First, I apologise as I'm afraid that this blog is horribly out of date. It's been almost a month since my last update, but my project for this afternoon is to put this right. The good news is that my lack of blogging has not been owing to lack of activity, quite the opposite, as we have been away travelling for five out of the last six weekends, including a 10 day trip to the UK. I arrived home this morning and Phil will be travelling back to Mumbai later this week.
This first post takes me back three weeks to the weekend of the 23/24 February when I visited the east of India for the first time, the town of Puri in Odisha. Phil was attending a chemistry conference based in a hotel at Puri, so I tagged along, flying over to join him after I'd finished work on Friday afternoon.
I flew into Bhubaneswar, the main city in Odisha, and otherwise known as India's "Temple City" owing to the numerous examples of medieval temple architecture scattered throughout the area. The conference organisers (who were very hospitable and welcoming to me throughout the weekend) had arranged a car and two students to pick me up. They were rather quiet and seemed to want lots of random stops on the way to the hotel, but we got there eventually. The highway between Bhubaneswar and Puri was interesting - mainly in good condition but occasionally the road would simply stop and direct you onto the opposite side with cars coming towards us. Quite exciting, especially in the dark. Anyway, we made it to Puri in one piece and I enjoyed the drive along the coast on the beach road, which was covered in market stalls selling anything and everything, including huge piles of fresh fish.
The beach at Puri is beautiful, albeit different in style from Goa, its west coast counterpart, largely owing to the clientele as Puri is an Indian tourist destination whilst Goa is full of foreigners. It is though a real living beach where locals trade, swim, wash, fish and enjoy life, including camel rides analogous to the donkey rides that I remember enjoying as a child.
On Saturday morning, Phil was busy at the conference, so I went to see the main site of Puri, the Jagannarth temple, with Claudia, the friendly wife of an Austrian scientist. A student at the conference took us to the main street, which was bustling and full of life as expected, and up to the temple. Unfortunately for us, only Hindus are allowed in, but we were shown to a building opposite the temple (an old library) from where you could get a reasonable view over the temple walls. The library was fun in itself, now a crumbling, dusty relic, but it used to be a grand building of the city. The librarian proudly showed me faded photographs from a visit by Lord Mountbatten before independence, before reverting to form by asking me to sign a visitors' book which implied that every previous visitor had given a huge donation by Indian standards. Hmm. It was a nice try but we gave a sensible contribution and moved on.
A fully laden tricycle outside the library. This is one of my favourite India photographs to date.
After a lovely swim in the big hotel pool (happily empty given that the hotel was full of scientists in conference talks) we had lunch and set off in a coach with the conference group to see the Sun Temple at Konark. This is a Unesco World Heritage Site and was constructed in the mid 13th century. It has been hit by various cyclones and earthquakes in its history and the largest part of the temple no longer exists. What is left was filled in by the British in the early 20th century so you cannot enter the temple, but the exterior is extraordinary.
The temple is huge and covered in intricate carvings, many of which are erotic and very explicit! You could tell where the particularly interesting carvings were by the groups of young men standing nearby for photographs. The quality of the carvings is incredible, even more so when the weather conditions and age of the temple are considered.
One of the funniest parts of our trip, bizarrely, was the horn in the coach. Horns are used a lot in India, but this particular driver used his constantly and it was very loud and very high. It was a very girly horn for a big coach! It caused some amusement but I think that everyone was glad to get back to the hotel and away from the noise at the end of the journey.
On Sunday morning, we drove back into Bhubanswar and spent a couple of hours looking round some of the temples in the city before catching our flight home. The most famous temple is the Lingaraj Mandir, some parts of which are over 1400 years old, although it is closed to non-Hindus. There is though a viewing platform at the side of the temple (with an obligatory guard demanding a donation) which allowed us to view the temple from above. There are a large number of temples in close proximity in the city and we travelled round a few, all of which were very old and beautifully carved, before we were both a bit templed-out and ready for the airport.
This first post takes me back three weeks to the weekend of the 23/24 February when I visited the east of India for the first time, the town of Puri in Odisha. Phil was attending a chemistry conference based in a hotel at Puri, so I tagged along, flying over to join him after I'd finished work on Friday afternoon.
