Puri in India – Visiting Puri Beach and doing a bit of people watching

A day spent my the seaside at Puri in India! Puri is famous for its beach and also the temples in the surrounding area. You can take a day trip to Konark from Puri, as well as just chilling out at Puri beach.

Night Train to Puri, India

Blog post written Sat 10/01/04

Another interesting night on the train! Surrounded by the sterio-typical lower-middle class Indian family with annoying small child and four suitcases each!

However, as it had been a long day, I managed to get a good nights sleep, despite being directly under the air conditioning unit.

Puri, India

I arrived at Puri, and met up again with a Cuban, Pole and Spaniard whom I had been talking to the previous night in the station. We decided to share a couple of rickshaws between us, and had a look at a couple of guesthouses.

Some were a bit naff, so I settled on the Hotel Derby, which was a bit more expensive than the others, but did have cable TV.

As it was the morning when I checked in, I had breakfast up on the veranda in the beautifully warm sun and ate breakfast looking out onto the ocean, wondering where it all went wrong!

Visiting Puri Beach

I went out onto the beach, which was reasonable with lots of fishing vessels. It was a lovely day, and after a wander along the sand, it was obviously time for another meal, so I had a veg curry in one of the cafes and watched the world go by.

I think that the western travellers are just as interesting to look at as the inhabitants of Puri. Well over fifty percent of them fell into the ‘alternative, trying to find myself' category.

Then you had the ageing hippy trying to relive their youth brigade. There are always a couple of Japanese tourists of course, and also one Western Hare Krishna, who judging by the looks the locals were giving him, was considered a bit odd by more people than just me.

I got a bicycle rickshaw into the centre of Puri, where I walked around a temple and took a few photos.

I booked an autorickshaw to take me to Konark the Sun Temple the following day, and had an early night in front of the TV. Saw a very large rat wander around my room. Marvellous stuff.  

Read more about my India train travel adventure

This is a directory to the blog posts in this series.

1. First day in India
2. Second day in Delhi
3. Sightseeing around Delhi
4. First Indian train journey
5. Calcutta
6. Sightseeing in Calcutta
7. Puri
8. Day trip to Konark
9. Bubenishwar
10. Calcutta again
11. Into Darjeeling
12. Darjeeling day 2
13. Darjeeling day 3
14. Train journey from Darjeeling to Varanassi
15. Boat ride on the Ganges
16. Another night on a train
17. Journey to Khajorho
18. Khajorho
19. Amritsar
20. Taj Mahal
21. Waiting at the station
22. Quiet day
23. Jodhpur
24. Jaisalmer
25. Camel Safari
26. Problem day
27. Jaisalmer Festival
28. To Ranthambore
29. Tigerless safari day 1
30. Tigerless safari day 2
31. Another day, another railway station
32. On to Mumbai
33. Mumbai
34. Aurangabad
35. Ajanta
36. Ellora Caves – Day 1
37. Ellora Caves – Day 2
38. Hyderabad
39. Chill out day
40. The end of the India trip