What are some of the best places to explore in Odisha with minimum budget?

 It actually does not cost much to travel in Odisha, only issue is that of good accomodation and facilities. Anyway outside the standard Bhubaneshwar-Puri-Konark-Chilika circuit, there are some places that are worth a visit, and which do not cost too much. Again these are places I have been to, don’t really have much idea about Western part of Odisha.

Koraput-Jeypore-Gupteshwar

Southern part of Odisha is quite an unexplored beauty. You have beautiful valleys, thick forests, hills, lakes waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately poor infrastructure and add to it Naxal issue has meant the region has not really tapped it’s potential. You can catch a bus to Koraput, or even go on a road trip from Vizag, or Vizianagaram. Till Saluru it’s pretty much plain area. From Salur, you have a very steep ghat road, runs through thick forests.

And then you reach Sunki right on the Andhra-Odisha border.

From there on to Pottangi, which has the Gali Gabdar waterfalls

From Pottangi en route to Koraput, you pass Sunabeda, lovely route with rolling meadows, valleys and lakes.

And the neatly maintained HAL Township here

Koraput is a sleepy small town, very picturesque with hills and all. Has some decent hotels too.

Jagannath Temple here is worth a visit

You can also check out the Kolab Dam hydro electric project between Koraput and Jeypore.

But the best part is Gupteswar temple, around 90 km from Koraput. The main attraction is the Shiva Linga in a limestone cave. Located near the Kolab river, it involves a trek through a dense forest.

And this is how it is in the cave.

This is one trip I would reccomend to any one in Odisha.

What are the mind-blowing facts about Odisha?

 Odisha or Orissa is a beautiful state in India and it has the rich heritage and culture.

• Kalinga war which was invaded by Mauryan empror Ashok.

See the below image.

Image source from Google.

• Kalinga war was one of the bloodiest wars in the history.
• The war fought between Mauryan empror Ashok and the Kalinga state current Odhisha state in India-King Anantha Padmanabham.
• 1,00,000 Kalingans lost their lives and 1,50,000 were injured.
• Equal number of Maruyan soliders were killed.
• Not a even single man in kalinga was alive to live a life of slavery.
• It is presumed the war has been taken place at “Daya river” now currently near to Bhuwaneswar.
• The war was happened during 261 B.C., in 8th century.
• It was the last war and the great war done by Ashok after occupying Kalinga he took the path of non-violence.
• He became an instrumental in spreading the Buddhism all over Asia.

Puri’s Lord Jagannath Temple.

Image source from Pinterest

• No birds fly even plane above the Jagannath temple. It is really very surprising in any temple India you can see birds sitting on top of the temple.
• Irrespective of the place where you stand in puri, it seems you that “Sudarshana Chakra” on top of the temple is always facing you.
• The moment you enter inside the temple you can't here the sea sound. But once you exit from the temple you can clearly here the sound.
• It seems to be lord Jagannath refuses to move during Rata Yatra Chariots festival. No matter how many hundreds of people push from back side or pulls from front side. Despite he still stands after massive push and pull.
• Lord Jagannath agreed to move only after cosmic effort according to those who has been part of the festival, it sounds offbeat.
• None of the day the food cooked at temple goes insufficient or waste no matter how many devotees are visiting the temple? It reamins the same all the days.
• Every day a priest must climbs the dome of the temple and changes the flag. Which is tall close to 45 story building and it is continuing since 1800 years.
• Ritual says if it is not changed the temple must be shout for next 18 years.
• One of the tallest monument in India close to 214 feet and 8 inch from road level and located with in 10 Acres.
• One of the biggest festival celebration in India as well as holy, scared temple.
• The engineering structure of the temple was so unique. The main dome of the temple shadow can't observed at any time.
• These are really still unexplained for many people and mysterious.

Konark Temple

Image source from Google.

• The temple was built in 13th century has 12 pair of wheels ( 24 wheels representing the 24 hours) and it has significant influence one can precisely calculate the time just by looking at the shadow.
• It is also called as Black Pagada temple.
• Kona means Angle and Arka means sun. Hence, the temple is dedicated to sun god surya.
• One of the renowned temple in the world.

Leaning temple of Huma.

• It is only the leaning temple in India and located at Sambalpur in Odhisha.

Hirakud dam.

• Hirakud dam is the largest earthen dam in the world.
• The sinhala (people of Sri Lanka) are named after Raja Jai Sinha an ancient oriya king.

Odhisha is really tremendous in terms it's heritage and culture.