My Thousand Dollar Vacation!

Debi at Chandipur Beach

This vacation was so special for so many reasons. It has been like a ritual. For last ten years I have been doing this without an exception. I go on a long vacation to Puri (in Odisha | Orissa) in December, every year. There are reasons why Puri attracts me year after year. Puri is the place where I enjoyed my childhood and I lived there over a span of about 18 years. This is the place where my parents live. And, many of my childhood friends live there. Puri has a beautiful beach and so many tourist attractions in and around. When I visit Puri, I wear two faces - that of a curious tourist and also a confident resident! I enjoy all that a tourist would enjoy. And, I take advantage of all the factors that a resident would take advantage of - a true identity rooted in the society there, a free accommodation at a great location (Just 1.5 Kilometres from the beach), knowledge of the local language, society, place, people, food, culture and many more! The list is really long. December is the best month and winter is the best season to visit Puri. Puri, being a coastal town, is humid during seasons other than winter. And, winter is really mild and pleasant over there. During winter, the humidity over there gets kind of neutralized. The weather just feels wonderful to travel, feast and party. During winter, one gets to enjoy a great variety of direct-from-the-sea fresh local fishes and seafood there.

What was so special about my December 2011 vacation? It was probably the last one of its kind. Next year my daughter is going to join her very first school. And, the school does not have a long vacation during December. The one they have is not long enough for my purpose. So, naturally, I wanted to make the most of this vacation. There are so many wonderful tourist attractions in Odisha and I have not visited most of them yet. I visited a few of those during my childhood. So, I wanted to get started with the exploration. I planned to cover a few important tourist attractions during my December 2011 vacation and to visit a few more during each of my subsequent vacations. That way, I will be done with most of them before I grow too old for the purpose! This vacation looked like a good starting point. And, I planned accordingly and did all my bookings.

Puri Beach - Debi's Point of View

During my vacation, I visited a couple of beaches (that included a virgin beach), a lake (Chilika, the largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest lagoon in the World), couple of islands, a few temples of historical and religious importance, a fishermen’s village (Balaramgadi in Baleswar (Balasore), that thrives on the commercial fishing industry there) and a few other tourist attractions. Balaramgadi is situated by the Budhabalanga River. At Balaramgadi, Budhabalanga River flows into the Bay of Bengal. Our cab-driver, an elderly polite and talkative person, explained about the place and the fishing industry there. In Balaramgadi, people are basically involved, directly and indirectly, in three kinds of businesses. Those are Commercial Fishing, Fish Processing and Exporting and Ice Manufacturing. Fishing is largely done using a specialized large fishing-boat known as Trawler. Now-a-days, Trawlers are built to order and usually cost more than 10 Million Indian Rupees each. Those come fitted with modern gadgets like Global Positioning System. New Trawlers come fitted with engines that engineering wise resemble the engines fitted in ships. Those engines can run continuously over a month without requiring any downtime to cool off.

Here is a little more operational details on this. A typical fishing trip is around 15 days long. Before it starts, the Trawler is filled with around 2000 Litres of fuel. Typically, the crew constitutes of a driver, a second-driver and others with advanced fishing skills. Food and water for 15 days for the whole crew is loaded before the Trawler starts its journey. Required amount of ice to preserve the catch is also loaded. If things go fine, a Trawler owner may get his investment back in about two years. And, if the owner is lucky and has a highly reliable and loyal crew, the investment (cost of the Trawler) is recovered in less than a year. People make a lot of money in this business. There are people in Balaramgadi who started with one Trawler and have nine now! The fish caught during a trip are stored on-board with ice to keep those fresh. If a catch constitutes good quantity of expensive fishes, the owner makes a lot of money and rewards his crew handsomely. It all resembled so much with whatever I had seen on Discovery Channel’s Television program “Deadliest Catch”!

The notable place that I visited was the Chandipur beach (around 300 Kilometers from Puri). I stayed there over a couple of days. This is what happens at Chandipur beach. You keep looking at the sea and the sea just slowly disappears before your eyes. When I heard this first time, I did not quite believe and understand the description of the event! It took me some reading to understand that. This is what essentially happens over there. During the low tide, depending on the time (day) of the year, the water recedes gradually up to 5 kilometers! Yes, 5 kilometers. That exposes a large expanse of the sea bed. And, after some time, the water gradually comes back. The magnificent event is hard to describe in words. So, I got pictures to do that job easier. That event happens twice every day. I witnessed that event thrice during my stay there. It is said that the event (return of the water) follows a specific timing pattern. If it happens at 7:00 am on a specific day, then the next time it happens on that day is at 7:00 pm. But, the events happen at 7:12 am and then at 7:12 pm respectively over the next day! It was an unforgettable experience. The seafood I enjoyed there was just wonderful.  Next Page >>

My Thousand Dollar Vacation! by Debi Prasad Mahapatra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.