I had a trip to Bakkhali sea beach in September, 2010. I want to share some of my experience about this sea beach in WestBengal, India. Digha is a well known sea beach in West Bengal but Bakkhali is not so popular. Okay, my introductory lines are leading me to tell you the good things about Bakkhali first. Road to Bakkhali from Kolkata is in excellent condition with respect to other Indian roads. So it is very suitable for a long drive. Now coming to the beach, as I said this beach is not so much popular like Digha and so there is not so much crowd and so by default there is peace. The beach is windy and you will get a chair to sit there for Rs. 5 per hour. The chairs are available upto 10 p.m. The umbrella in the sunny afternoon will cost you Rs. 20 per hr. Mmmm, the good things are almost finished. I will try later in this blog to find out more such.
The bad thing is -- the hotels. It is tough to find a good hotel to stay and with good hygienic food(though I think Bengalis don't bother much about that). I first tried to to stay in West Bengal Government's Tourist Lodge. It will take only 1 min. walking from this lodge to beach. When I entered into their office I found no one. Then I investigated and found some clues and followed the trails and eventually could find the idle manager/ officer in the bar and restaurant of that lodge.When I asked him about the rooms he turned his head towards us and said that AC rooms were for Rs. 1200 and non AC for Rs. 786 per day. Then I asked him to show one such room and he replied annoyingly "room dekhben?"(Will you see rooms?). Sorry, I could not play his voice tone here but if I decipher the tone it will mean "Are you sure of what you just said dude? Do you know the consequences?" Reluctantly he showed us one room. Please note another good thing here: the room was clean and very good with tiptop bathroom. Then he asked us about our stay period. We replied that it would be for 2 days and finally he replied after all of our efforts (including his) till that moment that the room was available only for 24 hours!! So to stay in the Govt. Tourist Lodge you have to book from Dalhousie, Kolkata- as said by the manager. I don't know exactly where in Dalhousie. Dalhousie is a big, crowded place where thousands of offices are located in central Kolkata. So you have to google that. Then we searched for other hotels. Hotel Jayguru and others ( I can't recall all the names). Everywhere the rooms were untidy and the walls were painted awkwardly either with green or blue! Finally we stayed in hotel 'Balaka'. No, here the walls were coloured with white which was refreshing and most importantly bathroom was clean. The rent was Rs. 750(it was an AC room) per day(upto 11 am next day). But later we found that the shower did not work, they didn't change the dustbin used by the previous renters and when I opened that we had to smell a tremendous foul smell, we could heard the sound of the falling water on floor in the bathroom above ours so we could know when they were using their bathroom, the door was tough to lock and I had a finger cut while trying to do that, they supplied food from nearby restaurants and the AC machine made sudden peculiar noise like someone was popping a balloon every 10 or 15 mins at night which made us awake.
Now the ugly thing- We visited one month prior to the puja festival. Local club members (goons) came to our room and demanded contribution and politely made us understand that the consequence would not be good in case of any refusal. So here is a warning: IF YOU TOUR TO BAKKHALI IN SEPTEMBER YOU HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR PUJA AND HAVE TO CARRY THE RECEIPT IN THE POCKET WHERVER YOU GO IN BAKKHALI EVEN IN BEACH!!
Oh ho, another good thing is Frazergunj beach, 2km from Bakkhali. This beach is also good and there are hotels also.
You can have alook into the Henry island and Benfish fishing harbour. In Henry island there is a tower (a three storied bulding) in middle of the island and from the roof top of that you can see the whole island ( the mangrove forest). I have pasted here a pic of that taken by my mobile cam. You can stay in the cottages there which can be booked from BikashBhavan, Saltlake.
Some ways to reach Bakkhali to Kolkata:
You can take bus from Esplanade. The bus is at 2 p.m. I don't know the timing of other such buses.
OR, you can take a Esplanade-Namkhana/Kakdwip bus. These buses are quite frequent. It is 15 kms from Kakdwip to Namkhana (there are frequent Kadwip to Namkhana buses). At Namkhana you have to cross a river called Hatania-Doania by boat (cost- Rs. 0.50 and it will take 1 min) and then you have to catch a aNamkhana -Bakkhali bus from the other side of the tiny river. Namkhana to Bakhkhali is 27 kms.
By the way, direct buses from Esplanade to Bakkhali cross the river by a vessel. So in that case you don't have to ride a boat.
Esplanade-----------------------------------------Diamnond Harbour----------------------------------Kakdwip------------------------------Namkhana~~Namkhana-------------Frazerganj--Bakkhali
(Not in scale) lol
Please google the distance between Esplanade to Bakkhali. What I can remember is it is about 130 kms and it will take 3 hrs to reach Namkhana and another 50 mins (including boat) to reach Bakkhali.
Another cute way:
You can catch a train!! A train from Sealdah(south) to Namkhana and follow the rest as said.
Train timings: From Sealdah-south: 3:55, 5:05, 7:15, 11:56, 14:10, 16:45, 17:28, 18:57,
From Ballygunj:10:24
From Namkhana to Sealdah: 04:15, 06:00, 07:30, 08:13, 10:28, 13:30(upto Ballygunj), 15:10, 17:35, 19:40, 20:50, 22:08
The train will take a much longer route but it will also take about 3 hrs.
Rating of Bakkhali as tourist spot: 2.5/5
1.5 for beach, 0.5 for road condition and o.5 for personal reasons (okay I can share it. In Henry Island's tower I met with a beautiful looking girl. We didn't talk but Bakkhali will be in my memory because of her).
Digha will get a 4/5. So you can compare them after reading this blog if you visit any of these lovely beaches in Westbengal!
