Puri - a beach too far

I made it to Bubaneshwar (2hrs from Puri) with no troubles. I had some very friendly people on the train with me and managed to get a decent amount of sleep.

I was planning on buying a train ticket to Puri at the station, but before I could do that an older man comes up to me and asks if I am "Vikram Banerjee". Apparently he has worked for my dad since he was 12 yrs old and he was sent to collect me. We made our way to the bus stand and took the 2.5hrs bus to Puri.

My father is staying at a fairly upscale hotel on the beach. You would think I would like it after all the cheap rooms I stayed in so far, but I feel really isolated on the 3rd floor very far from all the other tourist accommodations and tourist services (food, email, etc..)

I got up early this AM and went down to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was magical - there was a 20ft area of wet sand that reflected the various shades of orange from the and then the sea was a dark gray colour sandwiched between the wet sand and the sky.

My bubble was burst however, when four guys walked past me into the shallow water and proceeded to squat and shit right there...lol....Palolem this is not! I turned and walked a little further from the water to get away from them and nearly stumbled on a dead dog carcass some crows were feeding on. With a sigh I resigned myself to the fact the next few days will not be a beach paradise like Goa. However, there are lot of Indian tourists here and it is interesting to see how their beach "scene" is different from the one at beaches dominated by western tourists.

I am off to grab a shave!