A half day tour to the Black Pagoda

(Some of the Photos in the blog may be unsuitable / disturbing for minor blog readers, so parental guidance is advised for all people below 13 years of age)

Early morning on the day two of my journey to Puri I got up early in the morning to go to the beach and shoot the rising sun. At the beach it was dark at half past five although there were people all around  yet the light posts on the beach were still giving light to the day.

Early Morning view of the beach road in Puri

Camera lens with moisture

I opened my camera and to my utter surprise the lens of the camera was covered with moisture. All my efforts to erase off the moisture was fruitless. Thankful to my wife who always carries a lot of tissue paper in my camera bag I tried and cleaned the lens of the moisture. I took some shots on the beach full of people from everywhere and at about six in the morning I saw the sun way up high in the sky in between clouds. I was sad I could not take a photo but then I was happy too because there were clouds which meant the day is going to remain cooler.

a boy enjoying camel ride on the beach

The sun playing hide and seek from behind the clouds

the beautiful puri-konark marine drive road

Our team at Ramchandi, I am behind the camera

I received call from my wife who informed that all are getting ready to move to Konark and so I quickly reached the hotel room and got freshend up and we were out in the car moving towards Konark.

Entry ticket to the Sun temple @ 10 Rs / Person

The sun temple from the path to the monument

Artificial Baya weaver bird nests on sale near Konark temple

The sun temple of Konark

The Puri-Konark road has always been a pleasant place to drive. I remember in 2006 I happened to visit this place on a bike and I drove through this path and enjoyed it a lot. We stopped at Ramchandi Temple and did some Puja there. Then we went behind the temple because someone informed that there is a river and one can go on a boat to the other side of the river  and enjoy the natural beauty. The idea did not well enter into my mind neither my friends so we took some snaps of the family and kids there and then moved to Chandrabhaga. The chandrabhaga sea beach was crowded by then and the high tides coming to the shores were making huge noise. The templerature was going up and yet the sun was no where to be seen. I was sad because I could never shoot the Konark Temple in this cloudy light to my full satisfaction.

When we reached Konark the sun was up and smiling and we moved to Geetanjali Restaurant of OTDC near the sun temple for some breakfast, but frankly telling neither the fast was broken nor it was fast, we spent almost an hour in the restaurant waiting for the food to be served and the price list did indeed break our patience. Anyway, we had something in our tummies and we moved to the temple. My camera was all too busy taking photos of the sun temple from all corners and sides.

Broken Artefacts at Konark Temple

A photographer trying to teach the innocent visitor how to keep her hands up
so that he can shoot her like she is touching the top of the temple

We had to take tickets to enter into the temple. Earlier the tickets were a bit costly I felt and this time I had to pay only ten rupees per ticket and there was no ticket for camera. That was a nice surprise for me. Because I remember the last time I visited the temple in 2006 we had paid some money for tickets for carrying the camera into the compound.

The roughly hundred feet pathway leading to the temple compound was crowded with shops on both sides and they were selling products some made locally and some imported from other parts of the country. I saw a shop selling artificial Baya weaver bird nests. I had been searching for Baya weaver birds near Berhampur for a while and  yesterday while we were coming to Puri I had seen some Baya weaver bird nests near Ganjam and so I was making plans to visit the spot after I return to Berhampur.

From outside the temple compound I took almost twenty plus shots of the temple in quick succession thinking some photo may look awesome from them. After I entered into the temple compound I went on a clicking spree and shot many photos and although the temperature was growing and my friends and their kids were having a difficult time facing the heat I could not resist taking photos of the temple.

While we were planning to come back, a local cameraman approached us and we could not resist the temptation of taking some photos and he made us move from place to place and took some good photos of ours, also with out camera. Then he informed that he will be delivering the photos within ten minutes and so we though we should spend the time seating in the garden and there we sat and while we were seating there I took some snaps of my friend Dr Ram with his family, who was seating at a distance from me. As promised the cameraman delivered our photos within ten minutes and we were surprised at his art of making us look good.

We left for our room by half past eleven from Konark although I was not happy with the decision because I wanted to take some more photos, but the heat was simply unbearable. While coming back I picked up some cashew and other codiments from the shops on the sides of the path. We reached the hotel room by half past twelve and took rest. When we got up it was past afternoon, the tour had taken its toll on us and we were relaxed after sleeping for a couple and an hour in the afternoon, thanks to the chilling AC, we never felt it was summer.

Mamun and Rishi pose for a shot near the lion statue

My sweet family

In the evening I moved towards the Shree Mandira (temple ) again for buying some Prasad (Sukhila Prasada) and taking some shots of the temple in dim light. The ricksaw ride from the beach to the temple was painful, not because we were uncomfortable on the ricksaw but because the old man who was riding the ricksaw was becoming breathless. While moving out of his ricksaw I gave him forty rupees as decided and advised him to go home and take rest. He gave a sarcastic smile and said, Babu, who will feed us ? I was thinking what about the Rupee One per Kilo Rice that government of Odisha is giving ?

Shree Mandir at Night

Sun temple as seen from a distance peaking us from behind the trees

I went into the temple with Nyasa, my daughter and although there were some policemen outside the lion gate (Singhadwar) no one bothered to stop me or check my pockets for possible ammunition or other explosive devices, although I did not have any, but in the recent past I had read that the security of the temple have been beefed up and I was watching people entering the temple at will without any checking. This is definitely a negligence which the local police officers must look into. What I saw again was surprising some policemen were watching cricket scores on their mobile phones while people passed by. This was simply ridiculous, and we people of the state are crying out loud and foul for security of the temple.

I purchased some prasad and came out quickly and then we moved and changed places to take shots of the temple from different angles so that at least some photos can come nicely. After that shooting session we came back to the hotel room, and this time we hired a young rickshaw puller and also for less money (Thirty rupees only). 

In the evening we again went back to the beach bazaar and moved there till tale at night and returned to the room and took rest while I was busy packing things as we were to vacate our rooms in the early morning hours. I do not understand why these hotels have such weight checkin and checkout times, 7 AM in the moring. My friend Saroj Sahu told me that they made this deliberately for the Bengali tourists who reach Puri by train in the  early morning hours and also leave by train by early morning hours.

Description: Black pagoda or the Sun temple at Konark is one of the seven wonders of the world.