Day-0 (28-Dec)
Our train was 12351 Danapur Express which was scheduled to leave Howrah at 8.35 pm. 28th being a working day, I winded up my work earlier at office (in fact, that was the final day of my project and I had been assigned to work on a new one from Jan; so the work was wound up earlier than usual..but that's a different story.
)
anyway, the packing was already done the previous night. We reached
Howrah station without much difficulty, before time. The train was on
time, and before long, most of the passengers had completed their dinner
and started to make up their beds (thanks to the bite of bitter cold
weather, which Kolkata had begun to experience by late Dec). Partly
because of our unending love for long train-rides and also due to the
fact that this trip was a long-awaited one, both myself and my wife were
a bit reluctant to follow the other passengers. We switched off the
main lights in the compartment, we gazed at the deep darkness outside
(we're lucky to get a side-lower berth). The entire compartment being
dark, a different world seemed to exist on the other side of the closed
windows. And as the train sped through, cutting the envelope of
darkness, we could see new villages emerging as the old ones
disappeared. Sometimes, a flicker of lights could be seen in the
distance..signalling the existence of human settlement. All in all, it
was quite mesmerizing for us. Finally, at around 11.30 pm, as tiredness
seemed to overpower us..we trudged back to our respective berths and
soon fell asleep.
Day-1 (29-Dec) I woke up early around 5.30 am with the sounds of hawkers and other passengers. Found that we'd reached Patna Sahib station, which means Patna Jn is around half a hour away. There was some additional delay, and we reached Patna Jn at 6.20 am. We found hordes of taxis, auto-rickshaws and cycle-rickshaws lined up outside the station, and were soon swarmed up by them. With much difficulty, we extricated ourselves from that crowd and hired an auto to go to hotel Sivakrishna, our abode of stay for that day.
Regarding the hotel accommodation in Patna, we'd done some
web-searching but was unable to find a decent accommodation within our
budget range. We'd closed in on Marwari Awas lodge, but found that to be
booked when contacted. Finally, we finalized on hotel Sivakrishna on
28-Dec itself. Anyway, the hotel was on Frazer road and half a km away
from railway station; the auto charged us 30/- for the ride. There was a
slight disappointment on reaching the hotel as we found that the hotel
building is actually a rented one. There are a couple of banks &
other offices in the 1st 3 floors whereas the hotel premises is on
4th-6th floors. There had been some renovation work going on lately, due
to which 5th & 6th floors were quite messy. The initial
disappointment however changed to utter surprise & dismay when we're
told by the receptionist that the room which was confirmed to us last
night, had actually been occupied by someone else. It seemed that the
person we spoke to the other night, hadn't really confirmed our room
when we actually said so to us. After much hue & cry, they finally
relented and agreed to rent a different room on a higher tariff...albeit
with a discount!
The room (#47) was a decent one..add-on was a room heater which later turned out to be saviour for us.
I quickly freshened up, ordered hot water which was promptly delivered
in buckets and took a refreshing bath. We'd planned to cover the tourist
places in Patna that day..so we needed to find the possible transport
means to do that. We'd already noted the nos of Bihar Tourist
Information Centre at Patna..I called up at that no and they referred me
to the office of Indian Tourist Bureau at S.P.Verma Road..by 9.30 am
we're ready for venturing out..we had a sumptuous breakfast at the
Gandhi restaurant and went to the ITB office. We met Rajesh Kumar, a
highly amicable & helpful person who listened to our detailed
itinerary (about Patna and the rest of the trip) and then suggested us
to rent a car for that day & the subsequent 3 days to cover all
these places. He is a quite knowledgeable person and after listening to
our plan, even suggested a couple of other places which we hadn't
included. Both those places later turned out to be pleasant surprises!
We opted for a small car (Indica) and I found the rates to be quite
standard..the full-day Patna sightseeing cost 900/- plus taxes (for 8
hour), while the remaining 3 days were calculated as 200kms per day
(which is the norm), irrespective of whether the vehicle runs more or
less than 200 kms on that day. The rate was 7.5/- per kms...so for 3
days, the total fare was 4500/- plus taxes plus 200/- for 2 nights
driver stay. He actually suggested some hotels in Rajgir and
Bodhgaya..but since our hotels were already pre-booked at those
places..we couldn't try on his recommendations. Nevertheless, I'd
recommend Rajesh Kumar for any information related to hotel/car in
Patna, Rajgir & Bodhgaya.
Details:
Indian Tourist Bureau
16 Ground Floor, Sukriti Complex, S.P. Verma Road Patna-800001 www.indiantouristbureau.org; email: indiantouristbureau@rediffmail .com
ph: 0612-2235175, 3256596, 9835011132
person: Mr Rajesh Kumar
Added a few snaps to start with...the quality might be awful, these actually were taken on my mobile camera. Later pictures taken on the digicam will hopefully be a lot better..
