Senator Kolkata (Calcutta)

... Bali Island to Help Tourism’s Sundarban Jungle Camp. After spending three nights in our launch, we wanted a night on a real bed. We relaxed at the Camp. Night was again mystical and silent. Silence was broken by night birds and we heard a tiger growling somewhere. Sipping beer, sitting by the silently flowing river, hearing tiger growling, made me think that I was in a far corner of globe yet in truth, Kolkata was just 130km away.

Today was our last day and we ...

... one

should be highly acclimatized and physically fit. The true beauty of the region

lies in its vast untamed space, wildlife & nomadic inhabitants.

Highlights:-

Leh & the Indus Valley, some monastery tours.

The nomads of Rupshu, part of Tibetan plateau.

Snow-peaks and high passes

Demanding trekking and incredible Himalayan scenery

Beautiful campsites in remote locations

Central Asian wildlife
Calcutta, West Bengal, India partha.desarkar

... compassion and cruelty, unimaginable beauty and pitiful ugliness, generosity and corruption, religion and fanaticism. Here in India these extremes are more exaggerated, more transparent than in other countries we have visited, molding India into the extraordinarily complex and unique country that it is. India requires change while at the same time part of me wishes that change never happens. Somehow ...

... for hours and hours... I am not sure there is enough chai in India to get me though that! We left around midnight after hearing only the first performer, and still almost had to sleep on the street when we got to the locked gates of our guesthouse - thank god for people who sleep in random places! Like the courtyard of the guesthouse! They let us in and all was well (this is normal, at many of the places we have stayed the staff sleep in the lobby on mats on the floor).

... a park) to see the biggest banyan tree in the world. It really is amazing to see, it doesn't grow upwards, or at least not only up, branches grow out horizontally from the trunk and then drop roots down to the ground, these solidify into new trunks which then support the horizontal branches and allow it to grow out further. Also, visited the Victoria monument, a large marble building bigger than the Taj Mahal but built for the British instead of a Mughal queen ...

... I refused (right for shaking, left for ********). Back on the streets I was dying. Time for a Thums Up quick sugar-hit-pick-me-up and a bit of a sit down under the trees on the edge of the huge grassy Maidan park. We wandered over to St Paul's. There are some interesting memorial plaques inside for people that say things like, so and so died during the blah blah '.......loved by natives and europeans alike.' or those that died ...

... point in Shimla. It's a very poplar thing to do, the two temples are junk, the "in thing" is to do the walk up the hill and battle the monkeys as the monkeys lie in wait; you rent a stick. So many monkeys at the top we saw one monkey frisk one of the men; monkey had his hand in the mans pocket. It's kind of stupid because they sell food to give to the monkeys, so they are actually training these monkeys to act this way. Terri was coming back to the room with ...

... grandeur and artistic imaginations. Durga Puja is celebrated for six days, first day being the day when the Goddess, created by the finest artisan by clay or pith or fibre-glass or even metals or glass is given life by the priests in every erected temporary halls (called pandal locally). The Goddess Durga, according to Indian mythology, was created by triumvirates, Brahma, Vishnu and Sive to destroy the demon king, Mahishasura, who was terrorizing the heaven and ...

... to be passing through what seemed to be the beginnings of a political protest relating to the locals desire to secede from the state of West Bengal and create their own state of Gorkhaland. Luckily we passed through without much delay. I enjoyed a freshly prepared masala dosa (thin savory pancake with spicy potato filling) from a local stall and boarded the train around 19:00 and ended up sitting with a group of locals who worked together and were returning ...

... clay cup. At a display of magazines and newspapers spread out on a cardboard box I saw an English language publication with national distribution. The cover featured an image of a Kolkata street vendor with the caption 'Hawker Power'. Since I was enjoying the benefits of that specific economic market, I decided to take a copy of 'Civil Society' for my travels. Kolkata is an incredibly morning friendly city. Had the sun risen no higher I might still be relaxing on the street ...