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Recently I went for a trip to Satkosia and Chilka lake in Odisha with my friends. My mother told me not to go for this trip because of this Chinese virus which has made our lives horrible. Like typical bengali mothers, she was scared that I might get infected with Corona in this trip. But I did not listen to her. We started from Calcutta in my friend's car on a Thursday night around 9 p.m. after having dinner. The plan was to drive throughout the night and reach Satkosia Sands Resort the next morning. We had already booked our rooms there. The night journey was fun but was a bit risky too. We took around four to five halts at the highway dhabas for tea, coffee, snacks and cigarettes, and sometimes to pee also. It was an amazing journey. Around dawn the horizon looked magical. We took a break to soak in the first rays of the sun. There were lush green fields around us. The scenery was fascinating.
We reached Satkosia Sands Resort around 10 a.m. on the Friday morning. After reaching there we checked in to our rooms and then had breakfast. Then I came back to my room, had a shower and took some rest. Around 1 p.m. we had lunch. After lunch we took half an hour rest and then went for boating in the lake nearby. Saw a crocodile. He was taking his afternoon nap on the banks. As our motor boat approached near the bank of the lake, the crocodile woke up from his slumber and went straight into the water. He must have cursed us for disturbing his siesta. After boating we came back to our resort. It started raining a bit. The weather has lovely and very romantic. There were dark clouds above and a lovely breeze was blowing. Along with that there was mild rainfall. I sat on the balcony of the resort and enjoyed the moment. We were the only guests in the whole resort. Sitting in the balcony the whole place seemed ethereal.
In the evening there was a folk song and dance performance which was organized for us by the resort. While watching this performance we smoked hookah. The performance went on for an hour. We gave a five hundred rupees note to the performers as tip. They seemed really happy to receive this tip. After this we went back to the room and started boozing. I drank my favourite Old Monk Rum with Thums Up. Around 9 p.m. we had our dinner. The food was really nice.
The next morning we woke up early and went for a small jungle trek nearby and also went to the sand-bar near the lake. The place was so quiet and serene. We were the only people there. After breakfast we left the resort and drove to Chilka Lake. It is also called Chilika Lake. The journey from Satkosia to Chilka was nice. There we had booked our rooms at Rambha Panthanivas. We checked in to our rooms, had shower and then went for lunch. After lunch we took some rest. Two of my friends went to Gopalpur beach. Me and another friend stayed back in the hotel. We wanted to take rest. Around late evening the two friends returned from Gopalpur. Then we all started boozing again and around 10 p.m. we had our dinner.
The next morning we all woke up early and went for a boat ride on the Chilka Lake. It was amazing. We all really enjoyed the ride. And the best thing was that we were the only boat on the lake. It was as if we had the whole lake to ourselves. Chilka is a huge lake with small islands. The boat ride was for an hour. After the ride we came back to our hotel. Around noon we started our journey back to Calcutta. We had lunch at a hotel on the highway. While coming back also we took four to five small breaks. We reached Calcutta at night. We faced the worst traffic jam just while entering Calcutta.
Overall it was a nice trip especially in these horrible corona times. We all really needed this small vacation. I was bored with the city life. It was nice to spend some time in the lap of nature. If you want to see some pictures and videos of this trip then here is the link :
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2259488300864441&type=3
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