Jan 26th was a Friday, which meant it was a long weekend. For a freelancer like me, it does not make much of a difference, but what the hell, decided to make the most of it and started planning a trip. A friend wanted to go to Hampi, but that dint seem like it was happening [ again the long weekend came into play- everything was expensive, no rooms anywhere, etc]
Anyways, I had been toying with the idea of doing Odisha for a long time and this seemed to be the perfect time for it. Started doing my research, flights & hotels, also check if there were any festivals on now [ it meant crowded spaces and overpriced hotels].. Managed to find a few within my budget, so went ahead and blocked rooms on Booking.com and booked flight [ worked out to Rs6800 return].
I decided to travel on 25th Jan to avoid the 26th Jan chaos [ Republic day]… It was going to be a 5 day trip, where I planned on exploring as much as possible. Atleast skim the surface, and leave some for subsequent trips…
The places I managed to covered were
1. Bhubaneshwar – 6 Temples, Udayagiri & kandagiri Caves,Ekamra Haat, Local market, Tribal Museum , State Museum, Dauli [Shanti Stupa].. Decided to skip the Zoo..
2. Puri – Temple & Beach
3. Konark – Temple & Beach
4. Pipli – applique work
5. Buddhist sites- Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitagiri
6. Cuttack
Shall be doing individual posts… stay tuned~