Goodbye Kolkata, Hello Hyderabad

Kolkata is just a dirty, loud, incredible memory now as Graeve and I are about halfway through the 2hr spicejet flight back to Hyderabad. The rest of the class arrived at either 4am or 8am today, some coming from the States and others from a few day layover in Dubai. Hyderabad will be a vacation after the last couple of days; however, I know we'll miss the excitement and adventure of our time in Kolkata.

I was told that Northeastern India, and Kolkata in particular, was an incredibly welcoming and friendly place. It's tough to feel welcome in a city of 20 million people, but everyone we came across did their best to help us fit in. Apart from some beggars and street vendors, i rarely felt hassled and never cheated. Of course everything we bought from taxi rides to soda's came with a foreigner's premium but bargaining is the norm here, and it's often hard to haggle over a few rupees when you're already paying a tenth of what you'd see at home.

People on the street in Kolkata were always willing to help, and when we got lost, as we often were, a few would even walk a block or two or get on a bus with us just to make sure we found our way. On the way to the Pareshnath Jain Temple yesterday, one of these impromptu guides even paid the 4 rupee bus fare for us as we were obviously two cramped and disoriented on the tight bus to locate the change ourselves. We ademently refused (I slipped the money in his shoulder bag as we got off), still it's incredible to think that in a city this large and bustling someone would be willing to do that for two complete strangers.

There're some new photos in the gallery from the last 24 hours including a stop at the Victoria Memorial and a snake charmer/handler we met on the way back to the hostel this morning. I heard once that snakes can strike from a distance away as long as their body length. I didn't get a chance to hold this one to a yard stick but I'm pretty sure I was too close.