I was sad to leave Darjeeling but it was time to move on. I got to the train station was told the train was sold out to Ghoom. But after that, I could get on to Kurseong and there would be plenty of seats. I could either take a taxi to Ghoom and then buy a ticket or stand on the train and hope someone doesn't show up. I got a seat although it was on the side of the train with the lesser view. Once the train started moving, everyone with cameras was standing up taking pictures anyway. Once in Ghoom, the train really did clear out. I met a young woman and her mom from Provo, Utah. They were traveling around together. The daughter was getting married and moving to San Francisco in June. I gave her my info. The daughter was a huge yoga devotee and had spent some time in ashrams in the south. They had two weeks left to travel together. She was a snowboard instructor in Utah and didn't know what she would be doing in the bay area. Her husband to be would be moving there before her and getting a place most likely in the south bay.
The rest of the train ride was really relaxing. The view was partly in the mist and partly sunny. The train went through so many villages. At first I thought it was weird that the whole village stopped whatever they were doing to watch the train go by. But then I realized, the train probably took up much of the road and you couldn't do anything except watch the train go by. We increasingly saw more tea plantations as we slowly went down the hill. Supposedly the train moves at something like 8-12 kph--very slowly. I'm surprised they are able to maintain the track as it goes along the narrow and perilous Hill Cart Road.
I arrived in Kurseong at around 1pm. As soon as I got off the train, an enterprising young man asked me if I would like a taxi. I said yes, and let him take my bags.
I was glad to see my homestay family when I returned to Makaibari. I had some tea and cookies when I arrived. I really didn't have any plans. I just wanted to hang out and relax.
Later that afternoon we went to
Meera's sisters house to get some water. She looks a lot like Meera. Some other women came over and everyone was chatting and laughing. There was a window next to where I was sitting with a closed curtain. Their house was situated so that you could could hear everyone coming down the hill. It must have been a pretty busy walkway. Every once in a while there would be a lot of activity. I would peek behind the curtain to see what was going on. They laughed and said I would fit in very well here.
We had a nice dinner of rice, daal, and potatoes with veggies. I was still tired from being out to 11pm the previous night so I went to bed right after dinner.
Meera had to go to Darjeeling for work the following day. The plan was that I would go to Kurseong with Mona Lisa and we would have lunch. She would drop me off at the Internet cafe while she was at her computer class. After class we would wait for Meera and Sunita to come back from Darjeeling. Then we would go to a local wedding of a young couple that lives on the Makaibari estate.
I felt underdressed for this wedding I was going to even though I didn't know anyone. We took a taxi down the hill to the estate. They had two areas. The wedding couple was sitting in a tent just outside their family's home. They were dressed beautifully, especially the bride. We waited to go inside and see the couple. Each person had a gift. Each person sort of blessed the heads of the bride and groom and gave them a scarf. At least that's what Meera and Sunita did. Then we all walked to the separate area where the food was. There was a buffet and a server behind each different entry. I had rice, daal, aloo gobi, a nice spicy chicken dish, some bread, and they also threw some sweet dessert on my plate. We would bring the dessert back for Manshi and Granny.
I recognized some of the women I plucked tea with. I said hello to them. I also saw Pasang when we were leaving. He said to stop by around 6 at his home if I wanted to see his new daughter. I said I would. The four of us walked the rest of the way downhill.
I was just hanging out at the house and so full from eating all day. I was glad to get up to walk to Pasang's house. Along the way we ran into Allison and her daughter Sophie and her husband who had arrived from Germany this week. They were on the way to Pasang's house too, to finalize their trek.
At Pasang's everyone was talking about the trek. They needed to make the final decision whether they were going to Sikkim or Singalilia. I chimed in whenever appropriate regarding Singalila. I think if it was just Allison and her husband they would have gone to Sikkim. But with the kids it would definitely be hard. Pasang has this way about him of not telling you which decision to make, but phrasing it in a way, that whatever is his opinion, you eventually reach it as well. Pasang's father served us all tea.
