A taste of Bengal

After our trek we took advantage of the welcoming atmosphere of the Dekeling Guesthouse. The weather had become more foggy during the mornings so we were glad of the incredible sunrises and sets we had enjoyed on our walk along the Singalia Range. Darjeeling was so relaxed that we could have stayed forever but instead we spent 5 more days in the town. It felt a real luxury to have time to wander around the town, read our books, plan our next stages of the journey and catch up on our blogging. We also took time to visit a tea plantation (although the factory was closed as we were out of harvesting season) as well as the local zoo with the biggest collection of red pandas and the Himalayan Trekking Institute set up by Darjeeling's most famous son - Tenzing Norgay the first man to climb Everest with Sir Ed Hillary. Probably the most interesting visit was to the Tibetan Refuge Centre, set up over 40 years ago as a haven for refugees fleeing the Chinese. There were 200 people living there and working to produce goods to sell. Guy ended up buying a shirt and I got a beautiful yak's wool scarf that will be perfect in cold English winters but not so useful where we were headed...

We had decided to move on to Kolkata and spend 5 days there before flying down to the Bay of Bengal to Hebron Children's Home. We had heard a lot about Kolkata from Jo and Rob and of course Rita and Boni who had married there only 2 years before. We were also interested in the history of the city as the old British Raj capital. So we booked our ticket and set off. We were travelling by train from Silliguri train staion which was an experience in itself! The place was packed with people and many of whom were carrying enormous packs of food and produce to sell, on their heads. The train announcements were non-existent and there was nothing telling us which train or platform we needed. So in the absence of a train guard to ask we found a family who were travelling to Kolkata too and lurked near them. As soon as they set off we followed hot on their heels! The mad rush for the train and seats was incredible. There was this mass bundle as people got on and off and were literallu wrestling for seats. You can imagine that with our big back pack we weren't very popular and were clogging up the aisle! When we found our seat several people tried to help us settle in which was kind, but in the process a woman was kicked out of her seat to give us more room. We tried to protest and call her back but with no joy and subequently worried about her for the rest of the trip. We were travelling in 2nd class which meant benches with cushions but not much leg room. The journey was to take 10 hours but a broken engine 30 minutes into the trip meant in all it took 14 hour. Our bums were a bit sore and although we had lots of water on us, we didn't drink any as we were trying to avoid using the train loo! The only food we had was some crisps and a packet of biscuits we I had to ration to 1 each every 2 hours so that we didn't go too hungry! As you can imagine, when our train finally pulled into Kolkata at half passed midnight we were grateful to get off. We would have paid the taxi any price he asked by this point! We had fortunately booked ahead so arrived at the Sunflower Guesthouse only to find it all locked up, meaning we had to wake up the sleeping night guards and get them to let us in. Our room was clean but very basic but enough for us and we fell into bed!

Everything we had heard about Kolkata involved busy streets, terrible noise and dangerous traffic, so imagine our surprise the next morning when we woke to silence apart from a brass band! It was Republic Day and so everyone had the day off - meaning that one of India's busiest cities was uncannily quiet! After a much needed coffee and breakfast on Park Street, we took a stroll down to the Maidan and found pretty much most of Kolkata's residents - playing cricket, having picnics and riding on ponies. We were certainly a novelty and I was attracting an uncomfortable amount on male attention despite being modestly dressed - especially a group of teenage boys who were clearly shouting all sorts of Bengali inuendoes at me! Down by Victoria Memorial were even more locals enjoying the national holiday as well as the usual touts, performing monkeys and auto drivers. But we didn't feel as much of the hard sell that we'd had in Delhi and, stares aside, we felt we could walk around the city with a lot less hassle. As the day was so quiet, we walked back to find Sudder Street (where most backpackers congregate) and had a Thali lunch before looking around New Market where Guy bought some trousers and shirts that would be good for the orphanage. As we walked back to our guesthouse we spotted an opticians and - in an uncahracteristc act of spontaneity - Guy went in and ordered some new glasses! The day would have been a great introduction to the city, had it not finished with an unpleasant experience in an internet cafe. Let's just say that the man on the neighbouring computer was getting a bit too much pleasure from the world wide web!

