We made sure we were up and at 'em bright and early to ensure that we were all sorted and checked out of our room and also gave enough time to negotiate the Chennai traffic oen route to the station. We were over efficient as usual, though (!), as we got a rickshaw, for a good price, straight away and the streets were the clearest we'd seen them since the 3 days we'd been there! It only took us 3-4 minutes to get to the station! No matter, we much preferred being there too early! We got some bananas and made our way to platform 8 to wait for our train to come in. We didn't seem to be waiting too long and we were on and settled on the train a good half hour before it set off.

We were joinned in our 3 tier sleeper carriage by 2 Indian couples and a gent on his own. All of which were very nice and even offered us some of their snacks (even if one of the guys was rather bossy, with his wife who had an annoying tick that Sarah, of course, picked up on straight away!).

We decided that we'd just get some banana's for the jourey and get the rest of our food on the train as, from experience, there were stewards coming round all the time with food, snacks, coffee, chai and other drinks. However, as sod's law has it, we had difficulty with this particular train and food availability - when we wanted it! It became rather frushtrating but we got by!

After quite a successful journey (33 hours didn't drag as much as we thougt it would!), a a peaceful nights sleep on our bunks (Laura awoke to find the Indian couple trying to cover and tuck her in with a blanket - "No, it's okay, I'm not cold, thank you!") we made up for lost time and arrived on time at Howrah Station, Kolkata, at 12.15pm. We headed straight for the pre-paid taxi booth (our taxi to our hotel was a mere snip at 65 rupees!) and after a long cue we got our ticket and after another long wait, we got into our allocated taxi and wizzed across the city to Sudder Street. We were dropped off right outside Stuart Lane, off Sudder Street, and it was a short walk to our hotel.

After settling into our shared dorm (and securly locking our packs together), we headed out to explore the local area. We went to straight to Park Street, which has been recently renamed Mother Teresa Somethingorother (via street stalls selling all sorts of crap from shopping bags and jewellery to poundland-type toys)! - One of the main roads in the city and the most cosmopolitan, which even reminded us a little of New York, somewhat, maybe it was the yellow taxi's that did it! After a muse through The Oxford Bookstore we found FLURRY'S (which kinda stuck out like a sore thumb, really, with it's bright pink sign), a Swiss patisserie with modern/posh interior that, above all, sold some of the most mouthwatering cakes we had ever seen, complete with a centrepiece of a castle made out of pure chocolate! Our book suggested we try a Rum Ball, so we did! And OH MY GOD! Better than exquisite! Luckily enough we got it for free as they failed to charge us! Well, we're not going to complain with that, are we!?! From this little corner of Heaven we continued down Park Street and turned off down a side street to visit a couple of department stores. We then went on to try and find Park Street Cemetry, which was just about to close it's gates - all well and good, because it looked rather ominous in a late-afternoon/ quickly-turning-dusk-light!

We headed back towards our hotel, checking out some of the 'plush' restaurants en route, which we might want to splash out on for our last evening in India, Saturday - How quick has that come round! - 5 weeks into the trip already! When we got back to the hotel, we decided to choose a cheapie restaurant, JoJo's. Laura had a spicy chicken wrapped in Indian bread with a sweet chilli source and fried chicken momo's (looked a bit like chineese fortune cookies!) for Sarah! Retired for an early night after a tiring train journey.