May 25, 2010 - Nilgiri Hills

I am up in the Nilgiri Hills with all the tea plantations in a town called Ooty. It was a seven hour drive in the mini bus and the roads are mental, a guy on a motorbike was killed and we had to wait while they cleared the traffic but the body was lying on the road under a sheet ... Scary being on the road over here. We stopped for lunch which was Thali style again with the big leaf loaded with curries and eaten by hand :) it only cost a dollar! We went to an amazing and hectic flower market where people were madly making wreaths and hair...

Nov 12, 2009 - Puri

Puri is a smallish (~160 thousand residents) seaside resort town that is also a popular Hindu pilgrimage site. We found a nice, clean guesthouse and spent several days here relaxing. The one sight we did visit, was nearby Konark's Sun Temple. A world heritage sight, this temple from the mid-13th century, is notable (it's certainly what stood out to us) for it's erotic carvings. While most temples and religions tend to repress sexual imagery - depicting Gods cavorting in groups and pairs was celebrated here. Go figure? This relaxed town,...

Jun 8, 2009 - High Court of Orissa at Cuttack

Route: Kolkata - Kharagpur - Baleshwar - Cuttack - Bhaubhaneshwar - Puri - Cuttack Distance covered: 597 Kms. + 90 Kms. = 687 Kms. Place of Stay on 07.06.2009: Hotel Samudra, Seabeach The journey towards the land of King Ashok began at about 5:30 a.m. However, before reaching Kharagpur, we saw that traffic ahead of us was completely stranded. Having no options on the highway we also became the part of the halted traffic only to realise that this was no ordinary traffic congestion but was the result of 12 hrs. bandh called by the CPI(M) in...

Apr 23, 2009 - Visit to Sun Temple at Konark & Overnight Train from Puri to Calcutta

It is around 8 at night, and i'm sitting with the others from my overland group at the train station here in Puri. We are taking the overnight train tonight to Calcutta, a journey of several hundred kilometers along the coast, but we are here early. So it's a perfect time to square away today's entry... I woke up early this morning for a 6 a.m. run along the beach in Puri close to our hotel. After running out to the ocean, I made a left and jogged along the shore through the rustic fishing village bordering the beach resorts in Puri....

Apr 22, 2009 - Day Trip from Puri to Caves of Khandagari & Udaigiri

It is around 10:30 p.m. I am sitting in the lobby of my hotel here in Puri. A short while ago, I returned to the hotel from dinner at Wild Grass, a delicious local restaurant, with the rest of the group from my overland trip. It has been a long and full day. After breakfast this morning, I took a walk around the tourist part of town here in Puri. Puri is famous primarily as a highly visited Hindu pilgrimage site, it being the home of the Hindu deity Lord Jagannath and his siblings, brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra. I realized the...

Apr 21, 2009 - Last Day of Tour of Orissa’s Tribal Areas & Boat Trip on Chilika Lake

The time is 9 p.m. I'm writing today's entry from the air-conditioned comfort of an internet cafe here in Puri. Upon our arrival here a couple of hours ago, I took my first shower in 5 days. I'm not going to lie. It felt great! Anyway, this morning we concluded our tour of Orissa’s adivasi tribal areas with a visit to a village of the Saura tribe. We had camped last night on the outskirts of their village. When compared to the other adivasi villages we visited during the past couple of days, the villagers here seemed extremely shy. The...

Apr 20, 2009 - Visit to Desia Village of Kachapai & Weekly Market of Desia Kondh

10 p.m. Day 4 of our tour of Orissa's adivasi tribal areas. I am writing this entry from our campsite on the outskirts of a village of the Saura tribe, whose village we will visit tomorrow morning before ending our tour of this region and making a beeline for the city of Puri on the Orissan coast. Today I got off to an early start, waking up at around 5:30 a.m. As I peeked out of my tent, I observed at the fringes of our campsite a crowd of about 20 male onlookers from the local tribal village of Kachapai. Apparently these locals came...

Apr 19, 2009 - Visit to Oldest Indigenous Dravidian Tribe in Orissa

It is 11 p.m., and I am writing this entry while sitting next to the campfire at our campsite. The sky is dark black with the stars in full view. Very relaxing… Today we continued our journey through the interior of Orissa's adivasi tribal areas. We visited in the morning the village of an indigenous tribal group who claim to be the oldest indigenous Dravidian tribe in India today. The village appeared neat in appearance, with a concrete walkway between the rows of attached houses. The houses were very low to the ground, with doors only...

Apr 18, 2009 - Visit to Gadaba Tribal Homestead & Dhuruba Tribal Market in Orissa

It is around 10:30 in the evening. I'm writing this entry by headlamp from inside my tent. My dry tent, I should add, as we experienced a torrential rainstorm which hit us as we were putting up our tents earlier tonight. The rains thankfully came and went, so hopefully we will not experience any additional heavy rainfalls tonight. This morning - day 2 of our tour of Orissa's adivasi areas - we visited the homestead of a Gadaba tribal family. The home appeared not unlike others I have seen in rural parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America....

Apr 17, 2009 - Visit to Weekly Market in Kundali & Drive Through Koruput Forest

It is around 7:30 in the evening, and i'm writing today's journal entry by the light of my headlamp. We are now camped out for the night at the top of a valley here in a very rural part of Orissa. Before the sun set, views from our campsite were spectacular. I’m looking forward to a Kingfisher beer with dinner and chilling around the campfire for the next few hours, but want to first finish today's entry. We kicked off our multiday visit to Orissa’s adivasi tribal region with a visit to the weekly market in the town of Kundali. While most...

Apr 16, 2009 - Arrival in Orissa

We are finally here! I'm writing this entry from the internet cafe across the street from our hotel in Jeypore, Orissa. It has taken us a long time to get here. After spending the entire morning continuing our drive through Andhra Pradesh, we finally crossed the state border into Orissa this afternoon, eventually arriving here in Jeypore at dusk this evening. It goes without saying that after the excruciatingly long drive to get here, I’m really looking forward to checking out some of the adivasi tribal cultures in this region over the next...

Feb 18, 2009 - Turtle Nesting

Every year in February or March, the coast along Orissa's central river delta (Gahirmatha, Rushikulya, Devi rivers) witnesses an extraordinary natural spectacle. An average of 200,000 female Olive Ridley marine turtles swim across the Pacific and Indian oceans to nest along the beach sands. The reason for this long journey is unknown, but legend has it that the turtles lay eggs at the same place where they were born. The Rushikulya river rookery is abode to this activity and I would not want to miss this. A couple of days ago, newspapers...