There do not appear to be any other takers for breakfast and they clearly are not going to bother with a buffet. For variety R orders boiled eggs today. Our waiter is particularly attentive, even offering extra toast which we decline. He asks us 'Which country?' before producing a reel of thread and asking if we have a needle to spare. R explains that her sewing kit is packed in our luggage. He seems disappointed. We are in no hurry and make sure that we empty the vast teapot while watching the TV news. This may well be in Odia for all we know as the captions are in a rounded squiggly script apart from the two words "Breaking News". The best thing about it is that Donald J Trump does not feature at all.
Eventually the teapot is empty and we have 45 minutes to kill until the taxi is due. We dive into our luggage and find a needle which R presents to the waiter. There seems to be time to take a walk along the jetty but as we leave the restaurant we are told that our taxi is just coming. A quick check that all of our luggage is onboard and we hit the road. Two miles takes us to the main East Coast Highway, a proper dual carriageway with a decent surface, and only a few autos and two wheelers driving in the wrong direction. Traffic is light and the general standard of driving quite reasonable until we hit the outskirts of Bhubaneswar where things degenerate rapidly. Our driver knows roughly where to go and, with the help of the phone's mapping app, D is able to guide him to the exact spot.
The Prangan Mango Hotel is newish and about 400 yards further away from the station than the Grand Central, which is full. Because of our early start and the suggestion made to us that the trip would take an hour longer than it did, we are ludicrously early. The man on reception takes it in his stride, ushers us to a seat and assures us of attention as soon as the queue of checkers-out has been dealt with. He is as good as his word and shortly after 10 a.m. we take occupancy of a compact but well equipped room on the second floor. Best of all the room has a kettle and tea making facilities. R is feeling a little under the weather so we just potter around and do some reading as the sun blazes outside. The weather app says it is 32C and we believe it. D nips out to do some errands including a trip to the bank (2000 notes only), a top up order of orange bites and some bottled water.
R has recovered a bit and we decide to head out. There is an Odishan Craft market called Ekamra Haat which might be interesting and we head for that, taking a short cut through the station. The temperature is much more pleasant now and we opt to walk. Our Indian road crossing skills are a bit rusty but we get some practice in tonight. The road immediately outside the hotel is particularly challenging. The market is fairly quiet but stall holders perk up visibly as they see us approach. As usual at such venues there are plenty of people who want to tell us how beautiful Kashmir is and how we must visit. The pictures in this morning's papers show snow in Kashmir deep enough to bury cars. We disappoint all of the traders as it is far too early in this trip to be buying stuff. The most interesting thing is to watch bats and drongos plucking insects out of the darkening sky.
There is a street full of brightly lit stalls that we noticed opposite the Haat entrance and we investigate. It is a collection of vans offering different snacks and street food, but nothing very exotic or enticing looking. We do plan on eating exotic tonight. A friend posted pictures of his meal in in Bhubaneswar eatery on Facebook a few days ago and this is our target. The Odisha Hotel is actually just a small restaurant, but one that gets great reviews for its Odishan cuisine. We are quite footsore by the time that we get there and ready to eat. The door is open but the place is empty. A youth appears from the kitchen and shoos us away. Bum! Knackered and hungry we flag an auto and head for Kanika Restaurant at the ritzy Mayfair Lagoon complex. By local standards this will cost an arm and a leg but we ate here last year and enjoyed the experience.
Kanika is a small, cosy room accessed via a gloomy corridor and by crossing through an Indian themed restaurant. We are the only diners but it is quite early. We order sherbert drinks and peruse the menu. Banana and onion fritters catch the eye and the thali meals on offer promise Odishan specialities. We go for the fritters followed by thalis with a beer to share. We can hear a lot of activity in the kitchen as we sit back and recover from our exertions. The starter takes a while to arrive but when it does it looks good and tastes OK. We debate the ingredients of the sauce that accompanies, tangy and minty but with a definite chilli kick.
Our thalis arrive - one veg and one non-veg, the difference being Rs 120, a small piece of fish and a small bowl of bone in chicken in gravy. There are two types of rice, one quite sweet, a bowl of daal and several vegetable dishes which we cannot really identify. The food is OK but not as good as we remember and R finds one of the veg dishes quite unpleasant. The thali plates include a small dish of cardamom flavoured sweet rice pudding. The service cannot be faulted. We have a waiter and waitress to ourselves. When we settle up the bill works out at around £12 each, very reasonable by home standards but top dollar here. We take our leave and manage to find a short cut out to the street where a couple of autos are lurking. Despite a lazy day we are ready for bed.
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