Visiting Ten Places in Kolkata in Two Days

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Although I had visited Kolkata many times in past I was occupied in other responsibilities and was never free for a whole hearted sight seeing program. This time when I was visiting Bhutan I had to change train at Kolkata and got one full day beak in Kolkata while going and another full day too while coming back. Bangalore Howrah express reached in morning 6.30 and Kanchanakanya express left in 8.30 in the night, thus giving us the full day to spend in Kolkata. We kept the luggage in railway cloak room (platform no 23 in howrah station) and started our journey for kolkata sight seeing.

Belur Math

Our first destination was Belur math. From Howrah station we went by a town bus and got down at Belur. The math was about 200 meters from the bus stop. When we entered into the campus there was one museum called "Ramakrishna Sangraha Mandira". After that we saw the main temple of Ramakrishna Parmahamsa and then other temples of Vivekananda and others.



Photography was strictly prohibited in the campus. I took some pictures from distance (outside the campus) and some pictures from Hooghly river while going by boat from Belur to Dakhineswar. The above picture is shows the top portion of Ramakrishna temple (the main temple) which I took by zooming from outside the campus.



There was a bathing ghat in belur math campus (picture above), a place to take bath in river Hooghly. Quite a few people were taking bath in this sacred river. The above picture shows Vivekananda temple and the bathing ghat in Belur (I took the picture from Hooghly river).

Boating from Belur to Dakhineswar Kali

There is a ferry ghat in Belur, just next to Belur math. We took a walk to the ferry ghat and took a boat to Dakhineswar Kali. There are regular boats in between Belur and Dakhineswar and the fair is extremely cheap, just Rs 10/-.The distance between Belur and Dakhineswar is about 3-4 kms in water. The boat took about 20 minutes. This was a great experience to boat in river Hooghly and see various sights and kolkata township at both the sides.

Visiting Dakhineswar Kali Temple

From Dakhineswar Ferry ghat, the Kali temple is very close (abou 100 mtrs). Near the temple, there is an area full of shops on handicrafts. Besides there is another shopping complex for selling peda (for prasad purpose). There were a lot of security people watching at the entrance of kali temple.Dakhineswar Kali temple is probably the most beautiful place in Kolkata. There are a number of temples in the campus. The main temple is the kali temple (picture above), besides there are temples of lord Shiva and other gods and godesses. The architecture and color of the temple will make you feel like a filmcity.

Millennium Park

From Dakhineswar we returned back to howrah and went to Millennium park. Millennium park is located on the eastern bank of river Hooghly. It is about 1 km distance from Howrah bridge. There is also a ferry shuttling from Howrah to this place (very cheap, about 10 rs). There are two parts of millennium park, stretching to two different sides, north and south. You have to get an entry ticket for Rs 5/-. The same ticket will be used for both the sides of the park.
Millenium park is a beautiful place to spend time. With the river view, plantation, food courts and sitting arrangements it is a perfect place for every group of people, and a paradise particularly for youngsters. I could see hundreds of loving couples sitting cozy to each other.

Eden Garden Park

Eden garden is very close to Millennium park. After visiting Millennium park we took a walk to Eden Garden. Long back (before 20 years) when I visited Eden garden, it was full of crowd and full of loving couples. But this time I did not see any crowd. There were very few people inside. I guess the after the construction of new parks the crowd has been shifted from Eden garden to new parks like Millennium park.
Actually Eden Garden is famous for the cricket stadium. But the cricket stadium is used only on specific occasions. The other part of it is a park which is open to public. There is no ticket/ entry fee to go into Eden Garden park.


We saw some sections of Eden Garden park was marked as Japanese garden, desert garden etc. However, most of those parts were under construction/ rejuvenation. The park closes at 4.45 before it becomes evening. (It was a bit odd feeling to see evening coming at 5 o'clock in Calcutta, as because we were used to see evening coming at 7 o'clock in Bangalore). In the evening we took a ferry from Babughat to reach Howrah, keeping enough time in hand to catch our train in the night.

