After three days in Kolkata I am leaving this evening at 7 PM with the nightsleeper-bus to Shiliguri in the north of West-Bengal. From there I am going to Darjeeling and staying one or two nights.

I visited a lot in Kolkata: City, BBD, Mother Theresa, Chinatown, New Market…

Yesterday evening I was watching a Bollywood-Movie at the New Market. It was quite funny and after that I had some French Fries at KFC. Bad, bad, bad decision, as I was on the toilet the whole morning and then decided to take antibiotics as its really bad…

Looking forward for a good bus this night!!!

Yesterday evening I had a dinner at the Mocambo-Restaurant. I think, it was one of the better restaurants due to the prizes and the audience. I had a Kingfisher-Beer (640 ml), Chicken Oriental and a Brownie with Vanilla Ice. Everything was OK and very good. I payed 450 Rs (these are 8 EUR - most expensive dinner here in India ever, it is up to the prize of a room/night).

It was very interested, that the guests in this restaurant - although they are all from India - spoke only english. Very strange and quite a broken english. I verified this, as I talked with the man next to me. He is a doctor, living in Kolkata…

OK… This day I visited the BBD Bagh Part of the city - “Dalhousie Square“. Went there by taxi and walked around… Very interesting, very british. Many british buildings - you could mean, you are somewhere in the UK.

The gap is very high… The differences… between poor and rich. Best restaurants, top mobile-phones and computers and during watching new cars on the street you have to take care, that you do not hurt people crawling or sleeping on the pavement, street or floor.

Children and woman are begging. “Giving money to beggars is a crime”, I am often hearing from locals.

The hotel, I am staying… Sunflower Guest House… The building is very old and there is an elevator in it. Very very old one and operated manually day and night by a person. Does not look very secure… :)

@Albert: You are right… They are selling teaching books on the street… All kinds… TOEFL-test, German, all computer languages…

Impressed by Calcutta. It is a city in West-Bengal with a population of more than 18 Mio. people. So, this is double-size of Austria’s whole population… Strange and a little bit unbelievible.

OK. I am sleeping in Sunflower Guest House, a room with fan for 500 Rs. Unfortunally no room with AC was available - would have been looking forward for one this time.

Went to see the Maidan today, this is a big, big park next to the Hoogly River. Visited the Victoria Memorial and was surprised by a really modern part of the city. Modern means, that I found many stores like “Benetton”, “Levis” and so on as well as well climated coffee-shops with good ice-coffees and shakes.

Calcutta seems to me very splitted and gapped: Poor, more poor, most poor and rich. People washing on the street next to cooking, next to washing dishes, next to living in small barracs on the pavement, rikshas with men-power as well as modern multiplex-cinemas, cars, shops and fitness-studios, supermarkets. This is strange and interesting. In my eyes, this city is developing and shows it’s poorness and gaps very very extremly.

I saw many french and english buildings due to former times and sometimes the colonial-style reminded me on Cuba: Similarities in style and oldness and not beeing renovated.

I am very tired today, going to bed after having dinner. Tomorrow I will visit the city again and finishing the day with a Bollywood-Movie in one of the cinemas.

More images maybe tomorrow… Bye…

I just had to run into a cafe because it started to rain heavily. So, I thought, I am going to upload the latest GPS-route of todays walk and ride through Calcutta… It’s also good to find a orientation in this area…

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There is a song from “Vico Torriani”, called “Kalkutta liegt am Ganges” (”Calcutta is on the Ganges river”).

This is not true! Calcutta is not on the Ganges, it’s on the Hoohly River.

From Varanasi to Calcutta taking the night-train from 6 PM to 7 AM. Took the cheaper sleeping class (450 Rs, about 7 EUR) and a seat on the top bed. Talked with some local students and learned something about india in the sleeping train by speaking with the local guys.

I slept 10 hrs although it was very hot and loud…

Arrived fresh in Calcutta!!

I am going to stay today (Wednesday, May 14) in Varanasi and visiting old city and some ghats. It’s now 10 AM and already very very hot in Varanasi.

In the evening at 6 PM I am heading off to Calcutta by night-train in the sleeper-class. Arriving there at around 8 AM next morning. In Calcutta I am going to stay three days.

“Innorama”: twitsay.com 

I am trying to use twitsay.com for some Audio-Updates. Just found out, that this is quite new… Let’s see how it works - you can easily check my voice-updates on my twitter-account twitter.com/sugarmelon in some hours…

After visiting Delhi (New and Old) I took the nighttrain to Varanasi (6.15 PM to 7.45 AM). This time I took 3AC, this means three beds in a row and aircondition. Delhi - Varanasi is about 771 km and this class was up to 1.200 Rs (app. 20 Eur). Tomorrow night I am going to take the normal sleeper class to Calcutta for 400 Rs (app. 7 Eur) for again 770 km. I took some Dal and rice for eating it in the train, as I was not sure, if everything is going smooth on the train-station. Many people… Many….

The train itself was quite comfortable and I felt asleep suddenly as I was very tired… and woke up at 7.30 AM. Before this I had a short talk with an Indian Doctor, who was in the bed under me. I asked him some indian related things… About Calcuta, Politics, Varanasi, Cricket, Internet, Food and the future of India… Very interesting…

So I am going to have a walk through the Gates in Varanasi. It is very hot here… people say up to 44 degrees.