Around Puri

The temple at Konarak is on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, bathed in the rays of the rising sun, is a monumental representation of the Sun God and Surya's chariot. The chariot has 24 wheels which are decorated with symbolic designs and it is led by a team of six horses. It was built in the 13th century and is one of India's most famous Brahman sanctuaries.

Konark is very famous for the Sun Temple and other attractions. The ride was beautiful. The nature was captivating. As we reached the Sun Temple area, I felt very tired and sat in one place. Rao and Nirmala walked around to see all the sculptures. My memory of all this from 1974 was poor. Still, I did not strain myself too much. Instead, I offered and took photos of other tourists who wanted a family or group pictures of themselves.

We did purchase something there, but I forgot what. I know we looked at some bangles. We bought fresh fruits.
By the way, when I think of jewelry, One of my nieces Susmita has a website, a must see click here. It is beautiful.

While returning, the deal with the auto was to take us to 3 more temples on the way. But looks like they were all closed either that day or at that hour. I am sure the driver knew about this and did not mention it to us. So, we were at the hotel early. Walked out after resting a little and had dinner.

The final train journey and the longest of them all was on the 28th. We bought some food at the same restaurant that we ate our meals and they neatly packed it for us. Nirmala wasn't too hungry after seeing the food when we opened it on the train.

Again, we met some nice people on the train. With two, we exchanged addreses. One was an IT professional Rajagopalan who still communicates via e-mail with me occasionally and the other was a saree vendor A. Suryanarayana Murthy from Venkatagiri, Nellore District. They got off at their destinations and we reached Tirupathi in the early hours of Feb 28th. Glad to be home!!!!!