Getting Lost In Kolkata, The City Of Joy.
We were already warned in the train that our arrival in Kolkata would clash with the 24 hour taxi strike. If you arrive in Howra train station, this is pretty bad news. Why? Because as a traveller you don’t (usually) have a private car and the tuk-tuks are not allowed to cross the bridges over the Hooghly river … this means that you’re stuck!
Luckily there were two University professors sitting in our neighbour compartment (first class) during the train ride and besides a few very interesting conversations, they also offered us a ride into the city. At Howra train station, private cars are allowed to drive up all the way to the platform. Therefore the University Professors driver already waited for our arrival and we didn’t have have to carry our luggage through masses of people. Friendly as Indians are, we were dropped off in front of our hotel (Bodhi Tree Hotel) – this was a great luxury to start with. It took the driver about 1.5 hours to find the hotel but time is not such a great matter in India and the University was obviously closed that day …
Immediately after checking in, we started walking towards downtown Kolkata. Somehow we underestimated the distance and after 2 hours we were only half way to the city but luckily Kolkata has a very efficient Metro system, connecting North to South – this eases things a lot. Warning: The Metro is always packed but yet easy and fast. We got out at Chandni Chowk – the closest station to Howrah Bridge, since we knew that there was a flower market below the bridge and this was our desired destination …
Anyway, we didn’t find the flower market but we ran right into the wholesale fruit market of Kolkata, where trucks from all over India, Pakistan and Bangladesh arrive with all kind of fruits that are auctioned off right on the spot. That day, it was banana and orange day. We had to maneuver through piles of banana stalks and oranges and every few meters was a selling area, where auctioneers auctioned off all the fruits with megaphones. All of this action happened in light rain which transformed the road to mud mixed with cow dung … Not the most pleasant walkway.
The working men who unload tons and tons of fruits and vegetables are all in perfect shape (even though they’ve for sure never ever seen a gym from the inside). If a bag of fruit is too heavy for one person, a few other men will kindly lend a hand. After all, they are all in the same boat…
At the end of the day, we were pretty exhausted and happy to land in bed at our lovely hotel.
