Odisha Golden Triangle

Met at Biju Patnaik airport and taken straight into the old temple quarter. Start at Parasurameswara, one of the oldest surviving temples here, then Mukteshvara with its carved arched gateway and stepped tank, and Rajarani, built of warm khondalite and covered in guardians of the eight directions. Finish at Lingaraja, where non-Hindus watch from the north-wall platform. Dinner of dalma and macha besara.

Begin at the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves, cut for Jain ascetics in the first century BCE, with the Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharavela in the rock. On to Dhauli for the Ashokan edicts and the white peace pagoda above them. Stop at Pipili for appliqué work, then reach Konark by afternoon: twenty-four carved wheels, seven horses and erotic friezes on the surviving porch. Drive 35 km on to Puri.

Early to the Grand Road for the Jagannath Temple, viewed from the Raghunandan Library roof if you may not enter, with the Ananda Bazaar behind it where mahaprasad is cooked in stacked earthen pots over wood fires. Mid-morning, drive 14 km to Raghurajpur, a village of pattachitra painters, palm-leaf etchers and gotipua dancers where every house front is a mural. Evening on Puri beach as the fishing boats come in.

Drive 50 km south-west to Satapada, about ninety minutes, and take a motorboat out on Chilika, the largest brackish lagoon in Asia at roughly 1,100 square kilometres. Irrawaddy dolphins surface in the channel near the sea mouth, and in winter the shallows fill with flamingos, pintails and waders. Lunch of crab and prawn at a lakeside shack, then back to Puri for a last sunset over the Bay of Bengal.

Drive the 60 km back to Bhubaneswar, about ninety minutes, with time for the Odisha State Museum's palm-leaf manuscripts and Bhauma-Kara sculpture, or for Ekamra Haat, where Cuttack silver filigree, ikat from Sambalpur and Pipili appliqué are sold in one place. A plate of chhena poda before the transfer to the airport for the afternoon flight.