After finalizing the total rent and trip route etc, Mr Rajesh introduced
us to the driver of the vehicle..Mr Mahesh. He was an elderly person,
very amicable..and also quite knowledgeable of the tourist spots
in/around Patna (as it later turned out to be). Since we already had a
heavy breakfast, we started off for the Patna tour immediately (~ 11.30
AM). We started off with the important Govt areas (the CM's residence,
office, etc) and proceeded to the Patna zoo. Entry fee was 15/- per
head. There wasn't much noteworthy in the zoo to speak about. Second
spot was the Patna museum. Entry ticket was again 15/- per head with
additional camera charges of 100/-. Our driver Maheshji insisted to take
the camera inside, but we decided against it as we're not paying the
requisite fees. Anyway, we visited the museum, which housed (among other
things) an impressive array of stone architecture & statues of
Buddha from a very ancient period (as early as 100 AD). Some of these
full-size statues clearly bore the brunt of time...but sufficient
measures have been taken to preserve them..which was surely encouraging
& pleasant to note. The most prized possession of this museum was
however the ancient tree trunk...which is a staggering 70 million years
old!!!
we couldn't believe our eyes as we saw the 70 ft long trunk neatly
preserved along a length of the museum. This was surely the USP of this
museum.
From the museum, we proceeded to Golghar, an imposing round structure which was supposedly used as a granary during the British era. It has since relegated to an important tourist spot..One can alight the flight of 140-odd stairs to get a panoramic view of Patna city (with the Ganges flowing by) from the top. The weather being pleasant, it wasn't as difficult as originally seemed to be. We stayed at the top for a while and then descended. It was already 2.30 PM and we'd still a few important places to cover before dark.
Therefore we proceeded to Kumrahar where the ruins of erstwhile Pataliputra town has been somewhat preserved. The govt has done a commendable job in building a museum-cum-park in this area where the ruins of Pataliputra could be seen. With a nominal entry fee of 5/- per head, we walked inside the park. It was quite well-maintained. We saw the Mauryan Hall pillar and the archaeological museum..the excavations at Arogya Vihar seemed to produce telltale signs of the immense medical progress which had happened during the early 4-5th century AD of Gupta period.
The final place to visit was the Patna Sahib which was located in the old town. Before coming to this place, I didn't know much about this place other than the fact that it is a notable gurudwara. But our driver Maheshji told that it is the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh ji, and hence one of the most revered places of the Sikhs. After having a bumpy drive through the small alleys & bylanes of old town, intensely polluted with the smokes of auto-rickshaws run illegally on 'katatel', we arrived at the entrance of the grand Takht Sri Harimandir ji. And for a moment, we felt that we're in Punjab..not Bihar!:-) we stayed there for sometime, offered our prayers and also had the halwai..it was deliciously sweet!
By that time, it was 6.30 PM and already dark. We made our way back to the hotel before stopping for a light snacks and ordered a quick dinner. We're too tired then...:-)
We got up early and got ready for the second phase of our trip. Our
driver Mahesh-ji had advised us the previous day that it'd be better to
leave by 9 AM. We'd our breakfast and I completed the checkout
formalities at the hotel. We found Mahesh-ji waiting patiently with his
Indica, and set off. Our first stop was Maner Sharif. We'd noticed this
place during our internet-searches prior to the trip, but as it wasn't
located on the Patna-Rajgir route, we kept it out. But later on Mr
Rajesh Kumar's insistence, we included that in our trip. This proved to
be a blessing later.
Maner Sharif is located about 20 kms west of Patna on NH-30. It is the place where the revered sufi saint Makhdum Daulat spent his last days. Later, Ibrahim Khan the then governor of Bihar, erected the mausoleum in honor of Makhdum Daulat (who was his guru). The building, though quite dilapidated, is surely a marvelous one. The walls of the building are adorned with intricate designs. There is a big dome on the top and the ceiling is full of inscriptions. As we learnt, every little detail of the Dargah is characteristic of the architecture of Emperor Jahangir's region, and it is by far the finest monument of the Mughals in Eastern India. Inside the compound there is also a mosque also built by Ibrahim Khan in 1619. This place is a perfect respite from the hustle-bustle of today's modern life, and seemed to echo the peacefulness of a bygone era. I liked the place a lot and would recommend this place to everyone visiting Patna.
Around 11.30 AM, we left Maner and drove towards Rajgir. We'd have to go through the same way as we came (i.e. via Patna), so we decided to have our lunch at Patna. In between, we stopped for a tea-break and bought the famous Maner laddoo. These are deliciously sweet and is recommended for people having a sweet tooth!
