Bakkhali and Mousuni island

Bakkhali is located in 24Pgs(S) district of West Bengal. It is a not so visited beach very near to Kolkata, so if you’re bored of crowded Digha and want to spend a weekend in a beach, away from crowd and noise, this place is for you. The beach looks beautiful with its white sand and mangroves grown on the beach sides. Here you can also get to enjoy both sunrise and sunset as this part of the island where the beach lies is curved. Mousuni Island is an upcoming tourist destination with camping facilities on sea beach.

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• How to reach from Kolkata
• Kolkata Bakkhali bus timings
• Attractions
• Hotels in Bakkhali
• Camps in Mousuni Island

How to reach from Kolkata to Bakkhali & Mousuni Island

By train: Board a train from Sealdah going towards Namkhana which is a 3 hrs. journey. Get down at Namkhana. Outside the railway station, you’ll find rickshaws upto Namkhana bus stand on the other side of the river. Board the bus(243, SD 17) to reach Bakkhali.
Sealdah – Namkhana: 4:00, 5:12, 7:14, 9:16, 10:12(From Ballygunge), 11:50, 13:20, 14:20, 16:43, 17:28, 18:57(Except Sunday), 20:30(Upto Kakdwip), 21:30. 
Namkhana – Sealdah: 4:07, 4:37, 5:55, 7:26, 8:12, 10:20, 12:28, 13:32(Upto Ballygunge), 15:00, 16:33, 17:32, 19:45, 20:46, 22:10(Upto Laxmikantapur). 

By bus: You can CLICK HERE for bus timings from Kolkata to Bakkhali and back.

By road: Distance from Kolkata to Bakkhali is 127 kms. Take the Diamond Harbour Road(NH117) from Kolkata straight to Bakkhali. For Mousuni Island, take right turn from Sashmol Crossing and follow straight to Bagdaga Ferry Ghat.

For Mousuni Island, take a Tata Magic van from Namkhana to Bagdanga Ferry Ghat. Cross the Chinai river by the boat and you’ll get e-rickshaw upto Baliara. After getting down at Baliara, you can ask anyone there to show you the camps. If you’re coming by car, there’s no arrangements to transport your car to Mousuni Island, however, camp people upon prior notice may make arrangements to park your car somewhere near Bagdanga Ferry Ghat. However, bike can be brought to Mousuni Island by boats.

Attractions around Bakkhali

Bakkhali Sea Beach, Frazerganj Sea Beach, Susni/Kargil Sea Beach, Henry’s Island.
You can reserve an e-rickshaw available plenty of them to go around all these places.

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My Experience

I reached Sealdah with an empty stomach to board the Namkhana bound train scheduled at 07:15. While waiting for the departure time, I was having a sandwich bought from an IRCTC vendor and was standing on the platform with my back facing towards the train, I haven’t noticed when the train had already started, picked up much speed and about to leave the platform. I hurriedly somehow got into the vendor. Few people standing at the door of the empty compartment started shouting at me and in a threatening tone told me to immediately get down and board other passenger compartments. The train had left the platform by now. Then started the usual bidi smoking inside the compartment. On arriving Park Circus, they again in a threatening tone told me to change compartment. I reached Namkhana around 10:00. Took an e rickshaw upto the bus stand crossing the newly constructed bridge and a 1 hr bus journey to Bakkhali. I however got down at Frazergunj. From here there are two small lanes, one leading to the Frazergunj beach and other leading to the Kargil beach. I went towards Kargil beach, upon reaching there if you go towards the right side of the beach, you’ll see a narrow stretch of mangrove forest on white sand which looks amazing. There was only a single family bathing in the sea.

We started our small coastal trek via Frazergunj, Laxmipur and ultimately to Bakkhali. On our way we saw how mangrove forests behind the beaches are being cleared for development work, how beautiful white sand being replaced by concrete slabs. Also saw a few artificial lagoon type formed with mud on the beach.

Bakkhali still had a natural feel. The white sand, mangroves coming up on the beach, the far pushed behind beach and specially a bay like formed just before you reach the sea water struck us in a state of aww.

In evening, a fish market appears on the coast where they cook different fishes with spices and serve it. So, its better to stay in Bakkhali for a night and try out the fish preparations. We then hired an e-rickshaw to go to Henry’s Island. In the middle, some people took ₹10/person ticket to enter the WBSFDC premises. WBSFDC had dug a lot of ponds for fishing purposes. We reached the entry point of the Henry’s Islands and started walking through the paved walkway built through the middle of the dense mangrove forest with a small wooden bridge in the between. Continuing through the paved walkway, an open space came up with scattered mangroves and a very good view and with the beach peeking through the mangroves. The watchtower provides an extremely good view with sea, beach and mangrove forest on either sides. Upon entering the beach, a few metres walk to your left will take you to a bright red crab zone and a few mangroves on the beach.

