Odisha

Odisha seems to be a bit different from everywhere else I've been in India. They have different food; it tastes of mustard rather than chilli. They have different gods; Jagannath is  Vishnu's Southpark incarnation. Gone are the marigolds; the offerings are all about cowri shells here. The buildings are more colourful. The police dress like cowboys.

I started in Konark which is famous for an enormo-temple decked out like a chariot. The temple is covered in hundreds of ornate carvings most of which fall into the NSFW category. And there was me thinking that Indians were conservative; they cover their tourist attractions with 800 year old smut.

Next stop was Puri, which is an absolute hotchpotch of a place. I stayed in the western end of town where it appeared to be a simple living beach community (wide beach; fishing boats; sandy roads, full of baby animals and basket weavers - the kind of place backpackers flock to so that they can feel a bit grimey).

But that's not all Puri is about, oh no. It's a super-holy pilgrimage town so the colourful streets in the centre are full of shells and streets and pilgrims heading to the temple (as an aside, the temple is walled and accessible only to Hindus; to see the architecture you have to climb into Miss Haversham's library to see over the wall, which doesn't detract from the overall weird).

But that's not all Puri is about, oh no, it's also a bona fide resort for Indian holiday makers. This was the bit that probably blew my mind the most. If you travel between the medieval temple city and a fishing village, you'll find yourself in Southend. It's got a promenade, a strip of generic, beachfront hotels and a load of shops selling tourist tat. The only real difference from a British resort was that there were camels to ride rather than donkeys.

When I was in Puri a lot of people asked me why Westerners stopped visiting twenty years ago. I suspect that the answer has a lotto do with everywhere expecting you to check out by 8am. Rather undermines the chilled out vibe that the city was going for.

I finished in the capital, Bhubaneswa, a city whose name I really have trouble spelling. Unlike my other two Odisha stops, Bhubaneswa is famous for its medieval temples. I managed about twelve before I was officially templed out and ran into the hills to look at caves.

So yeah, a smash and grab tour of Odisha's highlights, mainly on the local bus and it felt like I was backpacking again. By which I mean I found the transport uncomfortable, the accommodation unclean and felt sort of grimy for the whole weekend. I'm now slightly worried that I'm growing up.