Gopalpur on Sea, Puri, Konark, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Gangtok

[romyeo4u]

Prologue: This trip was done during the christmas time Dec 25 - Jan 2

In October we friends were having a discussion on where to go for Christmas and New Year and it was a long vacation, thought process going on where to go ,initially decided on extensive Kerala, then decided againsta it ,was looking at the map of India, and Darjeeling caught my attention and it was staring at me by asking this question: Wanna know why I'm called Queen of Hill Stations??? checked with my friends and they were ready, I wanted to do the whole trip in my black little queen( Santro) but roads after Orissa scared the out of me and 5 ppl in Santro would be very uncomfortable so decided against it. checked the trains,booked the tickets 2 months in adavance, booked Snowlion Homestay in Darjeeling for 2 days.Since one of my friends hometown is Berhampur so we made our Itinerary as

Places to cover: Gopalpur on sea,Puri,Konark,Kolkata,Darjeeling. last minute included the Gangtok .

Dec 25 Konark Express ( Sec - Berhampur-Bhubaneshwar) we got down at Berhampur
26 - Gopalpur on Sea
27- Train to Bhubaneshwar - visit (Puri Jagannath,Konark beach, sun temple,Japanese Peace pagoda)
27 Night - train to Kolkata
28- Kolkata sight seeing (Victoria memorial,Eden Gardens,Birla planetorium,St Pauls Cathedral,
28 Night Train to Siliguri
29 Morning Siliguri- took a cab to Darjeeling
30th Morning - Darjeeling 3 point tour(Batasia loop,Tiger Hill, skipped the monastery)
30th Morning - to Gangtok
31 Gangtok
1st Morning - Cab to Siliguri
1st afternoon train to Secunderabad from Siliguri
3 morning back in town.

We were suppose to spend 2 days in Darjeeling , had to skip because of rains , strike in Darjeeling . so instead decided to spend 2 days in Gangtok for which I thank the rain gods in Darjeeling. if it wasn't for rain we wouldn't have gone to Gangtok. whats so special in Gangtok? you shall see in the pics.
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Funny Incidents/Adventures

Ohh Yea: IN Kolkata we stayed in hotel Wellesley, when we asked the cab guy in the morning on how far is the Sealdah station he said saab 5 min. after the sight seeing we all thought our next train is at 10:40 PM to Siliguri, 9:45 I happen to go through the Sunday Special edition of news paper and had a look at the train timings and I see that our train timing is 10:05 I was perplexed,shocked immediately checked our ticket and bingo the train timing is 10:05, I said Guys the train is at 10:05 everyone got up from their sleep got ready and went downstairs and got into a cab and asked the cab guy how much time to reach station he says coolly 40 Min saaar,I said someguy said its only 5 min his answer 4 in the morning you can reach in 3 minutes also.we rushed to the station and fate and luck on our side we reache the station by 10:00 and started running . luckily the platforms are in Left to Right order unlike other stations where you have to cross 1 to go to 2,3,4 platforms,we immidiately got into the train and it started moving. Damn bang on time. it was a huge sigh of relief.

Adventure 2:
In Gangtok we were supposed to go to Lake Changu and Nathula Pass,decided against it and the next day roads are blocked to nathula and 1500 got stranded because of unexpected snowfall.

Adventure 3: While returning we booked our tickets in Guwahati Express Guwhati-Secunderabad. we got into the train at Siliguri itself. before reaching Vizag the general bogey of our train got derailed,no injuries, no casualties. by the time we were back on track. the train is late by 7 Hours. instead of reaching Hyd at 4am we reached at 11AM.

Let the photos do the talking.

Day 1: Gopalpur on Sea
As usual with high spirits started our train journey to Berhampur on Dec 25 Morning 8:00. reached Berhampur on 26 Dec 2 AM.Reached my friends home.dozed off instantly. got up in the morning and started the local sightseeing though there is literally nothing to see. waited till the evening ans started our journey to Gopalpur on Sea which is 20 KM from Berhamour, we guys went in SCOOTY's.

Gopalpur welcomed us by this big hoarding

Entrance to the beach


The Beach


The Beach continues


Even kids were game for the beach festival


I guess it means "Gopalpur Beach Festival" in Oriya


Pose time


English Version


Red Chairs


Red devils in Red chairs


stage for cultural programmes you can see the replicas of Sun temple, Jagannath temple and Lingaraj temple.


A poster on the rear door of Ambassdor


Giant Wheel

Ruined fort :

Past: Heaven for Kings
Present:heaven for dogs


Lovely Art


Gopalpur beach at night


This is what we ate near the beach, so yummmy!!!


Day 2: Puri,Jagannath Temple, Konark Beach, Sun Temple, Japanese Peace Pagoda, Lingaraj Temple (Bhubaneshwar)

Stay tuned.

