Last year 2020 was catastrophic for all of us. Many of us lost our loved ones, careers and others were also out of peace because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic also forced us to caged ourselves for our own good. But that was so stressful. In this connection, any kind of travelling especially pleasure trips was also stopped. So we could not go anywhere along with many fellow travellers. But at the end of the year, while the outbreak/ spreading was a bit controlled, SJ and I decided to break our silence and visit somewhere near like Digha or Darjeeling.
Digha and Darjeeling both are natural choices for every Bengali and they are quite beautiful. We chose Digha to resume our travel life because of the sea as the sea always rejuvenates us and we kept Darjeeling for the summer.
Journey Begins:
After making the destination a rush came into our life. My husband started searching for hotels at an affordable price and fortunately, we got one. I shall talk about the same later in this blog. Then we started deciding the mode of conveyance packing bags, and essential items
Redbus:
As the railway service from Howrah to Digha was not regular like earlier because of the current pandemic, we decided to reach by Bus. We did not the condition or availability of Bus service, hence we searched through redbus. Redbus has a very good search engine with efficient filters. They have even added a Covid Hygiene filter. After spending some time we had chosen a bus as per our timing.
Esplanade:
On 28 th December 2020, we arrived at Esplanade 1hour before the bus time. Our bus was scheduled at 12:40 PM and we reached one hour earlier. Searched for a little bit and found Maa Gouri Gold. Everyone at the bus stand was very helpful. I noticed that one can also get a ticket after reaching the esplanade depot as lots of options available. Maa Gouri Gold was a Black beauty. It looked like a dashing stallion that will carry us to our travel destination after so many days. We were so happy and excited regarding the tour and obviously cautious about Covid. He went to buy some snacks and beverages for the road and I arranged the luggage. The bus departed the depot at exactly the right time.
Digha:
We reached just after the afternoon and before the evening. The bus left us near New Digha Sea beach road, from there we hire a Toto(local battery operated cart) and went to our hotel. The shops and hotels were putting on the lights, Digha was thriving just before New year.
Hotel Kanchan International:
We had booked online through goibibo. Our Hotel was Hotel Kanchan International. This is a nice hotel and we got a pretty good deal. As it was winter then, we chose to stay in a non-ac room. Though the hotel was on the second row from the road parallel to the sea beach, we could clearly see the sea and Jhau trees from our room's balcony. Yes, our room had a decent balcony and our room was nice and spacious as per budget. The bathroom was clean and working too. Hot water was mainly available in the daytime. Our floor boy was very helpful and humble. This hotel has a lift. The management also maintained necessary measurements to prevent the spread of Covid-19Only con I felt was the lack of a restaurant with a widespread menu. The in-house restaurant was not bad. But it has very limited options and they were costly in comparison to outside restaurants. Overall we liked "Hotel Kanchan international" and recommend it.
Our leisure at Digha:
Day 1:
After checking in, we hurriedly freshen up and went out for a walk. It was the 28 th of December and it comparably less crowded than normal time. But it lit and dressed up like a fairground. Both the food shops and gift shops were glittering. We were fascinated like a bee to the light but these can wait, first we rushed to the staircases that lead to the sea.
Ah!
The view of the sea after so many days, so soothing. Though it was nighttime, we can see the lathers and waves. We decided to feel the peace for a moment. It was peace of mind. There was plenty of cement benches for seating. So we sat and drank cups of coffee and cherish the first break after such a long time. Then we were ready to explore the foods.
Foods:
Digha has an exotic collection of seafood. The open seafood joints are just extraordinary. They have a whole lot of variety of fishes. Not only fish but also crabs, prawns, shrimps, octopus, chicken what's not there. Under fish there were pomfret, hilsa, mackerel, Bhola, chital, vetki were available. All are offered for both tandoor(roasted) and fry. We were puzzled for a time to choose what to eat first. The first day we tried some tiger prawn tandoors(Rs.30/- per pc), shrimps fry. Then we sat some more time at the seaside road. We return to our hotel after having dinner with crab at a local food-joint . we didn't like the crab that much as it was cooked like a Chinese dish, not a Bengali curry. We were a little bit tired because of the journey, so that night we went to sleep a little bit early and decided to observe the sunrise on the seabeach next morning.
Day 2:
Sigh! We were late to wake up and missed the sunrise L anyways we rushed for the seabeach and decided to have breakfast on the way. We had egg and butter toast. The Seabeach market has multiple good icecream and pastry shops. We went for Tootie fruity and chocolate blast flavours. On the warm beaches of Digha, Ice cream felt like soothing bliss. By the way, Digha was comparable warmer than the rest of south Bengal in December.
Lunch:
That day, we had our lunch at Central Canteen, this is a Govt operated canteen cum restaurant located beside Police Holiday home. This eatery is a cheap one but delivers quality food. We had ordered two veg thalis, one Chingri malaikari, and got two types of vegetables, daal, chatni, and alu Vaja. There were two prawns on a plate of Chingri Malaikari, Food was quite good and tasty. The prawn was fresh and they cooked properly. I would like to recommend their Chingri Malaikari for an affordable rate. But don't try crab, it was not good.
The Afternoon and evening:
We had ordered Fish finger and coffee for room service and the coffee provided by Hotel Kanchan International was really good. Relished every sip of that aromatic beverage on our balcony while looking at the sea and the nearby roads. The sun was setting down and gradually one or two shop/street lights were becoming visible. Tourists were crowding the road and smiling, New Digha seemed so joyful at that moment. We also decided not to waste another moment and got ready for the evening stroll.
Tonight we decided to go on a food spree, first, we tasted the attractive pastries, we were seeing from our arrival. But those were not as good as they look. Then we went for the fish bars!!, I mean fish stalls J today I opted for chicken tikka, haryiali kebab, and they were damn cheap! He chose crabs, prawns, and full mackerel tandoor. We bought handmade bread for dinner with these tandoors. All of them were exceptionally good but I didn't like the smell f mackerel, maybe it's better while frying.
We went to sleep after spending some time on the balcony and vouch to witness the sunrise the next morning.
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