April 15h to April 17th Kolkata

Kolkata is too hot. We spent 3 days in Kolkata (Calcutta) and the hot temperatures defeated us. It was too hot to walk anywhere and we couldn't wander around Kolkata to see the architecture. We took cabs to visit the highlights. Some afternoons we went back to the hotel just to relax in the air conditioning,

The streets of Kolkata teem with life and everywhere seemed to have large crowds of people. We were having coffee one morning, watching the people go by, when I just had to photograph the people. For an hour I took pictures of everyone who walked by, Only 2 people stopped to ask what I was during and only the religious people asked for money. At night the crowds got bigger and the street vendors set up on all the sidewalks. In dark spots people lay down on the sidewalks to sleep. People had to walk on the roads but the trucks, cars and motorbikes did not slow down. The horns honked constantly until I couldn't tell who was honking. Joan was fortunate to take out her hearing aids since the honking went on until 1 AM and kept me awake,

Belur Math temple

Laundry Man

Darshinewar Temple

We visited the Victoria monument, an impressive building and well maintained park, One afternoon we visited a temple called Belur Math. The drive there and back was an education. Going. it seemed to be constant slums for 12 km. We visited the temple until sunset. The way back there were vendor's stalls every inch of the way. The crowds really come out after dark.