Just watched an ABC story on 'smog' there.  Disaster in the making,  Yes, rampant lung problems soon.  When I was last there,  I was actually chewing the atmosphere,  it had substance.  You could feel the grit on your teeth.

Bet you're like a kid in a candy shop 

rhino wrote on Jan 5^th, 2019 at 8:47pm:


No turds on the ground and full of hot women

Damn - I was hoping to do Tibet this year... pretty restricted by the Chink 'owners'... might have to settle for Kathmandu..... but I like Tibet...

i was in Nepal in 81. Fascinating place.

rhino wrote on Jan 5^th, 2019 at 10:55pm:


Not enough rickshaws for my liking.

rhino wrote on Jan 6^th, 2019 at 11:23am:


Oh, I know.

Honk if you're horny, Honky!

Oh, one more. I'm going back to Kolkata another time, but getting in late.

You can't book the Aafreen online and I don't want to stuff around, so I find their number and make a long-distance call to book. They book me the room, but say, just call a couple of days earlier to confirm.

?

Anyway, it's a couple of days earlier. I plan to get into Kolkata at 1am, and unlike every other major city in the world, it closes down at 10pm. Hotel boys sleep in the reception, cops go home, and the rickshaw pullers take the opportunity to sleep on Park Street.

I'm in KL, so I find a place that sells international calls to Kolkata. I call the Aafreen. Language problems. He says it's booked out. What about my booking? The phone goes dead.

Now I don't want to be sleeping on Park Street, so I book a cheap place online and try my luck.

I get to Kolkata at about 12.30. It's dead, little lumps of people in blankets and sleeping dogs on the footpaths. After an hour of looking, I find my cheap hotel. It's dead too. I shout into the dark and wake someone up. A fat, balding silhouette shouts from inside. Booking for tomorrow! Yes, I say, but it is now tomorrow! He says, no, in India, it is today! I say, who cares? You've got the room, just let me in to sleep and I'll pay you! No, you go! But where can I go? That is not my problem!

I yell for a bit, then realise it's a complete waste of time. It's his property. It's his law.

It's now 1.30. I walk around looking for hotels. The rickshaw pullers don't want my business now. I walk past the Aafreen. Closed. So much for that. Finally, at 2am, after some help from a street guy, I find a place at the back of some alley way, up some stairs. Another half-room. Dirty sheets, a bin full of rubbish, a black fan making industrial noises and wires everywhere. There's rat sht on a window ledge, but no glass in the window. Cardboard, I think, but the flywire's black with dust, so you can't tell.

I take it. This time, they pay off the street guy (but take it out of my bill), a win-win.

I wake up at 6am, sweating. The room's a sauna, I have to get out. I pay, get some tea on the street somewhere, but can't think. If I try to catch a train out, I'll have to deal with the ticket queues at Howrah Station and the ticket sellers telling me to go from one booth to another because I'm a foreigner and I need a foreigner ticket and no one ever knows where to go to get one, if they have any left. I can't deal with that.

I decide I'll need a place to stay tonight. There's no way I'll stay at the fat silhouette's place, even though he's got my money. I can't imagine the Aafreen will have any beds, but I give it a go.

Yes, beds they have. One person? Passport? Oh - you booked a room last night. What happened? We were waiting for you.

Yes, friends, Kolkata. Just when you think you are done, there is always another story.