Finally, it's Goodbye
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
254
451
Trip End
Ongoing
Kolkata,
India
Friday, April 7, 2006
After breakfast, we made our way to the Bangladeshi High Commission. After many wrong directions given to us, we arrived later than we were meant to. We filled out the forms, but before we could hand them in, they closed the doors early. We tried to complain, but our words fell on deaf ears !!! So we had a walk around Kolkata instead. It was quite a clean place, hardly any dogs, no cows, loads of goats and not to many beggars. But I was still suffering. It was hot, it was humid, and it was effecting me. Realistically, I shouldn't be here, in fact I really don't want to be here, but I don't want to be in Australia either, so I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Later on, Lucy died early as she was suffering from jet lag, so that killed the first day.
We had an earlier breakfast as we didn't want to miss out again. As our forms were filled out, we dropped them off. Lucy was given a receipt but I was not. Now according to the sign on the wall, if your forms are filled in, you come back tomorrow and pick up your passport, but we were told to come back in two days time for an interview !!! We asked at another window, and the guy was a complete fuckwit. As we were going around in circles, I said " fuck this, your a fucking idiot and I am going to find someone with some brains !!!" Whilst speaking to someone else, Lucy came and told me that I shouldn't have said that as the guy behind translated it and said I had called him a dishonourable idiot !!! So we left, and would have to wait till Thursday to accept the consequences. Instead, we went for a walk to see the Victoria Memorial. Built out of marble, finished in 1924 and built for Queen Vicky. We walked around, taking in the galleries and the paintings. It was pretty impressive. By the time we had finished, I was fucked, so we sat on a seat. After about ten minutes, I was tapped on the shoulder. I was about to yell abuse, when I looked up and saw that it was a French guy called Laurent and his Pommie girlfriend Freeda. We had had Christmas dinner with them in the Kat. It was amazing to see them after all that had happened recently. We sat there telling our stories and decided to meet up later to continue the tales. We walked around some more, having a quick look at the Observatory. But we were to late to do a tour. We had dinner and then decided to meet up the next day as we wanted to go a temple that sacrificed goats.
After breakfast, we hopped on the Metro and made our way to Kalighat. Once there, we watched a guy skin and cut up a goat, but we were here to see the sacrifice of one, so we hung around and waited. Ten minutes later, two goats were washed with water, a flower collar was placed around each one, which they both proceeded to eat each others, then another washing with Bagpiper whiskey. Then the first one was led over to a wooden thing, its head was placed between two slats, it was locked in so that it couldn't move, then the executioner chopped its head straight off with one swift blow. Its body ran around like a headless chicken and then just twitched. The mouth and eyes were opening and closing. It was horrific but you could not move away as we were so mesmerised. The second one was done as well, which by this stage, we were quite used to seeing a goats head chopped off !!! The only downer about it all was that we were not allowed to take any photos, and we couldn't even do a few sneakys for good measure !!! Two goats were enough, so we went next door to Mother Theresa's house. As soon as we walked in, all of our jaws hit the floor. There were people lying down on beds dying. I kid you not. Now this was worse than the goat episode we had seen five minutes before. We walked around, taking in as much as you can when you are looking at people dying, and it didn't take to long before it was time to leave. Fuck me, it was a heavy scene, so we found the metro and went back to the city. Unlike Iran, the metro here is not air-conditioned. I really feel they could learn something there. As long as they don't take after the Poms, where the heating is turned on in the summer and air-conditioning on in the winter !!!
The following morning, we headed back to the Bangladeshi High Commission. We were taken in straight away for our interview. We were asked about our jobs and lives and how long we had been married. Ten years is always a good figure to quote, so when we were asked about children, we told him that as much as we try, we have not been blessed as yet. I did want to tell him that I reckon I shoot blanks, but Lucy wouldn't let me !!! The High Commissioner said he would pray to Allah to bless us with a child !!! We thanked him profusely, paid our money and said we would be back for afternoon tea the following day when we come to pick up our passports. He said he couldn't wait, so we left him as the next lot of tourists came in through the door.
As we walked back through the city, we eventually arrived at a Cathedral. It was called St Pauls, but it looked more like a white version of Westminster Abbey. We had a look around, ignoring the do not take photos sign, and generally being a bad tourist. As I looked around, a marble memorial attracted my eye, especially one line. Beloved by natives and Europeans Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence. It made me think about the natives and if they still hold us British with high esteem, or do they see us as a big walking wallet and it is their job to depart us of all the cash !!!
Sometimes,it just does not pay to get out of bed. Whilst in Australia, my former employer, BT, had chased me up for a new role, paying slightly more, and it was a better position. I was offered a day rate, I accepted it. Maybe the Hep E was effecting me, don't really know, but I asked for the rate in an email, and amazingly, it had gone down by 22GBP p/d. So I said no to the job. Then a prickshaw nearly ran me down, so I hit the driver. Then a taxi nearly did the same !!! We had a quick look at a Jain temple and then went to the High Commission and it was a shitfight. Lucy went in a side door, and we discovered that the High Commissioner was holding our passports. He said that he had granted our visas as we were kind and gentle people (obviously knows me well !!!), and that he had been praying to Allah, so that we could have a child !!! We left, met up with Freeda and Laurant and watched a show at the Observatory. It was ok, but hard to understand as the accent was quite heavy from the lady who was presenting the show.
So that was India. It was hard to come back after being sick, but I had some alright times in the week we have been here. India as a country has so many sites to see, but it is also the hardest country I have ever travelled in. It is a real head fuck, but I have also seen six fingered men, (a case of inbredsville maybe !!!), five legged cows, you name it, India has it. Would we come back here, well we have thought about it, but we won't be at present, but who knows what tomorrow brings. Well, we do, because tomorrow, we are off to Bangladesh.