The next morning we got up intending to head over to the Botantic gardens to see the world's largest Banyan tree but none of the taxi drivers we hailed could understand what we were saying so we gave up and visited the India Museum instead. It was a curious mixture of display. The paleantology section had some of the rarest fossils including that of the Rajasaurous dinosaur (no joke) that was found only living in India. The exhibit on rocks and minerals consisted of over 50 cases full of...well...rocks! Upstairs we took a look around the zoology display but the stuffed animals looked like they had seen a lot better days and were pretty moth eaten and unrecognisable. The archeology exhibit was the most interesting - lots of Hindu statues and examples of Khmer art that we knew from Cambodia and Ankor Wat. There were plenty of Indian visitors which was encouraging but they seemed to enjoy being at the museum rather than taking in what was on display. After a lunch at the Blue Sky Cafe on Sudder Street we set of to find the CIMA (Calcutta International Museum of Art). Typically it was further away than we thought and the streets were pretty confusing so we ended up having to ask some passers by for directions. The great thing about people in Kolkata is that they would gladly give you time to help. Our saviour was a little man called Babu who, when he overheard us talking to a policeman, took it upon himself to not only give us direction but escort us there personally and then spend 30 minutes telling us all the best places to visit in Northern India. We finally parted company with his home number and instructions to call him tomorrow - but that if a lady answered the phone that would be his mum! (He was over 40!). The gallery was small and the exhibition was being taken down as we looked around, but it was encouraging that modern art was starting to play a greater role in the city's cultural heritage. Rather than risk getting lost again we grabbed a taxi back to Park Street for an evening beer and dinner.

On the Wednesday we had booked an authentic cookery course through a local tour company, that took place actually in the home of Bengali lady. We met our guide David who was to take us to Bandana's home. The company David owned specialised in authentic and 'alternati've Kolkata experiences and as we arrived at Bandana's flat we realised how different it would be from our cooking experience in Chaing Mai. She was a local teacher at a convent school in her fifties and a friend of David's. She invited us in and we spent the first hour chatting about England and Kolkata. When we did get around to cooking it was in her little kitchen which was basic but immaculate. She made us 5 dishes: a cauliflower korma, a chicken masala, sweet tomato chutney, fried eggplant and roti. We got to ask her questions about the cooking but also her life. It turns out she studied English and Botany in UP and came to Kolkata when she was married so while she wasn't born a Bengali she regarded herself one, through and through. Her husband had only died last year and she had started doing the cookery courses to help make some money while he was ill but had continued as a way to meet people. Once the food was prepared we sat and ate and it was delicious but enough food for 5 so we quickly got full, especially as Bandana herself wasn't eating! As we left, we made a promise to email her as soon as we had cooked the meals and tell her what it was like. Thanks to David's help, we made our way back to our guesthouse via autos and the metro and didn't need to eat again that evening.

The next day, we had given up on trying to find this giant banyan tree and walked back through the Maidan to the Victoria Memorial. It was naturally a lot quieter than Republic Day but still full of life - from herdsman grazing their goats, to young men playing cricket, to hawks scavenging for scraps. On the paths, there were some local soldiers practicing drills and a few Ambassador cars parked under nearby trees. The VM itself is a fantastic looking building, especially veiled in the morning haze. Inside there were some interesting black and white photography of the city under the British and an excellent exhibit on Kolkata's history since it was 'discovered' by the East India Trading Company. We spent a good few hours learning a little more about this hectic but personable city. That evening, we booked tickets for Slumdog Millionaire. The media reporting of the film had been mixed in India. On one hand there was great national pride for an 'Indian' film doing so well at the Golden Globes and in the runnning for so many Oscars but at the same time it was receiving huge criticism for its 'unfair' portrayal of the slums, the police and mafia culture. The film itself was incredible and deserves all the recognition it gets. The portrayal of the children, the slums and the dangers they face were, we were soon to discover at the orphanage, all too real. The most entertaining part for us though was the audience interaction. Unlike British cinema audiences, the Indian audience was cheering for the heroes, booing the baddies and whooping with excitement the rest of the time. A group of lads in front of us kept turning around to Guy to ask him if he was enjoying it! Of all the film reviews we read, one made us laugh the most. The main criticism was that Danny Boyle rattled through the story in an 'efficient 2 hours' (most Bollywood films are at least 3 so I think they felt a cheated out of an hours worth of story!).

For our last day in Kolkata, we had arranged an alternative walking tour with David (our guide from the cookery course). He met us at 10am and we started through the streets around the Government buildings up to the Writers' Building, while talking about the history and Indian culture. He was fascinating and after living on and off in India for 30 years and Kolkata for 11, had amazing insight and knowledge. He then took us through the streets of the Big Bazzar where all the wholesalers do business. We would never have ventured there had we not been with him but it was an incredible experience. Just watching the porters carrying unbelievably heavy loads on their heads, to money changing hands and panner (cheese) being made on the streets. The most amazing sight however, was the flower market near the Howrah bridge. Thousands of traders were gathered creating a buzzing, vibrant mass of people and flowers. It was literally breathtaking and unlike anything we'd seen. We crossed the busy bridge and caught a ferry on the other side to Sutanuti - a suburb of the city. It was the festival of Sheraswati so the town was filled with hundreds of statues of the goddess which was an incredible sight. Men were carefully carrying them on the back of carts and autos ready for that evening's celebrations. As we came to the end of our walk, we took David for a thank you beer at a rather dubious kareoke bar / brothel that was another slice of Kolkata life (he assured us!). We finished the day running errands for our trip to the orphanage - buying enough books for a month, picking up Guy's new glasses and stocking up on loo roll...just in case. Tomorrow we were off to Hebron and couldn't wait!