I arrived tired and exhausted yet happy that I finally made it to Kolkata. The poor weather conditions in the Andamans caused the cancellation of the government ferries and it meant a 3am ferry ride that took four and a half hours to get us to Port Blair. Just my luck that I’d missed my flight in the morning to Kolkata from Port Blair and so, with the help of my travel agent, quickly organised for two more flights – one to Chennai from Port Blair and then another one to Kolkata once I’d got to Chennai. Fortunately when I got to Kolkata, getting to the hotel wasn’t as bad as it had been in Chennai and I arrived in a much better mood despite the constant travel.

After the seclusion of the Andaman Islands, Kolkata came as a bit of a shock to the system. Every person who knew I was heading to Kolkata said exactly the same thing, “there’s too many people in Kolkata”. Undoubtedly they were right. The entire city heaves with the sheer number of people walking the streets and driving around – the traffic still seems to flow unlike Bangalore though at the price of constant loud honking on the part of most motorists. As a pedestrian, you almost want to walk around with ear plugs to soften some of the noise.

I stayed quite close to Park Street, a place well known for its lively atmosphere and characters. It’s also well known by locals for having lots of tourists as the number of touts and hawkers demonstrate. As I walked around the New Market area just north of Park Street, easily eight or ten people in a period of half an hour approached me either trying to sell me “good hashish” or trying to persuade me to just look at their store. They normally come up to you and ask where are you from, and what are you doing, trying to build that rapport before trying to go into the hard sell. Others just confront you and ask you, “You want a good time? I have good stuff”. It’s frustrating when you’re just trying to get around from one place to another without being constantly distracted.

Kolkata is home to Mother Theresa and although I couldn’t find the place where she started her work, just down from Park Street is a memorial to the patron saint of this city. Other things worth doing include visiting the majestic grounds of the Victoria Memorial, the fairly large Indian museum, the Birla Planetarium (if you can get tickets), and a ride over the Howrah bridge – apparently one of the busiest bridges in the world connecting Kolkata to its sister city, Howrah.

Take a seat in the ever busy Flury’s offering delightful offerings ranging from pastries and freshly made continental food. Kolkata is also well known as the home to the first Indo-Chinese food (think Chinese food adapted to local Indian tastes) and plenty of Chinese restaurants offer this fusion food all over India now.

Find the pictures from my trip here.