[haisaikat]

Day outing to Sarat Chandra Kuthi and Kolaghat by Rupnarayan River

The plan
During our previous visit earlier this year to Nirala Resort at Deulti for office Picnic we missed visiting Sarat Chandra Kuthi, house of the famous novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay which is very near to that place. So end of August we made plans to make this happen. Of course to make this into a Day Outing we clubbed going to one of the resorts on the banks of Rupnarayan river in Kolaghat. Out of the three prominent resorts there we ruled out Sonar Bangla since their restaurant was not yet opened to guests, Roop Resort was ruled out since their restaurant was not river facing, eventually Rupashi Rupnarayan Kuthi ticked all our needs also it was the newest among all of them. I fixed the timings with them over phone on the previous day to know all the details.

The onward journey
We started around 9 am, picked up everyone and halted at Balwant Singh Dhaba near Bhawanipore Gurdwara for completing our breakfast with their signature menu, utilized our disposable plates and usual sanitization stuff.

Something extraordinary for the morning happened, a quick BHPian meet guided through WA group with dip27in and ABHI_1512 around Lake Gardens Flyover. My first unofficial TBHP meet, short and sweet one for certain. Had some quick chat and admired the Paj and the Ford and continued on my way to pickup the others. I quarantined the image for more than 21 days before publishing here, so its safe to look at

Eventually reached the resort by 12-30 pm. There is nothing worthy to mention of this road except the final stretch after around 1 KM from taking the detour from NH-16 just before the ramp to Kolaghat flyover. This final mile albeit narrow is still unpaved, being mostly on soil, gravel and stones although we witnessed the concrete road construction work underway. Had to be extra careful so as not get the tyres damaged. There is one stretch where the road takes a turn along the river side, excellent spot for clicks especially on those cloudy and pleasant days.

At the resort
The Property is very nice with overlooking view of the river, open lawn and poolside. The restaurant was on the 1st floor with a river view balcony and green farmland view at the backside. We dined there alone as all guests preferred dining in room. The habit of wearing mask among the staff seemed optional although the food was great. We were done with the lunch by 3 pm and headed straight to Sarat Kuthi.

At Sarat Chandra Kuthi
Being merely less than 8 KM from Kolaghat it was a breeze 20 mins drive and we waited inside our cars at the designated parking space adjacent to the heritage museum boundary until 4 pm for the place to open. There is a short walk to a river side but we ditched it owing to the heat and humidity outside although some folks did walk that route.

The museum has free entry for all with two local caretakers each on respective floors giving vocal guidance to visitors. The place with several artefacts of the author is an absolute charm straight from the history of Bengali literature when you consider several of the author's popular creations of the likes of Devdas were made during his stay here.

The crowd maintained proper Social Distancing norms and we completed touring the property by 440 pm.

The return journey
Return was uneventful except the usual traffic around Santragachi and Dhulagorh Toll Plaza. So after dropping off everyone we reached home by 730 pm.

Quick BHPian Meet with dip27in and ABHI_1512




On our way to the resort




At the resort










Our ride


The Sarat Kuthi


This small water body is just opposite to the entrance, has nice seating arrangements too


The main entrance as seen from 1st floor


A stature of the author inside the garden


Rooms








At the first floor balcony






The Car Parking area and the Rupnarayan river at the backdrop as seen from the balcony


Disclaimer: General precautions as said in this previous thread (How to travel with precautions as India opens up) were followed

[indrasis_gun]

This is going to be a very short videologue on our recent trip to Ghoom, Darjeeling from our hometown Coochbehar in our new Swift zxi+. We went there for an official work. Also it was raining 80% of the total travel time. So could not click any photo. I will post the whole journey in videos which were captured by the dashcam of my car.

You are requested to go through the videos to capture a true essence of a monsoon trip to Darjeeling. Literally we were driving through clouds and mist.

Date: September 16, 2020
Route:
Coochbehar-Birpara-Malbazar-Sevoke-Darjeeling More-Mirik-Pashupatinagar-Ghoom-Peshok-Teesta Bazar-Sevoke-Malbazar-Birpara-Coochbehar
Toral Distance: 475 km round trip
Start Time: 7.30 am
End Time: 10 pm
Fuel Efficiency: 18 kmpl round trip

I will start the first video from Siliguri. The total trip is divided into five portions.