[vnabhi]

Good pics, romyeo4u! I never knew they had beach festivals at Gopalpur, though I belong to Berhampur (have not been there for years though).
As far as I remember, that dilapidated building is the remnants of the old Port.

[Fountainheader]

Good pics there dude. We used to live in Berhampur.. like 2 decades ago. This place at that time was a bliss!

Hope you had a nice time there

[Saurabh M]

Thanks for the writeup. Brought back fond memories of the place. I had been there almost 10yrs ago. From the pics, it seems that the place has changed a lot.

Which are the good hotels now to stay? I heard the Oberoi Palm Beach resort has closed. May be they are now taken over by the Swosti group. I may be wrong though. Are there any resort-type staying options there?

[romyeo4u]

Originally Posted by Fountainheader

Good pics there dude. We used to live in Berhampur.. like 2 decades ago. This place at that time was a bliss!

Hope you had a nice time there

Indeed we visited couple of places in Berhampur - Mohri Kalwa and couple of temples in town

[romyeo4u]

Originally Posted by Saurabh M

Thanks for the writeup. Brought back fond memories of the place. I had been there almost 10yrs ago. From the pics, it seems that the place has changed a lot.

Which are the good hotels now to stay? I heard the Oberoi Palm Beach resort has closed. May be they are now taken over by the Swosti group. I may be wrong though. Are there any resort-type staying options there?

I saw one resort near the beach and couple of hotels nearby.
The beach reminded me of the Pondy beach near Le Cafe.

[romyeo4u]

[romyeo4u]

After a splendid evening at Gopalpur on Sea, headed back to Berhampur and that was end of day 1.

Got up early in the morning and bid adieu to my friends relatives headed to the railway station. our destination was Bhubaneshwar and we were still undecided which train to go by . After reaching the station asked the booking counter guy when is the next train to BBSNR , pat came the reply in 10 min. took the tickets and thank our stars unlike the DMU mail to BBSNR it was east coast express, got into the second class coach after the TT came got the berths confirmed and we went back to sleep again.

After 4 hours we reached BBSNR, since my friend has already booked a Cab for us , he was waiting near the station and We started for the Puri. The Lord Jagannath Temple. the distance was around 56 KM and took us 1 hour to reach.

We had park our cab far from the temple and as soon as we stepped down instead of beggars Pujari's were asking each and everyone that they will get the puja done inside the temple, that's one thing which I didn't like it and surprised to see that Pujari's behind the tourists and travellers.

As any temple, it was crowded but there is nothing called special darshan, went inside the temple, couldn't stop appreciating the marvel of architecture. since photography was not allowed,snapshots were taken with eyes only.

after an hour done with the darshan it was 12PM and decided against going to Puri beach since we spent good time in Gopalpur itself.

Next destination: KONARK

Puri to Konark is 31KMs , first we headed to the beach even though it was 1 PM it was crowded, the beach was clean since its one cannot play in the waters because of its shallowness. everyone were happy clicking pics as the water touched their toes.

Pics of the Konark:

Humble cab driver



In action:



Konark Beach






After the beach our next destination was SUN TEMPLE, it was magnificent and felt sad because it was left unfinished. Orissa tourism has started taking the restoration work , we spent couple of hours enjoying the masterpiece and having tonnes photos being clicked.





















Cutie Pie





After Konark on our way to Bhubaneshwar we stopped at Japanes Peace Pagoda, spent an hour near the Japanese Peace pagoda.
Japanese Peace Pagoda



Does anyone know what this means?















After spending an hour ar Japanese peace pagoda we left for Bhubaneswar and our next train to Howrah was at 8:40 PM went to hotel called VENUS INN in BBSNR. let me tell the funny incident, we asked the cab guy which is the good place to eat in BBSNR he said BEEENUS INNNN and we were amused by the name, he took us straight to that place and we all were looking for the sign board BEENUS INNN and after futile attempts of finding it went in vain asked the driver where is the hotel, he said in hindi ( Aapkey saameny tho hai) when we looked at the board it read VENUS INN.

Day 3: Kolkata Day tour ..... to be continued

[ECM]

Beautiful execution of Red color in first few shots,very nicely done.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by romyeo4u

After spending an hour ar Japanese peace pagoda we left for Bhubaneswar and our next train to Howrah was at 8:40 PM went to hotel called VENUS INN in BBSNR. let me tell the funny incident, we asked the cab guy which is the good place to eat in BBSNR he said BEEENUS INNNN and we were amused by the name, he took us straight to that place and we all were looking for the sign board BEENUS INNN and after futile attempts of finding it went in vain asked the driver where is the hotel, he said in hindi ( Aapkey saameny tho hai) when we looked at the board it read VENUS INN.