Then the women all went to see the baby. We had to touch fire first as this is tradition and then we could see her. She was beautiful but big for an 18 day old baby. Mona Lisa and I left shortly afterwards. I didn't want to be around when Allison's family made their decision. They needed privacy.
I was getting used to watching the Indian soap operas they have on tv in the evenings. These soaps are so hoaky and not even in English. But the plots aren't too deep. The women are beautiful and dressed in the most elaborate clothing (saris and kultas).
In the morning, I ran into the two men from Germany that were filming all week. They were heading to Nayan's office to pick up the taxi for Bagdogra. I would be riding with them. They were filming a documentary and it sounded like they wanted to start an exchange program with the local school here and one in Cologne.
I was at the airport almost 3 hours before my flight because the filmakers flight was earlier than mine. It was going to be a long wait. I went to the restaurant and got some Makaibari tea and some veggy pakora. I shouldn't have been hungry yet. But the food was good and I ate it all.
As I was waiting for my food, a college age girl sat down. She ordered some take-out and was instructed to sit at my table and wait for it. She was from SF and going to school at Columbia. Currently she was involved in a study abroad program and had a total of 5 months in India. She was really nice and she said her father was a chef for a private family in SF. She was supposed to bring back some tea for him. She had no idea where to start and what to bring him. I suggested she should go to the Makaibari store right in the airport. I told her I am sure he would like anything there but my personal favorite was the imperial silver tips. I said it was expensive but it was worth it. She was doing some major like sustainable or Eco-friendly planning and had to write a 30 page paper at the end of the program.
Once I finished eating, I figured I might as well go through security. I got to the gate and some woman was trying to cut the line in front of me at the xray. I totally went off on her. With the biggest smile on my face I said, "You know what, do whatever you want. Go ahead of me. I don't even care. I'm not even here in front of you. I don't exist."
I thought of Katherine in Darjeeling and her story about the stamps. She said that overtime little things about other people bother you. One day, someone cuts in front of you in line. The next day someone else does it. You feel helpless. There's nothing you can do. You are in another country. The other person might not understand you. But each day this happens, you are slightly irritated and get pissed. You add another so called "stamp" to the card.
Then one day you suddenly realize there are no places left on the card to put the stamps and you blow up. This poor woman had been doing what everybody else does here and just cut in front of me in line. She had no idea my stamp card was full. But she backed off and put her stuff down behind mine.
I sat down in the fan only section. I found out there was an air conditioned section but no seating there. I started reading. A man sat two seats away from me. He thought he could use me to watch his bags. He would say, just watch my bags, I'll be right back and then just leave. At first I would occasionally glance at his bags and then I stopped. He left 10-15 times. At one point I had to kick someone out of his seat. Eventually we chatted a little because I noticed he was checking to see why the plane was delayed. He said instead of 1:55, we would be leaving around 2:30. Apparently the plane was coming from Kolkata and got real close to the airport but turned around because there was a major downpour. So 2:45 came and went. Then my "friend" told me that they were giving out snacks. I should go get one. I walked over to where he pointed, but they were gone.
I moved to a different seat location. Supposedly someone "in the know" from Jet Airways walked by. Everyone was pissed about the delays and was yelling at him. I started chatting with the guy sitting next to me. I asked him if he heard what was going on. He said he hadn't but asked me to watch his bags. Just as he left the guy from Jet Airways came back and announced to everyone the plane from Kolkata had just taken off. We would most likely board about 4:30. My new friend came back. I told him what just happened. He said he heard. He said he wanted to try to get some snacks. He said come with me as I have a friend who works here. So we found out that the food in the snack box wasn't going to be very good. And it would be a while before they would bring more snacks. So he asked his friend if we could go to the restaurant and eat something. This would require going through security again which is generally not allowed. So they ripped up the tags on our unchecked luggage and they took our boarding passes. They would have to re-issue them for us.
So Karma and I went to the restaurant. He ordered chapati and a chicken dish for us plus we shared a beer. Man was that beer cold. I drank it pretty fast and didn't eat much. It was so good.
