Procrastination is my specialty :)

Ok I am finally doing this after being gone from Eugene since October 7th and being in India since October 14th... let be honest though did you expect anything different? Me either :)

I am in Darjeeling now but I am going to back peddle and re-cap a bit. I am working on a sticky key board with slow internet so bare with me.

October 14th Kolkata, India

After flying 13 hours from San Francisco to Taiwan, then 3 hours to Bangkok and finally 2 to Kolkata we made it! We immediately made some travel friends off the plane. Anna and I had made reservations at Airway Hotels near the airport so we headed off to get our own taxi... no need, they come to you - trust me. After being bombarded by about 10 taxi drivers we finally got in one adorned with Blue Hindu gods and complete with a very loud Indian man that spoke about 10 words of English (deciphered after about 5 attempts).

The hotel turned out to be crap so we headed to the Lonely Planet suggested backpacker region of Sudder Street. Kolkata has 14.7 million people and it really feels like they are pretty much all on or along the road. "Madness" doesn't even describe that first taxi ride... constant honking by everyone and everything on the road, no rules to driving expect maybe stick to the left hand side (sometimes), brakes are essential since they slam on them about every 5 seconds, and miracle of miracles is that people just walk right through it all and make it to the other side - WOW

It really is an amazing sight... women riding side saddle on the back of motor bikes and living to see another day... the list is endless. But amidst the chaos it really is beautiful to see all the women dressed in sarees of every color.

Of course we get absolutely ripped off... I think its part of the initiating process. We ended up paying 800 rupees (50 rupees = $1) so about $16 when it should have been $200 but whatever we made it alive and he can buy a new Krishna statue for his dashboard.

We found a guest house, took a deep breath and slept.

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