Travel Diaries

Life is a constant journey, from chaos to order, from unknown to familiar and from ignorance to knowledge. My College Trip to Puri, Odisha was one such journey. We all had been talking about this journey for the entirety of the year, and when the day finally arrived we were excited beyond all dreams. This journey would take us from the modern state of West Bengal to the ancient kingdom of Kalinga. It was an ultimate journey through annuls of history.

On the 31 St October 2017, we the students of Xavier's College Kolkata of Class (Bagg 2 ND year) boarded the kamakhya -Puri Express from the Sealdah station and got ready for a journey that was to take us from North - East of the Country to the Southern tip of our great Nation.

The next day, we got off the train, almost an hour late at Bhubaneswar station. We then clambered up a bus that awaited us at the parking lot. The bus drove us to VITS International, located in the old town area, After freshening up I went to the famous seaside town Puri, with some of my friends. The sea had alluded me. Words cannot describe what I saw. The dark blue waves reached out to far -off the horizon and mingled with the sky. They came rolling and got on the shores. Then they rolled slowly back leaving pebbles on the shores. Hours after hours I looked at the sea. At noon I came back to the VITS.

So as long as we were in Puri I went every morning to the seaside. At noon my friends and I bathed in the sea. I fascinated, seeing the excellent sunset from the Golden beach of Puri, this sea beach is famous for all beaches in Puri. After that, we got back to our stay.

Next-Day we visited the Jagannath temple. The building is a magnificent one. We saw the wooden images of Jagannath, Balaram, and Subhadra. We prayed to them for mercy. On our way back to the temple we had a view of Lakshmi -Narayan Jola, the vast paddy field. The oblations offered to Jagannath daily are made of the rice which grows in this field. From there we drove off to the world-famous Nandankanan Zoo. There we saw many rare and endangered species of reptiles, birds, and animals. We also enjoyed one of its kinds of forest safari.

At the end of the day, we released all our tiredness by having a nice time at the swimming pool. The following day, we visited the beautiful hill of Dhaulagiri, where a pagoda has been erected in honor of the place where Asoka, renounced his sword. From there we could behold the killing fields of Kalinga.

We were at Puri for 5 days. The wholesome climate of the place and the regular sea bath improved our health.

We have already passed 5 days, We came back from Puri. Still, the memory of the vast sea tumbling down on the shore flashes across my mind and Soaks my heart in heavenly joy.