Ha ha ha. That's how things are pronounced in most of Eastern India. Venus Inn was our fav food joint during our college days in the early 80s--it was the only joint serving good South Indian tiffin items.

BBSR in those days was a dead city filled with Govt servants, whereas Cuttack was the 'in thing' with good hotels, restaurants and movie halls. Things have changed over the last 3 decades and BBSR is now the hep place in Orissa.

Saurabh, I'm surprised to know that Oberoi Palm Beach has closed down--did not know this. It was the first star hotel of Oberois--at least that is what the locals used to say.

[akas_chauhan]

There is no beach named "KONARK BEACH", it's chandrabhaga beach.

[Saurabh M]

The seafront at Gopalpur has changed a lot. Looks like it has been done in a tasteful manner and gels well with the surroundings. The evening pics of the lamp posts are very nice.

Eagerly waiting for the rest of the travelogue.

[mjothi]

Man, excellent one. I love those Sun Temple pics.

What a work. The wheels carved in those pics - I think those are rocks right? Deadly work. This dedication is what missing in current generation workers.

[romyeo4u]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Man, excellent one. I love those Sun Temple pics.

What a work. The wheels carved in those pics - I think those are rocks right? Deadly work. This dedication is what missing in current generation workers.

Yep they are rocks , the temple is made of Black granite. our ancient architecture is really amazing and mesmerizing.

[romyeo4u]

After having a sumptuous meal at BEEENUS INN a.k.a Venus Inn we left for the station to board our train to Howrah.

We reached Howrah early morning 5 AM and we wanted a hotel to dump our luggage and go for the sight seeing as our next train to New jalpaiguri was at 10:05 PM our train was from Sealdah.

asked for sealdah they were asking exhorbitant prices finally got a cab for 140 bucks and asked the guy we want to go to a hotel near Sealdah he took us to couple of hotels everything was booked if not price was high finally we ended up in Hotel wellesley I think its near Kidwai Road. The cab guy said from hotel to Sealdah is just 5 Min which wasn't true and we were unaward that An Adventure was eagerly waiting for us.

We dump our luggage, asked one of my friend to go to the nearest tourism office to find out the day tour package, and we managed to book a Tavera for 800bucks for the day tour.
begins our journey of Kolkata ohh yes one uneventful incident happend and for which I'm still angry.


Here's the incident: We pass through Howrah Bridge, I was clicking photos and asked the cab guy to stop the Tavera so that we can have couple of photos taken of the Howrah, he said Saab Yaha pey mana hai, main dheere chalaunga aap foto le saktey hai ( Sir Its prohibited here, instead I will drive slowly, you can take the photos), after taking couple of snaps of Howrah we proceed and all of a sudden A police mobile jeep comes and asks us to stop, the policeman comes and askes me Aap Press sey ho kya?(Are you the Press guy?) I said No, immediately he snatched my DSLR and says its prohibited and asks us to come to station , there will be a case and you have to appear in court on Monday and it was Sunday, I know the tricks, I said ok , out of nowhere my chicken hearted friend got down and went to the police jeep and started requesting, I was sure that its all cheap tricks and they wanted money, coming from Hyd where you pay 20 bucks for breaking a law it didn't made any sense to me to pay for not breaking any law. and we had ladies also so I was sure that they won't take us to the P.S, by looking at my friends begging they thought (Bakra milgaya) they were dealing with him and I went to the jeep and said we are tourists and said it was not written anywhere that its prohibited and even the cab driver didn't tell us. if you want me to come to P.S still I'm ready, my friend got scared and started requesting soon from P.S the topic moved to the money and they said if we charge you, you have to pay 5000/- etc the moment I heard the money ,I knew that the prohibition and all dialogues are crap, I resisted and said I have the proof that we are tourists immediately they took my friend to the side and my stupid friend who withdrew 2grand just 10 min ago so did I, took out the wallet and showed them sir I have this much only, and cop asked for my wallet I asked why? he said you need to pay, I said I won't, my friend begged me , I had only 100 bucks in the wallet and the remaining 2 grand was in the other pockets , he took the other 100/- and told us to go. I asked you took everything, we don't even have 1/- the police gave back my 100/- and I said we are 5 guys we have to live with 100 whole through the day, they gave another 300/- and whisked off.

I was very angry at my friends cowardly behaviour, we came back and sat in the Tavera I blasted the driver, what were you doing? if you had known that it's prohibited why didn't you tell us, if it's not prohibited then why didn't you come and tell the cops? my friends comment whick irked me even more, he said why are you scolding the driver, then I blasted my friend left and right. for an hour it was silence which was ruling in the Tavera.

Time for Photos:

Our stay



One of the oldest professions


























Howrah Bridge