C'mon C'mon

• Gleckelgirls's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Kolkata

Trip Start Dec 04, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 16, 2006 Next
Entry

  Kolkata, India
Thursday, April 20, 2006

J: So did you ever read "It Could Always Be Worse"? Because I definitely feel that way. We were anticipating just horrible horrible heat beyond what we could handle and honestly Kolkata is not nearly as bad as Cambodia was. But still we only gave ourselves two days here. Actually, it ended up being more like two and a half days. When we got to the airport in Bangkok we actually found out that our flight had been moved to an earlier time and we were just going to make it. Thank goodness we were on top of things enough to be at the airport that early. But seriously if we had been just 20-30 minutes later (still very early for our originally scheduled flight) we would have completely missed the flight. (M: I don't know what it is, but no matter how well we plan we have nearly missed our last 3-5 flights. It is pretty frustrating, but also eliminates all of those hours in the airport. Still, I don't think I want this to become habit. The adrenaline rush is so not worth it!) So we arrived the evening of the 18th and pretty much just walked around a bit near our hostel and through the New Market.

The second day we got up pretty early and headed out to maybe try to get some lightweight clothes made (I am not going into all of this, but basically it didn't work out and we don't really have any cooler clothing, too bad, but really we are pretty much over the shopping (M: Even as we were walking through the market looking at all of these beautiful things, we kept saying that we were tired of shopping.

A Jain Temple

So, now we're just going to hope that our clothes will be adequate). We then headed out in search of a post office and the place to buy our train ticket to Darjeeling. Walking around Kolkata is an experience. It is definitely not like any other place we have been on this trip, but I have to say that I am so glad that we spent time in SE Asia before coming here. I think it helped to ease us in. The poverty is definitely intense. More homeless people than anywhere in SE Asia. And many more people begging. And yes, just as people and books say, this is a dirty dirty city. It is hard to be out and about for even five minutes without just feeling grimy, but part of that is the heat as well. (M: At the end of a sweaty, dirty day today, I realized that my griminess is not the same as living on the street, in the gutters, forever covered in the dirt of this city. Pretty heady stuff.) Poverty is devastating and it is heart-wrenching to witness especially when watching small children, adolescents, adults, and elderly drinking the clearly unclean water, cooking with it, and bathing in it. As we drove in the first day there was this tiny one just sitting by rancid looking water on the street cleaning herself. And again we are struck by the simple privilege of things like clean water, not just for drinking, but for bathing and things like watering our lawns. I could go on and on about this, but for now I will just leave it at this...food for thought. (M: Jessie's public health background has been kicking into super high gear! It's hard not to think about the general health implications of poverty and of who is deserving of what.

A Sign of Empowerment?

It shouldn't really be that hard for the whole world to have clean water, should it? What would we in the West have to give up for everyone to have a base level of human needs met?) The rest of our second day we spent wandering around the city, getting a bit of food (LOVE Indian food), and spending a bit of time in the grounds of Victoria Memorial.

Now, today, was an adventure. And when I say adventure I mean a bit chaotic and a bit irritating and really just a bit too much. We decided to do a city tour through the W. Bengal department of tourism. It was funny because we were the only non-Indians on the tour, which surprisingly was still in English. We basically were bused around from sight to sight to sight. We had this INSANE guide, whose name I didn't catch and who Missy was certain was giving himself an ulcer. The whole tour seemed completely stressful for him and was totally rushed. We had about 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there and then hopping back on the bus. Then taking our shoes off and running through a temple then he would yell out "Please, c'mon, hurry" or "Quick, quick!" It was actually totally annoying. We saw a lot of things, but really didn't get a good feel of the majority of them. And honestly, some of them I would have rather not seen at all. We did get to go to one of Mother Teresa's hospices, which was interesting, but would have been better had we had time there to talk to some of the sisters and see a bit more of the building. I think by the end everyone was pretty much over the guide and wanted to be rid of him, I know that's how we felt. (M: Literally, he got on the mic on the bus to yell at people for not having a "smart journey" because they were taking pictures. He would appear at temple entrances and say, "C'mon. Now! C'mon." And Jessie and I definitely missed some of his explanations of things. Plus, I am sure that he has an ulcer.)

There was a particularly cute moment when these two older Indian women asked to get their picture taken with us. We were totally amused and of course couldn't say no, plus they were in their beautiful sarees. Too cute! Also there was the cutest little 4-month old on the tour (see the photo if you don't believe me).

In a couple of hours we are hopping on a night train for Darjeeling. Hopefully escaping the heat, we gleckel on.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

A Tale of Two Rickshaws	Colorful Laundry	Daily Exercise	Herding the Goats Near the Park
Into the River for Spiritual Cleansing	Our Guide and Group Members	She Stole Our Hearts	Victoria Memorial
Which is More Frightening?	World's Most Giant Guy

Slideshow Print this entry Share Mumbai (Bombay) hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry