[haisaikat]

EDIT: 2022 visit updates

The Background
After our last overnight trip to Bakkhali (How to travel with precautions as India opens up) there has been only a few day trips that we had made.

The long weekend of 2nd October on account of Gandhi Jayanti was fast approaching and we zeroed in on Shantiniketan considering we do not need to cross any state borders. Our last visit to Shantiniketan was way back in 2013 and we wanted drive down there this time after 7 long years.

But 2 nights in Shantiniketan may be too much so we included Massanjore Dam and Bakreshwar Dam and Hotsprings in our itinerary, since usually in the monsoon season only the chances of witnessing the water discharge from dams become high and its a scene to behold. Knowing Massanjore falls in Jharkhand we decided to still give it a go as its not that far from Shantiniketan and it would be a day trip only.

Our overall day-wise plan stood like below

Day - 1 (Fri 2-Oct) : Kolkata to Shantiniketan via Massanjore and Bakreshwar
Day - 2 (Sat 3-Oct) : Shantiniketan day tour
Day - 3 (Sun 4-Oct) : Return to Kolkata

We reserved Saturday for Shantiniketan day tour since we had plans to attend then Sonajhuri Shonibarer Haat (Saturday Market) and my wife and friends were literally dying to settle some scores on Pre-Puja shopping. Our stay was booked at the famous Garden Bungalow in the Prantik area of Shantiniketan by our friends through their online website and thus it was all set.

Here are some selected pictures from our trip

Kashphul (Catkins) blooming across the banks of Ajay Nod (River)


Sunset over Massanjore Dam


Parked Boats on Massanjore Dam


Water Discharge from Massanjore Dam


Baul Singing at Khowai / Sonajhuri Haat


Farmer life around Kopai


At Garden Bungalow


Note: We followed all general precautions as outlined in the thread here (How to travel with precautions as India opens up)

[haisaikat]

Day 1 (2nd Oct, Gandhi Jayanti) - Kolkata to Shantiniketan
The morning started with a delay, unaccounted rains just before we could start from home. Since loading luggage in the car was still left we decided to wait out the initial gust. Eventually we started around 7-15 am amidst a light shower which soon seized giving way to a sunny day but not before drenching us partially. Eventually picked up our friends from Tollygunge by 8 am and off we went. There was not much traffic and we crossed Santragachi without any hiccups and soon reached NH-2.

Around 9-15 am we made our first halt at the newly opened Highway Mirchi food joint on NH-2. They serve pure veg and some finishing work on interior is still left while the staff in charge of kitchen and serving seems yet to become seasoned with handling peak times. Hence service was slow and not all options on menu were available. Per their recommendation we tried their specialty the Masala Dosa. The distinctive sweet and spicy sambhar is one of the first of its kind I tasted here and its surely polarizing with even the Dosa being slightly different, but to our liking surprisingly. Try out their variety of chais too. Folks were just sitting casually without masks with some social distancing. Restrooms were sparkling clean. A must recommend if you can live up with the delay, hoping it will improve in days to come.

We started off again at around 11 am, yes almost 2 hours on breakfast owing to the slow service, and continued on NH-2. While the right route to Massanjore would have been through the Siuri - Bolpur Road via Shantiniketan, due to some misses on my part we ended up taking the Moregram - Panagarh state highway. We paid heavily for this mistake, the initial stretch had smaller potholes at regular intervals slowing us down considerably and then once we reached upto Ajay Nod the road relieved us for some time through some picturesque green corridors of Bardhaman and a flat tarmac. Since we had our breakfast quite late we decided to skip lunch initially planned at Shantiniketan as earlier and moved ahead.

Eventually after we went past Dubrajpur the roads became the worst nightmare, such that we were advancing at barely 10 KM/hr for a considerable amount of distance with such huge craters that even bigger trucks and carriers were advancing cautiously. Soon we witnessed passing besides Bakreshwar Thermal Power Plant and it started raining considerably again. By this time we dropped the idea of coming back for Bakreshwar as we estimated it would be late to return back.

