North 24 Parganas

Travel day, Calcutta Airport to Kathmandu Nepal. Air India flight 247 non stop direct. Some of our fellow travellers from the boat are on the same flight. It’s about an hour and and a half long and Air India served a hot meal.
When we arrived in Nepal we arrived at the same time as some other international flights, and the customs area was crowded. Liz and Alan, Dianne and I all have e-visas that we got online. We need to pay the 30 USD each for our visas on arrival. There is a line up to pay, and a line up to validate your visa. There is another lineup for you if you don’t have a e-visa, which we thankfully avoid. Still it takes well over an hour to complete the process. After that’s all done, they scan you for metal before you pick up your luggage. I’m pretty stressed by the time we get our suitcases. A couple of times I thought I was going to have to tune some people up about manners and big crowd behaviour. It all worked out without the extra drama, and we were greeted by our guide Abit.
It’s dark now as we exit the airport and ride to our hotel. Immediately it strikes us that Nepal is cleaner than the last place we were. The roads are rough, and the air is dusty, but it is cooler and our hotel is an oasis from that.Leggi altro

We took a bus through the streets of Kolkata to Mother Teresa’s house and where she tended to the sick and needy of Kolkata. Her tomb is here, and a museum. It was clean, tidy, austere in decorations, and very peaceful. Continuing onward down the street was the orphanage she founded. Again clean and tidy, not dismal and depressing. One of our guides, who is a local, says that by local standards Mother Teresa’s work is well funded. The Indian government does not have to contribute because of all the international donations.

Motherhouse is the headquarters is the missionaries of charity and home of Mother Teresa and her Sisters since February 1953. This is where she lived, worked and prayed and finally laid to rest.Leggi altro