" Welcome To Our Life Thru' VT!!" goutammitra's Profile

Thailand From 21st October'12 to 25th October'12

Finally we made it to our land of dream Thailand, which was eluding us since 2009 for 5 nights from 21st October'12 to 25th October'12
We made it to Bali, Indonesia for 5 nights from 24th to 29th March'2012. Bali page is going to be developed in a few days!!

Last year in October we could not make it to Thailand and Cambodia but we did make it to Kashmir from 22nd October'11 to 27th October'11. I went there after a gap of 33 years ( Last visit was in 1977 as a student) for Rakhi & Munu it was first visit. For me it was also a total change of scenario: Please read more:
Srinagar: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/109251/
Gulmarg:http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10c0cc/

Pahalgam:http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10a2a6/

Egypt Visit: October'2010

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/1ea6ae/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/1ea4da/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/1ea650/

For those wonderful Videos please visit:

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/vb/1ea650/6f618/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/vb/1ea650/6f618/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/1ea6ae/

Kathmandu: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/13d326/*

To know us & our city better please have a look the videos I have loaded. In all there are 372 video clips as on my page, all taken by me. This is just to provide you all a first hand information on the city of Kolkata, our life , culture and so on. This city is now changing for better. May be it shall take another 15/20 years to come at par with the Indian metros.

Videos of Kolkata & our life! ( Latest):http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/vb/10cd7c/6f618/*

Durga Puja is part of Bengali life, without this the life of Kolkata & Bengal can not be complete. We too celebrated Durga Puja at Golf Green, Phase-I, Kolkata( Where we stay). I am putting lots of picture and videos too. Please follow the link below of our own website:

http://golfgreenph1puja.org/*

I also made a trip to Andaman& Nicobar Island, its' surely one of the most beautiful places on the earth! I have left space to come back again to visit Havelock Island and for exploring Andaman Trunk Road ( 333kms, which travels thru' the places of Aborigins) for our next visit to Island. Please visit my Andaman & Nicober Island page for many pictures and texts.

Andaman: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/5f4/*

Pictures of Solar Eclipse: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/abdf2/#TL*
Chandannagore Page: For those rare photographs on Chandannagore, please visit my Chandannagore page!

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10cce1/*

Welcome to Our World

The Everest Experience through Mountain Flight!

I am Goutam Mitra; from Calcutta, India. I am married. My wife is Rakhi, a school teacher and my Daughter Aparajita (Munu) is in 9th standard with St.Teresa's School , Kolkata. I stay in Calcutta, now it is called Kolkata. I I had the chance to see my country very deeply and learn several Indian languages. Now we are settled in Kolkata

Things I love to do: Traveling, Reading, writing to friends, listening to music (I love music of all sorts from Rock to Indian classical); work hard, photography is my passion. If I have nothing to do I watch movies and read simultaneously. Besides all these I am still a student of history and I have deep interest in Archeology.

I have not been to many places abroad but for 7 countries till date. But I have been to our neighboring country Nepal about 150 times and to Kathmandu about 50 times. I have traveled almost all the parts of our country. It's really an amazing country to see. Many religions, many cultures, many states, the Himalayas, the Indian ocean, great beaches, the Thar desert, beautiful hill resorts, its sunrise, its sunset, 6 great rivers, the age old tradition and the mixture of modern civilization all makes it a great place to see an learn. In my view, India is the only country in the world where all six seasons can be witnessed. Now ,is not that ,an amazing thing? If you don't believe it, may be that is the reason you will have to visit India. Though I would love to build many pages on India, but most of the photographs are taken with Analog Camera, those photographs will have to be scanned and then put into for the viewers of V.T. may be if time permits, I will.

Since, I have interest in various cultures and history, I would be most willing to help any of our V.T. viewers, intend to visit India or who would like to know about our cultures, customs and the country. Please feel free to ask. %c*

I did it, White Water Rafting on Teesta

Rafting on Progress, we hired a photographer!

So, finally I did it! I had the chance to go to Gangtok once again on 14th April, exactly after a month of our visit to Gangtok & North Sikkim. On return we did White Water Rafting on the Teesta River for an 11 KM long stretch from Melli to Teesta Bazar! It was again an wish fulfillment as I was longing to do this from a long long time since I did it at Pokhara in Nepal long back. More details on Gangtok Page ( Sports travel).

Finally, I am able to load 24mts Video on VT Gangtok page, converting the video in MP4 format after trying several times. This video is a borrowed one, along with visit to Tsomgo lake and White water rafting. I am sure you shall enjoy the video as well.

Video of Rafting:http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/vv/33a1/

Please visit my Gangtok Page: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10c370/

We are back from our trip to North Sikkim destinations ( I had a dream to visit this place for the last three years). North Sikkim is really dangerously beautiful and Gurudongmar Lake at 17800 feet with temp hovering around -18 to -24 degree Centigrade( we visited on 17th March) it has to be beautiful no....... dangerously beautiful!!!!! We had heavy rain and snowfall the night before at Lachen. The temperature was already -4 to -6 at Lachen itself which is at 8500 feet. By the time we reached at Thangu at 12900 feet the temperature was -8 or-10 degree Centigrade, that's what the Indian Army people told us at Kalep camp. We had breathing trouble when we reached Gurudongmar Lake. But it was a great experience of life to be able to survive for 1/2 an hour at Gurudongmar in that temperature ( -20 degree Centigrade) and able to walk straight without much acclimatization of altitude. We took video clips, took at least 24 to 40 photographs and came back in one piece!!!

