[sayakc]

Dear Soumik,

You have a knack to find unseen places. The Hatibari one and now Bankura - I love to visit these unheard of places. And thanks for detailing the route too. Do let us know how to book the Bankura resort? Also, how do you find these places - any websites/sources that you refer to?

The Bankura and Purulia districts, with their low lying hills (tila in Bengali), rivers, small waterfalls and forests are great places to wander in the wilds. The offbeat charm of places like Biharinath, Matha, Baranti, especially during winters, is something hard to resist

Best Regards,
Sayak

Originally Posted by soumiksett

Bardi Hill Trip

Last Saturday we visited a place in remote Bankura, in Sarenga Block, called Bardi Hill. A beautifully decorated resort has been come up recently Bardi Hill Eco Resort.

[soumiksett]

Originally Posted by sayakc

Dear Soumik,

You have a knack to find unseen places. The Hatibari one and now Bankura - I love to visit these unheard of places. And thanks for detailing the route too. Do let us know how to book the Bankura resort? Also, how do you find these places - any websites/sources that you refer to?

The Bankura and Purulia districts, with their low lying hills (tila in Bengali), rivers, small waterfalls and forests are great places to wander in the wilds. The offbeat charm of places like Biharinath, Matha, Baranti, especially during winters, is something hard to resist

Best Regards,
Sayak

Sayak Da, your first line is 100% correct, I have a knack to find the unseen places. I do not like so called tourist places, where there are thousands of tourists, congested market place, luxurious hotels, forests of concretes etc. I like the lonely places, calm and quiet, less tourists, where nature opens her beauty in full bloom, so I always try to find out these type of places. I refer various travel blogs, facebook posts, I purchase 7/8 monthly travel magazine every month, and moreover I have a big circle of like minded friends.

You can book Bardi Hill Resort to call Sanjay - 6294754849. But again this spot is only for one night only.

Thanks and regards

Soumik

[soumiksett]

Day Trip To Massanjore Dam

It was the holiday of Muharram, 20th August 2021. I donot have the habit to spend the holidays lying idle at home. So I decided to visit Massanjore Dam for a day trip. Got another friend cum big brother as companion, and we decided to ride our bikes for this day trip.

We met at Santragachi at 6 am, then started to run towards Dankuni, expected a traffic jam but fortunately road was clear. We reached Shaktigarh at 7:30 am and took breakfast, Then we started again and took right turn from Burdwan, through 108 Shiv Mandir road, and crossed Bolpur around 9:30. We got some heavy traffic at Siuri town, and when we reached Massanjore it was around 11:30 am.

We did not find any checking at Jharkhand border, though BSF were trying to keep watch on the vehicles. The main dam road was closed due to repairing work. There were rush of local tourists. We took some photographs and then visited Mayurakhi Bhawan, Youth Hostel and Mayurakshi Reort for enquiry and taking photographs. Then we spend some time below the dam, where there is a beautifully decorated garden, the main lock gate view was clearly visible from here. We left the place around 1 pm, got stuck near Seorakuri more due to heavy rainfall, then we took lunch near Bolpur and returned via same route.

Road is all along good, after crossing the border there are some bad patches. Total distance for up and down came around 490 from Dankuni.

Some captures :

[Samba]

Digha & Bichitrapur

Distance- Digha is 180 km from Dankuni.
Bichatrapur is 195 km from Dankuni.

Round trip was 397 km.

Route- Dankuni- Kolaghat- Nandakumar- Digha - New Digha- Bichitrapur in Odisha.

Road condition is excellent till Kolaghat. Kolkaghat to Nandakumar has some broken patches. Nandakumar to Chaulkhola is now wide & smooth road. Chaulkhola to Digha, road is narrow but smooth.

Bichitrapur is located at a distance 15 km in Odisha from the Bengal/Odisha border at New Digha.

Time duration - It took 3 hours 15 minutes with a 15 mins break to reach Digha. The return leg took 4 hours with a 15-20 mins break. It was a night drive with heavy rain.

Added attractions-

For Bichatrapur, one must have 6-7 hours in spare. Including Bichitrapur in a day trip will be dicey. While we reached there, it was already 3 pm. One need to take a boat ride through the Mangrove forests to reach the sea from Bichitrapur. Heard the boat ride is beautiful, but we had to give it a miss due to lack of time.

