Kolkata

We were awake and ready to get something to eat by about 8 am. While we waited for everyone to get ready I used the Steripen that I brought with us to sterilise some water. We have to be careful about what we eat and drink if we don't want to be affected by "Delhi belly", and need to be in close proximity to a toilet for a couple of days. We headed to McDonald's and were the first customers for the day. They were cleaning the front steps and had to get the front door unlocked so that we could go in. When we ordered we found that there was no hot water yet for tea or coffee, the only soft drink was Coke, and even that was unavailable so we had to have the juice boxes.

After breakfast we caught a taxi to Mother Therasa's House. This was where she lived with the other nuns in her order until her death in 1997. She was an amazing woman who did so much for the poor and suffering in Calcutta, and around the world. The nuns still live here and it is the headquarters of the order. Her tomb is on the ground floor, and there is a quite informative display in the large room next door. Her room has been kept as it was when she died and is also available for viewing.

When we left we got two taxis to the Victoria Monument. Taxis are only licenced to carry four passengers. We paid 100 rupees for each taxi and 4 rupees each for entrance to the gardens of the Victoria Monument. We hung around the steps and watched the Indian families taking their photographs, and we were asked several times if we could be in their photographs. For some reason they like to be photographed with Westerners. It is a massive building set in the massive parkland in the middle of Kolkata. After that we walked along the edge of the Maidan, a huge park right in the middle of Kolkata, looking at the number of games of cricket and other pastimes of the locals. We then decided to go and have a rest for a while back at the hotel. Around 4:30 pm I decided to go for a walk and was surprised to see that it was getting dark. Paula and I had dinner at a nice Indian restaurant - the Punj-aab, while the kids went to KFC. After dinner we went for a walk around some of the local streets that I had been around in the afternoon. There were lots of on the street food vendors, and those selling from their tiny shops. Every bit of space is used for something, and there is rubbish everywhere. It is impossible to find a rubbish bin. There is an area where they were doing recycling, and I have seen people going through garbage bags to get a variety of things that can be recycled. There were doorways, or buildings like garages that were stacked with bags of glass bottles. Others were stacked with neatly tied piles of cardboard, plastic bottles, cans and tins, and others where they were stacking car and truck tyres and rubber. Some of the food vendors had holes in the walls of their building throough which they stoked their fires for cooking. It must be terribly uncomfortable on a hot day. There are hand pumps every now and then along the street where people are coming for water. Some have tiles around them and people come for a variety of reasons. Some are there to fill bottles and buckets to take away, others are washing their cooking and eating utensils, while others are there to wash thenselves. There are lots of street people here.