When I arrived in Kathmandu I expected a "mountain kingdom" Switzerland of the East. I found "India light"' A real shock to me. The temples are amazing, my photos are interesting and picturesque, but the country was overwhelming to me. We loved the Hyatt for its opportunity to get back to normal "Western" atmosphere and its proximity to the Boudhanath Stupa. A wonderful trip but not what I expected.

Reading along and waiting to hear about India and Nepal from your prospective.

we are in india now--kolkata... i will write a bit about it tomorrow...

my cold is really making me drag..

Hope you feel better soon, Bob - Maybe K can come out of retirement and "nurse" you back to good health?

Looking forward to hearing about Kolkata...

a neighbor has just told us that there is a huge limb down in our back yard from the heavy snow... good to decorate when we get home for christmas..

Bob-Thought you might be interested to know that there is a state of emergency in MA due to heavy snow taking down power lines. If you dont like India, come back and help clean up this mess. I am in Seattle now, but I am returning on Tuesday. Hopefully the power will be restored by then.

Feel better Bob. I am also nursing a cold. Crazy weather all around the world. We had monsoon like rains in Florida this weekend and flooding on our streets. I've never seen anything like this weather pattern. We take the grandchildren to Connecticut next weekend. Would have liked snow then as they've never seen it. Enjoy your trip.

june, craig will keep some snow in his freezer for you in CT...

I had the days a little mixed up calling Sunday a Monday… combo of dumb and dumbness..

Anyways it is Monday here in Kolkata.

We enjoyed our time in Thailand, it was way tooo short as it always is. We made some new friends and enjoyed some old ones. We really missed seeing Tong and Pook and his gang. Our hearts go out to them as they begin the clean-up process as the waters recede.

Our last night was spent at the Pan Pacific Svc Apartments on soi 55, Sukhumvit. This is a really nice street (2 way) with a cross over at sukhumvit and a skytrain station. As I said before there are tons of nice shops and restaurants all along the street. It attracts the affluent of bkk. Our room was only $77 including tax/breakfast, using a special deal on one of the discount sites—like that deal at ROS last year. The room was comfortable, fresh and newish. We loved the little mall attached to it. There was a big grocery store, wine store and tons of little shops, not to mention a branch of Crepes and Co, one of our bkk favorites.

Before leaving for the airport we had a bite to eat in the gourmet shop on the ground level of the mall: onion soup for me and minestrone for K, plus we split a rich dense nut brownie.

Getting to the airport from there is a cynch… just go up to soi 63 which takes you quickly to the highway. We rode under the highway and avoided all the tolls. Our fare was 195 B and we got there in perhaps 20-25 minutes.

Kingfisher Air check-in was swift and easy as was immigration. Our flight departed from F-3 which was a long walk. The flight was less than ½ full.. We were in row 4, aisle and aisle. On-line check-in was easy 2 days before. The fare was $116 plus $65 tax, etc. each---senior rate booked on expedia in us dollars. Updates from expedia were excellent too when times changed slightly..
The flight was less than 3 hours flying over Burma and the ocean. Deplaning was quick and we were at a bus gate. We were quickly through immigration. AS I WAS TOLD IN THE USA I TOLD THE IMMIGRATION OFFICER THAT WE WOULD LEAVE INDIA FOR 5 DAYS IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR STAY, EVEN THOUGH OUR VISA WAS STAMPED THAT WE NEEDED TO BE OUTSIDE INDIA FOR 60 DAYS. SHE STARTED TO LECTURE ME ABOUT THE STAMP WHEN THE NEXT AGENT TOLD HER IT WAS NO PROBLEM AS NEPAL IS A NEIGHBORING STATE AND THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO TRAVELLING THERE.
She did not want to see our travel documents or plane tickets.

So the bottom line is that this situation is not a problem. I will report once again after we have done the deed.

The airport is very much a utilitarian kind of place. Nothing fancy or comfortable, and not very busy.

Our suitcases came out quickly. As we exited the area our rep from the hotel was the only one waiting with a sign, so that made it easy. He escorted us to a driver with a waiting SUV for the 30 minute ride to the salt lake city area of kolkata. On the way to the car I spotted a Citibank ATM, so I made a quick stop there. Our hotel is the upscale ITC Sonar by Sheraton 5*. It is a huge hotel. Our room is on the second floor of the club wing. You pass thru 3 security doors within the hotel to get to our wing. The hotel is designed around a central grassed and water area . There is a huge swimming pool where K is heading just now for much of the rest of the day. There is very much a leisure non crowded feel about the hotel. There are tons, and I mean tons, of help at this hotel.

Our room is large and comfortable with very good, unobtrusive, a/c. the bed is decent but not fab. There are at least 5 specialty restaurants. You judge the staff member’s importance by his/her manner of dress, and there must be 5 levels at least. Everyone is very kind and helpful, and all have excellent English.

