Beauty & the Beach: Treasures of Gopalpur

Working with JSPL, Raigarh hardly gave me and my fellow colleagues any time for an outing (6-days working!). Two of my colleagues were married and our bhabhis repeatedly complained of getting bored at home while we go to work. Being a travel freak myself I wondered if I will ever get a chance to visit some of these nature's marvels we were surrounded with. And then, some 10 days ago, I realized that Diwali was on a Saturday, which gave us our first 2-days weekend, with most of us staying back in Raigarh. This triggered an idea to utilize it, but how!!

With my parents visiting Puri and around 15 days ago, I had done good research to identify some great places to visit in Orissa. And, after a much enthusiastic participation in the debate over the location to visit, we zeroed down on a plan to visit Gopalpur-on-sea and Chilika Lake. So thrilled I was I spent most of the time chalking out a plan for the two days; reading reviews on trains to take, hotels to stay, cars to hire, restaurants to eat, special food preparations to try and what not. But all that started paying off when we started our journey on the evening of Friday, October 16. The travelers were Manish, Sriharsha, Sameer, Gunjan, Sanhita bhabhi and me.

A train to Jharsuguda, Orissa and from there to Bhubaneswar, we had a Tavera waiting to take us to Gopalpur, a 3-hours drive. During the drive, we were accompanied by some beautiful hills, Chilika Lake on one side, and signboards greeting us to the nesting beach of the world-famous Olive Ridley turtles. We reached Gopalpur at 11am on Saturday, October 17 and found ourselves awe-struck with the view of the sea-waves splashing and crashing on a beach that could not have been cleaner and prettier than this. And spicing up the fun was the Hotel Sea Side Breeze, which resembled a cottage and the rooms were right there on the beach; any closer and it would be inside the sea. And if you thought such hotels would be expensive, be ready for the room-rents you are about to hear. INR 400/- for a double-bed room!! There there, close your mouth, because there are more interesting facts to come.

Impatience was at its new high, while we quickly changed and ran down the beach for a splash. In and out of the water we played with the smiley ball and frisbie, which Manish and Sameer had diligently purchased before the trip. From the reviews I had read, I knew that the sea here was not very safe. The waves were said to have a strong undercurrent and hence swimming was not advisable here. Bhabhi had also warned us of the loose sand in the waters, like quicksand. And with all the warnings, I and Bhabhi had to parent the other four kids, who were not ready to listen and would keep going further into the sea taken over by their new-found energy. We returned to our hotel at 1:30pm, for a lunch in the balcony of our room, which opened to the sea. With vegetarians always at a disadvantage in this part of the country, the food did not taste good. But I had no complaints, since the fish preparation was delicious, and I would not need anything more than that. After lunch we all crashed for a short but deep nap for the next 2 hours.

With all the phone alarms failing to wake us up on time, it was 4:30pm when I suddenly realized so. And we were only left with an hour for the close-by Lighthouse to shut-down for the visitors. We managed to reach the Lighthouse by 5pm, and climbed up the unending stairs to reach the top. Nonetheless we were totally rewarded for all the panting. The sight of the whole Gopalpur from top, the sea-horizon, the backwaters entering the land and casuarina trees below was one of a kind. We also saw the lighthouse light beginning to glow, right beside us. And after some photography, we climbed down to avoid the bright light.

It was completely dark by 6pm. And while Sameer and Manish unable to resist the waves went in the water again, we sat on the beach snacking on jhaal-muri and chana-masala. The waves had become stronger, and now the splash of the water started chasing us further away. And once again, it was difficult to take out our two boys out of the water, as they were totally enjoying the huge waves crashing onto the shore.

Being a Diwali evening we did not want to miss out on the festive fun too. And so, Gunjan and I borrowed a scooter with a dysfunctional headlight from the hotel caretaker, and went on a search for some crackers. Given the small village Gopalpur is, we could only find a few stalls emerging out of their homes, selling crackers with never-heard brand names. But what was interesting was discovering some locally made crackers. Even after buying so many of them, what we spent was a meager INR 300/-. One bomb that we bought in huge numbers was an ultimate value for money. Available for just INR 2/- per piece, it was made with canes and had an explosive sound. We named it the 'naxal bomb'.

After some amazing fireworks by the sea, we went out for dinner, to a much recommended restaurant I had read about. With a decent ambience, the restaurant had their waiters in Hawaiian shirts. Although the restaurant was visited so that our fellow vegetarian friends could find some decent food, they were once again disappointed by the preparations. On the contrary, I was thrilled with the idea of eating Crabs for the first time. Crab-masala and Pomphret Fish preparations, I was on a non-veg spree! Bhabhi taught me how to eat crabs (though she is a vegetarian herself) and I simply loved it.