I flew into Bhubaneswar, the main city in Odisha, and otherwise known as India's "Temple City" owing to the numerous examples of medieval temple architecture scattered throughout the area. The conference organisers (who were very hospitable and welcoming to me throughout the weekend) had arranged a car and two students to pick me up. They were rather quiet and seemed to want lots of random stops on the way to the hotel, but we got there eventually. The highway between Bhubaneswar and Puri was interesting - mainly in good condition but occasionally the road would simply stop and direct you onto the opposite side with cars coming towards us. Quite exciting, especially in the dark. Anyway, we made it to Puri in one piece and I enjoyed the drive along the coast on the beach road, which was covered in market stalls selling anything and everything, including huge piles of fresh fish.
The beach at Puri is beautiful, albeit different in style from Goa, its west coast counterpart, largely owing to the clientele as Puri is an Indian tourist destination whilst Goa is full of foreigners. It is though a real living beach where locals trade, swim, wash, fish and enjoy life, including camel rides analogous to the donkey rides that I remember enjoying as a child.
Camel rides on the beach
Fishing, Puri-style
On Saturday morning, Phil was busy at the conference, so I went to see the main site of Puri, the Jagannarth temple, with Claudia, the friendly wife of an Austrian scientist. A student at the conference took us to the main street, which was bustling and full of life as expected, and up to the temple. Unfortunately for us, only Hindus are allowed in, but we were shown to a building opposite the temple (an old library) from where you could get a reasonable view over the temple walls. The library was fun in itself, now a crumbling, dusty relic, but it used to be a grand building of the city. The librarian proudly showed me faded photographs from a visit by Lord Mountbatten before independence, before reverting to form by asking me to sign a visitors' book which implied that every previous visitor had given a huge donation by Indian standards. Hmm. It was a nice try but we gave a sensible contribution and moved on.
The Jagannarth temple viewed from the library opposite
The old and very dusty library
A row of people selling local sweets, a kind of deep fried flaky pastry soaked in sugar syrup. They looked tasty but were also covered in flies, which put me off somewhat.
After a lovely swim in the big hotel pool (happily empty given that the hotel was full of scientists in conference talks) we had lunch and set off in a coach with the conference group to see the Sun Temple at Konark. This is a Unesco World Heritage Site and was constructed in the mid 13th century. It has been hit by various cyclones and earthquakes in its history and the largest part of the temple no longer exists. What is left was filled in by the British in the early 20th century so you cannot enter the temple, but the exterior is extraordinary.
The temple is huge and covered in intricate carvings, many of which are erotic and very explicit! You could tell where the particularly interesting carvings were by the groups of young men standing nearby for photographs. The quality of the carvings is incredible, even more so when the weather conditions and age of the temple are considered.
Detailed stone carvings on the exterior of the temple
Huge elephant statues "guarding" the temple
The entrance to the template - you can see the stones piled up inside where the temple has been filled
The main steps leading up to the temple. The temple is not stable and lots of scaffolding is required to keep it in one piece
In my experience, all women carved on any kind of cave or temple in India look like this, with proportions which I'm sure can only be achieved by plastic surgery...I think the men who carved these temples may have been aiming for their ideal rather than a realistic impression!
Outside the temple
These carved wheels are magnificant and there are many lining base of the temple wall
One of the funniest parts of our trip, bizarrely, was the horn in the coach. Horns are used a lot in India, but this particular driver used his constantly and it was very loud and very high. It was a very girly horn for a big coach! It caused some amusement but I think that everyone was glad to get back to the hotel and away from the noise at the end of the journey.
On Sunday morning, we drove back into Bhubanswar and spent a couple of hours looking round some of the temples in the city before catching our flight home. The most famous temple is the Lingaraj Mandir, some parts of which are over 1400 years old, although it is closed to non-Hindus. There is though a viewing platform at the side of the temple (with an obligatory guard demanding a donation) which allowed us to view the temple from above. There are a large number of temples in close proximity in the city and we travelled round a few, all of which were very old and beautifully carved, before we were both a bit templed-out and ready for the airport.
Ganesh in Bhubaneswar
Overlooking the Lingaraj Mandir
Outside the Rani Mandir
More Rani Mandir - in beautiful grounds
Next to another old and beautifully carved temple
Overall, Puri and Bhubaneswar are examples of places which are off the main tourist trail (for non-Indians, although we did see a few other foreign tourists on our trip) but well worth a visit. I'd thoroughly recommend the Coco Palms Hotel in Puri too, which allowed for a balance of relaxation and culture, and somewhere to have a good swim between temple viewing.
Nice trip. Thanks for sharing your trip experience. he famous Sun Temple along with the Sun Festival and the five day long dance festival make this tiny place an ever hustling tourist destination in Orissa. Explore more about Konark Sun Temple.
ReplyDelete