Kolkatta- Oh my god

The readers of this blog should be glad that I am writing it after my first two days in India rather than my first. I'll tell the whole story.

After a much needed three hous sleep on the plane, I was awoken by our landing. we were taken off the plane on a ladder car, and irected to the main terminal buiding. This consisted of a small room the size of an average house with no carpet and dirty-white tile interior walls. We quewed in the customs line and were sent to the baggage collection room, about half the size of the last one, which included only two conveyer-belts for the entire airport. As we left (at almost 1.30am) there were only a handful of taxi drivers around, i told one the name of our reserved hotel- the airport plaza hotel. He said ok, and took us towards the car park, filled only with a dozen yellow and white cars not isimilar from Londn cabs, only made in the 50s and repaired yearly since. the driver took us down the streets around the airport. It looked like downtown Rwanda- stray dogs walking around, rubbish everywhere, dilapidated buildings with broken down cars and the occasional sleeping person in front of them. This was not quite a place for the neat-freak among us, in terms of development, consider that Bangkok is closer to Melbourne than to Kolkata.

I kept teling myself that the hotal I had reserved would be a hilton type establishment, when we pulled into a dimly lit ally and stopped, I realised it wasn't.

Our driver said 'Airport plaza, ok', and retrieved our bags from the boot. The place was a two story builing about the size of a 7/11 with o open door and no lights on. He knocked on the door, and shouted a phrase repeatedly in Bengali, after three times, the interpreted response from the man inside was 'too late'. Even after repeaing that we had a booking, we were only greated with silence.

We asked the driver to take us to another hotel in the area. We went through the same process at two more places of similar description before one finally let us in. After an argument with the driver and paying an abssolute rip-off price of Rs 1800, I went to sleep in a dingy double room, scared and further out of my comfort zone than I ever have been.

We woke up to the sound of a (freaking loud) buzzing sound, we ignored it the first half dozen times (between 6.30 and 7.30am) but finally relented to see what was going on. A man came in and offered us tea, we said yes to get rid of him, although he stayed around for another five minutes touching our bags and folding our clothes. We left, (and were asked to pay Rs50 for the tea) soon after and found several cabs how had obviously recieved word of the two www's (white walking wallets) in the hotel.

We took one's offer of Rs200 to go to the city. This is where we got our first real views of India and Kolkata; people fixing cars on the street, bicycles packed with coconuts overflowing of the sides holding up buses in the traffic, children washing themselves in big tubs of soap on the curb... people everywhere. After being dropped half a km away from where we were asked to be taken (and where we were told we were), we walked the exta 20 minutes to Sudder st (hotel centre).

Here we found the diplomat hotel, similar condition to the last one yet at an affordable rate and run by a very helpful english speaking man (we call him the chief). This is where we got our feet on the ground. We found a cool upstairs cafe around the corner and had a few curries ($3.50 for the lot), and it kind of dawned on us that this is the India that we signed up for.

After walking down a few more streets, through the laberynth of lane ways packed with people, we got a further taste of this. There were more people bathing in the street, 60 yr old barefoot men carrying bright saried women in their rickshaws, taxis tooting their horns as they weave through the tiny streets, people shouting, singing protesting and laughing. A brief walk down a Kolkata street seems like it takes an hour. Basically, on its streets, daily life and humanity is visual and accessable- it's impossible not to be immersed in and confronted by ityat difficult not to develop some affection for it.

We arrived at the very picturesque Victoria memorial. After walking around and photographing it for a while, we sat in the adjacent park and fell asleep. Again, i couldn't help but notice the eerie balance between chaos and peace; non-stop car horns with people sleeping on the side of the road.

At this point I felt that my head had stopped spinning. I realized that as well as being a scary big place, Kolkata has more character than any place I have ever been (yes, including New York). Its in the 1950's cars, the handwritten signs for everything, the different smells on every corner, but most of all the noise. It's also the little things that you notice; As i'm writting this, there is a little mouse running behind the computer that we are trying to photograph. If you smile at people, they will almost always smile back (I definitely did not notice that in Shanghai or Bangkok). After being ripped off in the market (by ripped off i mean paying $60 for a taylored suit instead of $30), the sellers will keep us there for twenty minutes and talk about the cricket.

It really is quite amazing how obsessed they are with cricket. You can strike up a conversation with anyone at anytime about it (they always say the same thing- 'Ricky Ponting, not as good as Steve Waugh... Shane Warne- too many women!') They basically hate Greg chappell and love Steve Waugh. They all have unlimited respect for the Australian side and can give you regular updates of the ashes series, but their following of the Indian side is quite extraordinary- I can'remember the last time the Age devoted it's first three pages (of the news section) to the selection of a test side. Any Australian who thinks we are obsessed with cricket should come here and see a dozen people crammed around a tv on the street watching a match being played on another continent.

All of these thing build up to create a place where you can easily feel at home- i am quite simply in love with the place. This feeling hasn't erased the one i mentioned at the start of this account, rather it strangely coexists with it. I'm not neive enough to assume that it will last forever, as we are dumped in new cities the confrontation will continue. I also do feel a little homesick. Hearing that the guys won trivia the other night didn't help.

I should apologize for the lateness of this letter and the one from Bangkok, I've had some trouble finding a place that can put my photos on the computer.

I'd love to get some replies to this as well. (even if i don't know who you are)

I'll write again soon and take some more photos

Sam.

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