Obviously, we're now in India. The last day and a half in Bangkok was hot and reasonably uneventful -- more wandering around, a fruitless search for a replacement kindle (I sat on mine, or some such idiocy, on our second day in Thailand. Phooey.), and a slightly sick and therefore grumpy Elaine. I'm fine now, it wasn't anything serious, but it's no fun being sick in a strange place, especially when it's sweltering and one feels the need to continue doing tourist things instead of recuperating. Ah, well.
I wanted to write a post about my overall impressions of Thailand, but this is not that post -- I'm pretty much totally overwhelmed by impressions of India, instead. I don't have many pictures (we only took a few today and haven't uploaded those yet), but I do have a few from our hotel last night.
So, Kolkata is pretty much everything you've heard about India. There are hordes of people everywhere at all hours, shuffling along or just standing. The cars seem unable to drive without using a horn, which does approximately nothing, because people just walk at random among moving vehicles. Some roads, including some big ones, don't have lane markers. Cars organize themselves vaguely into lanes, with motorcycles weaving in and out. There are rickshaws, some auto, some cycle, and some with just a guy walking, pulling this huge contraption behind him. There is poverty and beggars, of course, but it's actually not as bad as we expected. We're likely not seeing the worst of it, but what's here is not as in-your-face as it's portrayed generally. Still, there are professional beggars -- today, when we were sitting on a park bench, two young girls, maybe 11 or 12, came up and demanded money. When we said no, they kept at it, asking for candy and then eventually switching to Hindi to perhaps berate us? I don't know. In any case, we declined until they walked away, but it was a very strange encounter.
There are also few street signs, and those that exist switch freely between old (colonial) and new street names, which is highly confusing. We had a difficult time finding our hotel last night, and eventually, an Indian kid told us he'd walk us there, in exchange, of course, for money. It was late and we were tired, so we agreed. Ugh. Weird encounter.
Our hotel...well, we're glad we only stayed there last night. It was adequate, but very strange. There was a weird range of "amenities" -- they very proudly told us that the room had hot water (though when we got to the room, it turned out that this was less helpful than we would've liked, as it didn't connect to the shower spout), there was a local phone and a small tv, but there was no screen on the window, and gross blankets. There was a window to the hallway, which had lights on all night. There was also a less-than-comforting sign on our door, which you can see below. On the other hand, they had a locked storage room where we kept our bags, and the bathroom was, at least, private. Oh, the things that seem like benefits here...
We also had a hellish time finding a sim card for the phone. One needs a passport and visa, and also proof of local address (which we didn't have in printed form). Mu found a place that was willing to take his word for it, but then they had to take photos of him, and led him down a back alley to sign lots of paperwork. The whole process took about 30 minutes! But, we have a sim card, so huzzah!
Tonight, we leave for Darjeeling, which I think (hope?) will be calmer. Certainly, it's hard to imagine anything being crazier. For all that Thailand is officially considered a "developing country," like India, they are really not very much alike.
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