[AKSen2015]

Prologue:
The thought of a Drive always excites me, even if it is for a short distance. I have been to Taki twice, one of the trips however just a small day trip was as we had to return back owing to a sudden family emergency.
Both times the participants of the trip had been the same Me and my wife (then girlfriend) This trip was done in July 2019 as a weekend getaway to celebrate my 28th Birthday.
I would start with a brief introduction about Taki,
A town in the southeastern part of West Bengal, It falls in the North 24 Parganas of West Bengal and can be accessed by Train and Road from Kolkata. The drive from my place to the Hotel would be approx 70kms one way.
Taki is a well-known picnic spot owing to the calm river Ichamati that flows by it. The river is also the international border between India and Bangladesh. Some well known cultural events of Taki are the Kali Puja and Durga Puja, with the immersion of Maa Durga’s idol being carried on boats from both India and Bangladesh to the middle of the river is quite a spectacle. I, however, am yet to see and experience the same.

The Trip:
Date 20th July 2019.
Day- Saturday

My 28th Birthday and we had made a plan of visiting Taki, to spend the weekend there. There are about 3 routes that one can take while going to Taki, the first being through Airport, and taking a right from Madhyamgram Choumatha Junction.
The 2nd one is driving through Byepass up till Science City, then taking the exit in front of P C Chandra Gardens and getting on the Basanti Highway and driving straight through Kolkata – Malancha Road.

The 3rd one is for people living in and around Saltlake and Rajarhat, is to come up to Biswa Bangla Gate, drive straight on through New Town Road, passing by Rosedale and Uniworld Downtown Mall on your left for about 8kms and then from the junction take a right towards the Basanti Highway connector.
I personally prefer option 2 and 3 as I find the traffic on Option 1 to be too much to handle.
Coming back we left from home around 9:30 in the morning and going by what Google predicted we would reach our destination, Hotel Sonar Bangla, Taki by 11:30- 45 am.

We followed Google Maps and apart from certain stretches of narrow roads and traffic, the drive was pleasurable with the monsoons kind of accentuating the greenery all around.

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The road to the hotel is a bit narrow as it passes through Taki Ghat Road and then on to Mansingha Road, after crossing the BSF camp and check post. It took us about 1hr 45 mins to complete the 70-72 km drive.

The Hotel was a beautiful property that had plush accommodation, lip-smacking food a beautiful view of the Ichamati River and view of Bangladesh and a lovely swimming pool.










We completed the check-in formalities, freshened up and moved for lunch.
We had a filling lunch of Hilsa and traditional Bengali vegetarian fare for me as it was a Saturday. All items were delicious and made my birthday lunch to be just what I wanted but I was very eager to try out the Non-Veg dishes as well.
Post lunch, we explored the property and went back to our rooms.

In the evening, we came to know that the hotel also offered boating facilities and we made a booking for the same. Boating for an hour would cost us about 800 rupees and we set out to explore the Ichamati River and could take some beautiful snaps of the surroundings and sunset,

After the boat ride, we spent time in the lawn with evening Tea and as the darkness grew, one could realise that there isn't much that you could do other than maybe sitting in the lawn or by the pool.











Some snaps of the Sunset on Ichamati











We had an early dinner and called it a night.

Day 2 :
Sunday.

We had made plans to do a little sightseeing in and around Taki and visited the Picnic ground, the local market and enjoyed ourselves in the Pool.











Came back famished and ready to gorge on the Non-Veg delicacies and as is a well-known battle between Bengalis of West Bengal and East Bengal ( now Bangladesh) indulged in Hilsa and Prawns to decide which was better.



The evening was very quiet as most of the guests had left on Sunday Evening. We had planned to stay the night and leave early next day morning.









Day 3:

We left the hotel early in the morning by 6 am as both of us would be attending office after going back home. The return journey was much quicker owing to less congested roads. We reached home by 8 am to again leave for office but unlike other Mondays, we were rejuvenated and looked forward to the next trip.

Ciao!!

[Deadpool]

Thanks for sharing your experience with some fantastic sunset snaps. I have been planning to visit Taki for some time now, but each instance has seen some other destination prevailed at the 11th hour.

Originally Posted by AKSen2015

I personally prefer option 2 and 3 as I find the traffic on Option 1 to be too much to handle.

Which option did you opt finally? How is the road condition from Science city to Basanti?

[haisaikat]

Originally Posted by AKSen2015

In the evening, we came to know that the hotel also offered boating facilities and we made a booking for the same. Boating for an hour would cost us about 800 rupees

Nice account of travel. Last month only we had visited the same Sonar Bangla property with friends for Day Outing and we really liked the place, its miles ahead of what other properties offer there and being relatively new it has its own charm, hope they maintain that. The account of my 2020 Taki trip is given for reference

>> (Kolkata to Taki! A memorable weekend getaway near Bangladesh border. EDIT: Updated with 2020 trip)

We took the Basanti Highway route. You will be surprised that same boat tour now cost 1500 rupees and for 45 mins only. I checked with couple of hotels and all gave same quote only. The only complain I have is the food at Sonar Bangla beyond their regular buffet is highly overpriced.

[k_kumar]

Nice travelogue and it's good to see you guys had a gala time in Sonar Bangla by the Ichamati. Wish you long-belated happy 29th b'day too.

I have become a bit disoriented seeing the beautiful snaps of the sunset since I expected the river (and B'desh) to be in the east! I must take a closer look at the map.

Originally Posted by AKSen2015

...The Hotel was a beautiful property that had... a beautiful view of the Ichamati River and view of Bangladesh...

...Some snaps of the Sunset on Ichamati...

[AKSen2015]

Basanti Highway till Malancha is good. It's a bit narrow but road conditions were good back in 2019. Last I went in August to that side but the roads were a chaos

Originally Posted by Deadpool

Thanks for sharing your experience with some fantastic sunset snaps. I have been planning to visit Taki for some time now, but each instance has seen some other destination prevailed at the 11th hour.



Which option did you opt finally? How is the road condition from Science city to Basanti?

Hello sir , Thank you for the feedback. I agree about the food. The breakfast and lunch buffet in 2019 was good but we did encounter a bad experience with dinner on one of the days as the food was terrible.Though the staff was kind enough to acknowledge the fact, the Servers of the restaurant in particular were quite defiant if I may towards the complaint against the food.

Originally Posted by haisaikat

Nice account of travel. Last month only we had visited the same Sonar Bangla property with friends for Day Outing and we really liked the place, its miles ahead of what other properties offer there and being relatively new it has its own charm, hope they maintain that. The account of my 2020 Taki trip is given for reference

>> (Kolkata to Taki! A memorable weekend getaway near Bangladesh border. EDIT: Updated with 2020 trip)

We took the Basanti Highway route. You will be surprised that same boat tour now cost 1500 rupees and for 45 mins only. I checked with couple of hotels and all gave same quote only. The only complain I have is the food at Sonar Bangla beyond their regular buffet is highly overpriced.

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Thank you so much for the wishes sir. Glad you liked it. I had a wonderful time and stay there indeed

Originally Posted by k_kumar

Nice travelogue and it's good to see you guys had a gala time in Sonar Bangla by the Ichamati. Wish you long-belated happy 29th b'day too.

I have become a bit disoriented seeing the beautiful snaps of the sunset since I expected the river (and B'desh) to be in the east! I must take a closer look at the map.