khurda road junction | Vivacious Anushri

Being a social science teacher I teach my students about the culture and heritage of India. I love to travel all around the country, which is full of various lifestyles, cultures, beliefs, etc. The vividness yet feeling of belongingness that is shared by Indians is truly amazing and draws my interest towards traveling and exploring the whole of the country. This vacation I planned to visit the oldest city of Tamil Nadu i.e. Madurai, which is renowned for its loaded cultural and historic heritage.

Puri Railway Station | Image Resource : flickr.com

Puri KDJR Express | Image Resource : irctc-co.in

I searched on the internet for various travel portals that offer all the information regarding the tickets availability, fares, accommodation, etc and finally, decided to travel via rail route to our destination. I booked our tickets on the Puri KDJR Express that departs from Puri at 6:15 am and reaches the Khurda Road Junction at 7:10 am covering a distance of 44 kilometers. Hereafter, we took the BBS RMM Express that departed from the Khurda Road Junction at 12:35 pm and reached the Karaikkudi junction at 7:15 pm. The journey was quite comfortable and my kids were quite excited all the way long.

Khurda Road Junction | Image Resource : eastcoastrail.indianrailways.gov.in

BBS RMM Express| Image Resource : c3.staticflickr.com

Then, we took a cab and reached our destination i.e. Madurai where I had pre-booked the hotel GRT Residency for our stay using the online booking facility offered by this famous hotel. One can also avail discounts on air travel and hotel bookings at Madurai by taking the Madurai flight hotel package offered by popular travel websites. All the famous hotels in Madurai can be booked online via the hotel booking apps as well. However, popular travel websites offer the facility to book flights and accommodation at Madurai at very affordable prices and according to the service preferences of clients.

Karaikkudi Junction | Image Resource : imageshack.us

The beautiful city of Madurai is located only at a distance of 450 kilometers from the city of Chennai, so it is often preferred by travelers to take a flight to Chennai and then travel further to Madurai via roadways. Some of the airlines mainly JetLite, Spice Jet and Jet Konnect are the airline companies that offer connectivity to Madurai from all parts of the country. Hence, one can avail the travel route and means which is most suitable and plan one’s trip accordingly.

It was going to be a long journey but pleasurable for sure. As we got ready with bags and baggage, I could see the excitement in my children’s eyes. Although, the reasons for travel may differ from person to person, the pleasure while traveling for some reason is universal to all. Just as for me it meant seeing and visiting monuments and ancient places, for my children, the most likely reason to travel was plain fun with no studies or school to worry about. My husband, I guess was simply happy that the rest of us were happy and excited about the trip. Thus, began my journey from Puri to Pune via Khurda Road Junction. I had my driver come around to help us reach the Khurda Road Junction from where we were to take the Konark Express to Pune.

Konark Express | Image Resource : flickr.com/

We reached the Khurda Road Junction just in time for the Konark Express, which departed around 3:50 in the afternoon. Since our tickets were reserved, we did not have any difficulty finding our seats and soon all of us settled into our seats and were ready to begin the next phase of our journey. The kids had had a lot of activity since morning, finally gave in to fatigue and dozed off. For the lack of any other thing to do, I too slept off only to be woken up a few hours later at the Vishakhapatnam station where my close relatives stay. Despite all my protests, they insisted to come to the station to give us food for the train journey and though I was hesitant at first, later I relented because I was travelling with children and it helped to have homemade meals for them.

My journey from Puri to Pune via Khurda Road Junction reached its last leg when the following day we reached the Secunderabad Junction at noon and then our destination Pune by Konark Express by midnight. Thankfully, the train was not late or uncomfortable otherwise it would have been a big problem with kids. We were booked at the Central Park Hotel, Pune and the car commute to the hotel was set.