Kolkata - emarkation

After a 2 hour flight on IndiGo we arrive in Kolkata. Dianne and I are joining a group of travellers who have been touring India for 6 days. Liz and Alan were part of that group of 22. They introduce us all around. This next part of their tour, and now ours is a Ganges River cruise. They all seem to be nice folks. They look a lot like us, fair skinned and older than 60. We’ll see.

For the first time on this trip, we are riding a bus. The streets of Kolkata are fairly narrow as is to be expected. We drive past our boat and try to find a place to turn to bus around. That is not an easy task. We need to disembark from the opposite side of the street, so we continue for another kilometre or so before there is an opportunity. The bus driver has a helper just for these situations. He jumps out, stops traffic in both directions, eventually, and we back into the street again, now going in the right direction.

Our boat is in the middle of the river and we need a boat to get to the boat. Our number has swelled to 29. We all can fit on this small boat but they insist we wear life jackets for the short ride. Once on the Ganges River Cruiser, my impression is that it looks nicer from the inside than it does from outside.Read more