Deoghar Trip and Visit to Basukinath

From Howrah railway station, we boarded the Howrah-Patna Janshatabdi Express. The train left Howrah station at around 2 pm. But after finding our seat we found that the window beside our seat was jammed and could not be opened. This was quite annoying as we were unable to look out of the window. The train reached Jasidih at 06:40 pm. We quickly came out of the station and took an auto to go to Deoghar. I had thought that if we could reach Deoghar before other passengers then we might get an advantage in booking rooms in hotels. But after going a little distance the auto driver went inside a petrol pump. And snap went my plans. We had to wait about 10 minutes there. Somehow we reached Deoghar and found a room in Hotel Mayur. The room was in the ground floor and there were no windows. That night we had our dinner at Sindhi restaurant. The food was very good.

Baba Baidyanath Dham Temple

Visit to Tarapith (Part - 2)

[Continued from Visit to Tarapith (Part - 1)] The accident took place just in front of us. A speeding motorbike was coming through the highway. As it approached that point it came to the edge of the highway and lost its balance. The motorist was injured. He was taken to the hospital by some local people in a rickshaw. After that we went inside the restaurant and placed our order. The food arrived but the food was not up to the mark. In the shop there were  plenty of mosquitoes which  made us very uncomfortable. Somehow we quickly had our dinner and went back to our hotel.

The next day we woke up late in the morning and quickly got ready and went to the bus stand. That day the sun was extremely hot. We felt as if our skins were getting burnt. We once again enquired at the bus stand whether there were any buses to Bakreswar. They replied that there were none. We could get bus to Siuri. From Siuri we would have to take auto to get to Bakreswar. But I decided not to go there. So we started walking through the streets of Rampurhat in search of a good restaurant. We did some shopping at the market area of the town. Most of the goods sold here were locally made and the price was also low. On the way we saw a restaurant named Panthasala. After strolling for some time we entered the restaurant. We went upstairs. The restaurant was quite good, neat and clean. We were served Bengali thali. The food was nice. After having lunch we went back to our hotel.

Visit to Tarapith (Part - 1)

We boarded the Howrah Rampurhat Express from 11:55 am and reached Rampurhat at 15:50 pm. We came out of the station. It was raining. There were a number of auto and cycle rickshaws. Also there were trekkers which were going to Tarapith. But we started walking. We asked at a tea stall, whether there were any hotels nearby. They told us that there was a hotel, Prachi Lodge. We reached Prachi Lodge but there we were told that the rooms were dirty and not good. The person at the reception told us that there was a hotel named Gouri Hotel a little distance away. As it was raining we took a cycle rickshaw and went to Gouri hotel. The rooms of the hotels were clean and good. I booked a room there. Rain had not allowed us to go out, so we stayed inside and watched TV. In the night we ate dinner at Mondira restaurant, our hotel's own restaurant. We had ordered fried rice but the food was not good and the price was high. It was still raining outside. There was just one shop which was still open. All other shops were closed. The time was 21:30 hrs.

The next day we woke up early in the morning. We all got ready and came out of the hotel. We took an auto to get to Tarapith. On reaching Tarapith we started walking towards the temple. There were many small shops on either side of the street. At Tarapith there are two main types of Darshans - Free Darshan and Paid Darshan. Paid darshan are of 3 types - Rs. 30/-, Rs. 100/- and Rs. 200/-. Free darshan takes about 3 hours to get Darshan. Rs. 30/- takes about 2 hrs, Rs. 100/- about 45 mins - 1 hour whereas Rs. 200/- is instant Darshan of Ma Tara. We went for Rs. 100 paid darshan. The line was quite large. Atlast after about 50 mins we got darshan of Ma Tara. After that we came out of the temple and had our breakfast at a small eatery. We took a trekker which was heading to Rampurhat station. Gouri hotel was on the way so we had no trouble getting to our hotel. That day we went searching for a good restaurant. We had lunch at Bama restaurant. But the food and the condition was also not hygienic there. Then we took a cycle rickshaw and went to the bus stand.

Trip to Puri

Puri is  famous for Lord Jagannath temple. The famous annual Rath Yatra or the festival of chariots is celebrated here. This festival is generally celebrated in the month of July. Millions of people from different parts of India come to Puri to watch this festival. It is also a very popular beach resort. It is famous for its long and broad sandy sea beach. One can even view the sunrise and sunset from the beach.

As we were planning a trip to Puri, I thought that this time we will stay in a holiday home instead of a hotel. So I went to the United Bank of India, College Street branch and booked a room at the holiday home 'Ananda Bhawan'. As the day of journey was nearing we were getting excited. On the day of the journey, we boarded the Howrah-Puri Express from Howrah railway station at 22:35 hrs. The train reached Puri at 07:30 hrs. Coming out of the station we saw that many cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws were waiting to take passengers to hotels or holiday homes. We took two cycle rickshaws and reached our destination holiday home 'Ananda Bhawan'. There was a caretaker so we had no problem in taking the luggage to the room. I went to a nearby gas store and from there I hired a small sized gas cylinder. Then we went for a bath at the sea beach. The beach was excellent and the waves produced by the sea here were quite high. After spending some time there we came back to our holiday home and had bath. That day we had lunch at a sea facing restaurant. In the evening we went to the sea beach. The cool sea breeze relaxed our mind and body. We also had some shopping at the shops which were situated opposite to the sea. These shops mainly sell apparels, saris, towels and other clothing products. Then we came back to our holiday home, cooked our food and had dinner.

A Visit to Deoghar

It was winter time in Kolkata. I was thinking of where to go. Suddenly, I thought that Deoghar could be the right place for my winter trip. Deoghar is a small temple town located in the state of Jharkhand. The famous Baba Baidyanath temple is situated here. So, I went to a Passenger Reservation Centre in Kolkata and reserved a ticket in the Janshatabdi Express. Our journey was scheduled to commence just a few days after Christmas.

Baba Baidyanath Dham Mandir

As usual, we went to the Howrah Railway Station from where our journey shall commence. We boarded the Howrah-Patna Janshatabdi Express which leaved Howrah at 14:05 hrs. We disembarked from the train at Jasidih. The train reached Jasidih, half an hour late from its scheduled time at 18:24 hrs. Outside the station, there were many auto rickshaws waiting to pick up passengers. We took one of them and set off on our journey to Deoghar which was situated at a distance of 8 kms from Jasidih. On reaching Deoghar, I had a tough time in booking rooms in hotel. All the hotels had No Vacancy. At last we booked a room in a hotel which was not of the standard we expected but there was no choice. After keeping the luggage in the hotel, we came out to have a look at the market near Tower, the city centre. Thank God, the hotel was near to the Tower. After that we went to have dinner. There were hardly 3-4 restaurants near the Tower. We had to stand in a long queue before we were able to sit in a table and place the order. The quality of food served was good and it was worth standing in the queue.