There were some temporary one-ways being imposed by the local police and we had no choice but to take them at the cost of additional journey time, but things happen for a reason as soon after we touched the Dumka Siuri Highway our lives became easier and roads became much better. Finally around 3-30 pm we crossed the Jharkhand border and magically the roads improved with not a single pothole except a few speed breakers. Although at the Bengal - Jharkhand border there were hoarding mentioning of e-passes, no one stopped us or albeit any car for that matter.

The roads were scenic in Jharkhand with lush green carpets on both sides with occasional dense Kashphul. Soon we could see the hills in the horizon and got ourselves rejuvenated. Around 4-15 pm we stopped for 10 mins for some quick photos as we could not resist ourselves from getting down from the car amidst the beautiful scenery around. Soon after we crossed Mayurakshi river and eventually reached the Massanjore Dam by 4-35 pm. Although there was a bit of rush yet finding an informal parking was not much of a problem along the roadside.

The place is a absolute wonder with tons of Parrots chirping around and with the setting sun backdrop it had cast a gorgeous spell on the surrounding water and the hills. The icing on the cake was the grand scene of the water discharge from Dam creating a mist around it.

We walked on the road over the Dam as we clicked photos of the surrounding being careful to maintain social distance as much as possible with the locals and other tourists. Limited eating options made us shorten our stay and by 5-40 pm we started towards Shantiniketan. This time we made no mistake but took the Siuri - Bolpur road which was way better. Apart from passing through some very dark stretches of roads owing to the onset of evening the rest of the journey was uneventful and we reached our destination, the Garden Bungalow by 6-50 pm.

We had preordered our snacks and they were ready with the same within 10 minutes of our reaching. Following usual sanitization protocols we took charge of our rooms and settled down. We decided to call for an early dinner owing to the skipped lunch, it was good pure Bengali style menu in the in house restaurant. After dinner we went for a short night stroll within the premises. Our little one had a great time hearing all the sounds you expect from nature in the dark along with spotting abundance of lightning bugs in the garden. Soon after we came back to our rooms and crashed.

Some photos from the day

NH-2 in the morning, after some initial heavy rains the sky remained cloudy.


Soon the sky started becoming clearer


thereby revealing the greens around more prominently


Halt for breakfast, Highway Mirchi






On the way to Massanjore


Crossing the Ajoy Nod


Passing through Jharkhand, Dumka Siuri Highway










Crossing the Mayurakshi River




At Massanjore, curvy roads




Learnt that all boating at Massanjore is stopped due to pandemic




Majestic view of water discharging from the Dam

https://youtu.be/MF1mL5g_gYs

Us at the road over the Dam, masks momentarily taken down, no one else was within 25 metres


The Innova Crysta, Parked on the road beside the Dam


At Garden Bungalow, Shantiniketan


The restaurant on the right, in front of the Red Brick Villa, the Garden Bungalow


On a night stroll at the Garden Bungalow

[haisaikat]

Day 2 (3rd October) - At Shantiniketan
As expected from us, after a hectic all day travel schedule from yesterday, we DID NOT wake up early, but still managed to get downstairs for making it up just on time to the breakfast hour at the restaurant. Post breakfast, we did a gradual tour of the 3 acre property, its indeed wrapped in greens and an absolute visual treat for those who enjoy staying amidst nature. There are 4 structures inside namely the Garden Bungalow being the Bungalow in white, the Mud Villa which was presently not open to guests for staying and the Red Brick Villa overlooking the 4th structure which is the Garden Restaurant. Ample trees and living ecosystem of nature inside the premises itself if someone does not wish to venture outside. Just sit and relax, read a book and smell, feel and hear the nature. There seemed running short of hands for the maintenance though of the garden but rooms and everything else were top notch clean.

