Kolkata - Calcuta

So we got through customs and into the main part of the airport to find there were no ATM’s, so we changed our dollars into rupees and prepaid a taxi to Sudder Street, where our guidebook, hastily read on the plane, advised that most backpackers stayed.

The taxi drive was mad, there appeared to be no lanes and no rules, except to toot your horn as often as possible. We past elegantly decaying buildings, piles of rubbish, food stalls, street markets and loads of women in colourful saris. It all seemed manic.

We wandered into a few guesthouses and they were all pretty much shitholes. We eventually picked one and then went for a walk trying to find the Victoria monument. We got quite lost and still have not seen it. we did, however, find a cinema and we saw that film with Russell Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio, we cannot remember the name of it but it was good.

All I can say is I was in shock. Total and utter shock.

I was aware of the begging and spitting. But nothing had prepared me for India.

Kolkata has some stunning buildings and the people are lovely. However, recycling means something else in Kolkata, mainly throwing everything on the street and the poor people find a use for it

Also, it was quite common for men to veer towards me on the street so they could bang off me. This was quite unsettling. I won’t talk about the snot.

We decided that night to move to Darjeeling as soon as possible.

So the next day we went to a ticket agent and paid far too much for a night train to NJP station, which is about 3 hours from Darjeeling. Our train was leaving from a station not mentioned in the guidebook, so we were turning up on trust. We spent the afternoon in the Indian Natural History Museum which was pretty cool and then we went to the train station which did exist and hopped onto the long train to NJP.
http://trevorandpaige.blogspot.com/