Kolkata; the good, the bad and the ugly
5th-7th October 2010
We left Vijayawada at 6:40 am on the 4th of October on an overnight train to Kolkata. On route we passed by beautiful views of green palms, mountains and rice paddies, however we received rather a shock when we pulled into one of the small stations on route. Out of the window I saw a man lying across the tracks. I have seen people sleeping everywhere in stations, but I thought this had to be the craziest place yet. I looked closer and to my horror saw that he was in a sleep he would never awake from. I've never seen a dead body before and I was quite shocked. The strangest thing was that we were in a station and no-one seemed to be paying any attention to him. It was as if he was an animal road kill left on the verge.
At 4 am the following morning we arrived in Kolkata disappointingly on time. Guessing that not much would be open or happening at that time Aaron suggested we hang out at the station for a couple of hours. Too exhausted to think of anything else I sat on a chair and snoozed with my head on my bag. At one point a guy asked to take his photo with us. He tried to rouse one of the comatosed pilgrims nest to us, but to no avail. Instead he just had to stretch out his own arm as far as it would go to capture that memorable moment with two groggy westerners on platform 23.
Assuming that about 7 am was a more reasonable time to arrive at a hotel we showed up there just to be told by security to wait half an hour. An hour and an half later a sleepy receptionist told us that all the rooms were full, we could leave our bags in the waiting room and come back after midday. I was frustrated that no-one had been able to tell us that earlier, but waiting in an air conditioned room with free newspapers had not been the worst way to spend the early part of a morning and besides that I was too tired to complain.
We set out on the lonely planet advised tour and searched for the museum. Our hotel was in a maze of small alleyways. Every-time we left the building we got lost, even our taxi driver from that station had needed to stop and ask for directions several times. In the back alleyways we saw groups of people washing by taps in the street. I was saddened that these people didn't have their own bathrooms, however I also admired their perseverance for cleanliness. When we reached the main street we saw many vendors preparing their stalls for the day. I don't enjoy bargaining with street vendors and am always suspicious of the prices they set and the quality of the items they sell, so it was really heart-warming to see the care they put into setting up their stalls. Men were polishing or dusting their wares and positioning them precisely on the table. I saw someone sweeping the street in front of his stand.
We planned to see the museum first, then walk down to the Victoria memorial, planetarium and art gallery and catch a train back. When we arrived at the museum we found it hadn't opened yet, so we reversed the tour and started with the Victoria memorial. The Victoria memorial is a beautiful, ornate, white marble building, comparable to the Taj-Mahal. I think it's only less famous due to it originally being dedicated to a British monarch, even though it was completed after India gained independence. We strolled around the gardens and admired the reflecting pools which mirrored the elegant building, surrounded by leafy greenery, below a blue sky filled with puffy clouds.
After wandering the gardens for a while we explored the surrounding area and soon discovered why the guidebook suggested touring this place in the afternoon. The first English show at the planetarium was in the afternoon, the art gallery was closed in the morning and just as we arrived at the church it was closed for lunch! We did get to see the imposing exterior to the church which was stark white and towered above us in an ethereal manor.
When we returned to the part of town where the museum is it began to rain. We were beginning to tire from our early start and since our experience of Indian cinema has generally been more entertaining than museums we headed for the movies. There was nothing showing in English so we purchased tickets for a Tamil movie Robot, because it had an intriguing advert. The movie was awesome as you'll soon learn in Aaron's next blog.
On our way back to the hotel we got lost again in the criss-cross of alleys. I found the dark streets quite intimidating particularly when we walked past a butchers shop with large carcasses hanging in an open window. I have really enjoyed the vegetarian culture throughout a lot of India. Most restaurants are vegetarian only or serve as many 'veg' dishes as 'non-veg' dishes. Even the name of those categories implied to me that 'veg' was the norm and meat eaters were the exception, which was an enjoyable change. It surprised me when the following day we accidentally walked down chicken alley. Baskets of chickens were everywhere. I saw a man cycle by with hundreds of chickens hanging all over his bike. They dangled upside-down gathered together by string around their claws. They weren't moving and I assumed they were dead, until to my disgust when he went past I heard some of them clucking.
The following day we caught up on shopping, internet surfing and house chores, before jetting off to Bangkok the day after that. Given that we heard Kolkata was India's second largest city we were surprised by how small the airport was, it had only four gates. As the plane lifted into the sky we were excited in anticipation of exploring Thailand and the rest of south-east Asia.