1st Part: Siliguri to Ghoom via Mirik Part 1:
Road Condition: Mostly good roads but rough here and there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCfiDVoKxTI&t=1s

2nd Part: Siliguri to Ghoom via Mirik Part 2:
Road Condition: Good roads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPHh_epqpk

3rd Part: Pashupatinagar - Ghoom - Peshok
Road Condition: Good and steep road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOaO0Q9nS44&t=2s

4th Part: Peshok - Teesta Bazar - Sevoke Part 1:
Road Condition: Very steep road. The surface is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwbGkZLier0

5th Part: Peshok - Teesta Bazar - Sevoke Part 2:
Road Condition: Very bad from Teesta Bazar to Sevoke. Due to the monsoon, there were three landslide zone. My swift took three underbelly hits in this section. Rain and darkness made driving very difficult. I will post this video soon.

If you liked the videos, please like and subscribe my channel in YouTube.

[Samba]

Ayodhya Hills, Marble lake, Muruguma

Drive duration and distance-

Dankuni to Ayodhya hills - 5-6 hours. 330 km
Ayodhya hills to Marble lake - 40 minutes. 10 km
Marble lake to Muruguma- 40 mins. 18 km

Round trip - 750 km

Route-

Day 1- Dankuni - Burdwan - Asansol- Nituria - Raghunathpur- Purulia - Sirkabad - Ayodhya Hills - Upper dam -Lower dam. 374 km

Day 2 - Ayodhya Hills - Marble lake- Muruguma - Purulia - Raghunathpur - Nituria - Asansol - Burdwan - Dankuni. 376 km

Road condition is excellent to good.

Hotel- We stayed at Kushal Palli resort at Ayodhya top. Its an excellent property in a great location. Undoubtedly the best in this region with adequate and secured parking. During this Covid, they are taking good care in respect to sanitization.

Sightseeing places from Ayodhya hills- Upper Dam, Lower Dam, Marble lake, Muruguma, Charida, Khairabera.

For Charida & Khariabera please check out this post-

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post4565095 (West Bengal - A treasure for tourists)

The last trip to this place was done in March 2019 when this area was red with Palash.

In this trip we found the place white with kash flowers (Saccharum spontaneum).

A video from the trip-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cpJAN_ZI4M

Pics from the trip-

At Ayodhya top

















At Upper Dam



At Lower Dam



Inside our resort



At Marble lake







At Muruguma











Saw this temple while crossing Begunkodar

[Samba]

Palla Road

Want to enjoy loads of Kash flower on a Sunday afternoon?
Venture the Damodar river bed at Palla Road. Unless you have a AWD or 4WD, going down by the river side will be a bit of calculated risk.

Distance- Hardly 70 km from Dankuni.

Route- After crossing Palsit toll, take left and drive till the river bed. Ample of parking space available.

Added attraction- An afternoon boat ride on Damodar river.

Reaching around 3-30 - 4 pm will be the ideal time.

Want to avoid the evening mess at Dankuni toll while returning?
Take left from Singur and return by Old Delhi road.

Pics from our afternoon drive-

[meetarin]

My first attempt to pen a mini travelogue on this forum!

Kotulpur and Joypur Forest, Bankura

Lockdown enabled me to stay at my hometown for few months and explore the hidden beauties of Bengal. I have been following this thread and other groups externally and have been on the lookout to discover places where I could go on a quick day drive! On a sunny Saturday morning, a friend and I decided to head towards Bankura from Belur (his residence) and explore the magnificent terracotta temples. Little did we know what was in store for us. While the highways were not in their best shapes, the lush greenery all around more than made up for it. It was mesmerising to see so much green especially when you live in a concrete jungle! First we strolled the alleys of Kotulpur to experience the "Baaro Shib Mandir" and then headed to Gokul Chand Temple. I'm never a fan of temples but the sheer brilliance of the architecture of the temple took my breath away. Cherry on the cake was, we were the only two!

This 17th century five-pinnacled (pancharatna) temple built during the reign of the Malla dynasty is said to be the largest stone temple in Bankura. The walls of the temple are doted with different avatars of Lord Vishnu.

