Kolkata

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Left Kilimpong West Bengal in the afternoon to the train station. Unluckly there was a land slide on the main road so we had to take the long way round.

6 hours later I arrived at the train station in the evening and went to buy a ticket for the overnight train to Kolkata. Unluckly the only seats left were the lowest class seats on the solid wooden benches crambed in with the locals. I took one before from Amritsar to Delhi 12 hours over night and didn't want to do another. But I had no where else to go so I reluctantly bought a ticket. Luckely I got a seat on the train an hour before it was to leave and was sandwiched against one guy with
BO who was the size of two grown men and a woman and child on the corner of the bench. It was near impossible to get sleep as you had to keep moving constantly because the hard wooden seats were so uncomfortable but I sat through it and read most of Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography I picked up in Nepal for a pound. I manage to survive and I am now in Kolkatta.

Had four days to kill before my flight to Burma this monday on the 21st. Bought 640 US dollars from the bank because Burma does not have any ATM machines and rarely has anywhere to exchange travelers cheques so hopefully I won't do what I did last year in a similar situation in Loas when I was forced to carry around large sums of money and accidentaly loose it all including my passport out the back of a moving truck in the middle of nowhere.

One thing I do miss appart from you guys back home is my movies so as there are 5 cinemas here in kolkata I thought I'd watch a few. Saw Speilberg's Munich which was pretty good, Lady in the Water, which was pretty awful and although I don't really want to watch it probably Superman cause the only other films are in Hindi.

Omkara that I saw before I arriveed in Kolkata, the hindi adaptation of Othello, was completely confusing. I thought cause I studyed it at school I would have some idea of what happens in the movie even though it was in hindi, but I was clueless. All I remember of the movie was that loads of people died or ended up killing themselves, which is what normally happens in most of Shaksperes plays.

Anyway I will speak to you from Burma if I can find an internet place.

Bye

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