After our peaceful first night at The Bodhi Tree Boutique Guesthouse, JC was woken not by horns, chanting nor dogs, but 2 bloody cats having a stand off!!!! Then the alarm at 6.30am as we were being picked up at 7.30am for our walking tour. As expected even though we Arranged breakfast for 7am, JC had to wake the cook who slept in the kitchen and promptly gave them a rev to get moving!!!
Our walk with the lovely Iftekar Ashan, an amiable Rajasthani Muslim, took in the British colonial sector of Kolkata, interesting conversation and insight into a city we knew nothing about and indeed we stood on the black hole of Calcutta and heard the story how it came to be. We were dropped at the Victoria Memorial where we were left to our own devices for the balance of the day. Sitting on the steps of this grand building, 2nd to the Taj, we just took in the Sunday afternoon of the locals.........with no Queen Esther insight, the Cato’s became the centre of attention and numerous photo sessions. Just when we thought it was all done....... 3 beautifully dressed transvestites payed us a visit and one rather forwardly draped his/her huge body over the steps in front of us and her friends clicked away on their cameras.
Flagging down a taxi we decided to splash out on a late lunch and visited the highly acclaimed 'Oh Calcutta' restaurant at the Forum shopping complex.....Sunday buffet and the staff were tremendous in explaining the Bengali food.....so we dived in......Von would have been happy .....temp gauges on all the Bain Marie's and damned fine food..........with exceptional service, a far cry from the faulty towers session we experienced in Agra!!
Tues , a sleep in before finally heading out late morning to find an ATM that worked with our card. Topped up with cash......we took on the big smoke and the metro system, around the corner from our hotel.......mastering this , plus another taxi......finally made it to the Infamous botanical gardens to see the 250 year old Banyan tree........ever so typical of Indian authorities, by order of the high court we could not take our newly purchased plastic bottle of water in, but no dramas with our own water bottle......go figure......this is India!
Ferry, tuk tuk, rickshaw, taxi..... We did the full Monty covering all forms of transport in this mad city......scratching our heads trying to work out where we were and where we had to go, there was always someone ready and sometimes able to help, passing around our vital piece of paper to multitudes of people to ascertain where the bloody hell we wanted to go......all in good spirit and extra tips handed out as gratitude, always by some stroke of a miracle we got to where we wanted to go, albeit taking a Cook's tour of Kolkata on the way ,one trip taking 2 hours to get there!
Our day was capped off with yet another street food experience and trying out the local "fast food" of Kolkata with the Kapi roll.......egg and veg, with another veg and paneer. The local shop was doing a roaring trade.....we were the novelty and KC filmed the bread makers in action....off to our local chai lady and sat on the street for a cuppa accompanied by some local sweets....a good day......returning home dust covered and satisfied with our expeditions.
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