Fish lovers can buy fresh fish from the Mohana in Digha at a cheaper rate. They pack it very well too, so the car wont get soiled & there wont be any smell inside the car.

Covid19 rules - Cops are checking cars (specially yellow board) for double vaccine or RTPCR. Our car was not stopped. Hotels are asking for either RTPCR or Double vaccine certificate for night stays. For lunch or dinner, nothing is required. We had lunch at Hotel Nest, New Digha.

No rules to enter Odisha. One just need to wear the mask.

Pics-

Entrance to Digha



At Bichitrapur



The place from where one need to take the boat. Ample parking is available.





At New Digha





At Mohana





Fresh and cheap!



With proper packaging



Drive back through rain.

[ultimatechamp]

Good trip Samba and the photos are as usual too good

[Samba]

Raipur Rajbari Palace, Bolpur

Distance- 175 km from Dankuni.

Route- Dankuni- Burdwan- Panagarh- Illambazar- then towards Bolpur from the Y junction.
I used Gmaps to reach till the door step.
Thanks to Bhpian SarbariC on guiding me on the route details.

Google says-

Towards the end of the 18th century certain portions of the district around Raipur was affected by the Chuar rebellion. The leader of the rebels was Durjan Singh, a former zamindar of Raipur. He had a following of about 1,500 men and created havoc in certain areas.

A Bengali Horror film named 'Bhoot Chaturdashi' was shot here. This made this place popular among tourists.

[SVK Rider]

Originally Posted by Samba

Raipur Rajbari Palace, Bolpur



Attachment 2220001

Wow, this is a nice one, I didn't knew about this one, else could have stopped for a snap atleast from my last ride to Shantiniketan.

Also Would love to mention Soumik da, awesome pictures and write up, I had this Lulung place on my to do list with my motorcycle from a long time, will try this winter.


Though I am late and irregular on posting, this is a glimpse of Kash Phool from my pre-pujo ride to Shantiniketan.










The combination of this ride was a seriously great combo which eventually we both enjoyed a lot.

[soumiksett]

[quote=Samba;5174514]Raipur Rajbari Palace, Bolpur

Raypur Rajbari is a perfect destination of Haunted place, I wish to spend a night here is anyone accompany me.

I visited in Dec 2020, in evening hours, it was really a good experience.

Some of my snaps of Raypur Rajbari

[prk265]

Looks really spooky!!

[soumiksett]

Duarsini Trip

On the occasion of Diwali and Bhaifota, our office was closed for 3 days. We two friends decided to visit Duarsini, a remote village near Purulia and Jharkhand border. Surrounded by hillock and forest, the natural beauty of this place is awesome. River Saatgurum flowing inside the forest. Only forest department cottages are there for night stay and that too only 3 numbers. We got the booking of 1 cottage luckily.

We took our bikes and started on 6th Nov morning at 6 am. Took the road Kolaghat - Kharagpur - LOdhasuli - Baheragora - Mahuliya - Duarsini. After Mahuliya the beauty of the nature changes drastically and the hillocks started to appear. Enjoyed the journey.

The place is very calm and quiet, free from all types of crowd. Nothing specific spots to visit here, only spent some leisure time by roaming the village roads, and enjoying the nature. The back side of the cottages are dense forest and small hill type area. Food is available here and no other options available outside, taste is good specially desi chicken. Various birds can be seen inside forest, we spotted some birds though not been able to photographed properly.

Next day morning we checked out after breakfast and explore some forest area by the help of locals. We rode our bikes inside the village roads, then to forest roads, then to dense forest roads and lastly to NO ROADS. We touched Kakrajhor, then we headed to Dhangikusum Falls near Belpahari, but not being the rainy season water is very less, then we headed to Ketki Lake, it is very lesser known spot and very beautiful also. We returned via Jhargram - Kharagpur - Kolaghat - Kolkata.

Submitting some of my photographs:

[sayakc]

Hello Soumik,

A couple of weeks back I was enquiring about accommodation at Duarsini, and here you are with a travelogue of the same place! I did come to know later (courtesy ABHI_1512) that the book needs to be done by WBSFDA.

