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This past weekend we had decided to check out the city of Calcutta/Kolkata which is in West Bengal. We headed out of Bangalore by plane and arrived there early Friday evening and boy was it hot!! We headed to our (thankfully air conditioned) hotel to get a good night’s sleep in order to fully appreciate our limited number of days in the city. Here how it all went down...
Saturday
Breakfast was a quick snack of parathas and veg curry then it was off for our whirlwind tour of Calcutta. We headed to Victoria Memorial, which is one of the main places to visit in Calcutta and spent the morning wandering around the grounds and taking lots of nice pictures. Then, feeling the hunger arrive, we tried to find a restaurant and had a lot of difficulty! Thankfully a really friendly Bengali guy, named Raj, helped us out and showed us where a couple of nice restaurants were, and even showed us a nice jewellery shop on the way! We had a good, quiet lunch and then thought we’d check out this jewellery store. Good thing we did as we found the perfect replacement engagement ring for Jenny! We had been looking for quite some time and went through more than a couple disappointing experiences, but at last we had found the right ring at the right place! The size was perfect and everything! After, we decided to take walk along the river, see the famous Howrah Bridge and take the famous Calcutta Tram. Even though it seemed as though we did next to nothing, it was a full day! We went back to the hotel and went out for a nice Bengali dinner of Bekti fish and jumbo prawns and off to bed!
Sunday
We decided to check out the “New Market” and headed there first thing in the morning. To our dismay, most places were closed and we ended up being followed around by a bunch of people who wanted to take us to their shop to be ripped off on their merchandise but we decided to avoid that! We saw the meat section of the market, and that was pretty interesting (and a bit smelly). We went to a kind of fancy hotel to have a bite to eat (and benefit from the air conditioning of course) then went to hop on the tram, again. We met some incredibly nice people on the tram: one completely insane (but friendly) passenger and the driver and conductor of the tram who just wanted to take many pictures with their “little sister”, Jenny. Everything else that we tried to visit that morning was closed, as it was a Sunday, so we spent a lot of time going from place to place being meet with closed gates. So we asked around and people told us that the Calcutta Botanical Garden was surely open, so we headed there. Thank goodness it was open... We had a bite to eat in a little hole in the wall restaurant (the only one near the botanical garden) which was quite nice and when they saw Jenny’s frazzled state they turned on the AC, just for us. We then paid an astronomical amount to take an electric golf cart ride around the garden (for Indians: 25 rupees, foreigners: 250 rupees!!). It turned out to be worth it as the garden was huge and it started to pour rain during the trip, so we were well covered! We saw a 255 year old Banyan tree and many other interesting plants and it was a nice little rest from the hustle and bustle of the busy city. After the garden, Jenny was being a baby as she wanted ice cream, so we found a place on MG Road that served ice cream and then spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around the many side streets of the city. We then took a taxi to our last hotel of the trip, way out of the city near the airport and had dinner in a crappy restaurant - one of the only ones we could find in the area! – and went to bed early as we had booked a taxi for the next day at 5 am! Once at the airport the next morning, it turned out that we hadn’t left enough time and we had to rush, rush to get our flight. Unfortunately the lines to check in and at the security were REALLY long and it was tough, but we just made it before they closed the flight! We headed back to Bangalore thinking that Kolkata/Calcutta is a pretty great city and, maybe next time, we’d like to stay a little longer!
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Le week end dernier, on est alle visiter la ville de Calcutta (Kolkata) dans la region West Bengal. On est parti de Bangalore par avion et on est arrive la-bas vendredi en debut de soiree... Quelle chaleur en arrivant !
On s'est de suite dirige vers notre hotel (heureusement climatise) pour passer une bonne nuit de sommeil pour pouvoir apprécier nos quelques jours sur place.
On s'est de suite dirige vers notre hotel (heureusement climatise) pour passer une bonne nuit de sommeil pour pouvoir apprécier nos quelques jours sur place.
