Puri

A beautiful sunset in Puri

Unfortunately my time in India is winding down and I thought I would quickly blog about my trip to Puri. Puri is located in the state of Orissa, which is below West Bengal. The area is a popular tourist site because many people go there to see the ocean. We were excited to go swimming and be able to relax before our final paper was due and now I can say that I have been to 3 oceans (technically it was the Bay of Bengal but I think its close enough).

Me on the beach

We started our travels on a night train which left Howrah station in Kolkata and we arrived the next morning. We ate breakfast and immediately headed for the beach so we could swim. The ocean was fantastic although it was slightly annoying when our tour guide and an Indian lifeguard joined us and kept telling us to move back into shallower water. Honestly, we could probably swim better than they can seeing as most Indians cannot swim and we all can because we either live by an ocean, have swam in an ocean, or live in a state with thousands of lakes. Anyway, it was very fun and we were all happy to hang out. I also saw a jellyfish floating about 3 feet away from me and had to yell to Erik and Rachel to watch out or we would have to pee on them (for those of you who don't know, that is what you are supposed to do to someone who has been stung by a jellyfish).

Walking along the beach before our "bodyguard" came to get us

After awhile we went in to eat lunch and then promptly fell asleep for a nice nap. After waking up, some of us decided to go for a walk along the beach and before we could get too far down the beach, the tour guide came to retrive us for snack time. He was quite annoying through the entire trip and we dubbed him the "bodyguard" because he wouldn't let us go anywhere or do anything unless he was along. We came back for snack time and then a group of us went with Sucharita (our program director) to a temple. After sweating our way there (we walked and it is extremely hot in India now) we had to stand outside because only Hindus were allowed inside. Tiffany wanted to see if she would be allowed in so she accompanied Sucharita. Tiff's Asian features could possibly pass as Assamese (North-Eastern Indian state) so she was hoping she was going to get in but the guards were extremely strict and told her that they would call an Assamese priest to check the validity of her claims, so needless to say, Tiff booked it out of the pretty fast. The temple was supposed to be very beautiful and extravagant but they are VERY selective about who they let in. We decided to just head back and after taking a crazy auto ride in which we almost ran into a cow, a dog, and a wall, we made it back to the hotel for dinner and just hung out for the rest of the night seeing as most of us were pretty tired and burnt to a crisp (I am hoping that it will be tan by the time I get back to the States or I really will look like Bob from VeggieTales).

A view of the beach taken from our hotel