We arrived in Kolkata after a long afternoon on a bus … which
actually turned out to be a good place to be when we hit a big, loud
thunderstorm! One of the first things I noticed about Kolkata was how
modern it seemed in comparison to Bangladesh, how well maintained the
roads and general infrastructure were, but the most outstanding thing –
how many of those old-school yellow cabs there were! Everywhere!
We
were roped into staying a hotel when we arrived, but it was cheap,
suitable and near to everything. As we had no information about the
city, we proceeded to cruise to the nearest bookshop we could find and
buy a map.
Our second task in Kolkata: to get some
money! So off we went exploring, trying to find an ATM that would accept
our cards. Once that task was done, we’d oriented ourselves to our
general area, so it had taken a while. We were staying near a big old
building called the Dutch Tower. It was built in the middle of a large
open square; the inside of the building was a market selling all sorts
of interesting Indian and non-Indian items, and the surrounding streets
sold all sorts of touristy crap. I would have liked to have a general
browse inside, but for all the official touts hassling you as soon as
you got anywhere near the square. It was really frustrating and they
were REALLY persistent, so we just pissed off outta there and cruised
around the surrounding streets to hunt down some of that delicious
Indian food, check out some of the little shops and get oriented. And
then we were done for the day.
Using our fancy-pants
(but in the end, shitty) map, we decided on all the landmarks we wanted
to see. We were planning on actually seeing some of them this time(!),
but in the end everything was a lot further apart than we realised, so
we just ended up wandering around and getting to know the place. And as
you’ll read, we spent a lot of time getting lost. We hated that map by
the end!
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