Globetrotting Czech tourists include Ekamra Walks in their list

Bhubaneswar: On the Day-I of the World Heritage Week, the 49th Ekamra Walks, the only guided heritage tour of the city encountered interesting walkers with two friends from the Czech Republic, who are on a world tour, a walker from Romania and USA and a father-daughter duo from the city, who are from Armed Forces.

While the walkers enjoyed the heritage sojourn starting from Mukteswar with its unique arch and breathtaking architecture, the surprise flute recital at the end of the walk on the bank of Bindusagar, on the steps of Ekamra Van, was an added advantage.

Heritage lover and conservation expert from Gangotrinagar area, Suryanarayan Das who came with his friend, was overwhelmed with the flute recital at the beginning of the walk. “To me and my friend, this is one of the best elements of the Ekamra Walks. We loved it. The recital at the end of the walk was also an added attraction to all of us,’’ he said.

Iona Uzum, from Romania, who came with her Delhi-based daughter, said “I have really enjoyed the entire heritage walk and on my return to my city I would definitely tell my friends that here is such a beautiful walk with so much beautiful monuments, music and people and this should be visited by all.’’

Hannah Barnes, an American artist, who has come to the city for her resident exposure at city-based Utsha Foundation, said “I am really happy to explore such a wonderful temple architecture tradition and building style and during my stay I would like to visit this week-end trip another time.’’

Ekamra Walks for Globetrotters from Czech

Vit and Karolina, two travelers from Ostrava in Czech Republic joined the 49th Ekamra Walks today and were very happy to discover the unique temple building style of the Kalingan era. Interestingly, both on a world tour, got to know about Ekamra Walks from a friend and tried to discover the heritage walk.

“We started from mid-August from our city Ostrava and so far covered nations like Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran and then arrived in India. We wanted to visit Pakistan, but could not get the visa as there is border issues there,’’ informed Vit.

Vit, a student of marketing has left his studies to take up the world tour. His friend Karolina is a physiotherapist, who has also left her job to join Vit on the tour. From Bhubaneswar they would go to the City of Joy Kolkata and then to Nepal and after visiting the Himalayan country, would explore Australia.

To a question, whether he would be interested to pen down a book compiling his experiences from the world tour, Vit said “there might be a plan, but I am not sure.’’

Dad-Daughter due from Army

Retired Army officer Col. DP Padhee from Polhariput joined the heritage walk with her young daughter Vaneeta Padhee, who is a serving Major with the Army Signals. Vaneeta is an engineer in Electronics and Telecommunication trade and hence got the responsibility of handling telecom issues. He father was with 17th Engineers’ Regiment.

“We are very happy to discover so many things on a day’s walk today and I hope more and more people should join the heritage walk to discover their roots. I will definitely invite my friends to come and explore the monuments,’’ said Vaneeta. Vaneeta’s brother Sarit Anand Padhee, who is also enengineer, is also serving an engineer with the Army.

“Our heritage and traditions are very rich and we should love them and promote them as they are an important part of our civilization. We all should invest time and efforts to promote them as well,’’ she added.

The walkers visited Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Swarnajaleswar, Kotitirtheswar, Bindusagar, Ananta Vasudev, Doodhwala Dharamsala, Lingaraj, Chitrakarini, Sari temple, Mohini, Vaitaal temple and Ekamra Van, the medicinal plant garden.