Team-BHP - Kolkata to evergreen Puri & Konark
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The idea of a road trip was peeping for some time now. This is in fact the time for our family’s annual vacation.
Last year, it was the Kol-Bodh Gaya-Varanasi-Kol road trip.

This year, a few destinations were there at the back of the mind which included Puri (Odisha), Bhutan, Ranchi-Netarhat-Daltonganj (Jharkhand) and the Purulia-Bankura belt (W Bengal).
Weighing the pros and cons, tour duration, road conditions, and climate, finally zeroed in on Puri – one that is evergreen with all Bengalis.

A synopsis of the tour to begin with:
Car: 2017 Maruti Suzuki Celerio ZXI
Members : Self (lone driver), father and mother (both 60 plus).
Preparation: Nothing much except that the left rear tyre was having some issues with the pressure, so made a visit to a local mechanic; others were in perfect shape.

Tour itinerary:


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We had planned to pack up early on Saturday and be off to bed by 10 pm to make an early start on Sunday. However, man proposes and God disposes. Some pre-engagements on Saturday (23/02/19) meant that it was well past midnight before we had packed up and called it a day.

Day 1 (Sunday) Kolkata to Puri:

We left our Salt Lake home at 08 am and decided to take the Maa flyover – Santragachi route to join Kona Expressway/ Mumbai Road and thereafter NH 16. (In short, Google maps can be blindly followed in this stretch right from Kolkata to your hotel in Puri).

Kolkata to evergreen Puri & Konark-puri_route_map.jpg

It was an absolutely smooth drive till the Dhulagarh Toll Plaza where we were met with about 10-15 minutes of a hold up due to the morning unruly and chaotic traffic at the toll lines. Separate Fastag lanes were non operational, though all lanes are Fastag/ETC enabled.

The 3 lane highway from Kolkata to Kolaghat and thereafter till the bifurcation of Mumbai Road and Chennai Road has got to be one of the most smooth surfaces of the entire trip. Having crossed the first toll hurdle, it was time to appease the hunger pangs at the obvious destination- Express Food Plaza at Kolaghat.

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After gorging on some succulent aloo parathas and sipping on some delicious lassi, it was time to hit the roads again. Having ate to our heart’s content, we left Kolaghat at about 10. 30 am. After having stopped at a couple of tea stalls, the next destination was reached at around 2.45 pm – Hotel Orion at Bhadrak.

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After a short working lunch of butter roti and chicken curry that was served really fast and piping hot, we were off again within half an hour- a really quick pit stop for lunch break.

As we approached Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the roads got even more scenic with smoother surfaces. An important point worth mentioning - in the stretch about 1 hrs either side of Balasore, there are many culverts where the road surface has nearly disappeared leading to an extremely rough and bumpy ride at speeds over 60.

Both the sides of the road are lined by sweet shops as we approach Cuttack.

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Small hillocks kept company till Cuttack.

After crossing Cuttack, one needs to leave NH 16 and take the Puri expressway (NH 316). The road condition is excellent though there are issues of stray cattle roaming on the road. On both the up and down trips, Fastag did not work in this toll and had to pay Rs 80 in cash.

Finally, reached Victoria Club Hotel in Puri after painfully tackling and negotiating the Puri traffic. The most irritating part of any road trip is to be welcomed by the chaotic and unruly traffic with its hustle and bustle after hours and hours of discipline laned high speed driving.

Total Distance : 523 km
Time Taken: 9 hrs 5 mins (including breaks)

We freshened up and hurried for the beach. The yellow sand and the cool waters bring out the inner child in us even after 500 + kms of driving.

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Day 2: Site seeing

The second day began with an early morning visit to the Jagannath Temple. Mobiles and electronics are not allowed inside the premises.
The frantic crowd leading to an almost stampede like situation at the temple was not to my liking and crowd control was too poor on behalf of the authorities. If any one from OTDC happen to read this one, please improve facilities at the Jagannath Temple. Not intending to hurt any religious sentiments, but if I visit Puri again, our family will probably give the temple a miss.

Having completed the puja, we set out for some shopping at the Sargadwar area, namely "khaaja" at Ganguram Sweets (I don't think this is the same Ganguram's of Kolkata). The morning ended with some fun and frolic at the sea followed by a sumptuous meal of fish and rice at the hotel.


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The evening was spent exploring the beach market, and leisurely walks along the sea.

Day 3: Puri to Konark and detour to Raghurajpur.


The next day, we started off from our hotel at about 10 o clock and decided to make a detour to visit the heritage village of Raghurajpur before taking the sceninc marine drive for Konark.

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I am attaching the You tube link for this entire journey.
https://youtu.be/2_ub-5X9k78

The Puri Konark Marine Drive is one of the most picturesque sea side roads in India. With its lush greenery, avenue trees and sea front, every frame is fit to be a windows wallpaper.


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We stayed at the Otdc Yatrinivas, Konark. It provides the basic amenities, however at 2.5k + it is absolutely not worth the money. Konark has very limited accommodation facilities and so a day outing at Konark and night stay at Puri is recommended.