Eventually we came back to our rooms, freshened up and to harmonize ourselves with the tune of Shantiniketan dressed up in ethnics. Had it been the film camera era, the Garden Bungalow is a perfect place to empty entire film rolls at once. We spent some good amount of time clicking and posing in photos around the property and eventually around 12 pm set out for Kopai Haat (Market). We moved around through the city, the bliss of driving an automatic car was apparent, leaving the gear slotted in D mode and taking the car a little above the crawl mode with a feather touch on the Gas pedal with RPMs hovering sub 1000 RPM while we toured around the roads, both me and the Innova Crysta were super relaxed.

We reached Kopai in no time and there were very limited hawkers at Kopai Haat, yet we were lucky to have witnessed the Baul Gaan. The surrounding area and roads has an extremely soothing touch of rural Bengal that you will instantly fall in love with.

We made our next halt at around 1-20 pm to the famous restaurant Ghare Baire in Shantiniketan, named after 1916 Novel of the same name by Rabindranath Tagore. The menu was excellent and within an hour we left with severely happy versions of ourselves having gone through a true 5 course Bengali meal.

The sky was getting dark again and we decided to head directly towards Sonajhuri Haat. As soon as we reached Sonajhuri, it started raining and the narrow road with both side of traffic along with an additional unsolicited row of parked car on the canal side turned into a complete mess.

The jam was so prolonged that it took me close to 50 minutes to cover the 2.5 KM stretch from the restaurant to the parking area in Sonajhuri. One of the reason for the jam was a huge herd of cows and ox that was being guided back home by a few locals through the same road, thankfully my car went past unharmed.

I let everyone else walk out from the car, except our kid who had fallen asleep, aiming towards the Haat while the car was still stuck in the traffic and I was yet to find a parking. Although there were delays in starting of the Haat due to rains, eventually hundreds of hawkers selling excellent local works of art opened up and even 10 times more people crowding around the place in an endeavor to make loads of shopping. There were also Tribal Dance and Baul Gaan in action at the Sonajhuri Haat.

After almost filling up half of the extended (3rd row up) rear boot space in our Innova Crysta, we left Sonajhuri around 5 pm and dropped back at the hotel for some evening tea and snacks and left again for the evening market near Visha Bharathi University by 7 pm. The evening market had really come alive and we stayed there till 8-30 pm at which point we headed for the dinner with Chinese delicacies at 9x9 restaurant opposite to the WBTDC Tourist Lodge. We were the only ones dining inside the restaurant and their owner was also present resulting in us getting additional attention.

We returned to the Garden Bungalow by 10-45 pm and eventually crashed after a very tiring (shopping) day, leaving our packing job for the morning.

Here are some pictures from the day

A remarkable work of art, Durga idol, Garden Bungalow


Sometimes its darker inside the garden due to dense green above, Garden Bungalow




Ever curious, yet cautious on adventures, Garden Bungalow


Garden in front of the Mud Villa, Garden Bungalow


Lotus in the garden, Garden Bungalow




Garden seating, Garden Bungalow


The Red Brick Villa, Garden Bungalow


At the back of the Mud Villa, Garden Bungalow


Mud Villa, Garden Bungalow


Walkway to the entrance, Garden Bungalow


Garden Walkway, Garden Bungalow


The Garden Bungalow, Garden Bungalow


The Charming Brigade in Ethnic, Garden Bungalow


Baul Singing, Kopai Haat


Hawkers, Kopai Haat


Digital India has really taken shape, Kopai Haat


Bridge on Kopai River


In and around Kopai


In and around Kopai


In and around Kopai


Time for some bath under the sun, Kopai


The Kopai River


At Ghare Baire Restaurant


Rabindranath Tagore in pictures, Ghare Baire Restaurant


The Innova Crysta posing in front of the Banyan Tree of Vishwa Bharathi University


Sonajhuri / Khowai Haat


Baul Singing at Sonajhuri

Video of Baul Gaan at Sonajhuri

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

Video of Tribal Dance at Sonajhuri

https://youtu.be/pEEC6GicvOM

Some proud acquisitions from Sonajhuri Haat

[haisaikat]

Day 3 (4th October) :- Return to Kolkata from Shantiniketan
Final day, made us wake up early in the morning to finish packing on priority. After the in-house complementary breakfast and a little freshening up we checked out by 11-35 am.

