Smaller trips around Kolkata

That’s a beautiful pic, Anett .
But where is your Laser ? Did you get any chance to use it in Ganges here?

Santiniketan
Bishnupur
Murshidabad
Malda
Gaur
Pandua
Parsnath

All favourites of mine - highly recommended.

Tim in England

I had problems with the pictures!
That is a H-boatn if I remember the picture now!
After all answers, I think sailing will be hard in West Bengal...

Maybe I will make this time, with the attachments...

I will recommend Malancha Tourist Lodge at Barakpur (Nice bunglow on the bank of Gonga river.)

Malancha Tourist Lodge.

Hello everyone,
me and a friend went to Mukutmanipur day before yesterday. we took the 315 Chakradharpur passenger train, from Howrah at 11:05 in the night; reached Bankura staion at 4:20 in the morning.
got on a bus to Mukutmanipur at 5, and reached at 7 in the morning.
one can easily spend one day there, and return by the night buses. there are return buses to Calcutta at 8pm, 8:15 pm, and 8:45 pm. there's also a CSTC bus at 8:30 pm or so. Ask around at the restaurants/ dhabas there, and they will book your ticket. The bus dropped us in Calcutta at 5:30 in the morning. Alternately, you can also take early morning bus till Bankura, and return by train (Purulia Exp at 7 am from Bankura).
there are 8-10 hotels there, and finding rooms shouldn't be a problem, unless it is a weekend.
Bus fare: Bankura-Mukutmanipur: Rs 30; mukutmanupur-calcutta: Rs 100.
things to see: dam, lake, islands in the lake, the downstream river, forest (it's actually an Eucalyptus plantation), boat rides, and a beautiful view of the sunset, from the islands.
Total cost should not exceed Rs 1000-1200 per person.

Hi!
Do we need to do advance booking for hotels in Mukutmanipur? As you have already visited can you give a list of good hotels out there?

Anybody tell me about what is the best season for visiting Mukutmanipur.

Winter. October can be tolerable.

I have a plan to travel to Kolkata by car in June as my kid'd school is off that time.

Give me any suggestion/advice regarding my trip.

If you want to know anything about Mukutmanipur, you may look at this.

Regarding other tours around Kolkata, look at the Kolkata forum.

June may not be the ideal time to visit Mukut. It'll be very hot. Also the monsoon starts here around 8th June.

On the advice of Mousourik we went to Murshidabad had twofull days there stayed at "Manjusha Hotel" Tel. no. +91-3482-270321. Best rooms 201 & 203 great place with view of the river and so peacfull- should have gone for more time.Took train left Kolkata around 18.00 arrived 24.00 and back from Murshidabad 09.30
Also took a 3 day trip to the Sunderban and had a great time, went with "Backpakers" Tottee Lane, just seven of us.

This is a great collection I am planning to visit these one by one.

We reached shantiniketan from kolkata by Ganadevta express 0605. reached by 0845.
The places to see in and around Shantiniketan are:
Vishwabharathi university campus which has various faculty buildings. The places where open air classes are held can also be seen. The list of faculties can be found at their official website and others. There is a prayer hall with the campus. Access to it is not allowed. Kalabhavan interested me the most among the faculties. The Black house which is a hostel with beautiful sculptures on the outside. Another interesting thing about the shantiniketan travel is the bevy of musical artists. You will find them everywhere and they are all good. I found one inside kalabhavan complex. Other than this there is a clock tower. Those who are familiar with Tagore literature may find it interesting to note the various places where the poet wrote about. This can only be done by hiring a cycle rickshaw (the driver doubles as a guide). This was not useful for me.
Nadan is a exhibition hall with some artifacts. This is nestled between kalabhavan and the tagore house.
Tagore house complex has 5 houses and a museum. Two of these house is under repair. The main house in which the poet lived is not accessible to visitors. One the halls is kept open for the visitors to peep in. So, we could visit 2 of the these. All have Tagore memorabilia. The ill maintained car of Tagore also kept here. Photography is prohibited in this area.
These are the places that one can visit at the university. One can walk this or hire a cycle rick (about Rs 150 for the entire trip) or taxi (Rs 500 for 5hrs).
On day 1 we could also complete most of the other spots around the campus. these are:
Khowai forest area
The Saturday Hat (local craftsmen sell their produce) this is held in the field near the forest.
Kupai river, where the poet wrote a poem (isn't beautiful anymore)

There are other handcraft and leather outlets around which work like cooperative societies. These shops are also worth it if there are plans to buy something.

On the day two we were only left with the Ballavgad forest (deer park). We preponed our ticket to shantiniketan express which starts at 1310. we started at 8am. We visited the Khowai forest. We stopped just before the forest and found a wonderful place which no one has described: The Suntale tribal village. We walked through the village upto the forest. The village is neat and all the houses have sculptures on their outer wall. These are mud houses. This was like a walk through a museum. A wonderful experience. We spent some time in the forest and proceeded to deer park.
The deer park is a finely maintained. very few visitors. I found the place unusually silent for Indian zoos where visitors are very noisy. I did find plastic covers thrown around. This is India, we have to accept it. otherwise the place is nice.

Food: we found it difficult to find a decent place for lunch. Breakfast and dinner was good at chutti resort where we were put up.

The picture can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sandee.../Shatiniketan#