After having a sumptuous lunch accompanied with some lip-smacking turkey curry at Banalata resort, we drove through the Joypur forest. Trust me, it's one of the best feelings ever to drive through this forest. It was dense, and the red soiled forest roads coupled with the towering Sal, Shimul, Palash trees made it surreal. We kept on driving to reach other side of the forest to reach the abandoned helipad/airstrip of WW-II era. We spent quite some time there and caught a breathtaking sunset with the tall trees providing a spectacular backdrop!

In all, it was an amazing day trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone who find solace in history and forests.

Date: 12th Sept 2020
Distance: 115 kms approximately
Road conditions: Most of the road passes through villages and hence encounters heavy traffic. We took the Ahalyabai Holkar Road which passes through Arambag. The road approaching Arambag is under construction and otherwise in bad shape too. SH2 is in decent condition but the challenge is narrow roads.
Food/Hotel: Banalata resort is the only good place in my opinion where you can have decent food. They have place for accommodation too and you can spend a night there too.

A video from the trip (link from my own channel):

https://youtu.be/0IWnvkHr-JI

Photos from the trip:

[AKSen2015]

Originally Posted by SVK Rider

Awesome . It feels like a fresh air in the covid times. Also gave the current perspective of the safety and entire scenario of our one of the most popular tourist spot.
Thanks a lot for sharing the info.

I Agree , the lockdown had us all craving for the highway and those open expanses of tarmac. The photos are beautiful.

[ABHI_1512]

There is nothing new about Darjeeling. There have been enough posts about Darjeeling in this thread already. But then, the pandemic has resulted in a situation where the bustling Darjeeling is no longer there. I have never seen Darjeeling this empty, like never ever and I have been coming to this lovely place since long. Nothing more to add but to add some pictures of quintessential Darjeeling.

This is the Darjeeling that one yearns for where solitude and good food makes you giddy and happy, both at the same time. Personally, I have had the best of two days in Darjeeling where noise just disappeared in to the horizon, the usual humdrum and cacophony was gone and what remained was just a feeling.

Some pictures:







































The usual culprits like Keventer’s, Kunga, Glenary’s were all open with reduced hours and reduced chairs but still was enough to satiate our hungry minds

Places are slowly opening up and though the mall area was completely closed with only few shops open, I am sure, with each passing day, normalcy will return slowly but surely amidst the precautions.

[Sayata]

It is durga puja 2020, one of the biggest celebrations of the world and an emotion to the Bengalies. However due to the pandamic COVID 19 , thinking about the safety of myself and my family, this year I did not went out for pandel hoping( I am a regular pandel hopper for Durga puja since childhood). However my wanderlust bug is still on and instead of pandel hoping in pandamic, I decided to go for a day trip to shantiniketan, Birbhum district West Bengal, about which I believe many of you is quite aware and detailed description about the place is already been shared a multiple times.

Today I am writing this not for Bolpur, but for a new place around 20km from Panagarh on NH19. This one is a palace around 4km detour from a place called 11Mile on (Panagarh to Dubrajpur sector -SH 14) Panagrh Moregram highway. The place is Known as Kalikapur Rajbari where a 350 years old Durga puja still carrys on. Some pictures:

[Sayata]

Originally Posted by Samba

THE DENMARK TAVERN (Srirampur)

West Bengal Government decided to renovate the DENMARK TAVERN building at Srirampur. This building was established in 1786 and is located right beside the Ganges. Wbtdc decided to renovate this building and convert it to a cafeteria and hotel. This will be open from April 2018 but people can visit this place now. The history of the town of Srirampur in Hooghly district of West Bengal denotes this place was once under Danish rule.

Today being Gurunanak’s birthday, my office was closed, so me and my dad planned for a short afternoon drive with Brownie. Initially we planned for a drive till Shaktigarh for some langcha and tea but later inspired by your post (which you posted almost 2 years ago) we plan to visit this place.
We took the route through Belgharia expressway, then GT road as suggested by you.
Time taken was 1 hr 36 mins for a distance of 43 km from my home.
Some pictures of the place.

Brownie posing beside the 234 yrs old mansion



The main entrance



Dad posing










My favourite double shot Espresso



Yummy chicken sausage






























Ganga ghat


Overall experience, a nice place with good food and hospitality for a day trip or one can plan for overnight also.

