Puri… Jai Jagannath 🙏🙏

When Lord Jagannath calls you have no option but to go. Some friends of ours were going for a 4 day trip to Puri so since neither Vinay or I had ever been either to Puri or the famous Jagannath Mandir we decided to join them. Before we knew it we were booked and ready to go! 

A short one hour flight to Bhubaneswar and then a one hour drive to Puri and we reached our hotel… The Taj Puri Resort and Spa. This hotel is rather underwhelming when you drive up to it… just like a concrete block but when you go inside you realise you are right on the beach. There is a nice elevation to this side of the hotel as the Taj has tried to ensure that most rooms are facing the sea. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful and we were whisked into our rooms in a flash. The rooms are a bit small but nice and when you lie on the bed with the curtains open you face the beach and sea. It is a real pleasure to just sit and see the waves lapping upto the sand and I loved sitting on the balcony in the morning sipping my tea and reading my book. One of the best parts of the room was that the luggage area had enough space to open up two big suitcases and with double sided bags nowadays that is very important! Strangely very few hotels think of this or just don’t make the area available. 

Although a bit warm there was a lovely breeze early in the morning and late afternoon. There is a small amphitheater near the swimming pool where the hotel provides tea and snacks in the evening whilst you watch a short cultural programme which was very entertaining. This is followed by the samudhra aarti which I saw for the first time. There is very little pollution so the moon shone majestically in the sky. 

The next day we went to the famous Jagannath Temple and I think we picked the worst day of the year to go on. To say it was crowded would be an understatement… there were literally thousands and thousands of people all pushing and shoving their way forward. There is no system or order of any kind. There are Pandits carrying huge baskets filled with Prasad on their heads and they wait for no one and you are literally pushed unceremoniously out of the way. I was truly praying… praying that none of us slipped and fell because there was no way one could survive the masses. We finally did manage to get a darshan but to be quite honest I was too scared and hassled by the whole process to feel anything but happiness that we could leave. Maybe it was bad luck but at that time all I could think about was the number of “worshippers” who die in stampedes at these famous places of worship. I’m sorry but in future I only plan on doing darshan from my home… at least I will be able to think clearly and pray meaningfully. Maybe I am wrong but this is my personal experience and as they say… each to their own. 

The hotel is connected to the beach but since it is a public beach it is in a rather pitiful condition. You have to clamber over a range of rocks, grass, weeds and keep a distance from the numerous cows and buffalo’s before you actually reach the sand. Once there, it is nice and we stood with the water lapping onto our feet. The sea is so majestic as it comes in large waves towards the beach. If you could blot out that area between the actual hotel and the water it would be beautiful but it’s a shame no one can beautify our beaches. 

The swimming pool in the hotel is really nice but when we saw people swimming in their normal clothes it deterred us from getting in!! Surely the Taj should not allow them to enter like this!!! There is one all day dining coffee shop that serves all three meals and one ‘speciality’ restaurant which serves more Asian/Fusion food which was nice but when Vinay and I went we were the only two customers and quite a few things on the menu were unavailable. I guess the people who come to Puri don’t want this kind of food which is a shame because the staff really tried to help us. 

One day we went on a drive around Puri and then went to the Mayfair Hotel for lunch as quite frankly we were fed up with our hotel food! The Mayfair Hotel has two wings.. Heritage Wing and Wave Wing. The hotel looks rather shabby and old when you compare it to the Taj although I would say that the beach is nicer here as you can go straight onto the sand rather than clambering through a whole area of barren waste. However we were all of the consensus that we chose the correct property to stay in. 

As I said earlier the hotel really tried to help us to make our trip enjoyable. They even gave us a lovely room just off the lobby where we could sit and play our card game, chakkri… and this became our personal ’den’ where we could hang out. The staff went above and beyond their duties and nothing was too much for them. The best part was that they carried out their duties with big smiles on their faces right from the housekeeping staff to the servers to the chefs to the check in staff. 

All on all it was a very good trip though one of the main reasons we came for.. the darshan.. was disappointing. I think 4 days was too much simply due to the lack of variety in food and alcohol. India has so much to offer but unfortunately we do not develop our tourist spots to their full potential. 

Jai Jagannath.. who knows… maybe I will come again!! 🙏🙏