Blogs from Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Asia - page 9

Stepping off the flight in Calcutta, I felt a twinge of trepidation. The only other occasion on which I’d been to this inadvertent icon of India’s romantic past and chaotic present I’d been hiding behind the tails of Prateek’s kurta. I had found the juxtaposition of even moderate wealth and poverty oppressive – street people asleep on the gorgeous staircase of his grandmother’s colonial apartment building – and the humid, dirty, grey heat overpowering. In an attempt to dress conservatively yet remain cool, I had bought a salwaar kameez in the market, but it was made of a nasty nylon-type material, the salwaar hopelessly short for European legs, and I had felt scruffy and over-cooked. This time was going to be different. After all, I was different. No longer the anxious junior lawyer on her hard-earned ... read more

We arrived in Kolkata on time. We jumped off the train and after haggling with a taxi driver we got him to take us to a hotel in our guide book. It was ridiculously overpriced and we walked straight back out where and old man attached himself to us, despite us asking him to leave several times he proceeded to show us a range of hotels which were generally pretty grim. Eventually we came across Hotel Aafreen which was recommended by Lonely Planet where we got a room for Rs 800. After freshening up we headed out for some food – we decided to give in to our cravings for the colonel , Indian KFC is not as nice as KFC back home at least we won’t be tempted again! After we visited Victoria Memorial and ... read more

Where did we leave you? Somewhere after we'd arrived in Darjeeling i believe... As we may or may not have made you aware Darjeeling was an escape from the heat and madness of real India - to the extent that the people there do not really consider themselves to be Indian - they are Gourkas and a sign on every shop, shack and van will remind you of this. We needed a break after the stress of travel, the culture shock, and death of Alice's grandfather had knocked us out. We were physically and emotionally exhausted and needed some quiet time. We had just that in the scheme of India Darjeeling is a quiet english pastoral village. High in the steps of the Himalayas it is warm during the day (like England on a pleasant summer's ... read more

India Kolkata 20/01/11 - 24/01/11 44 rupees to 1USD Budget $30 per day including accomodation. Well where do you start? This place is mental, you see it all on the way in from the airport! The excitement at the sight of the cute yellow 'Austin Ambassador' taxi soon wears off as you are taken on the ride of your life. The traffic on the roads of India takes no prisoners as the cars swerve around each other, beep incessantly and every  stop is an emergency stop. We cannot understand why anyone would want to be a taxi driver in Kolkuta as the roads are always gridlocked! Our taxi from the airport, 5km away took over 2 hours! (260 rupees from the Pre-paid taxi desk in the airport) Trying to cross the roads are also a nightmare ... read more

Kolkata was the capital of India during the time of the British Raj. It has a population of nearly 15 million and has a fearsome reputation, along with Mumbai, of being extremely hectic and overwhelming. Our experience wasn’t too bad; in fact I quite liked most parts of it! We viewed some impressive British architecture, went to a cool club, and mingled with locals in some of the very modern main streets. Of course it was busy on the streets, all Indian cities are, but it’s exciting watching the hustle and bustle of rickshaws, trams and taxis, which make it like a game of ‘Frogger’ when crossing the road. Walking down the street you’ll see people building furniture, taking apart computers, sleeping on the road, bamboo scaffolding, shoe shiners and package wrappers, most of which we’d ... read more