[joybhowmik]

A quickie brings all sorts of memories (nay fantasies) to the wild imagination!

But here's one quickie that was at the long end of a trip away from home. Just a 36 hour trip..

As has become the norm for us, whenever we travel from home (Delhi) to West Bengal (by car, what else?) , we make it a point to go somewhere close-by with family. After 3 car-borne trips , this vicissitude has become something of a ritual. An outing that the family looks forward to. Just to reconnect.


Hence , when talk arose of our trip to Chinsurah, WB , the obvious topic of conversation was not really about how to get there from Delhi, but where to go , once we were there.

Destinations were chosen , then rejected. Travelogues on TBHP , were pored over, and experiences assimilated. The mother of all travel sites - indiamike.com was consulted and hotel experiences on TripAdvisor were assayed. The hotel was finally locked down, and hence the destination.
The cart before the horse ... did I hear you ask?
Well , precisely. Because it seemed the entire humdrum of Kolkata wanted to make these 50+kms of beach their winter sojourn, especially on the days that we had planned for.

Nevertheless the hotel was to be Sonar Bangla ranked at the time a dismal 8 of 12 hotels. But who were we mere mortals to ask for better lodgings. It was enough that we had a room & roof over our heads.

The route/plan was to :

• leave Chinsurah in the morning,
• take the (erstwhile) Delhi Road upto Dankuni,
• merge onto Durgapur Expressway,
• then a right on the clover leaf to Bombay road (NH-6),
• continue on Bombay road past Kona Expressway,
• brunch at Shere Punjab hotel,
• then left onto NH41 (towards Haldia),
• right at Nandakumar circle (with the statue of Matangini Hazra) onto SH-4,
• Continue on SH-4 till Kanthi (Contai - as published in English maps),
• Left onto the Mandarmoni beach road - which stays with you till the beach.

The Beach
it's so flat one could land an aircraft on it!


a boat waiting in the sun


at the end of a hard day's work


boats bobbing at the gate


collecting shells


the object of attention


A rather interesting beetle...it laboured its way from the beach to the hotel grounds - just before the tide came in.




The Hotel
The hotel is on a nice section of the beach. There is only one access route and that's through the beach. It's new and expanding. It's evident the business is young , and has a long way to go to achieve maturity in the fine art of hoteliers and hospitality.
The food was average. Predominantly sea-food. Not the local catch though.
The rooms were average too. And ill-maintained. It's evident, that the capacity expansion at the hotel is at least partly funded by reduced operational expense.
A truly nondescript hotel, that will fade in memory, with time.
A word in parting. At the time of checking in - I was surprised to see the check-in time was 2 PM, while the check out time was 11 AM. During checkout - the reason for 11 AM was evident. In the forenoon, it's the earliest time, one can safely drive out of the hotel, without the ebbing tide hampering one's tyres.

A few pictures:
The hotel with its neighbours



The hotel building


The grounds












The swimming pool




A green temple-made entirely of natural fibre- a stone's throw away from the hotel.

[Sheel]

Thanks for sharing this Joy

What was the tariff & any phone nos?

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Thanks for sharing this Joy

What was the tariff & any phone nos?

Welcome Sheel. Here are the details:

Hotel Sonar Bangla - Mandarmoni ,
Salimpur P O Kalindi P S Ramnagar Medinipur
Kalindi Mandarmoni , India

Contact : 91-9836-056456, 91-9800340270
E-mail : ceohotelsonarbangla@gmail.com,
avhipc@gmail.com,
hsbreservations@gmail.com
GPS Coordinates: 21.653479, 87.670051

Tariff: Rs 2300/- Room + Breakfast
Extra bed: Rs 800/-

[Aditya]

That's a lovely place Joy. At least your pictures makes it look nice. Pity the hotel was so poor.