The huge Sun Temple at Konark, a coastal site about 30
kms north of Puri is one of Odisha state's most impressive sights . Our day trip
to Konark began with a bicycle ride through the countryside from Puri followed
by shared taxis the longer distance to the temple. The bicycles made available
to us by Pulak from a shop, though, were rusty old clunkers, all to small for
my frame without my knees hitting the handlebars with high risk of my swerving
into traffic since there was no way I could steer any of those I tried out.
Besides that, it was already mighty hot and humid, so I decided to skip the
bike ride and go to a meeting point in one of the cars hired to drive us to
Konark. Pulak guided us on one last village walk through a town that
specialized in several crafts, our last local culture experience in Odisha.



 The next morning we got up early to take the
train from Puri to Kolkata. Apparently, roads in northeast India are poor
enough and crowded enough that Dragoman now uses trains for trips
into and out from Kolkata while one of the two drivers takes the truck
onwards to the next spots on the journey to avoid the hassle of
long days on the truck without any significant sights.