Travelling to Offbeat places - Vikramshila

ranjan154

Very often people request that they would like to visit any Offbeat place.. Away from the tourist crowd and specially touts. I am too fond of such places.

I decided to visit a small place called "Bateshwarnath" near Kahalgaon, Bihar around 44 KMS from Bhagalpur the "silk city". Me and my brother-in-law decided to go there on Bike, as we knew we would need to travel through area's where we might not get good roads (Although to our surprise, the condition of rural roads where much better than National Highway(NH-80), thanks to pradhan mantri gramin rojgar yogana)..

Bateshwarnath is a place which just looks like a picture postcard.. River Ganges is in full flow and miles till you can see..

Now the surprising element, when we reached there..we could see some tunnels in the hills.. we inquired from the locals about them.. and came to know that they are mines which were used by British People to take stones for make porcelains, ceramic materials. I got more information on internet the company was bengal potteries..and the mining was done extensively during 1919-1936.

We were very eager to go inside and we took a decision.. but nobody knew how long are they and is there any danger inside.. Anyway I used my camera's flash to get some inside view ..We didn't dared to go beyond 50 Meters as it was pitch dark.

We came back and I took some photographs of nearby places and started for ruins of vikramshila, which is around 2 KMs from there.

Again its hard too believe but the ruins of vikramshila have been carefully maintained.. A very good and well maintained museum which tell you about the history of this place..

No wonder why the kings choose such beautiful places for universities. King Dharmapal established three university.. Vikramshila, Nalanda and one more is in Bangladesh..

Now the problem of such offbeat place is like no arrangements of food and water, Even no transportation..That's pretty sad..

If one needs to be at such lovely places, he would need to arrange all these before and don't expect anything from the such places then only he would be able to enjoy such places.

I have uploaded some pictures of my trip.. will be uploading more soon..

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Rakesh Ranjan
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/travinfoindia/

aadil

Nice to read about your trip to Vikramshila, sounds very interesting to visit someday soon. Good pictures too. Thanks for sharing on IM.

Cheers,
Aadil.

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Your goal, the sky,
Your aim, the stars!!!

setuniket

I have been to vikramshila N no. of times....i lived nearby....there is thermal power plant by NTPC and my father used to work there....every second weekend day trip was either vikramshila or the small island with temple from the kahalgaon ghats.....

but vikramshila is a place worth a visit...another marvelous university after nalanda...although in ruins and not like nalanda...its said that vikramshila is older than nalanda....
we used to go on a picnic with our own food and water....those lovely days....
good to hear abut the roads...i left kahalgaon some 7 years ago but i still remember the place which can surely be a good travel destination in bihar if developed properly...

BTW any chance ur related to NTPC...

ranjan154

Hey setuniket, that's nice to hear.. My In-Laws place is at Bhagalpur, No connections with NTPC

Did you took chance to go inside the Caves, at bateshwarnath, and if how long ..

setuniket

ohh k gud to hear about bhagalpur..it was our weekend hangout..
my uncle's home is in bhagalpur only...

Its too dark inside the caves so we never went inside....local peple said ki the place may have sankes and all.....rather always forgot to take torch....lazy me.....

ranjan154

Great.. I went about 50 Meters inside.. and we had a torch also. unfortunately it was not working well.. and we couldnt go further. We thought we might get lost and if loose track then it would have been difficult to return back..

Some people says these caves are 20 KMs long.. I wish if i can get map of these caves.. You know these mines were owned by Bengal Potteries.. And they use to take out stones and take them to bengal. Although at that time this portion of bihar was in bengal..

pranavganesh

Wonderful travelogue....people tell me that Bihar and Jharkhand are full of such wonders....though I havent really ventured much over there...just Patna....Ranchi and Hazaribagh...and that is nothing...

ranjan154

Thanks Pranav,

You are absolutely correct, I will be writing more about such places.. There are lots of such places with mysteries and adventure also.

Until we spread this word, People will not know.. about such places..

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Debu

recently during this durga puja i visited vikramshila,communicationis poor.Express trains dont stop at vikramshila.from the station only tonga is available,but the place is worth the visit.also no hotels there.

ranjan154

Shouldn't expect hotel at such a remote place.

singsub

for some reason Vikramshila doesnt get the attention that Nalanda gets. But it is definitely worth a visit. Bhagalpur is the place to use as a base.

ranjan154

Yes, Bhagalpur can be used as a base, but one should be prepared for traveling to extreme remote .. with own arrangements of travel and food.