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In my previous post, I wrote about our first day in Kollam without mentioning anything about the town itself. In this post I will start with a few lines on it before going into details of our second day.

Kollam, pronounced as Koilam was previously known as Quilon. It is one of Malabar Coast’s oldest ports situated around 74 Km north of Thiruvananthpuram and 85 Km south of Alleppey. This small town sandwiched between sea and Ashtmudi Lake was once the centre of the spice trade. Marcopolo, the great Venetian traveler, who was in Chinese service under Kublai Khan, visited Kollam in around 1293 AD on his return trip from China to Arabia. Ibn Batuta also visited Kollam in 14th Century.

Malayalam Calendar or Malayalam era – The solar calendar followed in Kerala is also known as “Kollavarsham”. It is calculated from the founding of the present Kollam town by Syrian merchant Sapir Iso in 825 A.D. It starts in mid April and coincides with the New Year festivities elsewhere in India, which occur around the same time as Bihu in Assam and Baisakhi in Punjab. It is celebrated as Vishu in Kerala. (more…)

Before you get busy with tongue-twisting title of this post, go back to the fancy first word - Florence.

Nice as it sounds, the city of Florence is a vast and breathtaking monument to the Italian Renaissance. Firenze in Italian comes from Florentia, the city of flowers. The city has witnessed a string of influences in the fields of knowledge, art, literature and philosophy, that turned Florence into one of the world’s greatest artistic capitals.

Florence is best known as the city that was patron to writers like Dante and Petrarch, and artists like Michelangelo, Donatello and Botticelli and their works can be experience at this old World Heritage City.

The Colorful Steets of Florence

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Thanks for all the praise showered on the Jagannath Puri Series.

As promised, I am back with the latest in the remainder write ups on Chilika, Konark, Bhubaneswar (Lingaraj Temple, Nadan Kanan Park), Pipli and Dhauli. In the current part, however, I will cover only the Chilika lake.

A postcard from Chilika

About Chilika
As many of us might already know, Chilika is a lagoon, popularly known as the biggest Brackish water lake of Asia. It is a habitat to some biodiversity, the Dolphins and a wide variety of migratory birds being the major components. It is spread over 1100Sq. Km comprising of wetlands and shallow water, depth of which is dependent on the tide condition. There are many islands within the lagoon with their own attractions/spots, with the Kalijai being the most revered temple with its own legend. No, I am not going into the details:-), though Mrs Mohapatra had given us some tips.
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Kaddukhal seemed ideal location since it was on a ridge, and additionally the place was peaceful and away from settlement. We were more than delighted when we stepped out of the bus. We were overlooking into a beautiful valley. On our right side, we could see the way leading up to the Surkanda Devi temple. We bowed out of respect and started moving towards the left side of the road into the jungle. We had checked out with the local refreshment shopkeeper that there was a nice view from a certain point 2 km inside jungle. The place was ideal for tents and mostly foreigners visited the place for hiking and tents. We felt that we hit the right spot on the planet earth since that precisely was the call of the day. There was one serious problem. As per shopkeeper, there were certain instances of bear sightings in the jungle but the frequency was very less.
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