Calcutta or now Kolkata.

The former capital of British India, Kolkata has an interesting yet quite depressing history. It spent a lot of time as the capital and was an enterprising powerful city until the end of colonial times. Britain shifted the capital to Delhi in 1911 which served as the start of the decline. The worst time for Calcutta though was definitley at the time of India's partition in 1947. The partition created East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the effect was devestating. Around 4 million Hindu refugees arrived from the former East Bengal area choking Calcuttas already over populated slums. Thousands of people were dying on the streets from hunger, and though this was publicised in international press, little aid was given. Since 1947, more refugees arrived during subsequent wars in the 1970s further adding to the problems. There was a reason why Mother Teresa made this city her home and dedicated her life trying to help its people. Now though, the city is finding its feet again, business and economy are growing though the poverty and the ever increasing divide between rich and poor is startling and unavoidable.

Due to some brilliant planning on our part we managed to land in Kolkata airport at 3AM. Not a problem though as we were soon met a lovely Indian bloke who kindly tried to rip us off in his taxi for about triple what it should cost. Fortunately we found the correct taxi queue and was able to tell this bloke to do one. The taxi through the city at this time was quite a sight. We got to see more than a glimpse of the mass poverty that still exists in this unfortuNate corner of the world. Men, women, children and elderly lined the dimly lit pavements, sleeping on cars, in doorways and on the streets. Some clothed, some not. And not just in one area but through out the entire 30 minute ride from the airport to our guesthouse. We were speechless.

We spent 3 nights in total in Kolkata and though it was an eye opener it was definitely enjoyable. We tried to explore as much as we could, allowing for the ridiculously hot weather mingling with the ridiculously strong monsoon showers.

There are a few choices of public transport to get around the city, and some are unique to India and some to Calcutta. There is the old and worn out heavily crowded underground service with specific seats for women and the distinct smell of body odour. Lots of crowded buses which don't seem to actually stop - they just slow down so that people can run and jump on and off when they reach their destination. All the taxis are old classic yellow cars like something out of the 1950s. A full array of rickshaws - auto, cycle and hand pull.

The hand pulled rickshaw is certainly interesting. They are pulled by men who are obviously very poor and some look old enough to be our grandfathers. You see upper class people riding up high in the street as the poor driver lifts and pulls them along in barefoot, keeping up with the slow moving traffic. It seems to us that the drivers are treated just slightly better than an animal and is perhaps the best example that can be made of the huge class difference in India.

The filth.
It would be wrong to not mention the lack of cleanliness in this city. India has bins. Indians don't use bins. The entire city is one big rubbish tip. Every street has litter, rubbish and waste (often covering the pavements and sides of the road. It really appears to be the mentality over here to throw litter and whatever else on the floor. We were even encouraged to do it by others if they saw us looking round for a bin. Not only this but there are uncleaned urinals dotted about on the pavements, human ***** floating around in monsoon puddles and occasional smells that are so rancid your eyes starts stinging. It's all absolutely disgusting.

The locals.
Indian people definitely don't seem shy and we had prepared ourselves for the personal questions that they were likely to ask - usually revolving around money. It's difficult to walk more than 10 yards without being spoken too and within 10 seconds they know your whole life - down to your salary paycheck. Some are completely genuine and ask out of interest, however most of conversations we have learned are attempts to get money out of our pocket. It's usually obvious especially when they are actually begging or are stood outside their shop asking you to come in and look at 'very cheap prices'. Sometimes the scheme is more subtle starting as a friendly conversation that soon turns into in an obvious scam or means of visiting their business. Other times it's just rediculous, you can ask for directions to somewhere and they will hold their hand out expectant of a tip! It takes about ten minutes for this to get well annoying. And then another 5 minutes for you to put a stern face on and assume that every person out there is untrustworthy scum. Which is a shame, because they are not.

We met one or two locals who were very genuine and we spent many hours sat at a very small chai stand outside our guesthouse swapping stories and getting to know about life in Kolkata.

The sites.
After 4 weeks of being lazy it was nice to attack a city with a map and take in a few of the sites/touristy stuff.

