The City of Joy

---

So here we are in the City of Joy, Kolkata. It's a crazy place and from what others have said, not many people enjoy it. We came expecting the worst, and whilst far from falling in love with the city, we haven't completely hated it.

In honour of our anniversary we acted nice and went for a decadent dinner at Peter Cat - a pretty funky little place where the waiters wear turbans and cummerbunds. Corb had the local specialty - Chelo Kebabs - which was goat (we think) sausage, butter rice, and chicken and vegie kebabs... delicious! I had the Afghani Chicken - succulent and rich and everything we'd hoped. We also splashed out for drinks... ice cold beer and a not too shabby barcadi and pineapple.. mmmmmm.

The food in Kolkata has generally been pretty great - lots of curries, nan, lassis and who could miss out the fantastic Bengali Sweets.... today we also took refuge in an AirCon cafe and pigged out on icecream - a perfect way to end the afternoon.

The Victoria Memorial was stunning - a great collection of paintings of the region and of India in general, as well as informative and interesting displays on the history of Kolkata and the Indian Road to Independence. The gardens were also very peaceful... and filled with squirrels!!

Other highlights of the city included St Paul's Cathedral and St John's Church - two examples of the fine Victorian architecture that is characteristic of Kolkata, and the Indian Museum, which among other things had some great Buddhist Sculpture from all over Asia.

The city itself if pretty insane - honking yellow old school taxis everywhere and beggars chasing you as you walks the streets.... but once you are used to the background noise and the smells of the refuse lining Sudder St, it kinda becomes ok.

I'd say we've had a mixed kinda time... many ups and just as many downs.... at times intoxicating, at times exceedingly frustrating. We're glad we came but now it is time to move on..... Next stop Bodghaya!

---