The longest road trip by far with family is our trip to Orissa... - covering Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Konark enroute Vizag, Vijayawada, Chittoor.
The planning was crucial, freezing the vacation dates, leave approvals from our office's, and taking permission from my Son's school.., Initially, I had planned for week starting Christmas, but I couldn't get my off so I had to reschedule the trip to first week of Jan.
All along for 3300 kms, I was in the driver's seat. This demands more physical fitness and mental strength. The preparation for fitness started few months prior to the trip itself.
Day 0- Bangalore to Chittoor - 194 KMS,
The LONG journey to Orissa started from my apartment on the New Year's eve.., at evening around 5 pm on 31st Dec, we left Bangalore and reached Chittoor in AP.
Twenty year's ago, my father, a retired bank employee now, got his posting in Chittoor, AP for 2 years. I studied Primary at a convent located at Greamspet, Chittoor. I hadn't been to Chittoor after my dad got his transfer. I made it a point to visit my old school, and the house we stayed for 2 years..., it was a memorable experience..Overnight on 31st, we stayed at a hotel in Chittoor.
The night seemed long with new year wishes pouring from friends and family...,it was late in night, I had to catch up some sleep, as 1st Jan will be a long journey.
Day 1 - Welcome 1st Jan 2020
Fresh target on New Year day - Drive 842 kms in a single Day, Chittoor to Vishakapatnam
How do you do? We woke up early, we hit the road by 6 AM. Then it was a one looooonggggg drive..., enroute small towns, villages on our way...., I went on driving...., Crossed Tirupati, Nellore, Ongole, we crossed Vijayawada somewhere around 3 pm and Rajahmundry around 6.30 PM. Thanks to my wife, we had brought packed food from home that could last atleast a day, so we didn't stop at hotels on day 1... the day was completely spent on the Highway..
I had preempted my family about this day in advance, there will be one day during the trip where we will be required to cover longest distance - 842 kms, and if we can cope and stretch ourselves this day, we should be able to manage other days easily...
After a long drive for more than 17 hrs, we reached the hotel, we were extremely tired, checked in and went to rest.
Day - 2 - Sight Seeing - Visakhapatnam.
Vizag is one the beautiful coastal cities in India, its a port city, India's prominent naval base, the city, the roads, the beaches, tourist attractions like Submarine museum, local Food, temples were all awesome..., this is one city I felt like going again for vacation..., After full day of sight seeing.., we headed to our hotel.
Day - 3 - Target - Drive 434 kms - Vizag to Bhubaneshwar
We checked out of the hotel after breakfast. We headed to Rushikonda Beach, its a marvellous beach... we spent some good time..., There's Paragliding as well in this beach..
Now it was already time for us to start to Orissa.., We left Rushikonda beach and headed to Bubhaneshwar. Andhra is one of the largest and widest state in India, and when both Telengana and AP were a single state, it used to take 1.5 to 2 days by train to cross this state.
We crossed Godavari districts - There is East Godavari and there's West Godavari, enroute to Orissa, we crossed both these districts...We crossed Srikakulam,
We were around the exteriors of AP and before Orissa, we were extremely hungry it was around 2.30 pm, finally found Dhaba in the outskirts...,
Welcome to Odisha
Around 4 pm we had crossed AP and reached the Orissa Border.., it was time to take few pics.., Bhubaneswar was another 182 kms from the border checkpost. There was another diversion to Brahmapur.
Orissa Border - 182 kms to Bubhaneswar
India is a land of diversified place.., the climate in Orissa was pretty cold.., and the previous week, temperature recorded were very low...., the nights were long, days were short...Immediately after 5 pm the sky was getting dark..., I had to cover another 150 kms..
Meanwhile, my dad had reached Bubhaneswar through a flight from Chennai, he had reached the hotel.., waiting for us to arrive.
Well, as we crossed the states, I found a sea change in the manner in which people drive their vehicles and commute..., we crossed most of the smaller towns and villages.
We were approaching Bhubaneswar.., that's when the clouds opened up, there was heavy rain, the city traffic was at its worst...,
Covering the last 50 kms to reach the city and then the hotel was a night mare.. Well, we reached by 7.45 PM.