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I was highly disappointed at the Chandrabhaga beach. After having read that it was Asia's first Blue flag certified beach, was really looking forward to a visit, but the ground story was absolutely contrary.

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The Sun Temple, Konark

Day 4 : Konark to Kolkata

Total Distance: 540 km
Total Time: 8 hr 30 mins

The return leg was uneventful. Since there was a threat for thunderstorms, I tried to return home asap. Hence, drove non stop from Konark to Kolaghat in about 6 hrs 30 mins.

Kolkata to evergreen Puri & Konark-pic2.jpg

Rain bearing clouds welcomed us into Bengal.

Take home points:

1. The road condition is very good to excellent barring some stretches around Balasore.
2. Puri Expressway does not accept Fastag it seems.
3. There are few speed guns in Bhubaneswar, so maintain your speed limits in the city premises.
4. All the lanes are Fastag enabled in all toll plaza except one (cannot recall the name)
5. Breakfast at Kolaghat and lunch at Bhadrak is the perfect timing.
6. Avoid this route in summers. It gets very very hot.
7. Beware of stray dogs and cattle that make a surprise visit on the roads. Hence, driving at the extreme right part of the road is not recommended.
8. Total toll (for up and down journey): Rs 1290
9. Total distance (Home to Home) - 1179 km
Total fuel: 54 litres
Average mileage: 21.83 km/l

Wonderfully penned down travelogue, On_the_drive! The Kolkata to Puri drive is one that a lot of Calcuttans have undertaken and written about, but your simple yet beautiful writing made it a good read!

Quote:

Originally Posted by On_the_drive (Post 4557631)
The frantic crowd leading to an almost stampede like situation at the temple was not to my liking and crowd control was too poor on behalf of the authorities. If any one from OTDC happen to read this one, please improve facilities at the Jagannath Temple. Not intending to hurt any religious sentiments, but if I visit Puri again, our family will probably give the temple a miss.

+100 to that. Although I'd say it's the same with most places of religious interest in the country (barring a few). I've faced a near stampede situation at the Puri Jagannath temple myself, and it's a horrifying experience to say the least. Needless to say, I've never looked forward to visiting a major place of religious interest after that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by On_the_drive (Post 4557631)
The Puri Konark Marine Drive is one of the most picturesque sea side roads in India. With its lush greenery, avenue trees and sea front, every frame is fit to be a windows wallpaper.

Agreed. I've travelled from Puri to Konark by road in 2012, and it was a beautiful journey. Given that the roads were amazing back then itself, I can't even begin to imagine what an amazing experience it must have been driving on them now!

Thank you for sharing this travelogue with us BHPians. Your location mentions you're from Kolkata too, so I hope to come across you at future BHPian meets.

Regards,
boniver

Quote:

Originally Posted by boniver (Post 4558168)
Wonderfully penned down travelogue, On_the_drive! The Kolkata to Puri drive is one that a lot of Calcuttans have undertaken and written about, but your simple yet beautiful writing made it a good read!
==========
Thank you for sharing this travelogue with us BHPians. Your location mentions you're from Kolkata too, so I hope to come across you at future BHPian meets.

Regards,
boniver

Sure, will definitely get to know each other in the meetups.
Coming up in a few days is a Kol-Vizag-Araku-Chilka-Kol travelogue that was completed 2 days back. Having completed almost 3300+ kms in a fortnight, I wish to gift myself a couple of days rest before starting to pen down this travelogue.

Regards,
On_the_drive (Souvik)

Congrats on penning down your first travelogue in TeamBhp ! Brings back memories of my drive over 3 years back with family :)

Kolkata to evergreen Puri & Konark-2015_12_23_puri.jpg

Next time you can plan a drive to Rambha - Vizag - Araku - Gopalpur. Lovely write up with pretty pictures and all the details to help someone planning the next drive there. Keep up all the good work !

That's a crisp, quick & racing travelogue supported with nice pictures.

Tks for sharing, loved reading it.

Thanks for sharingv:thumbs up
Brings back fond memories of my Barrackpore to Bangalore road trip two years back. We'd also visited Puri & Konark. And yes, the road to Konark is sheer bliss. Did you have a chance to dine in at the wonderful Lotus resort? Great location & lip smacking food.

Quote:

Originally Posted by superbad (Post 4561099)
Thanks for sharingv:thumbs up
Brings back fond memories of my Barrackpore to Bangalore road trip two years back. We'd also visited Puri & Konark. And yes, the road to Konark is sheer bliss. Did you have a chance to dine in at the wonderful Lotus resort? Great location & lip smacking food.

No, did not know about the culinary brilliance of Lotus. Maybe, next time.

That’s a very nice write up. When we visit puri, we end up taking much longer because we drive into Bhubaneswar to grab a bite from Pizza Hut. :p
When me and my family went to puri about an year back, we went to Jagannath Mandi around the afternoon when the priests change the flags on the top most point of the Mandir. During this time, the crowd is generally less and I never encountered stampede but a few of my friends do and the management there is very bad but timing too is very important too.

