Last week I was in Odisha after exactly one year. Apart from visiting all my relatives, got the chance to visit Chilika Lake. If any of you have been on the train route between Vizag and Kolkata, I am sure you would have noticed it. The lake water is salty as it is connected to the sea.
It was just an half day trip as village where my grandmother stay is quite near. Woke up at 5 AM to catch the passenger train to reach BaluGaon. From the balugaon station we took a auto to reach the place where motor boats can be hired.
The boats are not that good, they run on diesel (or may be Kerosene) making hell lot of noise. Even there are no safety measures, no life jackets. I am not sure if good boats run there, but one person told me that there is a place called Barkul where good boats are available. Even there is Panth Nivas, a government run Hotel.
Chilika Lake has lot of islands, we visited just one of the island, named Kalijai, famous for the temple. It took around 45 min to 1 hour to reach that island. There are some other islands worth a visit like Nalaban. It is a bird sanctuary and heaven for bird watchers. Especially in the winter (Nov, Dec) a lot of migratory birds come to this island traveling 12000 kms, like from Russia, Mongolia. Don’t know who tell the route to them.
There are some other islands having villages, I was surprised to see people taking bikes on the boat, may be they wanna ride it on the limited area of their island. Next time I will explore these island.
It was a nice short trip, and we were back home by 2 PM.
17/12/2009 at 11:13 AM
Nice … I liked the first pic, even I wanted to visit chilika when I went home during diwali… but couldn’t.
25/01/2011 at 9:40 PM
kalijai is a holly place in this world
i pray to maa kali jai
07/05/2011 at 9:42 PM
Thanks. So wonderful creation! Keep it up.
14/11/2011 at 3:58 PM
i visited this place last week! and it was breathtaking experience!
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the view, the feel over the smoky water, the uncertainity of kerosene run old boats…. it was all so impacting!
i only get the chance to visit Kalijal island, as we were not having enough money to take boat to another island(nalaban)! [ they do not have a ATM nearby]. Kalijal island island is also very beautiful….. but its getting dirty and messy day by day. Lot of garbage and waste are seen thrown into the water at the edge of the island. BUt whatever it be i loved the place [water body