The places that are booked through WBSFDA are really remote and unknown places. At Biharinath we had stayed at the govt lodge, where we had to give money to a heavily drunk khansama to buy chicken and then cook it. Being December, it was bitterly cold and we sat on the balcony, with the Biharinath hill rising behind us. And with the cries of jackal and a moonlit night, it was an experience to remember.

Do post the photos of the desi(local) chicken curry - they add a feel to travelogues like these.

Cheers,
Sayak

Originally Posted by soumiksett

Duarsini Trip

On the occasion of Diwali and Bhaifota, our office was closed for 3 days. We two friends decided to visit Duarsini, a remote village near Purulia and Jharkhand border.

[Samba]

Park Street is all decked up for Christmas and New Year celebrations.
24-26th December cars wont be allowed to enter Park Street in evening.
It will be hard to get a parking spot on the other days too. It’s already getting super crowded like every year.

I was here on 21st December evening.
Sharing the dash-cam footage from my car-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tCGlHssDRao

[sayakc]

Destination: Deulti

Distance from Kolkata: 65 kms one way. Takes slightly more than an hour.

Road Condition: Excellent 6 lane highway, most of the way.

Visit For: Day Trips, Picnic, Author Sarat Chandra's home

Back in the 2nd week of December, with no trips planned for the approaching year end, the suburbs of the city was calling. So, on the spur of a moment decided on Gadiara and Deulti. It was 12 PM when we left and on the way, going through the maps, figured out that accommodating both the places will make it tight - especially since day light goes kaput at 5 PM in the winters.

So, dropped the plan of Gadiara and instead headed straight to Nirala Resort, Deulti. We were asked to purchase an entry ticket after which we headed to the reception. They had a set menu of Chicken/Fish/Mutton thalis - which were served in buffet style. Food, overall, was tasty.

The crowd, was huge - right from small families to big groups. There are a number of 'picnic spots' within the resort.

Post lunch we headed to Sarat Chandra's home. With the huge number of cars and tourists, parking has become a pain. A further walk of 1.5 kms can take one to the river bed, which we skipped.

Around 1700 we returned from Deulti and reached our home around 1815 HRS.

Nirala Resort, Deulti






Rural sceneries.


Lunch at Nirala resort. Food was filling and tasty.


A moss filled pond.


Author Sarat Chandra's home.

[sayakc]

Destination: Diamond Harbour

Distance from Kolkata: 50 kms one way. Takes 2 hours.

Road Condition: 2 lane highway, congested at a few places.

Visit For: The fresh air of the Hooghly river! Or a day or night just out of the city. Or to buy fresh monsoonal Hilsas right out of the sea.

Accommodation: Sagarika (by WBTDC), Hotel Punyalakshmi

With the habit of writing taking a back seat, so, thought of writing down a visit to Diamond Harbour and especially Hotel Punyalakshmi - where we went on a day trip. Since the hotel offers day tour packages to tourists all round the year, we enquired - so we need to pre-book anything as such? The answer, we received was no.

So around 1200 HRS in the afternoon we commenced our journey. The idea was to embrace the monsoonal air (it was monsoon back then), buy Hilsas (if the bazaar was open) , have lunch and return. Whereas the road condition is good - the NH117 is very narrow and especially till Amtala the traffic situation remains bad - no matter the day or time of the year.

We reached Punyalakshmi around 2 in the afternoon and headed straight for lunch. I had heard that the food was tasty - but to our palate neither the food was tasty (mutton was too hard) and service was pathetic. After lunch, we walked along the river bank of the resort and whiled away sometime.

Then we headed to the fish market and brought a Hilsa - which was quite tasty (and I believe fresh too). It was around 1800 HRS that we finally reached home. All in all a nice detour from the mundane life.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by sayakc

Destination: Deulti

Distance from Kolkata: 65 kms one way. Takes slightly more than an hour.

Road Condition: Excellent 6 lane highway, most of the way.

Visit For: Day Trips, Picnic, Author Sarat Chandra's home

Back in the 2nd week of December, with no trips planned for the approaching year end, the suburbs of the city was calling. So, on the spur of a moment decided on Gadiara and Deulti. It was 12 PM when we left and on the way, going through the maps, ......

Thank you sayakc for the neat photologue to Deulti. It is a great place for a quick getaway and we hope to add it to our list of places around Kolkata. The fact that it has Sarat Chandra's home is a serious attraction!