We settled in our hotels, done with our dinner and went to bed.
By After noon, we finished the darshan of Lord Jagganath.., then we found a restaurant, finished lunch..
Then we headed to the famous Puri Beach.., this beach was very highly crowded, this was in total contrast to the beaches we visited in Vizag.., my son took a horse ride.
We had planned to go to Konark, but slowly it was getting dark, we postponed our plan to visit Konark the next day.
By evening, we were back in the Bhubaneswar city and went to Ram mandir and spent time at a handicrafts exhibition. Then, we stopped by restaurant for dinner, before heading to our hotel..
Day - 5 - Cuttack, Konark - Drive 186 KMS
Cuttack, Bhubaneswar are twin cities..., In no time, we started from Bubhaneswar reached Cuttack..., this city is known for its cricket stadium, old Barabati fort which is an well known archaeological site.., we planned our breakfast at Cuttack..,
Day - 7 - Drive 364 kms - Vizag to Vijayawada
As we had already covered Vizag during onward, we hit the NH to Vijayawada..., and the mind was clearly racing to reach home at the earliest..
Well, Vijayawada is another busy city in AP. we reached around 7.30 PM.., settled in the hotel that was booked.
Day - 8 - Drive 677 kms, Vijayawada to Bangalore
After wonderful visit to Odisha, we had to head back to Bangalore, ...Day 6 was start of our long return journey....., Chilika lake is one of the well known lake in Odisha, and we certainly didn't want to miss... so, on our return, we stopped for a while, we enjoyed the boat rides and then we were on our way back..., We reached Vizag late in the night..,
By day 6, waking up at one city, lunching at some small town, getting to bed at a hotel in another city another state have become common..,
Then we headed to world famous Sun Temple, Konark.
The temple is dedicated to The Sun God., the structure of the chariot and their wheel's are a stunning masterpiece., it's a gigantic structure., just two eye's aren't enough to explore its beauty.., took couple of rounds to cover the entire temple...,
Undoubtedly Konark was the top most attraction of our trip..,
Finished lunch at konark, It was busy Sunday, the site was busy with tourists.
From Konark, we visited Lingaraj Temple, its the oldest Temple in Bubhaneshwar , completed in 11th century.. dedicated to Shiva.., it wasn't crowded we were able to easily get the darshan.., then we moved on..,
From then, we headed to Biju Patnaik Airport to drop off my sis in law, who had to attend office at Bangalore from Monday.
After dropping her we went back to the Bubhaneswar city.
Yes, finally reached home after another long drive from Vijayawada.
The trip was one of it's kind, it had given us immense confidence to plan more such trips, there were some good take aways from the trip.
Talking about budget and accommodations, I've managed to get best deals from Fabhotels, Treebo's..., Food cost and Fuel cost were other good chunk's
Overall, worked out the entire road trip within 60 K for a family of 4 adults, 1 child.
It was a fascinating experience.., We all are travellers, we either travel to live or live to travel. There's no life without travel.
Dining for over a week outside, we got adjusted to food's at restaurants, dhaba's in the high ways to multicusine restaurants in the cities.., Tea, coffee, biscuits, snacks at small outlets in the NH and State High ways.., we were continuously on the move. All the biriyani's we tasted in the restaurants of AP and the NH, Sea food at Bubaneswar, snacks at Orissa were some of the standout.
We had stopped at few fuel stations to refuel our SUV. Whenever we had to attend nature's call, we stopped at some decent bunk's or restaurant's that had toilets.
We were also getting used to zipping fast at NH Tolls due to Fast Tag, Without Fast Tag, we would have easily lost another 12 to 15 hours.
Though the trip was planned meticulously there was an unexpected official work that popped up, that I had to attend during the course of the entire trip. It was critical to balance the expectations.
My family, including my 5 year old son, my dad who's senior citizen 70 years had well cooperated and adjusted to the hectic schedule of the trip. However, this trip wouldn't have been possible and success without the strength and support of my loving wife.
As a traveller, waiting for Covid-19 to get over, to plan our next trip...
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