While returning we took the Delhi road , Santragachi and Vidyasagar setu route, distance 45 km and time taken 1hr 56 min to my home.

[arindam_xeta]

Thanks for sharing and the crisp write up. I am sure it was a great father and son timeout. Great pictures to tickle the travel bug in any of our souls. Brownie is looking hot too. Will be in my to do list, this place.

[Travelmania]

Attractive place. Lovely day out with the best friend and guardian of life. Your pictures and crisp writeup pushing me to take a leave this winter to feel the warmth of the place. Will go there soon for sure. Lastly Thanks Samba to highlight such nice and cosy dayouts

[meetarin]

During the Work from Home mandate, the idea behind riding Gulaabo, my RE Thunderbird 350x from Bangalore to Kolkata was to explore the places in West Bengal. It's a shame and sad story at the same time that I, being a Bengali haven't explore my home state enough. Had nothing much to do during Diwali and Kali pujo and this WFH is becoming frustrating by the day with the work life balance getting skewed everyday. I was dying to breathe in some fresh oxygen and thought this was a perfect opportunity. The mercury had started to drop and hence the rides are bound to be more pleasant.

I started coaxing my best friend for a road trip on the Diwali weekend and he finally gave in to my pestering, thinking it could be a good break from the monotony of wfh and we agreed to ride to Mukutmanipur on the morning of 14th November.


Plan-wise, my friend arrived on his Vespa at 8 on that auspicious morning. Warming ourselves with the dose of morning tea, we could finally start the ride by 9. Navigating through the busy morning markets of Mogra, we could hit the Durgapur expressway only by 10.30. Just before hitting the highway, we stopped by a roadside Mishtir dokan and had a hearty breakfast of kochuri-torkari, tea and pantua.

After satiating our hunger and taste buds we continued our journey. We made a stop in every hour or so, so that Basanti, my friend's Vespa could cool herself off. Around 1, we left the smooth tarmac of Durgapur Expressway and took the diversion towards Durgapur-Purulia-Ragunathpur road. Soon the road started to worsen. The road via Durgapur Barrage-Beliatore is quite bad and we found quite few potholes. What took away the prize though were SBSTC buses! After Dhaldanga, the road conditions improved and so did the views. After taking the diversion towards Bankura, my Gopro couldn't wait and started recording the beautiful roads through its eyes. The fragrance of "khejurer gur", the 2 o'clock sun, the beautiful greenery around - everything was so perfect!

By 3, we entered Mukutmanipur, leaving the main highway. There, we saw the huge dam, the almost setting sun reflecting on the water in all its glory - it seemed like love at first sight!


Gulaabo and Basanti moved on lazily along the mysterious winding roads and finally we reached our abode for the night, Charulata Resort. The resort is set up on a beautiful, serene location on top of a hill. What's more - it has an amphitheatre which offers a panoramic view of the dam. We quickly checked in and rushed to the amphitheatre. The riot of colours we saw in the sky was mesmerising. We were so engrossed soaking in the beauty, we got late and could not reach the dam in time for the sunset.


We still ventured out, and rode towards the dam. There's a 10 km stretch of motorable road built on the dam which we chose to ride out.


There's a stretch on the other side for people who love to walk too! It was already about 8 when we could finally return to the resort. Due to COVID, the resort was empty and the restaurant wasn't operational. Nevertheless, we had booked it just for the view on offer. After a decent dinner, I tried to click the star-lit sky but the absence of my tripod was dearly felt. After another hour of chitchatting, we finally dozed off! I was sleeping peacefully when my friend vehemently woke me up at 3! It was a toad which jumped on him! The idiot was hiding in a corner with no intentions of leaving the room. Sleepy us kept on pursuing it to leave, and finally after half an hour of relentless effort, we could kick it out of the room. Fortunately, rest of the night was uneventful!


We woke up lazily next morning with the thought of riding over the dam road again but discovered that a moderate fog has engulfed the dam. Giving up the idea we went up to the amphitheatre instead to have our morning dose of tea while soaking in some Vitamin D. Spending some more time experimenting with our cameras, we proceeded to checkout.