With barks of mangroves on the white sand, rich mangrove forest behind the sea, a far pushed behind sea and a lot of red crabs scribbling through the beach was extremely soothing for the eyes. After spending some time, we returned to Bakkhali and boarded the Namkhana bound bus. We had booked tents in Izifiso Backpackers Camp in Mousuni Island, so accordingly for down at Shasmal bus stop from where a road diverts towards Bagdanga Get ghat. Tata Magic vans plying from Namkhana to Bagdanga ply through Sashmol, so after a long wait we got one, but there wasn’t any space inside, so we’d to stand on the foot rest, hold something for support and travel hanging, and the roads being in a very bad State, it was really painful. A few metres walk where the van will drop, will take you to Bagdanga ferry ghat and you’ll be welcomed by amazing views of the rich untouched mangrove forest on both sides.

Crossing the river, we hired an e-rickshaw upto Baliara whose normal fare is ₹25, and reserved ₹125. The rickshaw driver was helpful and requested another passenger who was going the same way to show us the way towards our camp. I couldn’t contact the camp as my phone wasn’t receiving any signals, which you can do if you have any trouble reaching there. We were welcomed by a coconut water drink and served our late lunch which consisted of rice, dal, fish and few other veg items at 4:30 in evening. Their booking cost includes lunch, evening snacks, dinner and breakfast. They had four categories of accommodation namely adventure tents, family tents, mud cottages and villas(huge tents). Except villas, all had sharing washrooms. We’d booked in the adventure tents which were the cheapest, but due to the recent Cyclone Fani, the place where the tents were supposed to be laid suffered damages and was undergoing some repair works, so the tents couldn’t be laid. So, we were upgraded to the mud cottages which costs Rs. 200 more. The beach outside the camp was deserted, so it’d be a good choice for anyone who want to spend quality time on their own or with friends. Another very good way to spend your evening which we did is having bonfire with barbeque chicken which they arrange on request accompanied by sound of waves. The evening was well spent with friends with bonfire and barbeque and it got very late without knowing it was way over midnight. Very basic arrangements, the mud cottages looked exactly like any other village mud hut. We woke up in the morning and went to the deserted beach which looked beautiful with the mangroves bulging out into the white sand beach and we had a good bath in the morning.

It was again quiet late as the guys waited for us the have breakfast which was unlimited luchi and aloor dom. We had our breakfast, packed our bags and, see you again.
Expense per person: Around Rs. 1800

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Hotels in Bakkhali

This place has far more hotels than tourists arrive. So finding an accommodation is not at all a problem if you don’t have a prior booking. I’ve listed below few hotels and lodges I found worth mentioning –

• WBTDC Tourist Lodge
  Ph.No.: 9732510150
• Benfish Sagarkanya Tourist Lodge
  Ph.No.: 033-23575215/23554931
• Hotel Icon Heritage (with Swimming Pool)
  Ph.No.: 8514912116
• Hotel Deepak (with Swimming Pool)
  Ph.No.: 33 2464 0081, 33 2463 3203, 33 2419 7629, 9732604833
• Bay View Tourist Lodge
  Ph.No.: 9836135942, 9647039448
• Bakkhali Beach Bunglow – 9831413577, 9593934383, 9800650383
• Dwipayan Resort – 9734822046
• Hotel Inodoy
  Ph.No.: 9163680111, 9073960995
• Hotel Amarabati
  Ph.No: 9732619340, 7029479621, 9647367780
• Narayani Lodge – 9732758611
• Hotel Chhuti
  Ph.No: 9434064111
• Hotel Sea View
  Ph.No.: 9732828266
• New Sagarika Lodge
  Ph.No.: 9732820324
• Hotel Meghalay Abashik – 9732895732, 9093330381
• Balaka Lodge – 9007741550
• Hotel Tara Maa, Ph.No.: 9831357118 (dormitory available)
• Henry’s Island WBSFDC Tourist Complex – 23583123
  Sundari Complex: 9734550860, 9474735443; Mangrove Complex: 9734204413, 9474735443 ; Booking: From Bikash Bhavan, Salt Lake Kolkata.

Camps in Mousuni Island

• Mousuni Island: Izifiso Backpackers Camp
  Ph.No.: 9836505038
• Jhinuk Eco Camp
  Ph.No: 8397029459 / 801708992
• Baluchari Beach Tent
  Ph.No.: 9635770070 / 9749187504
• Mousuni Island Enjoy Park
  Ph.No: 9088051127, 9635068566
• Prantik Camp, Ph.No.: 6296365991, 8145753935, 8145177967.
• Mermaid Mousuni Adventure Resort, Ph.No.: 9330443245, 9330411696
• Skyler Nature Camp – 9051057800, 8013992793, 8336944210, 8116014837, 9051800982
• Mousuni Waves – 8804988050
• Teentara Adventure Camp – 8100011155
• Baliara Beach Tent – 9836830342
• Neel Nirjone – 9830967195, 9051417998, 9836111034, 6296483878
• Chittaranjan Royal Rest House and Hut – 8967049136, 9477176608, 7901846996
• Mousuni Traveller’s Camp – 7407700920, 7074570127, 8116581187
• Mousuni Dreamland Beach Camp – 8538012134
• Anandadhara Tent Park – 8001777913
• Camp Nirvana – 6297281032, 6291290460
• Sand Castles Beach Camp – 9330246505
• Moonlit Canvas – 9681426503, 8327260422, 9732530854
• Aaranyak Beach Tent Camp – 7031626241

Nearby places to visit

• Sundarbans
• Sagar Island
• Jambu Dweep