Ilambazar : A cultured and sublime terracotta township near Shantiniketan
On a fine winter morning, we planned for a trip to the beautiful terracotta village of Ilambazar located amidst green forests along the highways. Ilambazar…
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A memorable visit to Druk Yul, Bhutan
In the journey of life, we do get many friends in different phases of time. Amongst all, friendship with old school mates stands tall….
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Kolkata to Kumaon- the lake city Nainital
Our first halt was at “cave garden” .A network of inter connected rocky caves and hanging gardens, it leads the visitor into a mysterious and ancient dream world and gives the tourist an encapsulated glimpse of what the wilderness of the hill region can offer right in the middle of civilization. An wonderful world of our prehistoric ancestors. Six caves were in the form of Tiger, Panther, Porcupine, Bat cave etc.
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Kolkata to Kumaon – Patal Bhubaneswar and Mukteswar
Apart from mythology the limestone creation is thrill fully unique, the cave is still building from crystallization. The many forms resembles the tail of Gods, one unique formation described as the spine of “Sesh Nag” and one ice like formation is called “Jyota” of Mahadeva, a mushroom like formation holds four stalactites called the four ‘Yug”. It is said that when a specific stalagmite would touch the stalactite hence the “Satya with Kali”, the earth may end. For both the believers and non-believers the place gives a life time experience.
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My jaunt to the Brighton of the East from Kolkata
We drove past Vidyasagar Setu aka Second Hooghly Bridge that connects the City of Joy with Howrah and stands at the banks of the River Hooghly. One can get a magnificent view of the entire city from this bridge. Well it is a toll bridge with superfine smooth finish. Then took the Kona Express way and sped all through the National Highway crossing Kolaghat Thermal Power Station and then Nandakumar More. From here we encountered small towns and villages on a single lane carriage path that snakes its way through them.
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Kolkata to Kumaon- Mesmerising Munsiyari
It was the longest road to Munsiyari of around 180 kms, via “Thal”, in all of our itinerary of hill destination planning. Though majority of the roads of Uttarakhand are much predictable and in quite good, balanced condition but went through many reviews of Munsiyari roads I came to a conclusion that the road would be quite tougher than other days.
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Summer in Sikkim-way to Pelling
We crossed the border to enter Sikkim. Smooth good road replaced the bumpy and potholed road, air became cooler, traffic lighter and River Rangit replaced Teesta. Soon there was no traffic at all. We were the only one on the road and River Rangit was there, revealing its beauty to prove Aaroop right. Yes!!! Rangit was dancing, flirting and romancing with us. I have traveled along rivers in Uttaranchal, Himachal but nothing like this.
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Kolkata to Kumaon – Visiting Mubarak Snake Park, Maithon and Gor Panchkot
One can see many venomous and non venomous snake which were rescued from the forest near by. The park had a collection of variety of birds also like Turkey, Emu, etc. Some days ago before we reached there a thunderstorm made havoc and the park was disoriented a bit.
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Bhalkimachan – the royal bear hunting grounds
The Zamindars and the royal family members of Burdwan used this place as a hunting spot and constructed several Machans for their convenience. Thus Bhalki and Machan combined to give the place its current name Bhalki Machan. The etymology can be broken down into Bhalu ki Machan. Bhalu means bear. Machan means an elevated resting place for the hunters to hunt down wild animals.
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Have you heard of Telinipara’s unique Ratha Yatra during Akshay Tritiya?
Annapurna and Bholanath goes on a tour of their kingdom on their Rath for listening to the problems of the people. When it is quite late, Lakshmi and Narayan are worried and goes on a search operation for Annapurna. Finally they find them on the banks of the Ganges. Then takes place the phase of Manbhanjan or in other words requesting them to return back home.
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Chandraketugarh – a tryst with the mystical ancient history
When king Chandraketu was ruling the kingdom, a Pir named Gorachand arrived from Arab and tried to convince the king to convert his religion to Islam. During that time, he showed several magical tricks. One of the tricks was that he bloomed Champa flower during off season on the Bera (fence). From that time, the place is called Berachampa.
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The road less travelled – Kolkata to Kaluk
At about 1 p.m. Tara took his first halt at Teesta Valley. Very near to this place is the point of White Water River Rafting on Teesta. The area is dotted with a few small eateries run by the local villagers. Tara took us to one named Tashi Restaurant. All the eateries here, as this one, are very basic. I am a bit apprehensive about eating at small joints as the hygiene factor is low, but had no other alternative here. However, the good food coupled with the beautiful Teesta flowing beside the eatery made me set all thoughts aside for a few moments. Had it been some other place, such a beautiful locale would surely have been commercialized and turned into a Mc Donald’s or KFC with the wealth again going to the rich hands.
Our car moved on towards Jorethang. Tara was true. The stretch from Malli to Jorethang was in really poor condition. Although it was for wider and better roads in coming days, the ride was extremely stressful for us. Clouds of dust engulfed us at short intervals. We are much more impatient than our counterparts residing at higher altitudes.
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