The State of Orissa lies along the northeast coast of India on the Bay of Bengal. A few of the main attractions are the temples of Bhubaneswar (have to learn how to pronounce Bhubaneswar), Puri and the huge Sun Temple at Konark but I bet you didn’t know about the extensive tribal region in the southwest portion of Orissa. Orissa shares a long border with Chhatisgarh/Chattisgarh, another of India’s tribal states and visited a few years ago. Even though a few tribes are prevalent in both areas, Chhattisgarh was so exciting, both ex-Marine (husband, Steve) and I looked forward to exploring Orissa.

Orissa once had around 62 tribal groups and Adivasis (“original inhabitants”) make up more than one quarter of the states’ population. A few of these groups are: the Kondh/Gond; the Santal; Saura and Bonda (known as the naked people — that should be interesting).

We wouldn’t think of visiting a remote area without a guide to translate and educate us. With that, we turned to one of my favorite independent tour operators, Tomas at Footloose Travel. Tomas has arranged several trips for us in the past. Read about Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, a visit to the North Face of Everest in Tibet and his rates are more competitive than many “name” tour operators, Tomas also has contacts all over the world and does a great job. I wouldn’t use him if he didn’t.

Orissa map, India
One of the boiler-plate itineraries on his Footloose India site suited us just fine. A little Lonely Planet reading, on-line research and we decided to add an additional few days in Sunderbans National Park hoping that we’d be lucky enough to actually see a tiger once again. Kanha and Bandhavgarh were once in a lifetime experiences…but one never knows…

Lonely Planet Discover eBook Travel Guides for your iPadDecisions easily made, it was time to start planning…