Our next stop, obviously, something that we had missed yesterday due to the uninvited rains in the afternoon, a visit to the Sonajhuri forest. The roads were empty at this hour of the day and surprisingly on reaching there we found that there is another preparation going on for afternoon Haat (Market) similar to the what we came for yesterday, the market seemed to have just started and yet to warm up.

After spending around 30 mins there and consciously restraining ourselves from getting pulled in by the cosmic forces of the Haat all over again we went for lunch at the Hotel Royal Bengal. We finished by 2-30 pm, refueled and set for our home.

After some initial GPS hiccups, we got to the right route on NH114 and road condition was pretty good, on top of that we got some scenic roads.

We took a small tea break at Shaktigarh around 4-45 pm, while waiting patiently to get our turn in the crowd to buy what people crave to buy from here, the famous Langchas. While we started off again by 5-15 pm we thought its a straight way back home but little did we know that the party was not over yet.

We met with a huge traffic jam on NH-2 near Singur holding us back for a solid hour and at the end when it still did not seem to get over, we had to take the opposite lane like the other cars did leaving behind the queue of trucks. The cars from our side made a convoy with hazards indicators flashing and slowly made it up until cleared past the eye of the jam back to the right lane again. Thereafter it was smooth till our home which we reached by 9-30 pm, eventually bringing our 560 KM beautiful trip to an end.

Rising to the morning tea


Inside the restaurant at the Garden Bungalow


The hut themed hand washing station at the Garden Bungalow


Found a LC Prado in the parking lot of the Garden Bungalow, the two Toyotas in one frame.


At the Sonajhuri Forest




A few Important Points

1. Per present road conditions it makes more sense to go via Bolpur / Siuri to Massanjore even if this has less of NH2, the road condition is good and its scenic too.
2. Every primary attractions are having suitable parking places either dedicated (Kopai) or by the road side just like that, its free for everywhere we visited.
3. Prantik is quite close by to Sonajhuri which is just adjacent to one another, but then again Shantiniketan is a small city and in moderate traffic you can go from any point A to point B within the city in less than no time, be it in your own vehicle or if you have hired a Toto van to make sliding through narrow alleys much easier.
4. While we were roaming on the roads of Shantiniketan several times Totowalas waved their hand at our car for asking us to board their Totos for a guided tour tour, we politely refused. Next time we see the same, we would not care to even stop.
5. For getting a favorable parking spot at Sonajhuri Haat, best time to reach is by 2 pm.
6. If you plan to make a day visit to Massanjore, remember that there are no shops for doing proper lunch in that area, except a few Tea stalls who can make you Bread Omlet and Maggi. The closest restaurants are in Dumka which is further North. So plan the trip timing accordingly

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ottocycle]

Wow. Such scenic views. Very tempting indeed. Thanks for the great writeup.

I have put my travel plans on hold because of the covid situation. As I don't know if it is safe to stay/eat in hotels/restaurants.

[catchjyoti]

Great photos and write-up Saikat. It seems with you we also did the tour of the two places. I had last visited both Massanjore and Shantiniketan decades back. Your posts were like a revisit for me

[sups]

Beautiful write-up and photos Saikat. I am from Suri, so the photos made me nostalgic. Massanjore used to be our picnic spot from school almost every year during winter.

Tribal Dance at Sonajhuri looked like inspired from Satyajit Ray's "Agantuk" :-).

The photo of "Hilsa" at Ghare Baire restaurant is simply mouth-watering. Thanks for taking time to write it. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[Samba]

Saikat da, you are really on a roll. You are gifting us superb travelogues one after another. Rated 5*.

I just now returned from a day drive to Santiniketan and saw this travelogue in Team-Bhp home page!
I was on a hurry and missed clicking the Kash flowers on Ajoy riverbed from the bridge and I see the same pic here!

Just an update- Panagarh to Illambazar road work is in progress, but still the road is full of potholes but manageable.

