"Khirai, at last"...to understand this title, please watch video till the end. There goes an old saying that "some journeys in life are truly unpredictable". That's exactly the kind of experience we had during this daylong trip to Khirai flower valley in Medinipur, West Bengal. Our outing plan didn't include Khirai at all in the beginning as we were heading for a place called Deulti near Uluberia. On reaching the spot, we had to turn back due to non-availability of hotel rooms. Being confused, we then moved to nearby Kolaghat town to look for hotels/resorts, but unfortunately faced the same situation here also. Then came the idea for a trip to Khirai flower valley which we had thought of few months back. Altogether, a new route where we had never been before, we moved towards Panskura town where Khirai is located. We found our shelter at a nice hotel here called Roy Guest House near Panskura railway station. Towards the afternoon, we went out for Khirai flower valley from our hotel. As the place was totally unknown for us and Google map was not working properly due to poor network, we had to ask about the road directions from a number of locals. But badly enough, all these locals rather misguided us about the directions and so we kept moving thru' all the wrong places, killing over an hour of time! Just when we were about to give up hope for finding our destination, we met a genuine person near Panskura bazar, who guided us the right direction. A narrow village road opposite Panskura bazar was the one that eventually led us to the right direction. Yessssss! Now, on the way, a lot of flower cultivation grounds were coming in sight one by one. Finally, we reached our targetted destination. Khirai flower valley beside a railway bridge. It's because of this reason why I've given my movie title as "Khirai, at last". Sun had already gone down when we stepped into the spot and it was quickly getting towards dusk hour. So had to do my photography in low light conditions mostly. However, the sight of moonrise above the flower valley looked fascinating indeed. It was a season of merrigolds, so all I could find was yellow and orange merrigolds mostly. Coming here at winter time might expose us to a much wide variety of flowers. Well, maybe I should make my next visit here during winter. So, after spending some time at this wonderful flower valley till dark evening, we went back to Roy Guest House, and after having our evening tea and snacks, we finally checked out for our journey back home at around 7:30 p.m.
A very erratic and hectic journey indeed where we changed our destination twice, but still we enjoyed the trip as a whole. After all, it always feels good being away from the maddening crowds and noisy traffic of city life.
Most significantly, it was a time of normal human life when people in India didn't know about Covid-19, Lockdown, Quarantined life, Social Distancing, Wearing of Masks etc. Hope this wicked phase does not linger on for years and the travel lovers can plan their trips safely once again like before.
Thanks for watching. Hope to come up with yet another new travel video when I make my next trip elsewhere! Till then, stay well...stay safe.
partha khan
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