For the first time on MS I have the privilege of writing first review on any topic.First of all Bhbaneswar and the state Orissa, both are interpretaed falsely. It has been from British era (pre-independance). I am very particular about using our very own Indian names!
The states original name is UDISHA and its newly located capitol is BHUBANESHWAR meaning abode of God. In our national anthem this region is reffered as Utkal.
I and one of my friends were on a very short trip of Udisha in the end of the year 2001. In fact our new year dawned in the capitol city.
On 31st december we left Baleshwar (which is again wrongly called as balasore) in the night to enter the city at very very early morning. Because of complete dark we had to wait till the first sunrays.
Earlier Cuttak was the capitol of Udisha which is around 20 km away from B?war.The main difference between them is that Cuttak is sightly unkempt and densely populated city while the later is well arranged and irrelevant to its capitol status very less populated. It is just like Old Delhi-New Delhi.
We lodged in hotel SwarnChuda in Jaydev wihar .It is a small but clean hotel.
Here in B?war the highway passes through the center of the city.Each junction on the stright main road is called a Chhak(chowk). The area between two chhaks is generally called as Wihar. There are many wihars like waniwihar, Acharya wihar.
We were going to stay for only two days. So in such a short period we had to eliminate the available places of interest. On the very first day we went to NandanKanan zoo and wild life sanctuary. The zoo is well maintained. You can watch deer, bears, leopards and other animals. White tiger was an attraction for us. And if you are interested in watching lions in their natural habitat you can pay for the safari in the deep jungle. But the possibility of seeing them depends on luck.
And when we came out of the zoo we saw the most amazing animal.
Yes-Human being ! ! , the most interesting and most UNPREDICTABLE animal. (any doubt?)
We saw a group of youth was quarreling in the middle of the road. Soon they found that they were not quite satisfied with only verbal combat. They took on physical and now and before also I had observed one thing in Udisha, at the start of such skirmish everyone removes his chappal first to attack the opponent !
In the evening we decided to visit ?Udaygiri? and ?Khandgiri? in Baramunda area. In B?war some areas are restricted for the particlar autodrivers. They are not ready to enter other?s territory. So sometimes you can reach the destination after changing 2/3 autos. ?Udaygiri?and ?Khandgiri? are caves situated on two separate hillocks. They must have been built in the period when king Ashok changed from Hinduism to Buddhism.Caves are not very big or elaborate.
Next day was the real day because we visited Lingraj Temple. It is superb !
A heaven for a traveler. Please don?t miss this if you visit b?war.
Earlier we had visited Konark and Puri also. Konark is a world heritage !
Lingraj temple is also a great sight. Puri is really very noisy and over crowded place but here you can find solace and also the wonderful sculptures. I was spellbound to watch the carvings. It shows the cultural richness of this state !
One thing I marked here that you can see very erotic sculptures even on the walls of a temple? I have never visited Khajuraho but I have seen such scenes in photographs. This certainly indicates that in ancient times sex was considered auspicious in India unlike present days.
One more beautiful temple is there in the vicinity of Lingraj that is KedarGauri.
There are some more places also. If you have ample time you can visit them and taste the richness of our old culture.