From a friends reference, this time I had food at The creek boutique resort in Santiniketan and it turned out to be awesome. It looks to be a great property with good food. I just had lunch and came out but will definitely consider staying here in future.



My old Toyota followed the steps of your spanking new Toyota! (At Santiniketan)

[haisaikat]

Originally Posted by ottocycle

I have put my travel plans on hold because of the covid situation. As I don't know if it is safe to stay/eat in hotels/restaurants.

Thank you for appreciating ottocycle, I had penned down a few thoughts earlier in this (How to travel with precautions as India opens up)thread regarding travelling in these times and there are few more similar threads on this forum, in case you want to reconsider venturing out. But make sure that you are comfortable and safe, that is all the matters, whether you chose to stay at home and protect yourself and the ones you care for or hit the roads, this is a transient phase and "this too shall pass", soon, so even staying back you are missing nothing.

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

Great photos and write-up Saikat. It seems with you we also did the tour of the two places. I had last visited both Massanjore and Shantiniketan decades back. Your posts were like a revisit for me

Thank you catchjyoti, I am glad you liked it. I think next time we might consider staying at Massanjore.

Originally Posted by sups

Beautiful write-up and photos Saikat. I am from Suri, so the photos made me nostalgic.

Tribal Dance at Sonajhuri looked like inspired from Satyajit Ray's "Agantuk" :-).

Thank you sups, great to know your are from this beautiful nature wrapped area of Bengal, and I must say that you are lucky to have your roots there. We did not participate in the Tribal Dance but was a bit skeptical to see people forgetting masks completely in the spirit of taking a photo .

Originally Posted by Samba

I was on a hurry and missed clicking the Kash flowers on Ajoy riverbed from the bridge and I see the same pic here!

Just an update- Panagarh to Illambazar road work is in progress, but still the road is full of potholes but manageable.

My old Toyota followed the steps of your spanking new Toyota! (At Santiniketan)

Thank you Samba for the great complements, your TLs accompanied with great writeups and beautiful pictures are an inspiration for me. I had already thought of visiting Palla following your adventure but did not get time.

Thank you for the road update, end of October a North Bengal plan is cooking, this will be handy. The Creek Resort is also in the same are where we stayed and I heard from my wife's colleagues that its restaurant is indeed great, thanks for the first hand feedback, will be surely visiting next time.

Lastly, Toyota's never become old, they stay the same, I am yet to realize that but I am sure you already realize it. Another good thing about the silver color that both of us have is that it has the advantage of not looking dirty as compared to deeper color tones when we take them through dirt and mud a lot, something almost everyone of us face in the monsoon season.

[AKSen2015]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

Day 3 (4th October) :- Return to Kolkata from Shantiniketan
Final day, made us wake up early in the morning to finish packing on priority. After the in-house complementary breakfast and a little freshening up we checked out by 11-35 am.
...
...

Such a beautiful write up and pictures. I found a lot to learn from this.

Also did not know about Massanjore. Thank you for the information

[prk265]

I followed in your footsteps and had gone for a trip to Shantiniketan last November. The Garden Bungalow is a wonderful property and I have to thank you for introducing it to me. We had initially planned for a 2 nights stay but went on to stay for nights. Thank you once again!

[haisaikat]

Originally Posted by AKSen2015

Also did not know about Massanjore. Thank you for the information

Glad you liked and apologies for the late response, I had missed the alert completely. This time of the year is beautiful in Massanjore with lines of kash all along the road leading to there. If you do plan to stay there then there is a JTDC resort just overlooking the Dam, has ample view to enjoy and on the trip you can also cover Bakreshwar hot springs too, something we missed on that trip.

Originally Posted by prk265

The Garden Bungalow is a wonderful property . . . We had initially planned for a 2 nights stay but went on to stay for nights.

Thank you for the kind words, this property is indeed good just that lacks publicity and we observed some lack of maintainence too may be owing to COVID lockdowns in the last year, but otherwise it is truly a hidden gem and offers uniqueness to cherish even if the room service and dining cannot be compared to that of a full fledged commercial hotel.

