On Deathbeds in Kolkata

We took off from Bangkok at 5 in the morning heading due west. The final destination was the mystique land of India!! Stepping out of the airport it felt like we had been thrown back about 60 years. The Indians must have fallen in love with the 1948 Studebaker Coupe, because all of their cars follow that model. Also, in line with a few generations ago, Indian motorists have an obsession with their horns. It seems that they can not live more than five seconds without honking. The noise really can get annoying, because it seems as if they will honk at anything on the road that moves. I suppose I will eventually get used to all the racket.

Kolkata (Calcutta--former name) it turns out is one of the most impoverished cities in all of India. The streets are lined with homeless people. Our hostel is only a few steps away from the neighborhood bathing pump. Every morning groups of people fill their buckets with dirty pump water and splash it all over themselves, the sidewalk, and the roads.

We spent our second day in Kolkata walking around the city seeing the sights and enjoying the hot, unbearable weather. I had my first go at the game of cricket. I was interupting a match, so they only gave me one bowl. I put together a beautiful baseball swing, but I quickly found that baseball skills are not quickly transferable to cricket. We did sit and watch a little bit. Our minds were boggled as we struggled to comprehend what was happening and in the end we found that we didn't quite have the intellectual capacity to understand, but maybe someday. Line upon line when it comes to Indian culture.

We did see the Victoria Memorial. It is a bit of a mix between the Taj Mahal and St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome (at least according to the Lonely Planet travel guide). I couldn't really figure out what the purpose in building it was, because it looks like it woul be better used as a house for the rich, but it turns out that it is a museum to remember all of the great things the British did when they were here. Either way they definately need to invest in some air conditioning units.

We went to some other museums and places of interest. For much of the day we were followed by beggars asking for money. The beggars here are pretty demanding. They don't seem to settle for anything less than 100 rupees, if you give them anything less, they consider it an invitation to tag along even longer and a guarantee that they will be getting more.

After a couple days here, Chad and I felt that we were doing pretty well physically speaking. We had heard of many travellers getting sick and having trouble with the Indian food, but thanks to our vast experience travelling and our incredible ability to adjust to new surroundings, we were getting along just fine. Then one night, settling down for some rest, it hit. Our bowels became as loose as Jared Fogle's (Subway spokesman) pants. Vomit shot up our throats. We spent the entire night in the insect-infested bathroom with spurts of sleep sandwiched between long fights with our stomachs. In the end, we lost the battle and the entire next day we layed in bed moaning, tossing, and turning. We watched TV and debated over who felt worse. The illness has not quite been overcome, but things are definately looking better.

Kolkata, India, thanks only to the novelty and cool cars, gets a 6 of 10.