[AJ-got-BHP]

Fellow BHPians I am just about to pen down my first travelogue on the TEAM-BHP site

4th of October 2014 : The day after Dushehra or Dashami as we Calcuttans call it, I wanted a break from the festivities of Durga Puja. Actually, after spending the entire night on Nabami Day (2nd of October 2014) doing Durga Puja pandel hopping with family and friends; I was exhausted with the entire idea of this kind of break from work which is more tiring than a normal working day where one is deprived of sleep.

Posting some snaps of the Pandel Hopping that we did :






Baffled with the hustle and bustle of the festivities; I just wanted to leave the city so just made an impromptu plan to hit the Tarmac to reach a place where I would find the Sun, the Sand & the Sea. The idea was to drive on the beach !!! So what could have been better than Mandarmani which was just a 175Kms Drive from Kolkata.

My new Fordy White was awaiting a break too.


Called up a cousin of mine who owns a resort in Mandarmani and was extremely lucky to find a couple of rooms there. So, buzzed up another family member who's more of a friend to come along.

The group - Family 1 : Me, my wifey and my Kiddo
Family 2 : My wife's Mama, Mami & their boys

Set up everything on the 3rd Oct'14 evening. My Figo and the other car which was a VW Vento were tanked up, nitrogen levels in the tires were checked, bags were packed, the Ice Box was ready and so were we.

Planned to leave at 10:30am on the 4th of October 2014 and hit the tarmac and everything was on schedule and we hit the road on time.

Kolkata to Kolaghat - 64 Kms - 1 Hour 15 Mins (4 Lane Highway & blessed that the New Kolaghat Flyover is now up and ready, or else as previously remember spending hours to cross it which is no more the case)

Take a left from Kolaghat towards Haldia and drive 32 Kms upto Nandakumar

Kolaghat to Nandakumar - 32 Kms - 30 Mins (4 Lane Highway)

Take a right from an island that you will find in the middle of the highway at Nandkumar and move towards Digha till you enter the town of Contai

Nandakumar to Contai - 54 Kms - 1 Hour (Single Lane Road, fairly decent road apart from a 7 Kms stretch road which is rough)

We stopped at Contai for Lunch @ 1:15pm at Sananda Restaurant which is a decent place for stopping over for lunch, some Tea and P :


A look at the roads and my Fordy White taking a power break :



From Contai head towards Digha. After driving approx 14 Kms you will find a junction named Chawlkhola take a left into the narrow village road which will take to straight to Mandarmani. This is a 9Km narrow road which has twists and turns and dips on it, so be cautious and drive steady within speed limits. Once you reach a place where you will find the commercial vehicles (buses etc.) parked; means you have reached Mandarmani.

Do not think of plunging into the beach from this side. It's definite that your vehicle could get stuck and the locals would charge Rs.15,000/= to pull your car out from the sand for you. Move On !! Keep on driving straight till you find no road.....yes no road. All you will find is toughened sand and road made of damaged bricks. Go On. Drive till you find the Back Gate of Rose Valley Resort (now named as SUNCITY Resorts) and the next 100 Mtrs. you will hit the sand with your wheels :




Enjoy your drive on the Sand !! We just loved it and the Kids just freaked over it.

We reached our Resort - Masara Beach Resort :




Immediately the kids moved on to the beach and so we did to have some fun :





Called it a day to wake up the next day morning to have some fun on the beach with the Cars :




Thereafter moved on to the Water Park of the Suncity Resorts with the Kids for some more fun :






Entry Fee per person in the Water Park was Rs.300/= including the Cable Car & the Toy Train Ride which was a decent VFM outing.

However, the lunch we had here was expensive and really not worth the money so would suggest travelers to avoid.

There was Water Sports happening on a beach further up so indulged ourselves further into some water sports :




By this time we were too exhausted to do anything else on the given day, but our getaway was already about to come to an end and we really did not want it to.

But there's lots more we did and there's lot more to share with you guys which I definitely will in the Next Part of this Post.

Till then take care and hope you enjoyed going through my 1st Travelogue so far

[AJ-got-BHP]

....Continuing with the second part of my Travelogue -

After all the adrenaline with the Water Park & the Water Sports was over; wanted to just enjoy the evening breeze so hired a "Vano" and pushed off towards Mohana Beach to see some Red Crabs in their natural habitat :




It was now Maggi Time & to see some fresh catch of the day by the locals :
Parked before the Beach Shacks





Called it a day and returned to the hotel with a beautiful drive back :



Stayed over at the hotel that night. But no one was in a mood to head back to Kolkata the next day.

So woke up the next morning to check out from where we were staying and then take a call post breakfast. We realized that without a swimming pool at the hotel (as ours did not have one) it would be pointless to stay back in Mandarmani. So the hunt for another property started and since Mandarmani was packed up with tourists it was a tough call.

However, we found this property called 'Victoria Beach Resort' to our liking and pricing and shifted bags from Masara to this one which had a pool. Some pics of the property for you guys:




Managed to get the Ground Floor Rooms closest to the the Restaurant, the Pool & the Beach to our liking and was happy shift. Had lunch and slept over for a while to again be hitting the beach and swim amongst the waves @ around 4:00pm. Just enjoyed the pristine beach of Mandarmani that evening






And then again shifted gears to be in the swimming pool the entire evening upto dinner time to be early to bed and early to rise.

Woke up at 06:00am early in the morning. Wanted to end the trip with a walk on the beach with some fresh Coconut water and followed the heart to enjoy the scenic beauty of the morning at the beach





Had a sumptuous breakfast and had our last drive on the beach before we signed off from Mandarmani to visit again sometime soon








Cherished moments @ Mandarmani !!

[Aditya]

Nice little write up and good pictures of the pandals and the places. The beach looks nice and clean. Tempting seafood as well. Wish the pictures were bigger though. Anyway, thanks for sharing.
And by the way, your Figo looks hot.

[BlackPearl]

Thanks for sharing the travelogue and as Aditya has said, your Figo really looks good. What tyre size are you running?

[AJ-got-BHP]

Hello Aditya,

I wish the snaps could be bigger. Had to compress them to upload as theycouldn't be attached in the form they were in. So, I guess they just shrunk a bit.....

Thanks for the comment on Fordy White !! It will get hotter with the TEAM-BHP sticker on it.....very soon

[AJ-got-BHP]

Hey Black Pearl,

I am sticking on to the OEM Size of 185/70 R14 as my vehicle is just 3 months old at the moment and have purchased a 4 Year warranty from Ford so do not want to let that go away due to a change in tire/rim size. I guess they look oversized; but aren't....

I installed Alloy Rims which were negative and exchanged my OEM stock tires with Yokohama's Earth 1 for a better ride quality.

Glad you liked them. Waiting to catch up very soon !!