Arlene's Blog

Sunday, April 16, 2006

In Calcutta

I an enroute from home to Sikkim with half of the members of my trekking group. Due to big head winds the plane didn't make it to Hong Kong and we stopped for refueling in Tapei which made the trip 16 hours. Not so fun, but survivable. After flights to Bangkok and Calcutta, I am on line with some difficulty in the lobby of my hotel They had broadband and I had to change the IP address numbers , but it finally worked.

Calcutta is much less crowded and more orderly and prosperous than I remember it to be. After our arrival some 26 hours after we had left home, we visited a georous Sikh temple. The young women were dressed in their finest Aris to attract attention from the young men. Then we strolled by the river and admired the amazing Calcutta bridge. Unlike my memoires of northern India, no one hassled us at all, maybe becuase Caltutta or Kolkota, as it is now known, is not a major tourist destination.

Struggling to stay awake and avoid jet lag we went our to the best Indian dinner I have ever had at a place called "Grain of Salt." The velgetarian grill was the most interesting best vegetarian food I have ever tasted. I hope Annalise comes here and tries it sometime. When I paid the bill, I was sleepy and did my math wrong so I paid too much, leaving a tip of about 500 Rupees or twelve dollarsl. The waiter chased us to the elevator, telling us we had paid too much.
Nothing like this has ever happened to me in Asia before. Hopefully this is a good omen for our trip.

I wonder if there is broadband in the Himalaya?


2 Comments:

  • At 12:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I just found your blog!

    Wow! you are going to sikkim! I am soo jealous. It is one of my favorite places...so pristine and beautiful. I am from near Calcutta; now going to grad school in US.

    There should be internet in Gangtok. One advice (from my experience) I would say is to get a really good driver on your way from Siliguri to Gangtok (if you are taking this route, going by road). Also please make sure that the driver is not drunk. In my experiences older drivers are gentler while the young ones are more rash drivers.

    Have a GREAT trip! I will check your blog again.

     
  • At 7:19 AM, Anonymous manuel richtofen said…

    why dont you post something now??? it has been 16 years!!!!!!!!!!! say something.

     

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