This trip brings us lot of memories since our friend Indrani (the one with specs) passed away months after this trip, she was only 39.

[prk265]

This trip brings us lot of memories since our friend Indrani (the one with specs) passed away months after this trip, she was only 39.

Really shocking to hear this Saikat! No words to describe how you guys must be feeling.

[haisaikat]

Prologue
The best times we spend in our lives are with like minded people. On the other hand there are some places that provide ample opportunity to connect to our cultural soul and roots. In recent past I was fortunate enough to experience the best of both, a trip to Shantiniketan, the cultural hub of Bengal along with school buddies and family.

It was a long weekend for both of our kids at school and we managed a day off from our respective offices on account of Janmashtami. Initial plan was for 3 families which made us book an entire private villa in Prantik area of Shantiniketan. Eventually one of us dropped out but we decided to keep the whole villa to ourselves for the promise of spending quality time like an extended family over the weekend.

Day 1
It was a friday, 19th August, we set out sharp at 730 am from our home and headed to Rajarhat from where we picked up our friend Tanmay and his family from their mega residential complex.

A momentary pause to let everyone know that if you are fond of watching lifestyle youtube travel vlogs then look no further, here is the vlog Tanmay created for Day 1 of our journey, its in Bengali, and the lucid no-nonsense presentation will surely keep you engaged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBxjv9NGUU

Here goes the rest of the account for Day 1, the ideal TBHP way.

We picked up Tanmay and his family by 8-15 am and headed for Durgapur Expressway via Belgharia Expressway and Nivedita Setu. This route seems to be at times faster than going via Vidyasagar Setu / Santragachi option.


By 9-20 am we arrived at Nabanna restaurant, Janmashtami decoration had completed and we gave Bhagawan Krishna's swing a few gentle pulls. Not much traffic encountered in reaching till this point and road conditions were good. My older fastag was encountering some read issues in the highway tolls, the replaced one worked like a charm.


By 10-20 pm we left Nabanna post breakfast and headed for Shantiniketan, there were forecast of rain over the entire weekend but so far weather was in our favor.


Our next stop was at the 108 shiv mandir of Bardhaman where we arrived at 1120 am, parking was easy and there was not so much crowd being a weekday except the usual masses visiting for offering their Puja


We took a stroll around the place, this being our 2nd visit here . .


. . while the kids made the most of it but running and hopping around


By 11-50 am we resumed again and made occasional stops to soak into the rural vibe of the road towards Bolpur










By 1-35 pm we checked into our homestay in prantik, we did arrive sooner at Prantik but the route to the villa was confusing to Google Map. So the caretaker came to escort us. Roads were not good in this stretch upto the villa and the monsoon seemed to have worsened it further with occasional craters and wavy undulations. The soft suspension of Crysta was soaking up everything but could not stop the sideways movement of the in cabin passengers. We had our pre-ordered lunch served at the villa and rested for a few hours.










The evening was not dull either, Tanmay and pupu engaged in a friendly match at the lawn


I was lucky that the power couple agreed to pose for me




Deciding to get a tour of Biswa Bharati campus we setout from our villa by 545 pm. Dodged several Toto drivers while entering Biswa Bharathi who apparently falsify claims that cars are not allowed inside.


We did not face any resistance inside so after a few Km of drive to the other side (Biswa Bharathi was closed due to the Janmashtami). Soon after we headed back to homestay where tea, coffee and pakoras were waiting for us. Our energy level got topped up, so we set out again for Biswa Bangla Shilpi Haat which was just a stone throw from this villa. Parking was not difficult in an empty parking lot, and we made some shopping here till it was past 8 pm and the place closed down








Our final stop was at the WBTDC Shantobitan lodge at Shantiniketan where Baul song was being performed for in house guests. The advantage of having a ranked government officer along was that we received VIP treatment and warmed up with evening again over tea and coffee along with the Baul song performance that was extended exclusively for us






We returned back to our villa, wonderfully lit up at night, had our dinner




spent some quality time sitting together and chatting on the open terrace of first floor and eventually called it a day