Samedi
Pour le petit dejeuner, on s'est arrete dans un petit resto pour y manger des parathas avec un curry aux legumes. On est ensuite alle au Victoria Memorial, l'un des endroits le plus visite de Calcutta, ou on y a passe toute la matinee.
Pour le dejeuner, on a eu beaucoup de difficultes pour trouver un restaurant! Heureusement, un jeune homme bien sympathique, Raj, nous a guide et nous q montre ou l'on pouvait trouver 2 / 3 resfaurants, et nous a meme montre une jolie bijouterie sur la route. Grace a lui, on a trouve une parfaite nouvelle de bague de fiancailles pour Jenny. On en cherchait une depuis longtemps et on est meme passe par des experiences tres decevantes, mais finalement on a trouve la parfaite bague au parfait endroit !
Ensuite, on s'est ballade le long de la riviere jusqu'au fameux pont Howrah puis on apris le célèbre tramway de Calcutta. Meme si ca en pas l'air comme ca, c'etait une journee bien complete !
On est enfin alle dans un tres bon resto bengali ou on y a mange du poisson appele Bekti et des gambas.
Dimanche
On a commence notre journee par le marche New Market. Malheureusement, quasiment tous les magasins etaient fermes. Tout le long de notre ballade, on etait suivi par deux ou trois personnes qui insistaient pour qu'on aille faire un tour dans leur magasin... Ce qu'on a evite de faire! On a vu la partie du marche ou ils vendent la viande: c'etait tres interressant quoiqu'un peu difficile au niveau des odeurs, surtout tot le matin.
Puis, on est alle prendre notre petit dejeuner dans un hotel assez luxieux (climatise!). En prenant le tramway, on a rencontre des gens super sympas: un mec un peu fou (mais sympa) et le conducteur et le controleur qui voulaient prendre plein de photos avec leur "petite soeur" Jenny.
Tout ce qu'on voulait visiter ensuite etait ferme (dimanche). In a donc passe beaucoup de temps a aller d'un endroit a un autre pour se retrouver devant des portes fermees.
En demanadant autour de nous, on nous a afait savoir que le jardin botanique de Calcutta etait certainement ouvert, on est donc alle las-bas. Avant d'entrer dans le parc, on a dejeuner dans un petit restqurant qui ressemblait plus a un trou dans un mur, le seul dans les parages. La nourriture y etait tres bonne et le personnel tres sympa. En voyant Jenny arriver, ils ont meme mis wn marche la clim juste pour nous.
Une fois dans l'immense jardin, on a paye un montant astronomique pour en faire le tour dans un vehicule electrique (indiens: 25 roupies / etrangers: 250 roupies! ). Le jardin etait tellement grand que ca valait quand meme le coup... Et il commencer a pluvioter legerement.
On a vu un arbre Banyan de 255 ans et plusieurs autres plantes interressantes. Ca faisait egalement su bien de s'eloigner un petit peu de la ville.
Apres le jardin, jenny a fait un petit caprice parce qu'elle voulaut de la glace. On a trouve un endroit sur MG road pour satusfaire ses envies. Puis on a passe l'apres-midi a se promener dans les nombreuses petites rues de la ville.
Puis on a pris un taxi pour se rendre dans notre dernier hotel de notre petit voyage, loin de la ville mais proche de l'aeroport. Notre dernier repas s'est passe dans tout petit resto tres moyen (le seul qu'on a pu trouver dans le quartier). On est finalement alle se coucher pas trop tard etant donne que notre taxi venait nous chercher le lendemain a 5 h du matin.
Une fois a l'aeroport le lendemain matin, on a du se depecher pour attrapper notre vol. Une heure pour passer la securite etait un peu juste. On est finalement rentre sur Bangalore en se disant que Calcutta est une super ville mais que la prochaine fois, on aimerait y rester un peu plus longtemps.
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