The route plan was to take the more scenic Ranibandh-Jhilimili road, visit Talberiya dam and then return to Kolkata via the forests of Belpahari-Jhargram-Salboni. We started riding around 9.30, the fog and the light winter breeze set the perfect backdrop. In no time, we were riding through the Jhilimili 12 mile jungle, one of the most scenic routes of Bengal. The curvy roads laden with lush greenery, the cute hamlets perched at the right places, the ever smiling tribal people - Jhilimili is beautiful!!


There's another trail that goes to the jungle of Sutan which we could not cover, but it will certainly call me back to this place in the future.

About 11, we reached Talberiya dam. This place still unspoilt by the regular tourist is postcard perfect, the chirping of birds and the perfect ripples of water crashing on the shore added to the charm of the place. We spent some more time there, clicked some more photographs and hit the road again. Soon we crossed over to the Jhargram district where the forests full of towering trees continued to greet us. We made a stop for tea at Jamtalgora CRPF camp in Belpahari. We met a Jawan from the camp, exchanged few words, saluted him for his hard work and continued our journey.


The road leaving Belpahari till Narayanpur passes through villages and some small markets, and the quality of the road isn't great. In fact, at places, there's no road at all and there were some bucket sized potholes. Also, construction work is going on in this entire stretch which slowed down our pace.


We continued along the Bengal-Jharkhand border and at about 2.30 pm reached the Jhargram Forest Range.


Though We were a bit pressed for time and a lot of miles were left to cover, I couldn't help stopping at this enchanting forest and signalled my friend for a halt. The sun's rays peeping through the dense deciduous forests - it was a sight to behold. This forest range is home to elephants but we weren't lucky to cross paths with a herd.

The void of the trip coming to an end grasped me as soon as we hit NH 16. The forests and the pretty roads were now replaced by wide highways frequented by trucks. We made the final stop at Kolaghat to grab some late lunch before reaching Kolkata.

I must say these regions of Bengal are quite underrated and treasured at the same time. There are more to do in this region and I came back from this trip with the desire of going back again later. Let's see when that happens!

I really liked the location of Charulata Resort and the amazing view that one gets from there. The drive through the jungle mahal was amazing with the only drawback - non-availability of petrol bunks in the entire stretch of Ranibandh-Lodhashuli, which might be tricky for scooters. There are however bottled petrol sold by the roadside in regular intervals.

I would have never known the beauty of this region, if it was not for this trip!

Till next time, Adieu!

https://youtu.be/7QuMJtAZlf8

[ankan.m.blr]

Guys, I am staying in Siliguri for a few days (came from Bangalore) with my family. Please suggest some off-beat destinations in the hills to stay and relax during Christmas weekend. Good road condition is preferred. I am trying to avoid popular hotspots like ZDarjeeling , Kurseong, Kalimpong etc due to tourist rush this time of the year.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

Guys, I am staying in Siliguri for a few days (came from Bangalore) with my family. Please suggest some off-beat destinations in the hills to stay and relax during Christmas weekend. Good road condition is preferred. I am trying to avoid popular hotspots like ZDarjeeling , Kurseong, Kalimpong etc due to tourist rush this time of the year.

In Bengal, you can check places like-
Sittong
Chatakpur
Takdha
Lamahatta
Kolakham
Lolegaon

Actually post covid, many home-stays have not revived their business.

You can check for home-stays in airbnb and there is a group in facebook called ‘Home-stays in Himalaya’. You can get some good leads from there too.

In Sikkim there are some nice places, but you will have to apply for a online travel card to enter.

Places you can try in Sikkim are-
Yangtey
Temi
Ravangla (Mount Narsing Resort)
Yuksome

[meetarin]

A weekend drive to Purulia

They say, friendships that last for more than seven years end up lasting for a lifetime. There are friends in each of our lives with whom we don't speak everyday, but when we do, its as new as before! I am lucky to have few like those with whom I have been friends for a decade and a half.

What has been missing though is travelling with all of them together. Sure, we have been on multiple trips but every time, someone or the other has been missing. Agreeing that we all should take a trip together, after months of planning, innumerable arguments, we finally made it happen two weeks back! This travelogue is about our amazing trip to the land of Chhou dance, Purulia!

