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Arrival in Kolkata
Even in the internet cafe, one cannot escape the sound of traffic -- noisy vehicles, honking horns, near collisions... funny thing is, the racket is coming from a computer game instead of the street.
We arrived last night after almost 30 hours of travel and are easing our way into India (and our adventure as a whole, for that matter). When I say 'ease', I mean that we actually had a room reserved and even transport from the airport arranged. Stepping from the shabby airport into the muggy Kolkata night, we were greeted by a friendly face and placard displaying our name.
The air is thick here. Thick with the smell of diesel, plumes of smoke, pollution, and mosquitos. we had to wade through them to get to the car. Benjamin, who was non-commital about taking anti-malaria pills before arriving, has changed his mind.
The ride to our hotel, an eccentric place called the Fairlawn, was an adventure to say the least. The streets are clogged with vehicles of all sorts, from wooden carts drawn by bicycle to rickshaws, ancient cars, new cars, and busses packed from seam to seam. The 'signage' painted onto the back of the busses say everything that needs to be said about the traffic here: "Danger" and "Honk Your Horn". There seem to be few other rules, except that when traffic comes to a dead halt, turn the vehicle off and wait patiently. These sort of stops happen often and can last a few minutes to an hour or more from what I've read. Luckily, the longest we had to wait was less than 10 minutes.
Today, our first full day, we did some walking, visted a cemetary (the only place to find tranquility in this city is with the dead), and spent much of the day napping --probably a mistake to comply with the fatigue that comes with jet lag. I hope we are able to sleep tonight after that 5 hour nap! Tomorrow we shall find a new guesthouse (one that is much cheaper than the Fairlawn) and look into train tickets to Darjeeling.
We arrived last night after almost 30 hours of travel and are easing our way into India (and our adventure as a whole, for that matter). When I say 'ease', I mean that we actually had a room reserved and even transport from the airport arranged. Stepping from the shabby airport into the muggy Kolkata night, we were greeted by a friendly face and placard displaying our name.
The air is thick here. Thick with the smell of diesel, plumes of smoke, pollution, and mosquitos. we had to wade through them to get to the car. Benjamin, who was non-commital about taking anti-malaria pills before arriving, has changed his mind.
The ride to our hotel, an eccentric place called the Fairlawn, was an adventure to say the least. The streets are clogged with vehicles of all sorts, from wooden carts drawn by bicycle to rickshaws, ancient cars, new cars, and busses packed from seam to seam. The 'signage' painted onto the back of the busses say everything that needs to be said about the traffic here: "Danger" and "Honk Your Horn". There seem to be few other rules, except that when traffic comes to a dead halt, turn the vehicle off and wait patiently. These sort of stops happen often and can last a few minutes to an hour or more from what I've read. Luckily, the longest we had to wait was less than 10 minutes.
Today, our first full day, we did some walking, visted a cemetary (the only place to find tranquility in this city is with the dead), and spent much of the day napping --probably a mistake to comply with the fatigue that comes with jet lag. I hope we are able to sleep tonight after that 5 hour nap! Tomorrow we shall find a new guesthouse (one that is much cheaper than the Fairlawn) and look into train tickets to Darjeeling.
posted by Cheryn at 10:19 PM
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