Route:Sec-bad—Khazipet---Khammam---Vijayawada-----Rajamundry-----Annavaram----Vizag----simhachalam----Vijayanagaram---Palasa---Chilka---Kurdha Junction
Train: Visakha Express (Train Number 17016)
Travel time: 22 hours train journey
Date of travel : 24th june 2015
Trip Plan:
This plan was well planned for
Navakalebhara Utsav, but I did not want to explore it on the day of the
Utsav because of overcrowd. We booked our travel tickets & Hotel
accommodation well in advance through makemytrip.com.
Trip plan headed into action !!!
Distance from Hyderabad to Puri was about 1175 Kilometers, which prompted us to think about the mode of travel. After lots of discussions & budget plans we decided to take train Journey. We booked our train tickets in Visakha express, which travels till Bhubaneshwar. We got down at Kurdha Junction and took another train till Puri. From here Puri was about 48kms and the journey was around one and half hour.
In its long meandering course through
history, Orissa transformed into names namely Kalinga, Utkal, Odra,
Kosala, Trikalinga, Kangoda, Tosala etc. Since the Suryavamshi kings (15th-16th
century), the land came to be known as Odisha.
Day 1 journey (24 June 2015)
We Started from our house
to near by MMTS station caught local train to sec-bad & reached
by 4pm.Our train is at 4:50 pm and the train was on time .Finally we boarded
the train,as trip plan was planned well in advance, every thing is going well
as of now.
We are travelling to Puri Hurray!!!!
Next day on 25th june
2015 by 7:15 am the train was at Vizag ,we had a small tea break here,our
journey resumed sooner we reached the last town in Andhra Pradesh,
Ichapuram ,After which we entered into Brahmapur, Odissa border within 25
minutes at around 12:20 pm. .We were passing our time by watching out
Srikakulam locales as these people are very different in dress culture and the
way they speak, i mean slang even though it was Telugu language it sounds
peculiar & usually normal Telugu speaking people also cannot
understand this slang which is in local language called as “Srikakulam
Yasa”.
Finally at 2:45 pm we reached Kurdha
Junction –our train was late by 25mins .It was supposed to reach by 2:20pm.In
an enquiry they said trains are late due to some repair works taken up in
favour of devotees who come for ratha yatra festival. we enquired about
how to reach Puri from some locales whether to travel by train or
bus or cab .As we are new to the place and we are few members we opted to have
safest transport i.e train. Mean while we called up our hotel Reba
where we booked & informed our arrival. We took tickets for
passenger train after we overheard someone saying that the train will be
arriving anytime now. so meanwhile we had small tea break and were
waiting for the train.Suddenly we saw a super fast express; due to time
constraint we boarded this train. This was our big blunder—known
Mistake!!!!! Within 40mins we reached Puri,The Puri station today has
that special feature where rural India has reached on pilgrimage with very
busiest ,we are at white pagoda ,once Kosala desam.The first highlight of
the trip started here,after getting down at Puri station ticket collector asked
us for tickets and I blindly without any hesitation gave our
passenger ticket to him ,I had a chance of skipping this incident by
sitting in the station for sometime after getting down at Puri,sometime after
getting down at Puri, but like a bold heroine moved off forgetting
about the purchase of a passenger train ticket and was caught by
ticket collector at Puri station. We tried to give our explanation but the head
of the station asked us to pay Rs.1000/- as fine. Finally after little herotic
drama he insisted us to pay 500 rupees as fine. Finally after enough arguments
we ended up paying Rs.130/- per head as fine. So ensure that you take a train
ticket of required class and travel accordingly because ticket collectors here
at Puri will be always on their sincere duty and penalty will be imposed on
wrong train travel. Anyhow that was my mistake and I was a bit disappointed
with the incident. It was a good lesson taught to us by lord Jagganath
cautioning us not to take anything in lighter way, every incident in our life
teaches us a lesson. After coming out of the train station we headed towards
the auto stand
Little research work!!!!
I am a freak always searching for tourism
offices in Railway stations trying to collect brochures of the places to be
seen in and around. I was surprised to see the railway station so clean &
hygiene. The railway station was pretty well maintained. There are pre-paid
auto services which are set by police for the sake of devotees. There are auto
charge boards placed for the devotees even outside the railway station which
gives us no scope for bargains. The auto in which you travel will be noted at
the counter.
Finally by 5:30 pm we reached our Reba
hotel which was very neat and economical (1100/- per 24hrs) and well maintained
with room service too.only disappointment was no lift facility in this hotel.
View from the hotel!!!
The hotel is One Kilometer away from Puri
temple and five minutes walking distance to beach. We had a good view of the
beach on one side & of the temple tower on the other side from our room
balcony. After refreshing, at about 06:30 PM we moved out to spend
quality time at beach & to have dinner.
Puri Beach night view!!!
Puri beach is well maintained and the
night view of beach was awesome-speechless to tell you about its beauty. The
beach was crowded and to some extent lights were arranged for the sake of
tourists, camel rides, horse rides, pani-puri stalls and beach shopping malls.
There were about some 70 shops that were arranged in beach who sell shells,
clothes, wooden idols and other gifting items. And the beach side road is
choc-a-bloc with hotels and craft items .
 |
| some shopping at beach and some sand sketch of my face at Puri beach by one of my friend !!hahaha!!! |
After about an hour walk at beach ,we went to a restaurant had South Indian meals for our dinner and came back to our hotel and dozed off for the day.
Toooo Tiiiiired !!!!!!! goodnight.
Quick Info!!!!
Vicinity (places around Puri): there are numerous places to visit
but this time our trip plan was listed here.
Puri ,Puri beach,shopping,
Gundicha temple
Lingaraj Temple, Bhubhaneshwar city
Mukteshwar Temple, Sidheshwar, Kedar-Gowri
temple
NandanKanan Zoo
Khandagiri &Udaygiri Caves
Dauli Stupa
Konark Temple
Chandrabagha Beach
Suggestions:
Be Cautious ---This is the place where usually people will be cheated in the name of god none other than by pujaris (localy called as pandas)These pandas are very notorious and find every where in the temple so be cautious in dealing with them.They force us to pay huge amount in order to get the blessings of the god and will keep asking donations in the name of god.
Etiquette:
Non-Hindus are not permitted into temple
sanctorum but can see it from outside.
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