Welcome to India. Kolkata!

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We flew in style for the first time in months. Forgot you can actually get a meal on a plane, we had been on so many budget airlines. Jet Airways I do recommend. Landing in Kolkata, it was time to see what India was all about. Quite a cool town actually. Have heard horror stories of Kolkata, but we thought it was wonderful. Yeh it is big, populated, polluted, and crazy, but it had its own charm. Our first hotel room however did not! Bit of a dump, but the best we could find in the area.
Did a tour of city next day and saw the Victoria Memorial, now a huge museum. Completed with marble, same as used on Taj Mahal. Kolkata was once the capitol of Great Britain's Indian Empire so a lot of English influence seen.
Took Metro to some other districts. Walked by an area where the people who have nothing build there homes out of the garbage around them. Had some great food here form sweet, milky chai, to Mo Mo's, to chapati rolls. So very good.
We had a 29 hr train ahead of us to get to Agra and it was Joanna's birthday. Found a bakery that sold chocolate cake so hid it from her somehow until on the train the next day. Not much of a birthday, but was all we could really do. Onwards!

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Photos

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Victoria Memorial

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Those who have nothing build homes out of garbage heaps!

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Street typers?

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street chai

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chapati rolls! So very good. In LP, near Sudder Street.

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Inside of our taxi. Kind of old!

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Still have man powered rickshaws

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he he

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Very hard to find chocolate cake in India. Looked good, tasted not so much! Happy Birthday Joanna!

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Train Chai in clay cups. Just huck them out the window when done.

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OK, our train is this one, no this one, no, where is our train?

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Train station Kalkata