waiting for our turn for the  safari ride.Finally our bus had arrived,  we got into that and sat in the last window seats.our guide started explaining us humoursly about Safari how it would be from the point of animals like he said usually when we come to Zoo,we see these animals in enclosures and when we come to Safari rides these animals watch us as we will be in bus enclosures. Good prank.

Tiger Safari

Our first visit to Tiger safari, each bus is loaded with people and one guide. We have seen one tiger and some peacocks. The safari ride was dud as we saw only one tiger moving away in a very irritated mood due to hot summer.This safari ride was not much in favour to us .

Lion Safari

We now moved to Lion Safari,we managed to see  Lion which is resting under a tree in a relaxing mood in siesta .Our bus stopped here  for some time  for our photo shoot .But Awkward moment was I don’t understand why people Yell /shout very loud when they see the animals. Usually animal ears are too sensitive and they hear very minute  sounds in high frequency  if we shout in this way ,if they get irritated whats our fate imagine guys!!!!!

Anyways utmostly we are fortunate to see only  lion.

Bear Safari

Moving on we entered into bear safari and we did not see a single bear on the whole ride..we were not fortunate at this Safari too...

Deer Safari

Moving into deer Safari, we have seen so many species of deer’s here & there during ride.

All Safaris had their separate boundary walls and had Remote Entry Gates. Our trip ended by 01:00 pm, we were taken back to the place from where we were picked up for Safari. 

Lastly we saw a newly brought Giraffe. and chimpangees.visit to zoo ended up well  in tiredness …

Quick Info:

• zoo  timings :7:30 am –5:30 pm (Monday closed )
• entry fee ==20/-
• Foreigners  entry 100/-
• Camera -- 10/-

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4th visit to Udaigiri & khandagiri caves dated back to 2^nd century B.C, were ancient Jain Monasteries

We reached these caves around 12pm. These caves are about eight kilometers from Nandankanan Zoological Park .But we skipped this because of tiredness and heat. Our energy levels were almost down. The number of existing caves at Udayagiri is 44 caves which includes Hathi Gumpha (elephant cave),and Rani Gumpha (Queen’s cave)., while Khandagiri has 19 caves. Only at entrance we have taken some photography.

Hope next time for sure I make a visit to these caves……..

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5^th visit to Dauli –8kms

We moved from Udaigiri caves to Dauli which is eight kilometers away from Udaigiri caves ,we took some snacks ,watching out nature on travel we  headed towards, meanwhile our  bus driver hitted   with some Oriya Music,which we could not enjoy because of not understanding a single line of song.Reached around 3:15 pm to Dauli. Dauli  is located on Puri-Konark highway on the banks of river Daya across Dhauli hill ,where our vehicle can reach the hill.Dauli is symbol of peace & non violence.

It is a hill with vast open space adjoining it, and has major Edicts of Ashoka engraved on a mass of rock, by the side of the road leading to the summit of the hill. Dhauli hill is presumed to be the area where the Kalinga War was fought. The Daya River is said to have turned red with the blood of the many deceased after the battle, and enabled Ashoka to realize the magnitude of horror associated with war.

After climbing some steps to reach on the top of Dauli hill,there were further steps to climb the Shanthi Stupa.The whole complex is so beautiful , peaceful & Serene that one cannot imagine the bloody Kalingan War was fought here on the banks of Daya river  which is flowing below.We can view Daya river flanked with farms on both sides of the river.

Here we see the 3^rd century B.C Ashokan rock edicts,on the foot of the hill indicates that the great Kalinga war was fought here.The bloody war transformed Ashoka  renounced and embraced Buddhism.we can see vast green space near Daya river at beneath of Dauli .

A Buddhist  peace Pagoda (shanthi stupa) was established in seventies by Japan Buddha Sangha & Kalinga Nippon Buddha Sangha.

On top of the hill a dazzling white Pagoda (shanthi stupa),welcomes us ,

Inscription of Dauli –beautiful sculptures & Buddha statues on Marble stones and scripts. There are also some motifs on the stone panels on the walls of stupa.

Coming out of Kalinga war lessons that No war—great peace.we came out down the stupa ,at the base of stupa there are shops of dry fruits ,spices .These dry fruits are rejected quality at the factory  and are less cost below the market and are sold here in sealed plastic covers , So they will not allow us to check the quality of  these items.

we moved on to hotel where our lunch was organized, this hotel was tied-up with tourism travels so they arranged lunch here. After little refreshment  we had our lunch which  was of good in taste.

What we missed out !!!!

Below the  Shanthi stupa hill ,which is 1km away before this shanthi  stupa here we can see Ashoka rock edicts.