Kolkata!

Visiting Kolkata is like taking a time-machine back to the mid 1900s with the countless large yellow 1940’s taxis and soot that covers the city making it appear as if you are stepping into a black and white photograph. The heavy British influence is still visible in the architecture, street layout, taxis, street trolleys, and larger central park, but Kolkata is by no means stagnate, and what makes Kolkata interesting is this mix of British and Indian culture. There are certainly signs of modern western influence, posh hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, and book stores that cater towards the English reader, but in Kolkata a street beggar, cycle-rickshaw, or cheap street food vendor is never far off. The city appears a jumbled mess, there is constant honking and traffic jams, piles of garbage, towering and tangled banyan trees lining the street, crumbled sidewalks, street fires used to serve deliciously cheap Bengali food, shanty towns squeezed next to five star hotels, and buildings that probably haven’t been touched since the British built them a hundred or more years ago, however, if you have time to get past the soot and noise, there are layers of culture and complexities that make this city a must visit in India.

Our boat rower working hard at 6am

Varanasi

Twenty-four hours in regular sleeper class just might be too much time on an Indian train with stomach problems. I couldn’t have been happier to arrive in Varanasi (really just to get off the train) but before I could relax I had to find a guest house before my friends arrived that evening. By the time I had made it to the back-packers part of the city, with guest-houses near the river, I was delirious with exhaustion and relieved to find a cheap guest-house with a hot bucket shower. After regaining my strength and meeting my friends, I was relieved to find Varanasi not too crowded and not filled with local Indians trying to scam you. The old part of the city is like a life-size maze for humans, where you have to dodge street sludge, dogs, beggars, street vendors, other tourists, and most difficult enormous cows and bulls meandering the stone pathways not larger than the width of their torso. The river had receded quite low since monsoon season was over a couple months ago but we were told it would get even lower, which would be hard to imagine.

The most spectacular part of the river was our sunrise boat cruise on a wooden boat, which we realized only after starting that water was slowly seeping hence the reason the man rowing the boat tried to stay close to shore. Needless to say we made it back safe but we got a quite a few worried stares from other tourists as our boat driver stopped half way to bail out a few buckets of water.