Oh It was some experience. I am going to build a full page on Gurudongmar and North Sikkim.

Please visit my North Sikkim Page :http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/5e9/

Home of Royal Bengal Tiger !!

One of the most wonderful creeks in Sunderbans!!

I have visited Sunderban on many occasion. It's one of the most beautiful place in the world.

Many go to Sunderban, with the hope to see the Tiger, but it is really not possible unless he decides to see you. The Tiger lives in the deep forest, where you are not permitted to go or even land. The core area ( Where the Tiger lives) is a protected area, tourists are not allowed there to go. But yes you can see the other animals as they graze near the rivers. Seeing very rare birds is possible, sometimes you can see the Tiger if you are lucky! It is not possible these days to see a tiger with so many tourists traveling in diesel boats , which makes a lot of noise. It's an endangered species , with so much poaching and dwindling number of available food for them, The Tiger is sometimes forced to raid the village cattle for food. It's pathetic to see a Tiger getting killed or caught while stealing cattle from the village.
West Bengal forest officer are very active here, at they don't let the Big Cat die!

Just enjoy the flora and fauna of the Mangrove Forest! Enjoy the mother nature!

THE PICTURE & VIDEOS ARE POSTED IN SUNDERBAN PAGE TRAVELOGUE. PL. VISIT THE LINK BELOW.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10c142/

VT Meets in Kolkata!!

Our Latest VT meet with Donna Young!

Though city of Kolkata, has many officially registered VT members but most of the members are not willing to meet or organise/share a meet. Perhaps they do not want to expand their heart to the world.

However, we have been organising VT meets for the last several years with various friends came from world over. It first started with Jon ( Shintarojon) from Manila, The Philippines, then with Cameron Beatty from Utah, US,then with Maia Elisa Demorest, from Paris, France, then with Grete & David Howard from Bristol,UK, then Dr.Mahmud Hassan & Farida from Dacca, Bangladesh, the Jean Chaurasia & Joyce from UK, then Shadi Mazerhadi ( Sahita7) from Tehran, Iran, then Amy Frills, Metro Manila, The Philippines, then Donna Young ( Donna-in-India) with family from Long Island, New York. Though it has been a personal affair most of the time now we have two new members Mamta Pariar ( Mamtap http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/116bac/) and Kasturi Basu ( Okalbaishakhi http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/15c128/) who have very willingly joined the bandwagon to host and organise VT meet. Hopefully, there will be more members soon.
Here are some events on my personal page:

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/be51d/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/be51f/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/a6ea6/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/b15cb/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/bb867/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/9db12/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/ae34a/

Weekend Trip to Fraserganj in Southernmost Bengal.

Munu enjoying at the beach.

We recently had a weekend trip for two night three days trip to Fraserganj/ Bakkhali beach. It's situated at the Southern most tip of Bengal in the Bay of Bengal. I have the page ready with lots of videos ( some very rare like catching of Mud Fish). You may have a look:

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6f618/10dc51/

Last VT meet of the year with Lynne & Richard

Lynne & Richard at our place on 29th December

Our VT friend Lynne and Richard from Sydney are currently visiting Kolkata. They paid us a visit to our place yesterday evening. We had dinner together at Flame Sigree & Grill, at South City Shopping Mall. They arrived at Kolkata around 3PM around 3 hours behind their scheduled arrival, tired but they made it to our place. Thanks to you both Lynne and Richard, you are such nice people, we love you and want you in Kolkata many more times.

After their visit of Kolkata and Sunderbans, we again had the chance to show them around the city. So again we went out on Sunday 3rd January. This time we visited many places of Kolkata city, what is unknown to the tourist, the new city with futuristic look. We also went to The Dakshineshwar Kali Temple and Belur Math of Swami Vivekananda by a river cruise made with country boat from Dakshineshwar to Belur and back.
Then Richard & Lynne treated us with sumptuous lunch at Machan. Thanks to you both for the treat, we really enjoyed your company.

The couple left for Haridwar yesterday for a 3 day trip but with some harrasment and hassles. Their train ( Rajdhani Express) was to leave from Howrah at 5.00PM for Delhi, but the Railway enquiry did not inform them about the delay in departure. So they arrived at the station on time only to find that the train will leave at 11.30PM from Howrah due to accident near Kanpur. We hope they will have a peaceful and happy time in Haridwar!

More pictures on travelogue.

ISKON

Munu with one of the Holy Cows at Mayapur!

During this time, I also got a personal letter from Sri Gopijana Ballbha Das, who maintains the official website of ISKON, "www.mayapur.com" asking for my permission to use the text and photographs of my Mayapur ( the World Head Quarters of ISKON) Page in VT, to be used in their official website for the benefit of the travellers visiting World HQ of ISKON. I feel this is proud moment for any VT member to be officially associated with The Lord. I am a Lord Krishna devotee, I am grateful to The Lord for this rare honour and opportunity to serve the Lord.

I request all of you to find out time for visiting their website www.mayapur.com