We reached Patna in about an hour and decided to have lunch at the
Marwari Awas. We'd learnt earlier that it serves decent vegetarian
meals. The food was an assortment of rice, pulao & roti alongwith
vegetables, curry, sweets & curd. The cost was 110/- per meal.
Around 1.30 PM, we started off for Rajgir.
All these snaps have been taken at Maner Sharif.
Our train was 12351 Danapur Express which was scheduled to leave Howrah at 8.35 pm. 28th being a working day, I winded up my work earlier at office (in fact, that was the final day of my project and I had been assigned to work on a new one from Jan; so the work was wound up earlier than usual..but that's a different story.
)
anyway, the packing was already done the previous night. We reached
Howrah station without much difficulty, before time. The train was on
time, and before long, most of the passengers had completed their dinner
and started to make up their beds (thanks to the bite of bitter cold
weather, which Kolkata had begun to experience by late Dec). Partly
because of our unending love for long train-rides and also due to the
fact that this trip was a long-awaited one, both myself and my wife were
a bit reluctant to follow the other passengers. We switched off the
main lights in the compartment, we gazed at the deep darkness outside
(we're lucky to get a side-lower berth). The entire compartment being
dark, a different world seemed to exist on the other side of the closed
windows. And as the train sped through, cutting the envelope of
darkness, we could see new villages emerging as the old ones
disappeared. Sometimes, a flicker of lights could be seen in the
distance..signalling the existence of human settlement. All in all, it
was quite mesmerizing for us. Finally, at around 11.30 pm, as tiredness
seemed to overpower us..we trudged back to our respective berths and
soon fell asleep.Day-1 (29-Dec) I woke up early around 5.30 am with the sounds of hawkers and other passengers. Found that we'd reached Patna Sahib station, which means Patna Jn is around half a hour away. There was some additional delay, and we reached Patna Jn at 6.20 am. We found hordes of taxis, auto-rickshaws and cycle-rickshaws lined up outside the station, and were soon swarmed up by them. With much difficulty, we extricated ourselves from that crowd and hired an auto to go to hotel Sivakrishna, our abode of stay for that day.
Regarding the hotel accommodation in Patna, we'd done some
web-searching but was unable to find a decent accommodation within our
budget range. We'd closed in on Marwari Awas lodge, but found that to be
booked when contacted. Finally, we finalized on hotel Sivakrishna on
28-Dec itself. Anyway, the hotel was on Frazer road and half a km away
from railway station; the auto charged us 30/- for the ride. There was a
slight disappointment on reaching the hotel as we found that the hotel
building is actually a rented one. There are a couple of banks &
other offices in the 1st 3 floors whereas the hotel premises is on
4th-6th floors. There had been some renovation work going on lately, due
to which 5th & 6th floors were quite messy. The initial
disappointment however changed to utter surprise & dismay when we're
told by the receptionist that the room which was confirmed to us last
night, had actually been occupied by someone else. It seemed that the
person we spoke to the other night, hadn't really confirmed our room
when we actually said so to us. After much hue & cry, they finally
relented and agreed to rent a different room on a higher tariff...albeit
with a discount! The room (#47) was a decent one..add-on was a room heater which later turned out to be saviour for us.
I quickly freshened up, ordered hot water which was promptly delivered
in buckets and took a refreshing bath. We'd planned to cover the tourist
places in Patna that day..so we needed to find the possible transport
means to do that. We'd already noted the nos of Bihar Tourist
Information Centre at Patna..I called up at that no and they referred me
to the office of Indian Tourist Bureau at S.P.Verma Road..by 9.30 am
we're ready for venturing out..we had a sumptuous breakfast at the
Gandhi restaurant and went to the ITB office. We met Rajesh Kumar, a
highly amicable & helpful person who listened to our detailed
itinerary (about Patna and the rest of the trip) and then suggested us
to rent a car for that day & the subsequent 3 days to cover all
these places. He is a quite knowledgeable person and after listening to
our plan, even suggested a couple of other places which we hadn't
included. Both those places later turned out to be pleasant surprises!
