Calcutta 2004

Our real reason for travelling to Calcutta was for Neela and Ste's wedding, but we did have some time to explore and experience Calcutta during our one week stay.

This was our first trip and I'm sure we'll return. We found Calcutta to be a very intense place, very polluted (it makes London feel clean), but very friendly. Being one of only a few white faces in a City makes you stand out somewhat, and many people came up to us and introduced themselves (and sometimes their somewhat reluctant families), and we often walked along to the sounds of "Hello Madam, How are you?". The staring can be annoying, but is something that is just going to happen, and can be helped by dressing appropriately.

We did a lot of shopping - mainly to buy clothes and accessories for the wedding, but also for warm clothes as (typically) Calcutta was having it's coldest spell for 35 years and Calcutta is not a city designed for cold weather.

We managed to spend a few days doing touristy things. One day we had a pleasant walk across the Maidan to Eden Gardens and to the James Prinsep memorial. Another day we went to Belur Math (the headquarters of the Ramakrishna mission. Ramakrishna preached that all religions should be united. The building has 3 facades - one representing a church, one a temple and the other a mosque [no photography allowed]) and Dakshineswar Kali Temple (the temple where Ramakrishna was a priest). And on other days we visited the Victoria Memorial (an incredibly clean reminder of the British Raj which houses an interesting exhibition about the European colonisation of India) and also the Botanical Gardens (which contain plants from different corners of the globe).

All in all a really interesting trip. Of course the highlight was the wedding, but the rest of our time was enjoyable too - and we found India to be somewhere we'd like to return one day.

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Eden Gardens - Burmese Pagoda	Eden Gardens - Burmese Pagoda Detail	James Prinsep Memorial - and Cricket	James Prinsep Memorial - and Cricket II
Street Traders	Street Traders II	Dakshineswar Kali Temple - stalls	Dakshineswar Kali Temple II
Dakshineswar Kali Temple III	Calcutta Street Scene	Bangle shop	Dominos pizza
Men at rest	Laden Bike	Milk booth	An Ambassador car
A line of Ambassadors	Road Safety Week	Tree Painting I	Tree Painting II
Victoria Memorial I	Victoria Memorial II	Victoria Memorial III	Victoria Memorial IV
Victoria Memorial V	Men at work	Victoria Memorial VI	Watering the flowers
Resurfacing the paths	Botantical Gardens I	Botantical Gardens II	Botantical Gardens III
Botantical Gardens IV	Botantical Gardens V	Outside the Victoria Memorial	Victoria Memorial VII
Richard	Victoria Memorial VIII	Picnic	Knife sharpening
Typical shop	Shopkeeper	No Horn	Sweet shop

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