When we finished Karma got the bill. During our snack we became well acquainted. He was originally from Gangtok and currently living in Kalimpong as a branch manager at a bank. He was going to Kolkata for a business meeting on Sunday--just for the day. Then he had a three week trip to the USA (New York, New Orleans and maybe some other places). He said something about it being for the rotary. His wife apparently is in the travel/tourism industry. They have a beautiful 2 year old daughter. She looks more like him than his wife.
He said if I come back to India he'll set up a trekking trip for me in Sikkim. His whole family is in mountaineering except him. He says he really likes trekking too and he'll come along on my trek.
I told him where I was staying in Kolkata and that I had a car waiting for me. I hoped that they had checked with the airport before heading out. He said that his hotel was nearby and asked if he could get a ride with me. Of course I agreed.
So we went back towards security. He got our new boarding passes. We got new tags for our carry on bags we were good to go. Our flight was boarding soon so we got in line. The plane was completely full. But it was only a 50 minute flight.
As we approached Kolkata everything was so green. There were so many trees. It looked like there were a lot of homes outside the city that were really nice. We landed and it was super hot and humid. My driver was standing there with a sign. He told me he waited 3 hours but not to worry, he slept in the car. There was no problem with Karma coming in the taxi with me.
There was a lot of traffic and it took about an hour to get to the hotel. We planned to meet for dinner and Karma said my hotel has a good bar that has live music. We should go there afterwards. Usually Karma meets his friend when he goes to Kolkata but this time, his friend was in the UK. He didn't know anyone else here so this actually worked out perfectly.
So he asked where I wanted to go for dinner--Chinese, Bengali, Muglai. I said I had never had Muglai food, so we went to Peter Cat. The line was super long but he put our names in. We waited about 1/2 hour. We watched all sorts of arguments with the guy that was letting people in. Some of them looked like serious yelling.
So all of a sudden, Karma must been getting hungry and he said, do you want to try the Chinese place? I said sure let's take a look. It was a two or three minute walk but it was packed there as well since it was Saturday night. This place at least gave us an estimate of 30 minutes. I said, let's go back to the other place since I will be eating Chinese food for the next month.
In less than 15 minutes after returning they called us. It was an oasis inside. We were away from the taxi cab horns. It was air conditioned. There was no yelling about getting a table.
I let Karma order for us. The restaurant was famous for kabobs. He had scotch and I had Chantilly White Indian wine. We had some chicken skewers with onions and tomatoes as an appetizer. Then they brought us two of today's special with rice. Part of the dish
was lamb and part was chicken. It was really tasty. This was a really fancy restaurant. The waiters looked like raj type emperors in white. They were very attentive. The place was dark but the predominant color was red and it was very comfortable inside. Karma paid for dinner.
So we finished dinner and headed back to my hotel to listen to the music at Somewhere Else. I said I would get drinks. We hung out until like 1. They had two bands. The first was Pat Methany-like jazz and the second one was blues. We got right up front for the second band. It turned into a really nice day even after the all the delays.
So it was a slow start to my Sunday after being out late and drinking all night. I went to breakfast at around 9:30. I took it slow and read the paper. Then I headed out for the Victoria Palace at about 11.
This place was very close to my hotel and built to honor Queen Victoria. The structure was finished in 1921 about 20 years after her death. As I was walking there I noticed a teenage boy behind me. We were walking at about the same pace so he couldn't really pass me. Finally I must have stopped to take a photo and he passed me. He said Victoria Memorial as if to ask me if I was going there. I sad yes. He motioned the way I was already going. He didn't really speak more than a few words of English. We couldn't really communicate. I just assumed he was going there too. So we both kept walking.
The first view I had of it was just outside a gate. It's within the city park but has a separate gate and an entrance fee. It's built in white marble and has reflecting pools like the Taj. So I was thinking this boy was just concerned that I got to the memorial safely. I was going to make it easy for him. I would buy his entrance fee and we could say our good-byes. I bought him admission (10 rupees--150 for foreigners) and said "see you". I am going to walk through and take my time and take a lot of photos.
