Day 9 - Kolkata - Monday 24th October 2011

"CHAI, CHAI, CHAI, CHAI, CHAI!" Who drinks Chai at 4am in the morning?!?! The Indians, it seems!! We woke much earlier than we'd hoped; you have to be a really deep sleeper to sleep through the hustle and bustle of the sleeper carriage without stirring! After a much needed cup of chai, we were awake and as alert as the rest of the carriage. To kill time, I read literally the whole of the Kolkata section of the Lonely Planet; I've discovered that the term "black hole of Calcutta" came about when in 1756 Siraj-Ud-duala recaptured Calcutta from the British and imprisoned the members of the colonial aristocracy in a cramped room beneath Fort William - by morning 40 of them had died from suffocation. The British press exaggerated numbers (not much has changed hey) and drummed up moral outrage and the legend of the "black hole of Calcutta" was born. Bit of education for you all!

A backbreaking 18 hours after we had left Varanasi, we finally arrived in Kolkata! Exhausted and smelly, we rode the ferry across to the Floatel Motel to take a well needed shower and some lunch, followed by a nap whilst we waited for Steve and Bubs to turn up.

Come evening, we met with Bubs, Steve and Saul and headed to the hotels Tavern bar for a beer and then made our way out to get some food. After wandering for a bit and then finally jumping into a taxi, we arrived at Anands for some Dosa's and Uttapam followed by lassi's, chai tea, cream sodas and ice cream.

From looking around at the buildings you can tell that Kolkata was the British capital by the style - although mostly dilapidated, you can still see the similarities to the buildings at home, this isn't something that has been noticeable in any other place we've been to so far.

Pretty knackered and running out of places to go, we headed back to the hotel, had a final drink in the bar and made our way to bed.

Day 10 - Kolkata - Tuesday 25th October 2011

After all the food, ice cream and lassi's from the night before, we planned to be up and ready for breakfast at 9am so we could stock up on food ready for an all-day drinking session at Eden gardens for the cricket. After leaving my Rolex in England, I set my new Casio F-91W alarm for 8.30am, leaving us time for a shower before breakfast… … 9.45am we were woken up by Steve banging the door and shouting wake up - Casio must be Indian for crap!! Seeing as the cricket started at 2.30pm, we had plenty of time, so we all ate breakfast together; I had a spicy omelette that very nearly blew my head off and Soph had fruit and pancakes. We made our way to reception donned in our St George's handkerchief hats and barmy army t-shirts ready for beers and the cricket. We took a taxi to the Hotel Taj Mahal in central Kolkata to collect our 5 tickets from a contact of Steve's. When we arrived we realised that this was the hotel that the England team were staying in, so whilst having a beer by the pool we saw Kevin Pieterson, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, Bubs tried to chat to Trott but we realised that he wasn't very nice and was actually quite rude and abrupt (so when he came on the pitch, we booed and when he lost his wicked we cheered! Ha ha). Steve's contact then pitched up with only 4 tickets, (immediately I thought Soph is going to get bored waiting for us for 7 hours!!), so with a ticket short we headed to the ground and managed to buy a ticket in the same block for 500rs - we all actually managed to sit together! Eden Gardens holds 100,000 so we thought it might be hard work trying to get served at the bar… … well it wasn't a problem at all because all alcohol is banned at the ground as well as smoking, video cameras and food!! The cricket was really good, it started at 2.30pm and we left just before the end at 8.30pm - the 5-0 series heckling was becoming more and more!! Neither of us had ever seen live cricket before and the atmosphere was awesome. After the cricket, we went to Kewpies for dinner to have some authentically cooked Bengali food, Thali, with paan for desert. The waiter was from California, which was odd and after we sat down it became apparent that yes, he was indeed also very odd, and a touch scary! Cab home and bed.

Day 11 - Kolkata - Wednesday 26th October 2011

Today we moved from the Floatel to the Park hotel, which is Kolkata's best hotel - Steve and Bubs had done us proud as, true enough, it was amazing. Bubs checked us in and we managed to sneak an upgrade (with Saul's luck!). Bags down, the boys headed to the bar and pool, whilst Soph and I went for a walk to St Pauls cathedral in town (it actually looks like a white houses of parliament) then onto the Victoria Memorial (which looks like St Pauls Cathedral!!), which was a quick walk through a lovely park where kids were flying kites. Back to the hotel for a few beers with the boys, swim in the pool, steam and sauna, we then got cleaned up and out, as today was Diwali. We got some street food on our way to the local park, we all had Kati rolls off of a street vendor - these are basically fried round bread with spicy veg and a choice of paneer, chicken, mutton and egg filling with sauce and tabasco, wrapped like a twister - very, very nice!! We were expecting loads of fireworks and candles as Diwali is the festival of light, but sadly nothing… So we asked a local where to go, New Market was the place, about a 10 minute walk. We went to the 9th floor of a hotel with views over all of Kolkata and had 3 pina coladas, 1 tequila sunrise and a mojito and watched some fireworks whilst chatting to some other travellers from OZ and Canada. Bored with that, we left and Bubs decided to get 3 'man pulled chariots' (these blokes pull these heavy wooden carriages like horses and all bare footed!) and put me in one, Saul in the other and himself in the last and decided we would all have a race!! They must have thought we were mad!! Steve and Soph sensibly walked behind as the pace was very slow! After that we walked around the city, watched all the local fireworks and crackers before heading back to our hotel for a beer. Our hotel has the best club in Kolkata (apparently) called Tantra so seeing as it was our last night together; we went there for a few beers. It was hilarious watching the locals dance to some Indian house music! At about 1am, knackered and slightly bemused by the going on's of Tantra, Soph and I said our goodbyes to the boys and headed for bed. God knows what they all got up to…………….

Kolkata was heavily polluted, smoggy, smelly city but we really enjoyed our time there and seeing Bubs, Steve and Saul. Thanks for a great time lads and for our wedding present of cricket tickets, hotels and drinks - we loved it!!x