Kolkata

The riverside shows the level of poverty in a rather beautiful way in the morning sun.

The train pulls into Calcutta station, we have been on the train for 16 hours, with all the people in our carriage yelling at each other from about 5am. There is no such thing as privacy or serenity on a night train, its quite usual for locals to take your book off you and spend an hour not giving it back while they try to read it. Usually aloud!

Sheep in the Maiden; the main park in town. They are coloured to distinguish which shepherd owns which.

The main square in town (BBD) has a rather manky looking tank in the middle and is surrounded by locals during the day.

The tram is sponsored by Arsenal?

Jason got told off for taking this photo of the Writers building (infact we got told off alot for taking photos of anything in Calcutta - lovely place!). Apparently this building is now home to government officials, it used to belong to the very bureaucratic clerical workers who were called 'writers' back in the 1880's.

We visited the flower market that had stunning flowers and is without a doubt the highlight of Kolkata.

Its a hard day for the flower sellers.

Men walk the Howrah Bridge carrying ridiculous loads. It is 450 metres of bridge that was built after 1943; it was feared that building the bridge would cause silting and currents.  Jason was also not allowed to take this photo as it is banned.... so you never saw this photo....

Strange place Calcutta.

Partition seems to have made them a little paranoid.

There are lots of strikes going on at the moment by unhappy Indians. These are the reasons that transport keeps coming to a standstill everytime we try to get on anything.

The strikes appear to have no focus. This one covers several industries, and several topics from wages, to redundancy, to fuel increases.

Outsiders might perceive this Bandhs as an excuse for a day off at best, or more cynically, and most likely, as a way the ordinary working people continue to be manipulated by the bent politicians of this part of the world.

The Victoria Memorial, a huge marble museum that was actually quite good. Lots of memorabilia from the days of the Raj / British empire. We weren't allowed to take photos inside though as we are in Kolkata!!?

Obviously the British took the keys to this tractor with them when they left. In true Indian style, what is not understood is left to be reclaimed by the earth.

Did the British take all the paint with them as well?

How many Indians does it take to mow a lawn?

The answer is directly related to how socialist and bureaucratic the government is.... Thus Kolkata and West Bengal have the most lawn mowers in the world!

We spent 3 hours in the foreigners queue at the train station and got to experience first hand how the poison of customer hatred starts at the top. Mao Tse Dong, that great human rights activists, must of helped write their mission statement.

Mother Teresa (the saint of the gutters), is buried in a building in Calcutta that took a wee bit of patience to find. The missionaries of Charities was formed in the 1950's. It was a very respectful place, where her wishes are stressed "Love one another as I have loved you".

A very moving place.

Western volunteers are all over Calcutta looking peaceful. Some shared stories of the not so caring activities that go on behind the scenes of volunteer work, as apparently, some of the locals have their own disciplinary agenda.

Calcutta has hand drawn rickshaws where the cheeky men agree a price and then make a fuss when you give the agreed price. (Obviously they try and double it.)

It was time for us to get out of here. Two nights was plenty.

If only it wasn't so hard to get a train ticket we could have left earlier.