First 24 hours in Kolkata
January 7th, 2012 § 1 Comment
After around eight hours of flying from Hong Kong through Singapore to Kolkata, I landed at the Chandra Bose International Airport at 9 pm. The familiar scene of military police patrolling the arrival zone with their AK-47s was oddly comforting as rowdy passengers from my flight jostled for spots in the queue to get through immigration. When I finally collected my bags, I took a pre-paid taxi, which was a tad bit more expensive but was probably a good idea as I was too exhausted to haggle with the swarm of drivers waiting to ambush you as you stepped out of the airport, to the Dee Empresa Hotel. Having stayed here last time, the familiar faces of the hotel staff helped make me feel almost at home in this bustling city, although the orchestral rendition of “Bad Romance” playing in the newly renovated lobby was slightly off-putting.
You can’t walk down a block without being hustled once by beggars or people trying to sell you stuff, as I found out this morning when I stepped out of the hotel to explore the neighborhood. But this could be my fault for picking a hotel in the tourist area. Interestingly though, the knowledge of international affairs or foreign cultures of your average hustler here is pretty high (or maybe I’ve just been in America for too long). One hustler commented on the increasing amount of military exchanges between the Chinese and Indian militaries, while another talked about his dream of going to Shenzhen and becoming a mahjong champion.
After dodging what must’ve been hundreds of honking cars (I’ve lost track on how many times I’ve almost been run over today), I arrived at India’s largest museum — the Indian Museum. A cross between a natural history museum and an art museum, the museum housed a great collection of man-made and natural artifacts, but lacked the funds to house them properly. Still, the museum had a rustic charm to it and I would’ve enjoyed myself a lot more had a con-artist claiming to be a fellow traveler not follow me around the whole time and offer to take me to the Kalighat Temple for free. It’s sad though that your default reaction to people reaching out in these situations should be one of suspicion.
Baked fish and coffee with cream at the Indian Coffee House. Total cost = less than $2 USD.
I then headed over to the (no-so) New Market and had a light lunch of mutton momos (Chinese influenced dumplings) and masala chat (a blend of spices, potatos and fried crispy things) from the food stalls on the surrounding streets. When I finished browsing the shops in the market, I headed to the Esplanade Metro station (Kolkata has India’s only subway system) and took it up to Central Station to find College Street, a street near many of Kolkata’s universities, such as Calcutta University and Presidency University (Amartya Sen’s alma mater) that sold textbooks, mostly catered to the fields of engineering and computer science. After looking around the street, I headed to the Indian Coffee House, a historic meeting place for conspirators against the British Raj, where I had an afternoon cup of coffee and a spicy dish of baked fish. Making my way through the nightmarishly crowded streets, I managed to hail a cab that was willing to take me back to my hotel for dinner.
So here I am, after my first 24 hours, still in one piece. I’m planning on using this weekend to get myself acclimated to Kolkata and do some touristy things that I didn’t get to do the last time I was he. I’ll start volunteering on Monday when I’ll head over to Mother House to get myself registered to work. I’ll head over to Gangtok, Sikkim next week to check out the snowy northeastern mountainside. I’m going to try and keep myself disconnected throughout this trip apart from these irregular updates. Too bad I can’t connect my SD card to my iPad, I would love to start sharing some of these pictures I’m taking. Oh well.
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