12th January: The bandits of Chilika Lake

We had hired the hostel's driver to take us to Chilika Lake, which is the largest brackish (salt water) lagoon in Asia. It is separated from the Bay of Bengal by a narrow sand bar. The lake is particularly well known (well, among ornithologists) for the bird sanctuary on Nalaban Island, where migratory birds settle in the winter (from November to mid-January).

After an hour's drive through beautiful scenery of rice fields and villages, we reached the town of Satapada on the shore of Chilika Lake. The driver drove us right up to the boat company (the only one in town, apparently, which seemed to operate like a boatmen's union). Our first surprise was that prices had increased since the hotel's travel agency had last updated its charts (John phoned the agency to check that they weren't ripping us off). Of the few options available, we decided to choose number 3, which it said included a visit to  see Irrawaddy dolphins, the sea mouth, and the bird sanctuary of Nalaban Island for an approximate duration of 4 and a half hours.

We walked to the jetty where a couple of old blue boats, not without charm, were lined up. Apart from the boatman and a young boy helping him, we were the only passengers and thus had plenty of room for ourselves. We would have taken the driver with us but apparently you are not allowed to share a boat.

Chilika boats beneath the palm trees

The boy's only job seemed to be bailing out water

Enjoying the sunshine and tranquility

We set off on the lake and greatly enjoyed the peace and quiet, a real luxury in India. There were only a few boats on the lake. The boatman took us first to a sand bar on which a few birds were resting. He pointed them out very enthusiastically, flapping his arms: "birds, birds". We took a picture not to disappoint him, but we thought that it would not compare to Nalaban.

Birds swooping down on the lake; a prelude to Nalaban, we presumed

The boatman then informed us that we would go to see dolphins. About half an hour later, we could see some boats circling around. We got closer and managed to spot the grey backs of two dolphins swimming together. This was not nearly as exciting as the experience in Argentina, as the water was opaque and - more importantly - the dolphins seemed to be more disturbed than curious and playful. We left quite quickly and headed towards the sea mouth, which involved another 45min ride. We paused on the way and stopped at another sand bar to see a few more birds. Again, the boatman pointed to them with exaggerated enthusiasm and I started wondering whether these would be the only birds we would see.

Our boatman standing on the sand bar

Under the shade of the plastic sheet that served as a little roof, and with the breeze coming from the sea, the ride was really pleasant. As we got closer to the sea mouth, the water was more transparent and the scenery was beautiful. The little huts serving seafood by the sand mouth looked quite appealing, but we nonetheless declined the offer as we were eager to see Nalaban.

We continued past the sand bar that opened up into the Bay of Bengal and could see the waves behind. We also went past fishermen spreading and collecting their nets. They did not look that successful unfortunately. We stopped for a few minutes on a little island where we were shown some crabs and shells containing pearls, which was quite fun - until the sales pitch started, which we quickly rejected.

The sea mouth

Fishing in the lake

Crazy red crabs

The direction we were taking looked fairly similar to the start of the boat ride. Nevertheless, we were optimistic and thought that this might just be a little break. Apparently not, as we arrived back at the dock and the boatman gestured for us to get out. We told the boatman politely that the boat ride could not be over as we had not been to Nalaban, and we had only been going for two and a half hours. As the discussion was not going anywhere, John went to get the driver to get his help as a translator. All of the other boatmen then joined the discussion, as the boatman repeated that we had "birds, birds". We now understood what he had been doing earlier. Finally, after around ten minutes of futile discussion, we went back to the ticket counter to explain the situation.

They said that it was not possible to go to Nalaban at the moment (although it wasn't clear why). John (who was at this point remaining polite) reminded them that they had sold us a ticket offering a trip to the bird sanctuary. As it became clear that we could not be taken there, we asked for a refund (i.e., the difference between the price we had paid and the price of the ticket that did not involve going to Nalaban) and did eventually manage to get back most of what we were owed (some money must have gone to the seller's pocket). By then the discussion had been going on for long enough, John was getting increasingly irritated and slightly less polite (especially when they were trying to haggle over by how much they would cheat us), and we decided that it was time to go.

We hopped in the car towards Puri. On the way the driver, who seemed very embarrassed, paused the car to show us some beautiful kingfishers, which cheered us up. Back at the hostel, we explained the situation to the travel agent, who did not seem surprised or particularly interested. We asked whether there was any authority to whom we could complain (if we could be bothered); apparently not.

Bird on a wire

Close-up of the kingfisher

Buffalo working in the drenched fields

Nice clean villages on the way back to Puri

Colourful scenes on the drive back

We had lunch in the Peace restaurant, and had a restful afternoon. We then had a walk along the beach early evening to watch sunset, dodging the touts offering camel rides and pearls.

Sunset on the beach

A long way from Rajasthan

Puri at dusk

In the evening, we went to the restaurant of one of the nicer hotels in Puri, called Aerodine. We had been warned by the Lonely Planet that the aerospatial design was rather out of place for the town (or indeed anywhere). The hotel itself is quite stylish but once you open the door of the restaurant you set foot in a spaceship (or rather a 60's conception of one). There was even a spaceship cockpit, strategically placed by the toilet. The food, however, was pretty good and we enjoyed a relaxing meal, helping us to release any lingering irritation at being ripped off by the boat operator.

Enjoying the very chic decor

Ready for take-off