Kolkata....eventually

When I last posted I was in Kathmandu, ready for my long journey onwards. It was to be a miserable one. That night in Kathmandu I came down with a fever and felt generally terrible. Not good.

The next morning I woke up before 6 to catch the 7am train to Birganj, the horrendously disgusting border town. I took my usual seat at the back with extra leg room and nodded in and out, eating a couple of cookies and nothing else. By the time I got to the border I was a little out of it, just in a haze. At immigration I met a Canadian guy and we went across and through customs together, then found a room. I crashed, still without really eating, at about 7pm.

The next morning we went to the train station at about 7:30am, even though my train was at 10. I didn't have a seat assigned yet though, so it was good to get there early. My Canadian friend chose to take the bus instead (HUGE mistake), but I waited and talked to some random Nepali. By the way if any single girls want to get married to a Nepali teacher, he said he wants to marry an American girl, so if I bring an American girl back to Nepal, he'll marry them. Just that easy.

The train ride was okay, I do love the trains here. There was a nice family next to me, but then their kid started crying and didn't stop for a couple hours. I was in and out of sleep, not exactly happy about much.

I got to Kolkata (Calcutta) at 4:30 in the morning and attempted to walk to the tourist portion of town. It seemed like a good idea since I felt relatively better, but it was a bad choice. After almost 2 hours of walking I took a cab and got a hotel. I spent the whole day, save for a lunch trip to Dominos in the hotel watching TV and napping. Being sick I just wanted to be home, which is why I opted for Dominos, then sparkling apple cider and American TV.

Today I'm feeling pretty good, not quite all the way better. I met a nice Bangladeshi this morning and we had lunch at a traditional Bengali restaurant. They basically love fish here so that's what I had (we're right next to the ocean so I'm good with that). One was spiced, then fried whole, the other in a curry sauce. They were both very good, but it was a little bit of a surprise for my stomach I think.

After lunch I had another rest, then I went to the Victoria Memorial, a beautiful marble building in a very nice park. I expected this place to be desperately poor and depressing but it's not at all. The weather is nice, the park, monument and streets near the park look like Europe, and there are fewer poor people here than some other Indian cities I've been to. Basically it's very nice and it's all Mother Theresa's fault it has such a terrible reputation. Tomorrow night off to Puri, but first more Kolkata.

NOTE: Pictures added later