Highway Calling

From Vizag we went to Srikakulam which marked our last stop in Andhra Pradesh. It was a very short ride and we reached Srikakulam in no time. We did some editing and in the evening we visited the Sri Suryanarayana Swami temple, the only temple which still has the Sun God idol. The other Sun temples i.e. Konark (Odisha) and Modhera (Gujarat) do not have idols of the God only this one has. We asked a local if there is anything nearby we can visit and he suggested us the Sri Kurmanatha temple.

We reached there after dark and unfortunately the temple gates were closed because of an aarti that was being conducted on the occassion of HOLI which falls on the next day. We waited about 30 minutes for the aarti and then the gates were opened and public was allowed inside for darshan.

We were glad we came here as this temple has a story that this is the only temple where VISHNU is worshipped in the tortoise avatar. Check our video to find more stories about the temple and also about a very special person we met here.

The next day we headed to Brahmapur and did nothing but rest :), but we were super excited as we finally entered our last state , ODISHA.

Next morning we started for Puri. Our ride overlooked the Chilka lake at one or two places. Its a shame as we had routed the map to go through the lake and take a ferry too, but somehow map rerouted and we went via NH16. We reached Puri and in the evening went for the Jagannath temple for darshan. We were very happy as we finally finally get to visit this famous temple we had been longing to visit since such a long time.

The next day we visited the Konark temple and even the Chandrabhaga beach, which is India’s first BLUE flag beach.

There was an unfortunate incident with us in Puri during the darshan, do check the video for the details :

After Puri and Konark visit, our next destination and the final one in ODISHA was Bhubaneswar. Puri was overcrowded because of HOLI and weekend rush. We did not get to eat Odia delicacies as the restaurants were too full and even the simple dishes were not tasting as it should be.

Do check out what all we savoured in BBSR :