We had three days in hand and hence we thought of covering the Garh circuit as well as the Ajodhya circuit. So the plan was to cover the Garh Panchkot temple and Baranti and then move towards Ajodhya via Raghunathpur.

On the morning of 12th Dec, we started the “historic” drive on a Verna belonging to one of us. After crossing the narrow and congested roads of Magra, we were soon cruising on the Durgapur expressway! My friend who owns the Verna told me he’s not used to long drives which made me quite happy! More time behind the wheel, I thought! But, he started enjoying the drive soon and my hands were itching by now! 😄

Though the day was a bit cloudy and the winter sun wasn't out, the mood was quite high! What never happened in 15 years was just happening in front of all of us. Understandably it is difficult for the married folks to get the approvals from their respective Mrs. Right’s. What would a bachelor like me understand!

We stopped at Saktigarh to grab some breakfast and started our journey again. After a couple of hours or so, Google maps notified the Garh Panchkot temple is just 3 kms away. The roads were getting narrower and the hills were adding a nice backdrop. The beautiful folk song quotes at every curve complemented the drive more. Soon, we could see the temple at a distance and it looked quite beautiful!

However we realised that being a weekend, the place is super crowded. We decided not to waste our time there since Khairabera was still about 3.5 hours away and eventually skipped Baranti too. Honestly, I found Garh Panchkot temple overrated. The temple in the lap of mountains is photogenic, but the noisy crowd was making it worse.

We were busy chatting. By now, I was in the driver’s seat and was following Google baba blindly. This landed us in a big soup called Begunkodor. The extremely narrow roads had a long congestion and lines of trucks were lined up near the evening market. We were stuck for an hour there. We called up the resort and they told us, this route was to be avoided. There’s a shortcut to Khairabera from Begunkodor via Muruguma but the resort guys repeatedly warned us not to take that route and drive via Jhalda-Coreng, apparently because of wild elephants. Later, we discovered it was not only because of wild elephants but there are ‘other risks’ in that route.

We finally reached our abode for the next two nights, Khairabera Eco Adventure Resorts! We were quite hungry since we didn't have a proper lunch and instructed the resort guys to quickly set the chicken drumsticks on barbecue.


A billion stars were visible in the clear night sky but I guess the drumsticks were luring us more! We also had an amazing cake to celebrate 15 years of our friendship. So we just stuck to the plan of hogging everything served on our table, cut the cake and wrap the night on a sweet note!

Next morning, my friend and I quickly headed towards the reception to enquire about the kayaks. This was something I was going to try first time in my life. I do know how to swim but when the support staff said that the dam is 80 ft deep, it did scare me a bit. But as soon I got onto the kayak, I was very comfortable and we ended up kayaking for one and a half hour. I had shared a list of 7 or 8 places to visit but I could clearly see that plan being set up for failure. My friend and I conspired to repeat the feat next morning!

Meanwhile, one of us tried his luck at angling too, without results though.

After some breakfast, we headed towards Upper dam and Ajodhya hilltop! The roads were an absolute pleasure to drive and the view of the Lower dam from up is amazing! We went to Marble Lake too, but again, it was too crowded.

A late lunch was waiting for all of us! We are damn hungry and the food wasn't bad too! The night awaiting us was eventful with a country duck barbecue and a performance by Chhou dancers. After these epic episodes, we spent about an hour to click some photos of the night sky.

Next morning, as conspired, the kayaking plan was on! We heard there are flocks of migratory birds on the other side of the dam and we were going try and find them out! This side of the Khairabera dam was serene and was heavenly. I have never seen so many migratory birds in my life. Just loved the beauty of the environment.

Finally, it was time to checkout. While returning, we visited Charida village, where the Chhou masks are made and did some shopping for the kids back home.

All good things come to an end! After three amazing and adventurous days, this trip was going to end soon! We took the Balarampur-Hudlong-Manbazar-Beliatore route while returning and I can say that this route is way more scenic that the Garh Panchkot route. There are ample mainstream tourist attractions in Purulia which have been covered by fellow BHPians in other travelogues, but we could not cover those mainly because of my new found love for kayaking!

However , I think the quick trip was worth every penny for the time spent and especially for the experience we had.

Until next time, take care! Happy holidays to you!

https://youtu.be/Urv45P5aOvY