So he wouldn't get lost. He kept following me around. The weather was nice right now so I decided to walk around the outside first. You never know if it will rain. So again I was taking my time, taking photos, and saying you can go ahead. I don't think he understood a word. At this point, I genuinely thought he wanted to accompany me. But maybe he was secretly getting annoyed with me. I really wanted to be by myself and I couldn't communicate that to him. I would stop and take photos or go a different way than he went and he would always find me. After walking around the entire building and gardens we went inside.
So besides the gorgeous dome inside, they had a lot of photos, galleries, and history of the city of Kolkata. Some of it was really interesting. My "boy" was still with me. I explored each and every gallery so I actually thought he would be bored and take off. So finally after we finished walking around the inside and outside, I thought he would leave like any other normal person. We had nothing to say to each other and nothing in common. So instead of leaving through the gate, I said I wanted to hang out in the hot afternoon sun. This I could tell was bugging him. I actually do like to people watch and this was a perfect spot for that as all these beautifully dressed women are wearing these gorgeous saris and kultas. The fabrics and colors are so colorful. At one point a family wanted to take a picture of me. I said only if I could take a picture of your family. They agreed.
I was getting a little terse with my boy. Like why would he want to hang around with me? He wasn't asking for money, he didn't want to be in my pictures, he didn't want me to buy him lunch. So finally we exited the gate. I said bye and waved. Ok that wasn't working either. I didn't want to walk back with him because then he would know where I was staying. I raised my voice and said Go! Bye! See you! Now I was practically yelling. There was a policeman nearby but I didn't want to get him in trouble. I mean he didn't do anything wrong. He finally sensed my anger. Then he said 50 Rupees? I'm like, are you crazy? Scram!!! Go! Now I had something to tell the policeman. He knew it too. So he finally left. Ok, no more mister niceguy! I'm not allowing this to happen again.
I walked back to the hotel. It was 39 degrees celsius at 2:45. That's 102 and 90% humidity. There were all sorts of street food stands, but all I could think about was a cold drink. My water was no longer cold. I had my first pepsi in about 15 years. It was so cold and so sugary. When I got back to the hotel, I was drenched and took a shower. I had some hot tea in my room with the air conditoner on full blast.
I think if you intend to go out during the day you must have to take many showers here. Around 4:30 I headed back out. I wanted to check out the BBD area. It's not far to walk but I wanted to get there before dark since there are a lot of colonial style buildings in this area.
What I didn't realize was that there are street vendors lining the sidewalk the entire way as you walk there. Kolkata is different than Delhi as you walk the streets. In Delhi, everyone is calling you to check out their shop. I find that in Kolkata, they just stare. Occasionally someone will call out to you. But the stares might be worse. At a certain point. You feel like there must be something wrong with you. Although I would rather walk the streets than take a taxi.
There were a lot of colonial buildings in this area. Once it got dark though, I headed back. One thing I like a lot about India is that I feel so tall. I'm 5 feet 6 inches and most people here are shorter than me. It a nice change!
Another thing I notice in Kolkata is that a lot of the street food stands advertise these big elaborate menus. When I finally decide to go up to one, it invariably turns out that the item I want is not available. I can never tell if that's just for today or never available even though it's on the sign. I also noticed that less people speak English. In Delhi and Darjeeling I never had a problem. But here, maybe it's that they are not used to my American accent. I ask the taxi driver to take me to the Park Hotel on Park Street. Then some other native person has to repeat it in "English" before the taxi driver understands.
I had such a large breakfast today and a couple of samosas and bananas during the day, that I didn't want a big dinner. I actually wanted a kati or kathi (I have seen them spelled both ways). You can get them from the street vendors. They are rolled up naan with different things inside. All the stands had mentioned veggy, chicken, etc. But of course when I ask, all they have is egg. So instead, I went to the local bookstore that also had a tea bar. First the tea, then the books. I actually had a Sikkim tea.
On the way back to the hotel, I figured maybe I should check out the cafe in my hotel. They might have something light. They had the kathi's on the menu for about 10 times the price, but, I could get the chicken tikka with no egg. That's what I did.
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