Kolkata - Shantiniketan - Kolkata

[senindra]

On 2nd January I was standing in front of CCD on Wood Street and discussing along with my bulleteer friends where to go on the 3rd as 4th I'll be flying off to Ho Cho Minh till the 20th. Till 10 in the evening no one could suggest a place. I drove to the petrol pump near Wipro tanked up, garaged my car and hit the bed.

A bulleteer friend Arijit suggested we meet in the morning at 6 AM at Saturday Club and then decide where to go. Waking up at 6.30 already meant I was late. However after I checked my phone I had an SMS saying make it to 6.30.
I finally made it to Saturday Club at 6.45 AM

Arijit parked the bullet and got into the car. We drove off towards the Kona toll plaza without deciding where we were going.

7 AM: We pay Rs.10 and drive off on the Kona expressway which is not in the best condition.

7.40 AM: We stop at Shefali Dhaba (?) for breakfast right after crossing Shaktigarh langcha shops.

Here we still do not know where we are going. Finally we decided we can go to Shantiniketan and visit our bulleteer friends. Unfortunately none of us had the number of any. I called up my brother in Leeds, woke him up at mid night, got cursed, told him to SMS me the number and hung up .

Finally Arijit and I made SMS's/ Calls to our friends in Shantiniketan and informed about our plans.

















8:20 AM: We leave Shefali Dhaba and drive towards Shantiniketan. After crossing the Panagarh Bridge I made a call to my friend at Shantiniketan and asked him to meet us at Jarman Dhaba. On enquiring how long it would take from Panagarh Bridge to Shantiniketan, I get the answer " Tomar chalano te 1/2 ghonta laagbe" (With your driving it would take half n hour).

After taking right from Darjeeling More, the road is really beautiful with small bad patches right upto Bolpur.

At 9:40 we finally parked at the Jarman Dhaba and made calls as none of them had arrived.

A small tea break. Some pictures. Little adda. At 10.30 we headed to the University to meet another friend.




















After arriving at the University and catching up with our professor friend he wanted us to give him a ride till Palsit railway station from where he would take a train to Pandua to attend a family picnic. We just had to wait till 11.30 till he finished giving out question papers to his students.

11.20 AM : We leave the campus and head out of Shantiniketan. The first 10 minutes were chaotic.

11:40 AM : Stop to buy ciggys.

Then we drove off towards Kolkata with two short breaks. One at Shaktigarh to pick up Langcha and the second one at Palsit to drop of Sudev our professor friend at the Station.



2:00 PM: Kona Toll payed and entered Kolkata.

Duration of Trip : 7:00 AM - 02:00 PM
Fuel : One Full tank
Kms : 430


Best wishes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Indra

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Up and down Shantiniketan is 430 km ?????? Which detour did you do? Anyway, congrats for finally making it to SKtan. Didn't Easternbulls have a few members from there?

[BlackPearl]

nice pics @senindra.

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Up and down Shantiniketan is 430 km ??????

Kolkata-Panagarh = 150 Kms
Panagarh-Illambazaar = 25 Kms
Illambazaar-Bolpur = ?? I have forgotten but should not be more than 20 Kms.

[senindra]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Up and down Shantiniketan is 430 km ?????? Which detour did you do? Anyway, congrats for finally making it to SKtan. Didn't Easternbulls have a few members from there?

Sorry for the goof up. The trip meter was set to 0 the previous day while tank up and the 430 reading is after travelling atleast 20-25 odd kms after entering Kolkata.

And yes Eastern Bulls does have a few members there.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

nice pics @senindra.

Thank you.

[me_sid]

Indra Hi, nice pics just that the distance be around 490 Kms thats from Kasba where I stay. We also did the same trip on 19-21 Dec 2008.

The Gang :

a) Xeta and xeta's Boss ( read wifey)
b) Shuvd and shuvd's love ( Silk Revver that is)
c) Me and my home minsiter in our Baleno.

As I had two onboard speed governance system my speed was resticted to the standard 120 with occassional 160+ when these two systems were on sleep mode. Reached Shantiniketan by 11.00 ( started at 8:00). I particularly liked the drive through the "laalmaati" on the banks of Khowai river in the evening.Had loads of fun and maasti, and frankly a very memorable trip, thanks to xeta, nibedita and shuvd. While coming back short lunch break at "Jiran" and pit stop at the usual "Lengcha Bhaban" total distance travelled 520 Kms.