Very nice writeup, will be my guide if I ever plan to make a road trip to Puri. I have a few questions

1. What was the average speed you maintained on highways that were in good shape? Also is your car MT or AT?
2. Pardon me for asking this, are the food break restaurants more than enough for bio breaks if elders are on board?
3. You reached Puri at 5 pm, the day almost over, do you think it is worth planning to start from Kolkata earlier if lunch has to be done in Puri?
4. Is Konark worth for a night stay or better as day trip? Is parking available near the temple?
5. For moving around in Puri is own car suitable or local auto rickshaws the better option for narrow and congested roads?

Welcome on-board On_the_drive !! Nice, short & crisp report of your Puri trip there. Wish you many more trips in the future !!

Good writeup, wishing you many more successful road trips

Quote:

Originally Posted by haisaikat (Post 4578279)
Very nice writeup, will be my guide if I ever plan to make a road trip to Puri. I have a few questions

1. What was the average speed you maintained on highways that were in good shape? Also is your car MT or AT?
2. Pardon me for asking this, are the food break restaurants more than enough for bio breaks if elders are on board?
3. You reached Puri at 5 pm, the day almost over, do you think it is worth planning to start from Kolkata earlier if lunch has to be done in Puri?
4. Is Konark worth for a night stay or better as day trip? Is parking available near the temple?
5. For moving around in Puri is own car suitable or local auto rickshaws the better option for narrow and congested roads?

Let me try to answer each question...
1. If I take the Kolaghat to Puri entrance stretch as the main highway stretch in the journey, one can maintain an average speed of 60-65 including bio-breaks. However, I have seen in my almost half dozen cross country road trips by now, that if you try to chase the average speed, you will definitely get stressed out and miss it by a mile.
Road condition apart from stretches around Balasore is in a superb state.
Mine was manual transmission.

2. En route, Kolaghat will be the perfect timing for breakfast and Orion at Bhadrak for lunch. These will suffice by and large. If required, there are always petrol pumps to the rescue. However, make sure that its a clean one. The most deserted stretch of this road is between Debra (after Kolaghat) to about half an hour to one hour after Balasore. You will not find any eateries here and petrol pumps are also too few and far between.

3. Definitely. An early start is always beneficial.

4. My frank answer will be "Do Not Stat At Konark." Options include the Lotus Resort (situated at a distance from Konark proper) and OTDC Yatrinivas (located at a stone's throw from the temple). The facilities at the Yatrinivas are too scanty for the almost 3k charge per room that they charge. With the absolute scarcity of tourists residing at Konark, almost non existent security, the sprawling property did not feel very safe also at night (maybe I am wrong)
Start very early from Puri, park at Konark sun temple, walk for 20 mins and enjoy the now dilapidated magnificence of Sun Temple. Drive down to Chandrabhaga beach (about 10 mins) and stroll by. One may also enjoy a ride on the desi ATV on the beach (basically Hero Splendors modified to an ATV)

5. For the Jagannath temple, do not go by car. Auto rickshaw will charge 100₹ from your hotel to the temple. For other places, car will be ok.

I hope I could answer some of your queries.:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by On_the_drive (Post 4581151)
...if you try to chase the average speed, you will definitely get stressed out and miss it by a mile

Start very early from Puri, park at Konark sun temple, walk for 20 mins and enjoy the now dilapidated magnificence of Sun Temple. Drive down to Chandrabhaga beach (about 10 mins) and stroll by. One may also enjoy a ride on the desi ATV on the beach (basically Hero Splendors modified to an ATV)

5. For the Jagannath temple, do not go by car. Auto rickshaw will charge 100₹ from your hotel to the temple. For other places, car will be ok.

I hope I could answer some of your queries.:)

Many thanks dear, you have indeed given great answers and surely as I had said earlier your trip will be a guide. Can you confirm how far is the parking of Konark temple from temple entrace? Did you mean 20 mins walking distance for this?

Regarding the speed, did you mean to maintain higher whenever possible?

The other thing you answered about Jagannath Temple, I agree for auto and that is how it has been in all my previous trips, my intent to ask it was to check once you reach Puri owing to the non consistent roads around is it not advised to resort to local transport most of the time?

Quote:

Originally Posted by haisaikat (Post 4581371)
Many thanks dear, you have indeed given great answers and surely as I had said earlier your trip will be a guide. Can you confirm how far is the parking of Konark temple from temple entrace? Did you mean 20 mins walking distance for this?

Regarding the speed, did you mean to maintain higher whenever possible?

The other thing you answered about Jagannath Temple, I agree for auto and that is how it has been in all my previous trips, my intent to ask it was to check once you reach Puri owing to the non consistent roads around is it not advised to resort to local transport most of the time?

Yes, I meant 20 mins walking distance from the parking to the temple.

I generally do not drive past the 100-110 mark because I feel though you cover somewhat more distance for a short span, it stresses you out.


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