Orissa Trip

I'm back to blogging after a brief break, more so as I'm back in Bangalore (already been 3 months) and excited about blogging about my first trip after my return - Orissa trip. With hardly a month to spare and researching about where to go during Diwali holidays, upon the availability of train tickets, we decided to tour Orissa as the train to Bhubaneswar (Prasanthi Express) still had a few seats available. Without wasting time, we booked return tickets to Bhubaneswar starting from Bangalore on 27th Oct & returning back from Bbsr on 2nd Nov. We had 4 days to spend in Orissa and after considering all options, decided to stay at Bhubaneswar and cover all the places during day by Orissa Tourism day-tours. We booked a hotel room also with the help of Soumya's colleagues friend who was at Bhubaneswar branch of Karnataka bank.

 

It was a 30 hr journey from Bangalore in Prasanthi Express which ended at 9:15 PM on 28th Oct. 70% of our journey, we were in Andhra Pradesh. The train passed thru Satya Sai Nilayam, Guntakal, Guntur, Vijayawada, Rajamundry, Vishakapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam Road, Brahmapur and all the way to Bhubaneswar. Close to Rajamundry, we crossed the gigantic Godavari river where on the other side was the highway on top of a railway bridge. Superb engineering. We crossed Prasanthi express coming from Bhubaneswar near Vishakapatnam. The journey didn't seem boring :)

 

At Bhubaneswar, we quickly found out that auto meters dont work and price had to be fixed before boarding. We took an auto to Priya Hotel and paid him Rs. 30. Google maps is the best to know how far the hotel is from station & also its route, so the drivers couldn't cheat us :) The first look of the city was good - broad and partially clean roads with no traffic signal till the hotel. We had dinner at the restaurant below and slept quick as the tour was about to begin!