After a hair-raising, armrest-clutching drive down the mountain from Darjeeling, we flew to Kolkata, our next destination. Kolkata used to be called Calcutta, and was the capital of the British Empire in India until 1911. It is regarded as the cultural capital of India and is often called the 'City of Joy'. It is also one of the most populated cities in the world with over 14.7 million people, and one of the poorest.
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| Suburban street near our hotel in Swiss Park, Kolkata |
We arrived at our hotel, the Bodhi Tree, which is in the suburban residential area of Swiss Park, Kolkata. While it’s not near restaurants or key sights, it did give us a small peek at suburban living in Kolkata, as opposed to being in the bigness of the city centre.
But we were definitely the only firangi (white foreigners) in Swiss Park.
Initially we were disappointed with the hotel, as our room didn’t match what we had booked. However, after speaking with the owner, it was changed.
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| Family near the metro |
When our train to Kolkata arrived, it was super-crowded, with hundreds more people trying to board at the same time as us (it felt like the total population of 14.7 million was there!).
So we were sort of ‘carried’ onto the train in a massive crush. Leigh wasn’t sure whether her feet touched the ground as she boarded! Efficient air-con and a pole to cling to, were our saviours. You learn to ignore the crush of bodies as you swing and sway as one congealed mass.
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| Area when getting off the metro |
We did get off at Park Street, and found a most amazing Thali restaurant. Thali is a traditional Rajasthan way of cooking with various curries and pickles, special breads, and desserts, all in little dishes on a large platter. It was absolutely delicious!
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| Colonial architecture of the India Museum |
After lunch, we walked up the road to the fascinating Indian Museum. It houses a huge collection of varied displays, and is located in a grand old colonial building that has definitely seen better days. It was impressive nonetheless.
The Museum was founded in 1814 and is the largest multi-purpose museum in the Asia-Pacific region. As this museum developed, it fostered the development of 400 further museums throughout India. That's a pretty impressive achievement.
Then we walked to and through the huge park called the Maidan, and at the other end of it, we visited the Victoria Memorial Museum.
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| The imposing Victorian Memorial Museum |
This is a very imposing building, containing a vast collection of exhibits from the time of British colonisation and earlier. Again, as far as we could see, we were the only firangis in the large crowd of Indian families there.
Next, we caught a taxi to Fort William, known for the infamous 'Black Hole of Calcutta' (a jail). Unfortunately, we couldn't get in as it's now an Army base and not open to the general public without a pass.
In the end, we wandered the streets for several very hot but interesting hours, getting up into the central and northern parts of the city. It was fascinating.
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| Once grand architecture-now terrible living conditions |
We noticed that the streets were very dusty with lots of rubbish; buildings once grand, were now ramshackle; and the people appeared to be very poor, especially in the northern parts of the city.
Overall, conditions were squalid. But, the colours, smells, architecture and dirt were memorable.
The next day, we metro'd back into the centre again, but this time, on a slightly less crowded train as it was Sunday. Then we wandered through narrow streets in areas we had missed the day before.
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| An endless supply of street vendors and vegetables |
Near the port area, we came across a street lined with people selling absolutely every vegetable you can imagine. Their produce was laid out on cloths on the pavement. The place buzzed, with plenty of bargaining and lots of colour.
As we walked around the day was becoming much hotter, and the streets and buildings seemed much dirtier.
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| Huge spring festival procession |
There seemed to be hundreds of people participating, all dressed in saffron and yellow. It was like watching an endless and undulating wave of gold. Then we learned that it is the Basanta Utsav (Spring festival), as today is the 1st of March, which is the traditional day for the festival.
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| Millennium Park alongside the Hooghly River, Kolkata |
An hour or so later of walking the dire, dusty and hot streets of Kolkata, we found our way to a cooler area alongside the Hooghly River. Once there, we discovered a very lovely and shaded walkway area called Millennium Park.
Then we saw the Basanta Utsav procession again, crossing the famous Howrah Bridge which spans the Hooghly. It was a distant view that looked like a yellowy wave spanning the bridge. Participants would have walked 5 or 6 km in the heat to get there - whew!
Millennium Park was much cleaner than the streets, so we stopped there to eat our picnic lunch.
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| Kolkata transport |
As we sat there enjoying the shade and river breezes, we noticed a very diverse range of boats moving up and down the Hooghly River.
Kolkata has a wide range of transport styles, including oxen, trams, ferries, buses, cars, bikes, tuktuks and of course, taxis. The taxis are mostly old yellow, or slightly better white ones - all are cheap to hire, but dirty inside.
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| Transport by foot |
The other main form of transport is by foot, and we saw so many men and women walking around with trays of goods, or huge parcels balanced on their head.
Leaving there, we found the Mallick ghat flower market. This is apparently the largest flower market in Asia and is over 160 years old.
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| Mallick ghat flower market |
It was noisy, and so very colourful, with millions of orange marigold chains, yellow sunflowers, pink lotus flowers, red roses, and much more.
We watched, fascinated by the sights and hustle and bustle, before moving on.
In our wanderings, we saw cows standing in the middle of the street on red carpet; men and boys bathing and doing washing in the street at one of the street-taps that are available for public use; several beautiful buildings beside run-down ones that people still live in, and much more.
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| Tent town in Kolkata |
Then we passed an area with dozens of lean-tos built up against a huge brick wall. It was one of many slums that house the poverty-stricken people of Kolkata.
After a very long but interesting day, we headed back to our hotel.
Overall, we found Kolkata big and dirty, and quite a hard city to walk and get around as foreigners, but oh so interesting. Surprisingly though, it did not seem as smoggy as Delhi or Varanasi.
After 4 days in Kolkata, it's time to move on. Our next stop will be Chennai, in southern India.
The above blog is part of our 2-month tour of India. The first blog on this tour is called "Off to Delhi".