After we returned to the hotel, we went to the beach again for some chit-chat by the sea. The moment I stepped onto the sand, I saw something ran past my feet. I was only wondering what it was, when suddenly our car driver called out to show us what stood and ran under his torch-light. Crabs, live crabs!! And they were so many! We were surrounded by them. They had come out in the darkness of the night. I had arranged for some beer, and I spent next hour running behind them with a camera in one hand and a beer in the other.

To wake up early morning was the plan. While bhabhi wanted to do some early morning photography, I wanted to try jogging on the beach, like John Abraham does in the Garnier ad. All dressed up in sports shoes I went onto the beach at 6am. The moment I started running, I discovered that the sand was quite loose, and every time I stepped hard, my shoes would sink in. It was embarrassing while some fishermen and other localites stared at my stupid attempt to run on such a land. I then decided to go for a walk along the shore. But in a few minutes, I found myself dodging the great Indian asses. The local villagers were all sitting along the shore, pooping! And unlike north where they at least hide behind bushes and trees, here they were sitting in wide open areas for all to see. I tried avoiding the sights by being as close to water as possible and constantly looking at the sea. But when I started walking back, I was greeted by the same asses again, and this time they were in the waters, washing! The whole idea that started with imitating John made me feel like a 'bheegi billi' of 9XM channel.

After some great splashes in the waves that were bigger and more forceful than the previous day, I tried my hand at sand sculpting. While the waves kept washing away my creations, a funny video was shot by bhabhi without my notice. Watch it if you want!

We checked out of the hotel at 10am on Sunday, October 18 and drove to Barkul by the Chilika Lake. Hiring a 7-seater boat to the Nalabana Island, famous for spotting migratory birds, we went on an hour-long boat journey on the Chilika Lake, Asia's largest backwater lagoon. Even though it was not a season to spot birds, we were thrilled by the island itself, which was almost completely submerged in the lake, leaving us only a few pieces of land to walk on. With little knowledge on birds, whatever we saw looked exotic. A pair of binoculars would have helped to watch these cool birds. And an icing on the cake was spotting a few dolphins on our return path to Barkul.

After feasting at the Pizza Hut in Bhubaneswar, we returned to the very same place where we started our journey from, only to wish we never had to come back.

Trekking in the unknown territory @Raigarh

For past 2 months I had fascinated the hills that walled the JSPL Township in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. There were low rocky hills, behind which stood the dense and the majestic ones. It was the evening of September 16th that Manish (my friend here in JSPL) proposed trekking them up. I had no second thoughts regarding this and we decided to leave early morning the next day. A senior manager had advised Manish the other day, to only go up to a certain reservoir somewhere below the lower hills, and stick to the trodden tracks to avoid any confrontation with the wild bears.

Next morning Manish and I set out for my much awaited, self-hyped adventure. It was 7am in the morning when we left our hostel with a backpack with mainly water bottles, a cake and some corn-flakes; basically all that we could gather from our rooms. We reached the exit gate of our township, beyond which was a highway and right across were some villages, with our target hills in the backdrop. We confirmed with the gatekeeper if it was safe to trek them up. I don’t know if he understood us correctly, but he directed us to the same reservoir we had earlier been advised about.

So here we walked taking the village kuchcha roads. We came across a few villagers and Manish joined his hands to say “Namaste”. On God! That was both embarrassing and funny, making us look like some silly foreigners who would Namaste every passer-by. We finally diverted to reach the much recommended reservoir. It was pretty, but not what we had come for. We walked up the low hills, while the sun shone bright in the clear sky. There were interesting rocky cliffs; one, as pointed out by Manish, looked like the ‘The Lion King’ cliff. It was getting sunnier and the climb up these lower hills kept us panting, sweating, but yet breathing a fresh, clean and cool air emerging out of the forests ahead. Manish wanted to climb this giant hill in the backdrop, but I wasn’t even sure if we would be able to reach the foothills of the big one. So I suggested that we first climb up the peak-point of these low hills from where we could assess the distance and route to the big one.

