Dhanyakuria and Taki

read more at http://www.telegraphindia.com/109120...y_11828886.jsp

I read this article at the weekend and now fancy going to Dhanyakuria as a day out from Kolkata. The train from Sealdah to Basirhat takes about 2 hours so it should be possible to do in a day.

So, has anyone been there? Any thoughts, recommendations?

You will also observe some good rural landscapes of Bengal while going there.

Great! I like the rural landscapes of Bengal.

Now, if only I had your skill as a photographer ...

Thanks Julia for the compliments.

Also visit Taki on the banks of river Icchamati....it will be a good outing for a day.

See this:
http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...9/ppuser/15496

Yes, that does sound good, the train goes as far as Hasnabad so I could go there and Taki first and then Dhanyakuria on the way back.

Is the Icchamati River the border with Bangladesh or is it still part of India on the other side?

At Taki...the river is the border. The opposite bank is Bangladesh.....but not in Bashirhat, where both sides of the bank belongs to India.

Thanks Bhaswaran. This is shaping up to be a good day out, sometime in late Jan or early Feb, hopefully.

Taki is a better option than Hasnabad, the latter being more of a commercial town. The sunrise on the banks of the Ichhamati is very nice. You may also try out Machh-ranga dwip (kingfisher island), however it's advisable to book the municipality boat.

Yes...Mousourik is correct.....Taki is better...there is also a panchayat guest house or something like that in Taki

Thanks guys.

Yes I checked on erail again and there's a Taki Road station, so I could probably get a cycle rickshaw from there to the river.

That article said Dhanyakuria was 20km from Basirhat, do you think I'd be able to get an autorickshaw for that? Probably the ideal would be if an auto would take me there, wait an hour or so, and then take me back to Basirhat

But Taki is several kilometres away from Basirhat. Autos must be available from Basirhat as well as Taki. There are cycle-vans available at Taki - it's a very small locality. There are hotels / municipality guest house at Taki. But i'm not sure whether there is any hotel at Basirhat although it's a big town. The local train goes from Sealdah to Taki via Basirhat.

Thanks mousourik, I'm getting much more of an idea of these places now.

I wasn't actually planning to stay the night at all - I was thinking of getting the train from Sealdah to Taki, having a look round, then getting the train to Basirhat, and probably an auto to Dhanyakuria, back to Basirhat and then train back to Sealdah.

Do you think it's too ambitious to try all that in one day? And are those local trains generally on time?

These are short-distance trains. So, they run pretty much on time
(could run late by half-an-hour or so, at the most). However, the
railway cars are unreserved, and could be awfully crowded, depending
on the time of the day, and the day of the week. If no males would
be accompanying you, you could avail of cars reserved for ladies.
Still no seat reservation, but would be much less crowded, and
with women only.

I have seen a Municipality/Panchayat Guest House at Bashirhat.

Have you tried the place called PARMADON , BivutiVusan Sanctuary??There is a tourist lodge.

Is the following tour possible in 2 days by car???

First day
Visting Krisnanagar ghurni
Balla vita
Mayapur and then go to ichamoti, Parmadon
Stay in tourist lodge

Second day
boating
Come back to calcutta


???