Calcutta, stop hitting me please!

Calcutta September 29, 07

Backpack to India was a main plan.  All i know was 'going to India' from east to west  .. and the rest, as Nepal, Tibet or China?? ...  time would tell.  But ... even we spent a lot of time to create a nice plan for this trip  ... but India was chaging everything ...  

Incredible India Indeed!!

Back to the day before the trip, my bestfriend called and last thing she said was "Enjoy the trip and don't forget your passport, ok?"  .. I was laughing out loud, wow.. who's gonna forget that important thing!!  ... hahaha ... and then ..  the answer was .

. ME!!!

I was so late that morning. I should be there at Suwannabhumi Airport since 7.30am but after half way from home i realised that i forgot my jacket!! So i went back to get it!! Showed up at the airport at 8am. Ale was waiting there, smiling.  "Ahh ... i'm sorry" ... he's still smiling. Huh, Relieved!  Then we went to check in. While i was taking out my passport to give to the Jet airways officer, i realised  ...

that I ... got the wrong one!! :O :O :O

The one i got now was my old passport!! Gotta go back home to bring the latest one but .... #$#%#$@. The Jet airways officers weren't sure that i could be back on time. And only one flight a day. If i couldn't come back before 9am, i'd miss the flight, also Ale.

Coz he said he wouldn't fly alone for sure. Ahhhh!! me me me what a me!!!! But at least i had a luck, (also Ale :D) that my home is not too far from the airport then they let me go back to bring it and told me they would wait as long as they can. In the taxi, i was hoping/praying/thinking that i could come back on time. My driver was driving too fast as in the movie ; the fast and the furious! Haha! And we did it on time, one hour sharp!!  Everyone relieved! Also me, only i can say was "sorry" and thanks to Ale who was not angry with me at all.  At that time I'm not sure what's on his mind, maybe it was .. "Ooooh, starting the trip with a mess and a crazy woman, .. how could it be aweful for the rest of the trip???" ... haha dunno.

All i know was India hit me once since i wasn't there!  

Flew safely with Jet Airways. Started the first meal with Indian bread. Really had no idea what was that and you know, i haven't found such a meal like that in India at all. Wondered it's a fake indian food they gave us??? Haha ..  

Not so long, two hours later we're there ... Calcutta .. Namaste!

Calcutta, LP said this city was found in1686 by the British merchant  Job Charnock. It was a capital city of India before transfer to Delhi in 1982. And change for Calcutta to Kolkata just 7 years ago and many street had changed the name too after independence. Locates on eastern India with more than 4.5 million population.

Well known of Pollution and Traffic!! Ahhh, what i'm doing here!!!????? :D 

Calcutta was really hot! Not slang but real. It's more hot than the city that i just left. (Bangkok)!! Impressive! Haha. Hot, Humid, Indian Smell :D ahhh love ya at first sight! A short that many guide books say that 'for women please avoid to wear it'. But I couldn't, sorry. This is the first thing that i had a doubt. They said women can't wear short. But the Sari, custom dress that they wear is more daring than my short. It shows a beautiful tummy. But they say .. it's polite. For me, i prefer wearing my short than the sari coz .. i feel more comfortable to let them see my leg more than my tummy!

We booked the hotel for the first night which just found on the net the days before. I had a budget not over than 500-1000 rupis per night.

 So we agree at this one, Astoria Hotel. It has a  taxi service to pick up us from the airport to hotel so we agreed to book it too. Coz i don't wanna see many many of taxi drivers run to us as it was happened once in Nepal last time.

But .. India hit me twice! No one comes to pick up us. We were waiting among hundred taxi drivers who always came to ask one by one and said "no one from Astoria, come with me, come with me". We weren't sure coz we really don't know if it's true or not. Guide book had warned us many many thing about taxis in India. So i became PANIC New!!! (but after found out that actually it's a Panic LP!!!!! (lonely planet) instead!!)

"Give us a minute for one cigarette ... PLEASE!!" ...  I shouted! (haha) Then we tried to call the hotel, the answered from them was .

.. "they didn't send someone to pick up"!!!

What da .... so ... ok we had to find the way to go there by ourselves!!

One lucky taxi driver took us to the hotel. I said "lucky" coz he really was. The price from the airport to the place we wanted to go is less than we paid for him for a half. But for us, sorry, but we really don't know where the hotel is, how far from the airport .. etc.! Again, India hit me third to pay over cost for the taxi then.

Haha, can't wait for you to hit me more and more and more and more, my dearest India!!

The traffic in Calcutta was so woow!! Had taking almost one hour to the Astoria Hotel. It's nice. A room was not that bad (for me) .. With both air con- and fan, what a hot country!!! We got big room but the bathroom was not so impressive.

Big but not so clean. We complained them about the pick up car and asked for money back. India was going to hit me again coz they (hotel officers) don't wanna pay back. Great that Ale showed them an email that he talked to the manager and he was confirmed about the taxi so they had no arguement to say .. had to pay back the money then!

Ahhhh ... calcutta calcutta.

The room number is 13!! Haha, sounds great! After unpacked some stuff then went out to see how Calcutta is!! Well, it doesn't like what i thought. Ok, even i don't imagine that it's like a castle town but in my thought Calcutta must be more calm but .. what a crazy!!! Haha hoo hooo woooow! It was a Horn horn horn ... horn horn. Not any minutes to make the city quiet. I thought Hanoi was so crazy but here is much much more!

We don't know where would we go, we don't know what to do.

Just walked. Anywhere we saw the road, we walked. They said went to the market, ok we went. Nothing interesting we could see. Ahh, India, you hit me fifth!!

Calcutta is not a place for us to be chill. We had to be concentrate every step we walked coz we might stepped on a shit, a pee or maybe were hit by a car!!  Two lanes of the road but they drove like there had four! It wasn't one way but the taxi drove on another side. Once in the taxi from Airport to Hotel, we're stucked on the crossroad, we heard the horn and the break sound from the truck ... eiiiiiidddddd ... it was on the right side where Ale sat and stopped just only a millimeter!! Ahhh, Indiaaaaaa! Thanks buddha that you didn't take my companion away since the first day!! Relieved!!

We walked along the street and found the public park.

Some came to picnic, some slept, some played the sport. Even the football is the favorite sport for Calcuttan but the most i saw were Cricket and Played kite. First time i saw two different gangs of two classes of Indian people. First was the boys from somewhere around there were playing with a wood which they adapted to be a cricket bat. Another gang was a school boys team with the nice sport dress up to protect them from the accident and a good quality equipment to play. Hmmm....  

We walked with no map, had no idea how could we came back at the same place! But Lucky, i was so hungry .. many restuarant on the street ... most of them are chinese, japanese and pubs. We wanted to have Indian Food then found one but it's a vegetarian restuarant. Ahhh, how could a meat lover as me could eat??? Ale was ok with this one and as we walked all day without eating so .

.. i agreed to eat here.

My first vegetarian .... was soooo .....!

Ooohhh .... Incredible India, you hit me again!