Kolkata - our last taste of India....

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Arriving in Kolkata at 6.30am after a reasonable nights sleep on the overnight train we had a pretty scary taxi ride to our prebooked hotel. We were to discover that the taxi drivers in Kolkata were the worst ones we had seen in the whole of India. Most of their cars were decrepit, in fact the government had already ordered hundreds off the roads only a fortnight before - it was only the better ones left! One driver we had actually went the wrong way up a wide very busy 4 lane road, stopped at a traffic policeman, kept his hand on the horn until the policeman moved (jumped out of the way) and then kept going! Our hotel was friendly, (Sunflower Guest House) and in a old building with a very old fashioned lift (and two old lift operators who slept on the floor beside the lift during the night) - we were in the room right up on the roof. Kolkata was one of our favourite cities in India, a surprise as we weren't expecting to enjoy it. We spent the remainder of the day quietly exploring the area - we were close to the Victoria Memorial but left our visit there to another day. We did wander the gardens around the memorial at sunset, watched the coloured fountains (very tame!) and discreetly ignored the many courting couples we kept almost tripping over!
Next morning a taxi took us to the flower markets under the Howrah Bridge - we had a thoroughly enjoyable morning there. Piles of marigolds, roses and lotuses. The vendors were very friendly and we enjoyed morning chai and chatting with them. The area was surrounded by slums - the poverty in Kolkata was pretty bad. After leaving the markets we walked across the bridge (700 metres long) to the railway station - an enormous red building on the other side of the Hooghly River. We stood for a while watching the movement on the ghats - many people were bathing in the filthy waters. The river was covered in mist (heat haze) - the days were very hot whilst we were in Kolkata. We were swarmed with streets children when we got to the station area - hundreds live on the platform As well as kids there were dozens of groups of men carrying large drums waiting to return home from the Kali celebrations which had been on a couple of days before. It is a similar festival to the one we saw in Varanasi where they dunk all the idols in the river. We quickly left and caught a ferry back across the murky water ands spent the next few hours walking along the river side streets and through the BBD Bagh area which were full of colonial architecture. The streets were lined with food stalls and locals enjoying breakfast. Except for the food stalls you could have been walking through London in the 1960's. Even the taxis were the right era. Walked until we were tired and caught a taxi back to our hotel area. That evening we ate at Peter Cats restaurant - lovely food and atmosphere so we ate the rest of our evening meals there as well.
Next morning we headed towards the Victoria Memorial, stopping at a 4* hotel for breakfast - big buffet meal so went back the next morning as well, though it was a bit of a walk from our hotel. The
Victoria Memorial was impressive - a massive white marble structure built to commemorate Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1901 but not actually finished until 20 years after her death. It housed a very interesting museum (particularly interesting I thought was a large display of pottery figures doing all the different yoga poses). It's unbelievable how much money was spent building memorials for the British Royalty in India. I guess today they recoup it from tourist entrance fees but that wouldn't have been a consideration when they were built.
Next morning we took a taxi to the Kali Temple, Kolkata's holiest religious site. The current temple was built in 1809, though a temple has been on the site for many centuries longer. Absolutely crazy site, with heavy police presence, and quite dirty underfoot. The area around was a maze of tiny alleys full of religious shops - these shops were selling bangles made from cowrie shell - all the women who visited the temple were buying red glass and white shell bangles to show their faith. Inside the temple we lined up and were pushed through the narrow passages around the idol - a rather ugly orange statue. All the devotees were throwing armfuls of red hibiscus towards the figure. It made a change from marigolds I guess. As we were leaving the area we found a row of workshops where they were already starting to make the idols for the immersion festival next year. A taxi took us back to the New Market area near our hotel - we left in disgust after a very short time there - the pressure from touts was extremely heavy and unpleasant. We spent the afternoon at the Indian Museum which we both enjoyed.
Though Kolkata is known for Mother Teresa we ended up not visiting her mission - our guide book said that only serious pilgrims or volunteers were made welcome.
On our last afternoon in Kolkata Jerry spent the afternoon reading and I wandered around the sari shops. Kolkata is renowned for heavily sequined saris and I ended up spending a couple of hours in one. It was a great experience. I sat next to three ladies who were buying saris to wear at three upcoming family weddings. These shops consist of a row of shelving, in front of which is a long mattress covered platform on which the salesmen sit. The customers sit on stools next to the platform. The men pull saris from the shelves behind and throw out the length of fabric along the platform (saris are 5- 7 metres long). If a woman nods the sari is bundled up on the shelf behind - the discarded ones are thrown away onto the top of an ever increasing pile. At the end of the showing the women all stood whilst the salesman pleated and wrapped the fabric around the women as they made their final decisions. Surprisingly as they were shown the saris the women all had streets food sellers bringing them in food which they ate over the top of these very expensive pieces of fabric. The saris were very heavily decorated and most were around 15,000 rupees each ($AUD 500). When I left, after a couple of cups of chai, the pile of discarded saris was as high as me! It would have taken hours to refold all of them. There were four salesmen so each one was throwing saris across the heads of the others onto the pile. As the women requested a certain colour a young boy hopped into the middle of the pile and pulled the required colours out of the bottom of the pile. And no sequins were popping off which I guess proved that they were worth the price the women were paying! It was a lovely way to spend our last day in India!
Next day we left early to go to the international airport - we had tickets booked for Bangkok - and were worried that a strike might happen. When that happens - and it seems to be a regular occurrence - all public transport cannot use then streets. The airport was a very boring place to spend a few hours. It was like a little country town terminal - no shops, barely a coffee available and no wifi! They are upgrading the airport - not before time!
We felt really sad as we left India - we had an amazing time there - 4 months in total plus another month in Nepal and we had barely touched the surface of this wonderful country. I would miss the sparkle and colour of the women's dress and the fascinating spectacle of religious faith we watched unfold in front of us each day We had very few 'I hate India' moments - instead we found it mostly a wonderful country to travel in. I'm sure our 12 months in China certainly paved the way for us - India felt easy after China! We were very lucky not to get ill at all - no more then a couple of days of tummy bugs each and a head cold! We didn't particularly enjoy the food - we found it monotonous and very greasy most of the time. There is a lack of good quality fruit which was a little hard after a while. The constant power cuts also were difficult some days but all we had to do was think that we could leave any time we liked - it was not part of our everyday life. I don't think that there was one day whilst we were in India that there was not a power blackout. My favorite places in India were the beautiful Golden Temple in Amritsar and also the Jain temples in Ranakpur. Jerry's favourite places were the Pin Valley (the gorgeous little village of Mudh in the Spiti area) and also the Golden Temple.More adventures await us in Thailand, Vietnam , Cambodia and Laos!

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Photos

Street tea stall
Chai is made on boiled milk - in Kolkat it is served in tiny clay throw away cups - 2rupees (6 cents)

At the chicken market.
Note the rather nasty knife blade - chickens are very much alive when you first buy them!

Mud idol - a man was carving her face
These were the figures which we saw immersed in Varanasi. They have straw inners.