To our surprise we never reached any highest point from where we could look far and below. Instead, we reached a T-junction of a trodden path, and decided to take the one that looked like heading towards our target hills. And so, even before we could realize we were already walking downwards. The path was getting thinner; our mobile phone network was falling; and somewhere within I was getting a little scared…

All types of wild grass and tree branches had started closing in on us. The sunlight, very bright a few minutes ago, had started to scatter. And few minutes later, we reached a diversion in the path we had stuck to. One of the paths appeared broader and cleaner which meant the human movement on it was frequent; while the other was thin, really thin, mostly because of the grass that had grown on and over it; what that meant was quite obvious. But at this point Manish demanded some excitement and there we took up the latter. Jumping and hopping over the wild grasses that were now scratching my legs (I was in a pair of shorts!), we went on and on.

Sometime later we came across a bed of pebbles, which we discovered was a beautiful rivulet. It was a mesmerizing moment, with the sound of flowing water, forest all around, and some cool creatures in the waters. Besides some tiny fishes, we saw a small crab and some floating (in fact, very excitedly!) spiders. We halted to feel the calm and peace of that place.

Few minutes later, we crossed the rivulet and started walking. This time around I had picked up a thick stick as a precautionary measure against any unexpected passer-by. (I knew it was breakfast time, I was hungry too. But I did not want to be on the menu!!). Struggling through the tall grasses and branches, we were bravely fighting our way through them. All of a sudden we walked into an open area, not something we could rejoice about. I was shell-shocked! Manish looked at me for a hidden signal on “What now!!” There was a tribal man standing there, wearing only a small 'dhoti' sort of thing. He had an axe in one hand and, what appeared to me from distance, a rifle on the shoulder… I didn’t know what to do, and we spent a few seconds of silence staring at each other. So just trying to break the silence and appear harmless, I asked innocently, “Bhai, kya hum aage jaa sakte hain?” to which he replied “Jaiye naa!”. So we moved ahead. While bypassing him I confirmed that what hanged on his shoulder was anything but a rifle. But yet, I could not convince myself that there was no possibility of his connections with the Naxalites. What if that “Jaiye naa!” was filled with sarcasm!!

Trying to keep away the negativities we walked further to reach another small open area where Manish suggested that we sit for a while. We sat, ate some cake and I packed back a small amount of it in case we get lost in the forest. Oh God! The negativities! But very soon we were taken aback by the fact that we were right below the hills we had aimed for, the big one. From a few spaces that allowed some sunlight to reach us, we could see the vertical giant hill, covered with dense forests. Wow! Finally! We had made it.

But we had not decided to stop as yet. Now that we were here, we were to climb it. But it was easier thought than done. The path had completely vanished by now. The trees were dripping water. The scattered sunlight that hit us occasionally would go away if we moved ahead. But guess what! We did. Only this time, I asked Manish to find a thick stick too. And the climb began.

To avoid losing our direction on the way back, I started making crosses on the rocks that came our way. The climb had become steeper, while we had to pull ourselves up the rocks. There were bamboo grasses around us, and from what I had heard, pretty good chance that even some snakes like cobra would be in the vicinity. We kept warning each other to be careful. In between we kept arguing if we should talk loud or not. I believed talking loud would keep away any animals, while Manish thought it would attract unnecessary attention.

And suddenly, we were stunned at the sound of something moving behind the trees. Manish claims that he saw something in brown there. We stared at each other trying to figure out what it was. Until then we had demonstrated enough courage trekking up all the way, but to go ahead to discover what stood behind those trees seemed foolish. We were just two of us, and heavily under-equipped with just a stick in hand. We wouldn’t even be able to run in that dense jungle if required. Manish asked in a hushed voice, “Kya karna hai?” pat came my reply, “Waapas chal”.

And then there was no looking back. We walked; in fact, we walked faster on the way back. Crossing the place we had rested, crossing the rivulet (while I tripped over a pebble!), loving the sun-rays falling on us, we finally reached the diversion where we had chosen to reject the frequently trodden track. We came across 2 men going to some village, who advised us to go there only in the mornings after 7am, when the sun is shining bright, as the bear sightings were frequent otherwise. They also advised us to carry a small weapon while venturing into that forest.


To tell you the truth, I was more scared of humans than any animal. As Manish puts it, 90% of the time an animal would run away on spotting humans. There can still be some ways to escape their attack. But what if you come face-to-face with a naxalite in their area! Do you run; do you climb trees; what do you do? May be just beg for your life. In the real world, one who has the gun has the power. The hype around Chhattisgarh being a disturbed belt, with naxals and the like residing under the cover of these majestic forests has killed the tourism of this beautiful state.

In hindsight it was awesome fun going on an unplanned hardly trodden trek. What was missing was a good quality camera.

It was 10 a.m. while we came out of the forest. As a bonus we were ready for a well deserved hearty breakfast, even though a curiosity to know what hid behind those trees, that we missed, will always remain.