The Howrah Bridge

I don't know whether to mention or not that we saw Howrah bridge too. Because it is so natural that anybody goes Calcutta must obviously sees Howrah bridge. But still I think I should mention about Howrah bridge because it is one of the important monument and quite spectacular too.



While I was taking photographs of howrah bridge some police/ security people told me not to take photograph. I did not understand what was the risk of taking picture of such a huge steel bridge. Somehow I was also facing difficulties to get the huge bridge within the angle of my camera. I decided to go to a distance, to a nearby bathing ghat, and get full pictures of the bridge comfortably.



The above was a bathing ghat near Howrah railway station (close to the ferry ghat). River Hooghly is considered as a part of river Ganges and considered as sacred for holy bath. There are many bathing ghats, as we saw in belur, dakhineswar, howrah, babughat and many. Generally you will find a temple of lord shiva near the bathing ghat. People generally pray in the temple, after having bath in the river. However, the water is very muddy and dirty and not suitable for use from hygienic point of view.

Kalighat Kali Temple

While returning from Bhutan to Bangalore, we again got another full day to visit Kolkata. We first went to Kalighat Kali temple. The Kali temple in Kalighat is one of the oldest devi temples in Kolkata (12th century) and considered as a Sakti peetha. There is a place for animal sacrifice in the temple where animals were sacrificed in old days.One bad thing about the kali temple is that it is full of dalals. They will try to extract money from you by various means. Hence, this is generally not a comfortable place for the visitors (particularly outsiders). I was aware of the fact and somehow managed to visit the temple without getting much into trouble. After visiting Kali temple we visited a Shiva temple called "Nakuleswar Bhairab temple" near kali temple. There was also a "Jagannath" temple near the bhairab temple. Besides we visited "Pallidurga" temple and some other temples in the Kalighat area before proceeding to Birla Mandir.

Birla Mandir

Birla Mandir is located in Ballygunge which is about 2 kms from Kalighat. It is built by the well known industrialist Birla family. Birla Mandir is dedicated to Laxmi and Narayana. The temple is very beautiful and carved with marble. It is probably the most beautiful temple in Kolkata after Dakhineswar Kali temple.The temple opens from 5.30 to 11 AM in the morning and 4.30 to 9 PM in the evening. The temple is closed from outside at other times.

Alipore zoo

After visiting Birla Mandir we went to Alipore zoo. It is one of the oldest zoo in India (1875) and spread over 46 acres of land. We saw tiger, bear, chimpanzee and some other interesting animals. However the animals were looking sad and sick. But we were fascinated to see the crowd of human visitors who came to see those animals. There were about 20000 visitors in the zoo (in my estimation) all moving here and there searching for animals. Many were even looking at crows and other common birds who had flied into the zoo from outside.

Victoria Memorial Hall

Our next destination was Victoria Memorial, probably the most prestigious and most reputed historical monument of Kolkata. There are many things to see in Victoria which can be grouped into inside and outside. One aspect of it is the garden, lake, statues and the view of the palace from outside. These places are allowed for photography. The other part is the museum which is inside the palace. The museum is under strict security and not allowed for photography. Victoria memorial is definitely a beautiful place and I would rank it within the first three important places in Kolkata (along with Dakhineswar Kali). There are lots of statues, paintings, British age weapons and other historical items in the museum. The visitors were allowed to climb up the palace to see the upstairs. The shape of upstairs was like a dome and was very spectacular.

Mahanagar Peace Park

This park is located just near the entrance of Victoria Memorial. This is a smaller and less significant park compared to Victoria memorial. But still there were lot of people because that was a public park without any entry fee.


Thus we could manage to visit more than 10 interesting places in Kolkata during these two days. After coming back to Bangalore I was asked which places I liked most in Kolkata. It was very difficult to answer as many of those I had already seen earlier and different things were felt significant at different times. However, the three things I liked most in this trip were (i) Dakhineswar Kali temple, (ii) Victoria Memorial Hall, (iii) Travelling by ferry in Hooghly river. Travelling by ferry was as cheap as Rs 10, which would have been Rs 200/- in other tourist places.

Thanks for reading this blog. Please visit my google+ albums to see pictures of different places in Kolkata. I will again come with a new place soon.

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