Chilka Lake covers an area of 900 sq. km and is Asia’s largest salt and fresh water lake. Over a million migratory birds, 230 species (that come from as far away as Siberia) visit Chilka every year. …View image. Bird-lovers, Chilka is definitely the place to visit in December/January for flamingos, bar headed geese, shoveller and white-bellied sea eagles.

To see the birds, there are government motor boats and private boats for hire. A 1-1/2 hour motor boat ride will cost 4000R, while a slower motor boat will take 2 to 3-1/2 hours to go the same distance for 750R. Big difference but we didn’t have the 3+ hours to spare today, especially since there were only a few flamingos who hadn’t migrated back home yet. This trip was in February and the majority of birds had already departed. Close to the mouth of Chilka Lake, a large population of Gangetic dolphins can sometimes be seen but, again, it is too hot in February.

Boats for hire sign at Chilka Lake, Orissa, India
During our tribal market visits, Bibhu looked in vain for Kutia Kondh women with their distinctive tattooed faces, but here, at Chilka Lake, there was a group of Kutia women sitting and waiting to visit a temple in the lake…View image. And, a few older women had tattooed faces.

Kutia Kondh geometric tattoo, Orissa, IndiaKutia Kondh tattoo side view, IndiaEach tattoo is exactly the same so they can recognize each other in the spirit world.

National Highway 5 to Chilka was decent but then we turned off on the road to Puri, currently being improved and it may be finished by the time you read this post (lucky you). It took two hours to drive 38 kms/23 miles on this brown, dusty, bone-jarring road. Isn’t that ridiculous?

There were consoling sights that got our minds off all the pain killers we were going to take in Puri. Brilliant green rice fields contrasted with the brown roads. Locals pulled in fishing nets from under matted water hyacinths with little fish in them…View image.

catching small fish under the water hyacinths, Orissa, India
There were more birds in the fields than we saw at Chilka Lake — hundreds of migrating Ibis preparing for their flights home to Iran and other Arab countries, cormorants…View image, egrets…View image, storks…View image, and typical little Orissan villages.

Ibis drying wings in an Orissan field, India 

Orissa village, India 

local Orissan method of irrigating rice fields, India
At last, the decent road into Puri with the amazing Hotel Hans Coco Palm, the most luxurious of our Orissan stay. …View image… A wonderful, three-night stay in Puri ahead of us, a few Aleve, short rest, shook the road dust off and prepared to visit the famous India pilgrimage site of Jagannath Temple around sundown. Adi Shankara founded one of the Shakti Peethas here (a holy place of cosmic power). Puri is also famous for its “Golden Beach,” considered ideal for swimming and surfing (not that we’d have time). (Read Travels With Sheila’s previously published what to see and do in Puri.)

room view at Hans Coco Palms Hotel, Puri, IndiaGet the digital chapters you want, ditch the ones you don’t! Only $4.95 per chapter!