24 hours in Kolkata

Kolkata

Fifteen hour train delay. Yup, you read that right. We finally got on to the night train which would take us from Varanasi to Kolkata at 5pm, rather than 2am as planned, which meant we lost a day in Kolkata. When we eventually worked out which platform our train was departing from, we found our beds which had been taken over by 3 Indian guys. We got them to move and settled down for the evening. It was pretty noisy; Indians tend not to do anything quietly – ever. Apart from the constant phone calls, farting, people popping in at all hours for a chat and neverending food service, it was fine although I didn’t sleep much. Especially with all eyes on the western woman. Baby D snored most of the way to Kolkata…well, for an hour maybe. We didn’t actually realise we had arrived as we thought it was a 12 hour journey but it was in fact only 8. We got to the hotel at 3am and bed.

We only had 1 day in Kolkata so we needed to squeeze in as much as possible. Our first impression from the taxi when we arrived (admittedly in the pitch black) was that it was very clean in comparison with Delhi or Varanasi, more cosmopolitan, fewer cows and it had actual pavements! All of this took us a bit by surprise as we had been told by a few people that it was rough, dirty and dangerous. We found it in daylight to be very pleasant, fairly clean and a lot less frantic compared with Delhi. Green, lots of trees, more ‘proper’ shops, slower paced, more parks and open spaces.

A roundabout!

Making kathi

We wandered around New Market and Vardaan Market, and then through the park, stopping to sample the local cuisine, kati or kathi, which is a flat bread with egg or veg or meat. Sounds quite uninspired but it was delicious.

We headed over to the Birla Mandir which is an awesome Hindu temple. As usual though, no photos allowed, which was a pity. The architecture and detailed workmanship were amazing.

Birla Mandir

 

We stopped off at a Christian church called St John’s where we met John. Not the Saint, but a dreadlocked Indian who played the organ for us. We had a bit of the Romeo and Juliet film theme, then some Pink Floyd. John was a bit of a character and kept us talking for ages about politics, religion etc.

St Johns Church

Next we paid a visit to Mother Theresa’s missionary, the Mother House. This was quite a serene place where people make pilgrimage to pray or just visit. There are many nuns living there, continuing Mother Theresa’s work. We saw her room which was more like a cell, and her tomb.  

Mother House

We went for a couple of beers then dinner in a local place that served Bengali fish or veg cuisine. I am not a big fish eater but the 3 different dishes we chose were probably the best food we’d had in India to date. Well, apart from the wasabi tasting fish, that was just weird in a curry. 

Back to the hotel which was our best so far, aside from its location which was an hour out of town, and we struggled to find a cab to take us back. When we finally found a driver he got lost and when we decided to get out (knowing that we were only 50m from our hotel) he refused to accept payment because he’d got lost! We were gobsmacked because so far almost everyone has wanted money from us and we've had nothing for free. We paid him of course – he drove over 20km and got lost for all of 2 minutes. Apart from stopping for a wee, he was most courteous! 

Goodbye Kolkata, it was short but sweet. Onto Chennai.

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