Hotel Heaven

Well we are here after 20+ hours of travel, 1 coach, 2 planes, 1 4x4 and suitably ensconced in our hotel, the Hotel Heaven. The first thing that came as a shock was the heat, at 8am this morning it was 28 degrees Centigrade. The second thing was when they say sharing a room, they also mean sharing a bed! Fortunately we found that the sofa turned into a bed but not so fortunate for Peter, Sam and Michael as there are three of them in the same room. Well, it’s a good way to get to know your fellow travellers I guess.

Like any big city Kolkata is hectic and like many cities in the developing world it is a contrast of poverty and construction. You can see the rampant Indian economy at work and you get a glimpse of the culture that despite all that wealth, has many thousands of people living beyond the poverty line; we have already witnessed families living on the pavement; and seen shanties made of all manner of materials existing in the shadow of a new development of luxury apartments. But I have promised to keep an open mind to all I see and experience, who am I to cast any judgement on things I don’t understand, or to cast any judgement at all? Today as we haven’t had any sleep we are “acclimatising” which for Paul and I was watching the cricket in our air conditioned room, well Paul watched the cricket, I fell asleep.