[psurelia]

Originally Posted by shuvc

Why did you take Kona on the return journey? Why not Belghoria expressway ?

Thanks Shuvc for pointing that out. I had cut the narration of the last day a little too short. I, in fact, took Belgharia Expy. What I wanted to mean is that there were the sea of trucks till the Kona Expy crossing/flyover. Even if there were good number of trucks after that crossing, but still it was pretty much driveable from Kona Expy crossing to NH6/NH2 crossover.

[Subrat Seet]

A very beautiful and detailed travelogue with nice pictures.
Just a small correction i.e., It is Mahanadi not Mahananda.
The meaning of Mahanadi is big river.

[gearhead_mait]

Excellent travelogue Partha da.
Quick planning an execution - that's the flavor of "Road Trips".

[mr.sinha]

Nice writeup, psurelia.
Incidentally, Puri was the first trip I made in my new Blackbeast (scorpio lx 4wd) this June, though didn't get the chance to write a TL yet.

[PapaBravo]

Great Travelogue Partha Da. I think Orion is the favorite lunch spot for every Bhpian visiting Puri from Kolkata. I am planning another trip in November-December.

[psurelia]

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

A very beautiful and detailed travelogue with nice pictures.
Just a small correction i.e., It is Mahanadi not Mahananda.
The meaning of Mahanadi is big river.

Thanks Subrat for the complements and the correction

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

Excellent travelogue Partha da.
Quick planning an execution - that's the flavor of "Road Trips".

Absolutely! I used to do that a lot before having the baby. Now, planning has become a significant part of each trip with this one as an exception.

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

Nice writeup, psurelia.
Incidentally, Puri was the first trip I made in my new Blackbeast (scorpio lx 4wd) this June, though didn't get the chance to write a TL yet.

Thanks Mr Sinha. I fell in love with your Blackbeast during the Kolkata Monsoon meet. For me writing TL is the best way to get over the sorrow of coming back from a trip. By the time I finish a TL, I start planning for the next trip and I am happy again

Originally Posted by PapaBravo

Great Travelogue Partha Da. I think Orion is the favorite lunch spot for every Bhpian visiting Puri from Kolkata. I am planning another trip in November-December.

Thanks PB. I hope most of the road work are complete and the diversions disappear by the time you embark on your journey. Good luck!

[Burn_out]

Originally Posted by psurelia

It was a very quick trip planned and executed in 7 days flat but we enjoyed a lot!

Great impromptu getaway trip Partha da.

I finally managed to read your TL, had it bookmarked since the weekends. Nice, crisp write up but I felt you were too lazy to take more picture

I have couple of questions for you. Can you share the trip fuel expenses and the average FE you got out of the truck ? Also, how were the rooms @ Sterling Holidays Golden Sands ?

Here's hoping to read a lot more of your TLs.

[psurelia]

Originally Posted by Burn_out

Great impromptu getaway trip Partha da.

I finally managed to read your TL, had it bookmarked since the weekends. Nice, crisp write up but I felt you were too lazy to take more picture

I have couple of questions for you. Can you share the trip fuel expenses and the average FE you got out of the truck ? Also, how were the rooms @ Sterling Holidays Golden Sands ?

Here's hoping to read a lot more of your TLs.

Thanks for the complements. This time FE was 12.5 and fuel expenses were little over Rs 7000 for the entire trip. The rooms at the Sterling Resorts were pretty good.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by psurelia

The rooms at the Sterling Resorts were pretty good.

How many days did you stay at Puri? Apart from Satpada & Konark, did you visit any other place, like Nandankanan, Udaygiri, etc?

[psurelia]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

How many days did you stay at Puri? Apart from Satpada & Konark, did you visit any other place, like Nandankanan, Udaygiri, etc?

@rahul4640, we stayed for 2 days in Puri excluding the journey days. We did not visit any place other than Satpada and Konark :(. May be next time we will plan it a little better.

[Wanderers]

Hi psurelia,

How is the road near Orissa Border and did the Police at Orissa Border try to harass you.

There are many instances of Police asking for illegal entry fees but never heard of a case of WB registration number and neighborhood states enjoy mutual protection and this sort of harassment is limited to some third state car.

[psurelia]

Originally Posted by Wanderers

Hi psurelia,

How is the road near Orissa Border and did the Police at Orissa Border try to harass you.

There are many instances of Police asking for illegal entry fees but never heard of a case of WB registration number and neighborhood states enjoy mutual protection and this sort of harassment is limited to some third state car.

@Wanderers, the road close to the toll booth at Jaleshwar near WB-Odisha border is OK in general, but 100s of trucks are always parked on the highway itself. Therefore, you'll have to work your way through them. A lot of road work is going on and so you'll come across numerous diversion and broken patches near the diversions before and after Jaleshwar. All I can say that it's not the sweetest of the experiences driving on this road, but it's not too bad either.

I had absolutely no issues with the police. I was warned by Kolkata T-BHPians that there are police interceptor vehicles in the Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar stretch and they do stop speeding vehicles and charge hefty fines. I did come across interceptors but none of them bothered me since I drove well within speed limit in that stretch. I haven't heard anything about illegal entry fees from any of my fellow Kolkata T-BHP frieds who keep travelling this route quite frequently. But as you said, the reason may be that all of them have WB registration plates.

[rahul4640]

Originally Posted by psurelia

we stayed for 2 days in Puri excluding the journey days. We did not visit any place other than Satpada and Konark.

One question. Did you see the Satpada-Krishnaprasad ferry in operation? It used to be the place from where cars were ferried across the lake by vessels, much similar to the vessel service at Namkhana, over Hatania-Doyania creek. But five months ago I faced a lot of hardship, going to Puri from Daringbadi (taking the shortest route), when I found the vessel service discontinued.
In case you are interested, you may read my experiences here .

[psurelia]

Originally Posted by rahul4640

One question. Did you see the Satpada-Krishnaprasad ferry in operation? It used to be the place from where cars were ferried across the lake by vessels, much similar to the vessel service at Namkhana, over Hatania-Doyania creek. But five months ago I faced a lot of hardship, going to Puri from Daringbadi (taking the shortest route), when I found the vessel service discontinued.
In case you are interested, you may read my experiences here .

No Rahul, I don't think the Satpada-Krishnaprasad ferry service you are talking about is back in operation yet. During our visit to Satpada, we did not see any other kind of boat/ferry except the ones taking tourists for Dolphin watching.

[gmhossain]

Originally Posted by psurelia

@Wanderers, the road close to the toll booth at Jaleshwar near WB-Odisha border is OK in general, but 100s of trucks are always parked on the highway itself. Therefore, you'll have to work your way through them. A lot of road work is going on and so you'll come across numerous diversion and broken patches near the diversions before and after Jaleshwar. All I can say that it's not the sweetest of the experiences driving on this road, but it's not too bad either.

How is the overall condition of the read between Kharagpur and Jaleshwar? I mean, the diversions that you mention, do they continue up to Kharagpur? Or do they exist only near Jaleshwar? Secondly, I heard that to cross the WB-OR border, often one has to drive on the wrong side of the dual carriageway as both the lanes of left carriageway are mostly blocked by the stranded trucks in the border. Is it common to drive on the wrong side of the to cross this border?

We are planning to drive to Chandipur in the next weekend. So thanks in advance for your response.