We left Vijayawada at 6:40 am on the 4th of October on an overnight train to Kolkata. On route we passed by beautiful views of green palms, mountains and rice paddies, however we received rather a shock when we pulled into one of the small stations on route. Out of the window I saw a man lying across the tracks. I have seen people sleeping everywhere in stations, but I thought this had to be the craziest place yet. I looked closer and to my horror saw that he was in a sleep he would never awake from. I've never seen a dead body before and I was quite shocked. The strangest thing was that we were in a station and no-one seemed to be paying any attention to him. It was as if he was an animal road kill left on the verge.
At 4 am the following morning we arrived in Kolkata disappointingly on time. Guessing that not much would be open or happening at that time Aaron suggested we hang out at the station for a couple of hours. Too exhausted to think of anything else I sat on a chair and snoozed with my head on my bag. At one point a guy asked to take his photo with us. He tried to rouse one of the comatosed pilgrims nest to us, but to no avail. Instead he just had to stretch out his own arm as far as it would go to capture that memorable moment with two groggy westerners on platform 23.
Assuming that about 7 am was a more reasonable time to arrive at a hotel we showed up there just to be told by security to wait half an hour. An hour and an half later a sleepy receptionist told us that all the rooms were full, we could leave our bags in the waiting room and come back after midday. I was frustrated that no-one had been able to tell us that earlier, but waiting in an air conditioned room with free newspapers had not been the worst way to spend the early part of a morning and besides that I was too tired to complain.We set out on the lonely planet advised tour and searched for the museum. Our hotel was in a maze of small alleyways. Every-time we left the building we got lost, even our taxi driver from that station had needed to stop and ask for directions several times. In the back alleyways we saw groups of people washing by taps in the street. I was saddened that these people didn't have their own bathrooms, however I also admired their perseverance for cleanliness. When we reached the main street we saw many vendors preparing their stalls for the day. I don't enjoy bargaining with street vendors and am always suspicious of the prices they set and the quality of the items they sell, so it was really heart-warming to see the care they put into setting up their stalls. Men were polishing or dusting their wares and positioning them precisely on the table. I saw someone sweeping the street in front of his stand.
We planned to see the museum first, then walk down to the Victoria memorial, planetarium and art gallery and catch a train back. When we arrived at the museum we found it hadn't opened yet, so we reversed the tour and started with the Victoria memorial. The Victoria memorial is a beautiful, ornate, white marble building, comparable to the Taj-Mahal. I think it's only less famous due to it originally being dedicated to a British monarch, even though it was completed after India gained independence. We strolled around the gardens and admired the reflecting pools which mirrored the elegant building, surrounded by leafy greenery, below a blue sky filled with puffy clouds.
After wandering the gardens for a while we explored the surrounding area and soon discovered why the guidebook suggested touring this place in the afternoon. The first English show at the planetarium was in the afternoon, the art gallery was closed in the morning and just as we arrived at the church it was closed for lunch! We did get to see the imposing exterior to the church which was stark white and towered above us in an ethereal manor.
When we returned to the part of town where the museum is it began to rain. We were beginning to tire from our early start and since our experience of Indian cinema has generally been more entertaining than museums we headed for the movies. There was nothing showing in English so we purchased tickets for a Tamil movie Robot, because it had an intriguing advert. The movie was awesome as you'll soon learn in Aaron's next blog.
On our way back to the hotel we got lost again in the criss-cross of alleys. I found the dark streets quite intimidating particularly when we walked past a butchers shop with large carcasses hanging in an open window. I have really enjoyed the vegetarian culture throughout a lot of India. Most restaurants are vegetarian only or serve as many 'veg' dishes as 'non-veg' dishes. Even the name of those categories implied to me that 'veg' was the norm and meat eaters were the exception, which was an enjoyable change. It surprised me when the following day we accidentally walked down chicken alley. Baskets of chickens were everywhere. I saw a man cycle by with hundreds of chickens hanging all over his bike. They dangled upside-down gathered together by string around their claws. They weren't moving and I assumed they were dead, until to my disgust when he went past I heard some of them clucking.
The following day we caught up on shopping, internet surfing and house chores, before jetting off to Bangkok the day after that. Given that we heard Kolkata was India's second largest city we were surprised by how small the airport was, it had only four gates. As the plane lifted into the sky we were excited in anticipation of exploring Thailand and the rest of south-east Asia.
Comments
Yes, we were suprised how late the hotel and museum were open. Most Indians seem to be up eary, around 6am.