Cesc Holiday Home at Jayanti

FIRST LEG OF JOURNEY – 01.11.14 – 02.11.14

Before we start our journey, I asked my son to get the Car is serviced properly and made it worthy of long distance journey. It looked that he was as tense as me, made repeated visits to Car Service Centre and made sure that everything is taken care of. The Car was delivered to our home duly serviced and it looked nice and shining. Though looks alone does not mean anything as far as long distance driving is concerned, yet it gave us a kind of comfort feeling.

We planned to start at 5 AM from our home at Behala on 1st of November, 2014. We burnt midnight oil to organize everything and made sure that all the items as per the list is loaded in the car. Hardly could we sleep in the night due to sheer pressure of excitement. It was quite natural as this was our first long drive and that too the driver being our own son! We were late by 15 minutes and when we left our home, it was quite dark and street lights were still on. The GPS in Mobile Phone is turned on and I kept constant watch on direction and had acted as Navigator throughout. While on road, empty roads and cool breeze welcomed us, there was minor traffic hold up at Behala Bazar due to unloading of Fish Containers from Fish-carrying Trucks, otherwise drive is quite a breeze and we crossed Vidyasagar Setu within half an hour. Kona Expressway was quite congested even at such early hours of the day; but we reached NH-2 without any glitches. It was fun to drive on NH-2 as the road condition was like picture perfect. Topped up petrol near Govindopur in HPCL Pump and used their clean Toilets. Reached Burdwan by 7-45 AM. As we Shaktigarh quite early, this time we skipped the customary break fast there. Little ahead of Shaktigarh, we left NH-2 and entered GT Road, which runs through the Burdwan Town. Being early morning, the town is not crowded and we reached Burdwan Station and immediately after crossing the Station, the GPS directed us to take sharp right turn to take Burdwan-Katowa Road crossing the Railway Over bridge. Eventually this road took us to SH-7, which met NH-34 at Morgram.

Just before we left our home, the road was looking like this.

GPS on Mobile Mounted on Wind Glass

Filling up Petrol at Govindpur

Smooth Highway

Toll Plaza at the Highway

SH-7 : Massive expansion work - mixed up traffic

So far the road was breeze and we were cruising at the speed of 80 – 120 KM per hour. But our ordeal started from here. SH-7 is undergoing massive expansion phase; the roads were dug, huge number of machineries were deployed, the existing roads had become narrow single lane road, full of pot holes and the driver's driving skills go through acid test in such roads. Anyhow, we reached Morgram at about 11.30 AM and had crossed Farakka Barrage at about 12-45 AM. After Farakka, the NH-34 started playing sort of hide & seek with motorists, once it was 4-lane super Expressway, suddenly after a brief stint, it becomes old, narrow, full of pot holes, some times the holes turned out to be craters. Mildly speaking, it was huge pain to drive in such roads.

In addition to this, there were series of barricades put up by the locals demanding "Chanda" (subscription) for some religious ceremony. Readers would not believe that we had encountered at least 15 such barricades in between Farakka and Raigaunj. However, many of them are mild mannered and had soft approach; but there were a few, who were quite demanding and aggressive! Some had even erected physical barricade on the National Highway to stop the traffic! We could give a slip to many of them, but had to yield at few places. Sorry to say, we did not find any effort from local administration against these kind of open extortions, although we saw Police Vans stationed at a few places on the road.

To add to our misery, we had to negotiate the notorious traffic jam at Kaliachak, just before Malda. The road was pretty narrow and all kind of vehicles, buses, trucks, tangas, cars et all lined up and parked on the road itself throughout the Kaliachak Bazar area and that made the traffic remaining standstill from both the sides. Our tiny ALTO was almost threatened to be crushed between huge sized Trucks. Anyhow, my son kept his cool and as every ordeal has an end, this one also came to an end eventually after a delay of an hour or so; and we reached Malda by 3.30 PM.

By the time we reached Malda, we were quite hungry. We did not have proper breakfast and lunch time is also over. We decided now is the time to stop by for our lunch. We spotted a nice property, called "Hotel Golden Park", just beside the Highway. We had read great reviews about this Hotel and therefore, had thought of stopping here for our lunch. Here we encountered a funny incident, which I think I should narrate for the benefit of future travellers. When we reached the Dining Hall of the Hotel, it was absolutely empty; there was no customers, no employees around. We caught hold of someone and at the first impression, it looked that he was not at all happy to see us. Obviously, he was busy with other jobs and was not quite happy with our interventions. Anyhow, he took the order, we told him that we are in hurry, therefore, gave him free hand to choose any items, which can be served immediately. He mumbled some items and we readily agreed. After order was taken we got freshen up and took our seats. 15 minutes, then half an hour, and after that 45 minutes passed – no one came, no soul was around and no food was served. Interestingly, there was no one around whom we could ask. However, I got impatient meanwhile and almost forcefully opened the kitchen door (which is located downstairs), suddenly a staff came out and started scolding us right away for entering a "prohibited area" without permission. Asked about the delay in serving, they replied that they serve only "fresh" food and that every time a customer places order, the food is cooked afresh and hence such delays are natural. I came back upstairs at the Dining Hall and waited for another 15 minutes, but no one came and no food was served. We decided that enough is enough, it is now or never! But whom to ask? We came out, passed the Reception Area, no one was there, and came to Parking lot. Opened the car door, sat in the car, started the engine and left the place! Just like that! No one came; nobody stopped us, no apology, nothing!

We left Malda at about 4.30 PM unfed with a bitter taste in our mouth and drove straightway to Raigaunj. It was approx 6 PM and was quite dark. I had read about a Hotel called "Hotel Embassy" at Raigaunj somewhere in this Forum, which is located right on the Highway and has secured Parking Space. We located that Hotel and straightway checked in. Hotel is nice, the staffs are friendly, and the room was large with 3 separate beds. It had western type toilets with Geysers. Tariff was Rs.900/- for Non-AC triple bedded Room. As we were terribly hungry, we ordered our food, narrated our predicament and requested to serve our food as early as possible. To our pleasant surprise, the food was served exactly within half an hour; it was hot and irresistibly tasty. Having our stomach full, we slept like babies.

Hotel Embassy, Raigaunj

Here ends the first leg of our journey. I am trying to attach an Excel Spreadsheet containing our Travel_Log for first leg. I'm not sure how it is going to appear. I would be happy if readers guide me to improve upon the annexing the Excel Spreadsheets in the Blogs. Thanks.

Travel Log for the first leg of our journey

thompsontors1977.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.bcmtouring.com/forums/threads/once-more-jayanti-crown-of-dooars.61473/

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