A Big City With a Small Town Feel...

What a great little city Kolkata is. Did I say little? I meant largest city in India. Although there is a ridiculous number of people here, the centre of town is small and can easily be toured by foot. One of the great things about this place is that there are tea stalls everywhere. And the chai is better here. Haven't quite placed the ingredient, but I suspect it has something to do with the quality of tea coming from Darjeeling and Assam.

There is also a distinct lack of restaurants, except in the tourist areas. In the Punjab, there are dhabas everywhere. In Bengal, there are food stands all over the place. You take a plate with rice and then pick what you want on it. I've had some cold bengali fish, some unidentified vegetable, potato bartha, and tharka (not sure on the spelling). And the rice isn't of the basmati variety, but rather of the really good variety because it doesn't dry out. Even better is that you just eat with your hands. The technique is scooping with your fingers and then using your thumb to slide the ball of rice into your mouth. It works remarkably well and gets your hands good and dirty.

Naturally, the tourist areas get a bit boring so you gotta venture out to the mean suburbs of Kolkata. So today, I headed out to North Kolkata to see a mirror temple. It involved taking the metro (which is pretty good, albeit hot) and then walking through parts of town that I'm not sure foreigners go to all that often. Yes, the temple was nice, but only a small fraction of the overall experience.

Next stop was the infamous Howrah Bridge, the busiest bridge in the world. To get there, however, a bus was needed (I make a point of not taking taxis or rickshaws because old, crappy buses are much more fun). If you thought Delhi buses were bad (or Chandigarh ones, for that matter), try Kolkata. They're about half the size and twice as old. As I was waiting for the bus, some truck drivers came up and asked me if I wanted to drive a truck. Not wanting to pass up this opportunity, I obliged and hopped into the driver seat. Then my conscience got the better of me...I just couldn't bring myself to slip the thing into gear and pull out onto the wrong side of a busy north Kolkata street.

Finally, I got on a bus heading to the bridge. It was a cramped ride (I sat up front, wedged between two people for about an hour), but a decent tour of some part of the city. After a while, the bus arrived at the bridge and I was in awe again. The entire place was a disaster area. I can see why this bridge lives in infamy...it's horns and gridlock 24/7. There is also plenty of pedestrian traffic - guys carrying all manner of things on their heads and people just trying to get across. I think the best part was feeling the bridge shake as you walked...so many people cannot be good for that thing.

Finished the day with another trip across the river in a ferry. Not too many people this time, which was much better for picture purposes. Also made it to the planetarium for an hinglish showing of the solar system. All I can say is good thing I learned about the stuff in school.

One last thing...the rickshaws here are of the walking variety. None of this lazy cycle rickshaw garbage...just a guy pulling you along.