PURI - Tuesday 9.2.10

(.. I think this computer I'm using must have been made in the 1940's ...) Travelling to Puri by bus was seeming too complicated & so I ended up getting a train ticket from a place I was changing money at - on the Howrah-Puri Express. I always feel wary of using the train partly because of damage incurred to a bike on an earlier trip & also because it means losing contact with the bike & entrusting it to the Indian railway system. Given that the train left at 8:55pm I thought it wise to get a taxi to Howrah rather than cycle either in peak hour traffic or in the dark. Jamming the bike into the back seat again was a hell of an exercise, requiring the combined brain & physical prowess of me, the driver & 4 hotel staff. We eventually succeeded when I finally computed that I needed to remove the front wheel & lower the seat. Then of course, booking the bike onto the train is a rigmarole - just finding the Parcel office is a bit like being on a car rally: small cryptic clues eventually lead to your destination (e.g. discovering that it's the Parcel office I want, not the Baggage office). Then, after dropping the bike off & filling in a form, I had to retrace my steps quite a distance back to ask a functionary to stamp the form before returning it to where I'd dropped the bike off. The train trip (I went in a sleeping car, 2-tier) went quite quickly & I slept like a log until shortly before arrival at 6am. But ... where is the bike? The bloke in the Parcel office said come back in an hour, which wasn't very encouraging. I figured that I could use the time to find a room which I eventually did at the Hotel Lotus (my first 2 choices were booked out) at Rs400 a night (about $10 AUD). This time, a spacious room, just a little lacking in the window department (one window looks out at a brick wall, 1ft away, and the other is 1ft wide by maybe 4 ft high) , but otherwise clean & comfortable & the owners & staff seem friendly & helpful (and extremely interested in the bike, my age, ... and am I insane...). On returning to the station my bike had arrived & was waiting for me in the Parcel office!

Puri is a pretty relaxed beachside place & also a major Hindu pilgrimage centre - home of the Jagannath Mandir (temple), which I cycled out to this afternoon. The town was apparently big on the 'hippie' trail in the '70's & there are vague remnants of this now (eg in names such as Peace Restaurant, Xanadu Pavilion, Love & Life hotel, and in the numerous ayurvedic & healing centres around town). It's lovely to see the sea, although apparently it's a bad idea to try & swim in it (sections of it double as public toilet & I think there are rips, etc). The one unpleasant feature about the place is that apparently it's also a bit of paedophile hang-out. I'll probably stay here for 2 days & then head on to Konark ... by bike...