New Market.
Close to where we were stopping was a market hall selling fresh meat and veg. It was burnt down in the '80s but rebuilt. We don't not what we were expecting. We asked for directions outside and a man pointed us to a huge old decrepit building that didn't look 'rebuilt'. The man then followed us everywhere obviously assuming he was now our tour guide and the possibility that we might give him some money. Inside the large building was not a market but basically a slaughter house. That stunk of rotting flesh. Carcasses hung from the rafters and pieces of raw meat was strewn wherever there was a surface. It was warm and humid and the polluted Calcutta air that blew through the building from the outside was dirty and dusty. Then there was the flies. Swarms of them, everywhere. And not forgetting the crows. Lots of crows, perched on wooden bird-sh*t stained beams directly above the stalls, fighting over and tearing at chunks of meat that they had stolen from the 'butchers' below. In that moment we both really considered vegetarianism for our trip through India.

The Victorian Memorial.
Started a few years before she died and finished a few years after she died, the memorial to Queen Victoria is a huge white marble building that is very impressive. No doubt, it would be a lot more famous and promoted by Indians if it had been dedicated to some old Indian Princess or strange Hindu god as opposed to a dead ex colonial queen. We didn't pay to enter the building as it was £1.50 (150 rupees)each and that's a bit expensive these days, instead we spent 4pence (4 rupees) to visit the gardens and look at it from the outside. Unfortunately there was scaffolding up at the front which ruined the photo opportunities a little.

By the way how good is it that 1 rupee is 1 pence? Well easy!

The Maiden.
In the centre of the city is a huge green park over 2 kms in length. It sits just in front of the Victoria Memorial. It was made by accident really when the last colonial dude built a big fort and demanded an entire village be demolished so that he had room to fire his canons if need be. It's not too surprising they don't promote the memorial when the British did stuff like that really...
We turned out of the park as soon as we entered by the way as it was just too hot.

The planetarium.
This was a bit unusual but worth the visit. It was built in 1962 and was a huge dome that showed the stars in the night sky with a presentation/lecture about the solar system etc. It was only 30 rupees and would have been boring if not for the presenter constantly switching from her relaxing calming English as we made our way through the universe, to loud aggressive Hindi telling people off for talking and turning their phones on. It was like being in a a science class at school and having a teacher who's ready for retirement.

Mother Teresa house.
This was the house that Mother T setup to give aid to the starving and homeless in the fifties. It was also the command centre for the worldwide charity missions set up around the world. Inside. We saw her tomb and her bedroom with her very simple possessions and meagre living conditions. There are all the stories about all the good she has done and awards for her goal to help the poor.

The Indian Museum
We went here thinking it would be air conditioned. It wasn't. This is a collection of various semi interesting things shoved messily into poorly signed rooms. The only things of note were a few stuffed animals, a mummy, some skeletons and the best bit, a pickled human fetus. But most annoyingly there was no air conditioning.

We left on another night train where we met a really nice Indian man who chatted away to us for hours. It was funny, because as mentioned earlier, we had been told that Indian people often ask personal questions, specifically about money. Within 5 minutes he knew how much we earned, how much our trip was costing us, how much a flight is for us (both to India and Europe) our cost of living, house prices in the UK and details about the pension and benefits crisis in the UK. He was good.

And that pretty much sums up Calcutta for us. It really has been an eye opener and has felt like we have been chucked into India at the deep end. But we've loved it. It's been a bit harder at times especially coming from Thailand. There is so much poverty and so many problems but still lots of smiles and lots of happy people. We have enjoyed it!

There is also a new guest feature to the blogs. Well for the next few anyway. These are to be called "things Claire has said".

Things we have learned
1. India is really dirty
2. Chai is an amazing drink and easily rivals a cup of yorkshire tea
3. There is no evidence of a highway code in India


Things Claire has said.
"Is India technically in Africa?"



Planes used - 3 (+1)
Buses used - 18
Trains used - 12
Metros/subways used - 25 (+2)
Cars used - 5
Minivans - 8
Russian Campervans used -1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 7 (+2)
Cable cars used - 1
Bicycles used- 1
Tuk tuks used - 6 (+2)
Scooters used - 3
Elephants used - 0
Ferrys used - 2