Kolkata welcomed me to India

I arrived in Kolkata at 11pm. After I got my checked bag, I got a cab ride into town to my hotel. I got checked in and to bed by 1am. This was after 22 hours of traveling and a 11 1/2 hour time-zone change.

Kolkata (previously named Calcutta) was the former capital of British India prior to the move to Dehli in the early 1900's. The city is a crumbling colonial capital, with some things new, and a few things ancient, but mostly crumbling colonial era buildings and infrastructure.

Kolkata is located in the northeast corner of the main body of India, just south of the Tropic of Cancer. It is warm and humid. The streets are crowded with people, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, taxis, buses and trolleys. Most cars and taxis honk their horns almost continuously.

The sidewalks are the home for many homeless people, who sleep on the sidewalks at night and try to scratch out a living during the day. The sidewalks are clogged with food vendors and vendors of just about everything else as well. There are several chai tea vendor on the sidewalks of most blocks, and vendors of a variety of stir fried or deep fried foods. The food often smelled great, but the sanitary conditions of the preparation area mostly discourages me from eating much of it.

Many people can speak some English, but it is often limited, and with a heavy accent. Few of the conversations that I overhear are in English.

I am staying at the Broadway Hotel, a modest mid-range hotel. A double room with private bath is 530 Rupees a night (about $12). The hotel has a restaurant in it. I had breakfast, and I was the only person in the room with about 50 tables. After a day of wandering the streets and alleys of Kolkata, I came back to my hotel, and the restaurant was packed with men (no women) who were drinking mostly, and eating a bit, and talking loudly. It was a friendly and boisterous crowd.

Kolkata is a friendly city that feels safe and friendly. Many of the people in the town are Hindus who were displaced from Pakistan and Bangladesh after the partitioning at the end of the British colonial era, and from the subsequent wars.

Tonight, I will take the night train north towards Darjeeling.

The motorcycle riders often do not wear helmets, and those that do, mostly wear helmets that look like construction hardhats.