Eagle Hotel Kolkata (Calcutta)

... humid day of the trip.  All along the river there were ghats (stairs leading into the water) where groups of kids were swimming and women were doing laundry.  Some of the more adventurous kids swam out to our boat and climbed on board or got pulled up by the captain for a short ride.  Then they would jump off and swim back to their friends.  If I didn't know how nasty the river was I would have joined them.  It looked like so much fun and would have been such a relief from the heat ...

... Raga Bhairavi as the organizers told us to wrap it up. It was a little unfortunate that we got pushed off stage, but as we learnt the people in the village don't really listen to much classical music and were most eager to hear the pop type bengali music. It was definitely an experience to play for such an audience and learn that there is always a proper audience for every type of music. We returned to Kolkata in the dark and had a well deserved sleep after an exciting day ...

... but the grass was mostly brown (it is towards the end of the dry season though) and a large area is inaccessible because it is an army base. It is like having half of Hyde park blocked off - strange to consider it part of the park!? But it had lovely wide open spaces and big boulevards. There were also herds of goats and horses roaming around grazing. Between the park and the river we went through an underpass which had become a little ...

... The New Market where food, goods, jewelry, and household items are sold every morning through until dark. We found a great eatery behind the Tipu Sultan Mosque. The pots out front had the most tempting smelling Mutton Masala and as it turns out lots of other good specialties. Here we are again, the only non-locals to eat at this place. As we chowed down, people stared and the service staff (all kids under 12 years old ...

... of water. We sit. Finally the woman comes over and tells me that it is impossible to do what she had told me on the phone they could do. It is impossible to give US dollars to US citizens....and, they only sell traveller's checks for cash. She is very sorry, she made a mistake on the phone this morning. Then either she or Noor suggests we try Standard Charter Bank which is affiliated with American Express in India. We take another long taxi ride ...

... construction workers and their delivery trucks.  The workers themselves need to shout - probably to be heard above their blaring radios with local pop music blaring.  This goes on most of the day but is, eventually, drowned out by other noises. About the same time as the construction starts, the congress of crows (I have learned something from crossword puzzles) starts up.  They live in the tree that shelters one side of our balcony from the street.  Sometimes they ...

... more impressive than breakfast. They have about 5 or 6 Indian dishes (there's so much more that I love besides just the typical chicken tikka masala and aloo sagg) to pick from and some other really fancy restaurant type food -I've been sticking to the Indian. It's mostly vegetarian here, and it turns out I like eggplant and tofu a lot more than I thought I would. The soups have been my favorites. I can't say that the thought of ...

... why this is. Initially, I was quite ill and spent a bit of time resting. I did manage to see the major attractions like Victoria Memorial (impressive, great museum) and St. Paul's Church (also very nice), but my main experiences in Kolkata were from simply wandering the chaotic streets. The British built up quite an infrastructure here, and many splendid and British-style buildings still exist. But, wait, this is India. So imagine all these British ...

Chowringee is the backpacker heart land and we are smack in the middle of it in Sudder St. Any flea pit with a door they call a hotel room and charge 100 Rp per night. I arrived here with the two Polish girls (cant say there names let alone spell them) and Mike the American and we all had breakfast then went in search of a room.The girls picked one place not suitable then another same then Mike found one we all agreed was OK. There are heaps of steps cos it is ...

... fields and the occasional village, you've seen basically the whole route. It's no surprise this whole place floods so badly during the monsoon - the villages are built on patches of earth only a foot or so higher than the flooded paddy fields around them.



The Man from Bangalore and I sat quietly as we rolled towards Kolkata. He attempted to start up again (this time about how dirty Kolkata is and how I shouldn't eat anything if I could possibly help ...