Then we stopped by Sita’s palace called the Kanaka Bhavan. It is believed that Rama made a statue of Sita in Gold when she was in exile to perform the Ashwamedha Yagna and since then this has been called the Kanka Bhavan. 

We had a darshan of Rama’s family at the temple and then moved on to Nageshwar temple (Shiva Temple) and visited Hanuman Temple (monkey God) before we left the city. 

We bade goodbye to Ayodhya and took the next train to Lucknow. We reached Lucknow after a 3 hour train journey in the afternoon and then rented a cab to Nimshar, 100 kms from Lucknow and 35 Kms from Sitapur. Lord Vishnu sits in the middle of the jungle and venturing into the forest in the evening was a bit risky. But still the darshan was worth the risk.


Our next journey from Lucknow was to Puri. We took Neelachal express and the 24 hour train ride took us through Bihar, Jharkand, West Bengal before we reached Orissa. It was again Vishnu temple there in Puri. He stands with his brother Balarama and sister Shubadhra in this temple. 

We visited Chakra theertham, Sakhi Gopal temple before we left the city to Konark, a dedicated temple to Sun God. 

Well this is not a wheel of fortune game show. I tried spinning the wheels and I gave up atlast. The temple is built on a single piece of stone and is shaped like a chariot and this is one of the 8 wheels of the chariot. 

The Nandankanan wide life sanctuary, 20 kms from Bhubaneshwar was a feast for the eyes. The lion and tiger safari was a hair rising experience. 

Well I felt very sad the trip had to end. But vacations are always short and very busy. I wanted to share a few snaps from my trip for all snaps visit http://photos.yahoo.com/arun_ri and click of Varanasi folder to access the pictures.