Traveling is good
Known for the beauty of the beach and the special sea-side food hubs, Digha is a wonderful visiting paradise for the visitors. Tourists mainly spot two places, the old Digha beach and the new Digha beach.
New Digha is much much more crowded compared to the old Digha. And as expected we visited both the beaches.
Kolkata has a lot of places within the proximity of 4-5 hours that could be considered as ideal places, for thoroughly enjoying weekends with total peace of mind far away from the hustle and bustle of the crowded city. One of them is the Mandarmoni beach which is around 180 KM from Howrah and is arguably the longest drivable beach in India. Located very near (within 30 KM) to the famous Digha beach, Mandarmoni is very easily accessible and reachable from Kolkata.
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The best part of the journey is the drive on the Durgapur Expressway (NH2) from Kolkata to Tarapith and Shantiniketan. In Kolkata this road is well known as Dilli Road. This highway is one of the best in the country.
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Previously also known by the name Bhuvandanga (named after Bhuvan Sinha), Santiniketan and nearby areas is all about moving around and watching rather than writing. Santiniketan is also the house of the Vishwa Bharati University established by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
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Tarapith is amongst one of the 51 Shakti Pith of Goddess Kali and Shantiniketan is Kabiguru Rabindra Nath Tagore’s University and his home for many years of his life. Tarapith is in Rampurhat district while Shantiniketan is in Bolpur district.
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Jaisalmer was our next destination and on our return journey we planned to cover Bikaner. We decided to start after getting fresh in early morning so that we do not end up wasting time in Jaisalmer. We reached Jaisalmer by around 8:30 AM, luckily found a local guide and took some guidance from him and by 10 we were in the Jaisalmer fort. Took a guide (he was just hovering around there) there and started the fort visit. We booked the tickets for the Swiss camp in the Sam sand dunes from the fort only.
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Since quite some time I have been thinking “what an amazing experience it will be drive through the Rajasthan deserts and barren lands”. I have only seen those in movies but to do it on my own is something I have always been dreaming for. Unfortunately because of our professional life, it is not always an easy job to plan such kind of trips. But then you get a chance and you have to reap the advantages then and there on. Exactly that is what I did, and made a quick plan of visiting Jodhpur, Jaisalmer during the republic day leave on 2012. Took two additional days leave and planned the whole trip. And as we found out later, it was not a bad decision at all. Here’s a small description on the entire trip that I had and I hope this will be really helpful to those who are actually planning for such trips. Although 5 days is a bit tight for visiting these places, I tried to cover the maximum things that can be visited within this schedule.
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Road review for this journey or rather saying road review for NH2 in one word to say is simply awesome. It is advisable to start as early as possible in the morning so as to avoid the city rush.
Starting with the Durgapur Expressway from Kolkata, this is one of the best highways in India, there is absolutely no doubt in that. If you are actually driving in this highway, the road quality is so good and the greenery around are so nice, that you will just want to keep driving on this road. A maximum speed of 150 KMPH is no big deal in this highway and you can easily maintain an avg speed of around 90-100 KMPH.
Every now and then one can find decent places to have tea and snacks, there is not limitation on any kind of meals, whether its breakfast, lunch or dinner. Shaktigarh around 100 KM from Kolkata is one such ideal place to have a good breakfast. It’s known for its famous sweets (langchas). It’s also known as “langchagarh”.
Another early travel on day 4, this time the destination was Sultanpur, where I did my MCA from Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology (UP Technical University). I always had an idea that Allahabad -> Sultanpur distance although only 99KM, the road is not good, so it will take minimum 4-5 hours.
So we started around 4-4:30, however we found the road to be much improved. NH96 was much improved now. While driving almost around 2 hours, I thought I would be reaching the college way to early, however, took a wrong highway to Amethi somewhere. So I had to take another 35 KM drive back to Sultanpur and was at college by around 7:30. I showed my parents the campus, went to the mess and immediately all of them recognized me, offered breakfast for free.
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Journey from Kolkata to Delhi through the awesome Durgapur Expressway, was something I had dreamt of since the time I went to Kolkata back in August 2007. I had my plans sorted out that I will be working in Kolkata not more than 2-3 years and then when I return back to Delhi, I will do that by road. It was January 1st week, when I got an offer in hand for a job back in Delhi, and I immediately had in mind, it’s now or never.
We were all set to start on the 4th of February 2011 for Delhi from Kolkata by road in my most loveable Santro.
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A road trip starting from Delhi to Jodhpur, then over to Jaisalmer and a return back via Bikaner is an amazing experience. It is always advisable to start the journey at the break of dawn to avoid the rush hour. We started around 3:00 AM (did I say break of dawn?) and were in Jaipur by 7.00 AM. The Delhi-Jaipur Highway (NH-8) is under construction for expansion. Be prepared to face a lot of mud & deep craters on the roads. We still managed to go maintain a speed of 60-70 Kmph and sometimes accelerated to about 110 kmph. Good facilities for breakfast and refreshments along the highway provided by Rajasthan Tourism & other privately held outlets make the journey comfortable.
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Calcutta also known as the city of festivals almost remains enlightened all through the year with various festivals every now and then. Whether it’s Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Laxmi Puja, Kartik Puja, Vishwakarma Puja, Holi, Diwali, Christmas or whatever, the city enjoys them all with full celebration. Durga Puja is ideally the biggest festival of Calcutta (and West Bengal). The city of Calcutta has a completely different look.
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