Puri

Oohh, this place seems very nice - staying in the former palace of the former Maharajah of Bengal by the beach. Haven't checked out the beach yet - bit wary after my Chennai experience. Anyway, the hotel is very cool and there's a great breeze coming off the sea; I could feel it in the train this morning too.







The beach from the hotel dining verandah


Aah the train ride - should have guessed when he started talking about Vrindavan, that this young Indian man come to chat with me, was a Hare Krishna. I was just glad that I was happy to chat with someone again, that I didn't pick up on the references to ISKCON and so on. At the point where he proposed to follow me to my hotel to make sure all was in order, I twigged.

And of course there are lots of HKs around Puri - it was after all, on the hippie trail in the 60s. Everyone was very friendly when I had a little walk around the place earlier today - and prices seem to be reasonable and far less than some of the places I've been in lately. So may stay a little longer than planned and trip around the surrounding areas from here. Going to the Sun Temple at Konark tomorrow. Really looking forward to that, it was the main reason I have come here.