Kolkata

Flights were ok. Only a bit over 7 hours to Singapore then 3 and a half hours to Kolkata. A few hours in Singapore. Enough for a return visit to Harry's Bar.
Seamless entry into India. Tonight and tomorrow night we stay at the Oberoi Grand Hotel. We get to bed at about 1:30am, which is 7am where we came from. Looking forward to a good night's sleep.
Sunny day in the morning; bit muted due to the haze (kind word for 'air pollution'- all of the trees, statues and buildings are cloaked in black dust.) Breakfast is fabulous. Tony had his long-awaited masala dosa. Staff couldn't do enough for us.
Into the bus, too early. We meet Melanie our local guide. She's good fun. First stop is "the symbol of Kolkata - Howrah Bridge" (these quotes will be from our unusually-worded itinerary). Then a couple of fascinating walks. I can't do better than the itinerary here. "The area around Howrah Bridge is the house of two major places - Malik Ghat and a colourful flower market." Ghats are a series of steps leading down to a body of water or wharf, such as a bathing or cremation place along the banks of a river. See photos. Then we went to "Kumartuli the alley of the potters where gods and goddesses are born in the skilled hands of mud sculptors who are in the profession for several generations." They create statues from straw, which is then covered with mud.
Next we bussed to the oldest part of the city where we entered the Jain Temple Complex which boasts four ornate temples. The followers were ultra vegans; they never ate garlic, onion or other root vegetables, because they believed it killed the plant.
Lunch (delicious) back at our hotel then an early afternoon visit to the Motherhouse, Mother Teresa's home and now the centre of her Missionaries of Charity. It was a sparsely furnished house, in keeping with her ethos.
Walking through the markets and driving in the bus showed us that Kolkata is somewhat busier and louder than Tasmania. The horn is an essential part of driving here. Kolkata contains around 15 million people.Read more