We opted for a small car (Indica) and I found the rates to be quite
standard..the full-day Patna sightseeing cost 900/- plus taxes (for 8
hour), while the remaining 3 days were calculated as 200kms per day
(which is the norm), irrespective of whether the vehicle runs more or
less than 200 kms on that day. The rate was 7.5/- per kms...so for 3
days, the total fare was 4500/- plus taxes plus 200/- for 2 nights
driver stay. He actually suggested some hotels in Rajgir and
Bodhgaya..but since our hotels were already pre-booked at those
places..we couldn't try on his recommendations. Nevertheless, I'd
recommend Rajesh Kumar for any information related to hotel/car in
Patna, Rajgir & Bodhgaya. Details:
Indian Tourist Bureau
16 Ground Floor, Sukriti Complex, S.P. Verma Road Patna-800001 www.indiantouristbureau.org; email: indiantouristbureau@rediffmail .com
ph: 0612-2235175, 3256596, 9835011132
person: Mr Rajesh Kumar
Added a few snaps to start with...the quality might be awful, these actually were taken on my mobile camera. Later pictures taken on the digicam will hopefully be a lot better..
 |
| My wife and mother-in-law at Howrah station |
 |
| Us... |
 |
| In front of the taxi stand at Patna railway station |
we couldn't believe our eyes as we saw the 70 ft long trunk neatly
preserved along a length of the museum. This was surely the USP of this
museum.From the museum, we proceeded to Golghar, an imposing round structure which was supposedly used as a granary during the British era. It has since relegated to an important tourist spot..One can alight the flight of 140-odd stairs to get a panoramic view of Patna city (with the Ganges flowing by) from the top. The weather being pleasant, it wasn't as difficult as originally seemed to be. We stayed at the top for a while and then descended. It was already 2.30 PM and we'd still a few important places to cover before dark.
Therefore we proceeded to Kumrahar where the ruins of erstwhile Pataliputra town has been somewhat preserved. The govt has done a commendable job in building a museum-cum-park in this area where the ruins of Pataliputra could be seen. With a nominal entry fee of 5/- per head, we walked inside the park. It was quite well-maintained. We saw the Mauryan Hall pillar and the archaeological museum..the excavations at Arogya Vihar seemed to produce telltale signs of the immense medical progress which had happened during the early 4-5th century AD of Gupta period.
The final place to visit was the Patna Sahib which was located in the old town. Before coming to this place, I didn't know much about this place other than the fact that it is a notable gurudwara. But our driver Maheshji told that it is the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh ji, and hence one of the most revered places of the Sikhs. After having a bumpy drive through the small alleys & bylanes of old town, intensely polluted with the smokes of auto-rickshaws run illegally on 'katatel', we arrived at the entrance of the grand Takht Sri Harimandir ji. And for a moment, we felt that we're in Punjab..not Bihar!:-) we stayed there for sometime, offered our prayers and also had the halwai..it was deliciously sweet!
By that time, it was 6.30 PM and already dark. We made our way back to the hotel before stopping for a light snacks and ordered a quick dinner. We're too tired then...:-)
 |
| Arogya Vihar at Kumrahar |
 |
| Another view of the Arogya Vihar at Kumrahar |
 |
| Patna zoo |
 |
| The Golghar |
 |
| Found a dark alley at the Patna Sahib, where I tried this arbitrary b/w shot |
 |
| Outside the Patna Sahib gurudwara |
Day-2 (30-Dec)
Maner Sharif is located about 20 kms west of Patna on NH-30. It is the place where the revered sufi saint Makhdum Daulat spent his last days. Later, Ibrahim Khan the then governor of Bihar, erected the mausoleum in honor of Makhdum Daulat (who was his guru). The building, though quite dilapidated, is surely a marvelous one. The walls of the building are adorned with intricate designs. There is a big dome on the top and the ceiling is full of inscriptions. As we learnt, every little detail of the Dargah is characteristic of the architecture of Emperor Jahangir's region, and it is by far the finest monument of the Mughals in Eastern India. Inside the compound there is also a mosque also built by Ibrahim Khan in 1619. This place is a perfect respite from the hustle-bustle of today's modern life, and seemed to echo the peacefulness of a bygone era. I liked the place a lot and would recommend this place to everyone visiting Patna.
Around 11.30 AM, we left Maner and drove towards Rajgir. We'd have to go through the same way as we came (i.e. via Patna), so we decided to have our lunch at Patna. In between, we stopped for a tea-break and bought the famous Maner laddoo. These are deliciously sweet and is recommended for people having a sweet tooth!
We reached Patna in about an hour and decided to have lunch at the
Marwari Awas. We'd learnt earlier that it serves decent vegetarian
meals. The food was an assortment of rice, pulao & roti alongwith
vegetables, curry, sweets & curd. The cost was 110/- per meal.
Around 1.30 PM, we started off for Rajgir. All these snaps have been taken at Maner Sharif.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt is a good post for traveller of Patna city, and Bodhgaya , you can travel with Cheapest Flight Tickets from Kolkata to Hyderabad
ReplyDeleteNice trip. Thanks for sharing your trip experience. All these places are very much lovely. Having served as the capital of the Magadha Empire and Suri Dynasty, the rich history of Patna is undeniably so. One of the oldest continually inhabited places in the world, Patna once served as the centre of fine art and learning during the Mauryan empire. Check out all best hotels in Patna also.
ReplyDelete