Thursday, March 11, 2010

India



On the 1st March 2010, after almost 2years 2months travelling I went to bed in Bangkok but could not sleep with excitement.
The following day at 15.30pm the plane I was on touched down in Kolkata, India. An hour later I was sharing a taxi heading into the centre of this city of 15million people. It seemed like all 15million were on the streets at once as our battered yellow taxi weaved its way through tiny gaps in the traffic, beeping his horn relentlessly. I was mesmorised by the chaos that is daily life here in India. I was heading to Sudder Street, the so called backpacker area of town. In the 45mins it took to get here I did not see one westerner, which is a good thing. Sudder street, to my relief is a miilion miles away from the Khao San Road of Bangkok, there are just a handful of travellers here and Indian life still dominates proceedings. I checked into the Galaxy hotel on Stuart St, a side street off Sudder st (300 Rs) and went for a wonder.


Without a plan or a map, I followed my senses. I wondered down busy side streets, the scent of Begali cuisine enticing me and listened for the sounds of Bollywood, the latter being nearly impossible over the constant horn blowing. I was drawn to a hole in the wall where people queued. Being Britsh I love a good queue, so I joined it and ended up with a chicken tikka wrap(16Rs) for my troubles, delicious.
Everywhere you go,it seems people are drinking tea, a legacy of the Britsh, so I stopped for a spot of tea or chai served in a clay pot(5Rs) which are used once and then destroyed, the chai was delicious by the way with a hint of ginger.

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