The driver, Mr Nasik (tel: 9830800222) is a very nice 29 y.o. guy from K. His driving is careful and his English, while soft spoken, is excellent. The hotel charged us about $26 for the p/u. I would not arrive here in retrospect without a prearranged ride.

The drive from the airport took us thru some newly developed areas of the city, incl SLC where the hotel is located. We are a ways from the city center, but this is a built-up area too… I guess all of India is built-up when you think about it.. We have scheduled mr. nasik to be our driver on Tuesdasy when we tour the city. We are having a quiet day today while I recover a bit.

After check-in we were escorted to our room by a man from the concierge staff. The room is very nice. We have a garden view which is quiet and I think preferable. Outside is noisy and there is some construction. Our driver told us that this is currently the #1 hotel in town? When we ask directions, a staff member always takes you there rather than just pointing the way.

We unpacked a bit and settled in. We decided on the Peshawri Restaurant for dinner…. A man on a rope just appeared outside my window and swept the ledge. Quite honestly the windows need a washing far more!!

We started with a cracker with cracked pepper and mint and tomato sauce for dipping. We ordered oven roasted chicken pieces with an egg coating and the famous bukkara dahl dish for our dinner, with both garlic and butter naans. We sharred. We split a kulfhi “ice cream” for dessert. Perfect… but $60 which did not please me.

We slept well and did skype telephone and internet this morning before breakfast.

Let me speak briefly to skype telephone. It is fantastic, clear as a bell, and almost free. I loaded my account with $10 before leaving home, have made many usa calls and I still have $9 left. I will never buy a sim card again. My account will auto refill when the credit is running low—another $10 direct from my checking a/c.


Monday

Today dawned clear and sunny. We had a nice buffet breakfast (500 rp each extra--$10).
We are staying here on a starwoods SPG rate of 2800 pts plus $45. This is a steal for sure. I don’t remember the cost here but it has to be $200-300/nte. So this cheapskate is very pleased, even if the food is expensive.

I want to lay low for the day and see if I can shake this cold. It is already much better.
Tomorrow we will have the car for about 5 hours starting at 11AM (1500 rs=$30.). We will tour most of the main sites, but will not do any indepth touring as I really don’t feel all that great.

As I sit here on the 2nd floor (which they call 12 for some reason) I look across very green short cut grass and walks past a row of trees and palms to a row of terra-cota roofs next door. The roofs are sort of pagoda style with several levels and a slight downward curve to them. It is very pleasant from here because I know chaos is just beyond all of this.

At breakfast we spoke briefly to a Brit sitting near us. He is in the leather business and works with quality. PAY ATTENTION NICKY. I forget the brand name but for sure you know it… the retail is 150-300 pounds in the UK for most of the handbags. I thought nicky would be all over him if she were here. He apologized to K as he has no samples on this trip, unlike most times. An interesting conversation in any case.

Bob, as I said, you and I both had Bangkok cough. Mine is doing better now that I'm in Narita!

Glad you liked Pan Pacific. A bit off the beaten track for my taste though.

Bob, I am paying attention!! Maybe K will remember the name of the company. sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well, hope you shake it off soon.

I failed to note our ride from the airport to the hotel in any detail. Largely the population here is muslim and because of this there are not cows on every street.

I did note that it also seemed very dark as we rode along. There were lots of small stands along the roads and they are lit by a single candle usually. The roads were very bumpy, even when travelling thru newer areas. Huge malls are springing up everywhere.

The driver pointed out what he claimed to be the largest call center in India. BTW, we watched a movie before we left home called, CALL CENTER. Get it and enjoy. We found it so realistic of the western experience in India, with all the odd things that happen and amuse. We got it from Netflix.

K has returned from the pool after 3.5 hours. She says there was only one other person there.

As we walked around the extensive grounds we enjoyed seeing the huge coy fish in the ponds and also the serene looking pond houses with elaborate wood lattice work decoration. These little houses are filled with comfy sofas and chairs and have dual fans to move the air. A lovely area to sit and read and/or relax.

Ok ..todays corrections...No red sauce at dinner, just the nice mint sacue with the papdans. Also the movie name is OUTSOURCED. It is a riot for those of you who have been here. The name of the purse company is Rogert, or some name similar. In Nordies in the US, and "good" stores in UK. Lovely and quiet by the pool.

carol, my cough has turned into a full fledged cold. i am feeling better tonight.

glad you are starting to feel better. We watched outsourced before going to India and loved it. Curiously I never did see the head wagging while on India. Enjoy India. Very curious to hear about your experiences in Calcutta.

Great report so far -- glad to know part of Panda is in his favorite place.

Hope you get well soon -- it's awful to be sick away from home.

Delhi has a "no-cow rule" now. I wonder if Kolkata does as well?

"Largely the population here is muslim and because of this there are not cows on every street." Bob, I think you are confused about this.

Unlike what we expected, the weather here is very comfortable. Humidity, usually a problem here, seems almost absent. The temp was 27 C. It was very comfortable.

I feel much better tonight so we will hit the ground tomorrow mid-morning for a tour of the city for about 5 hours. We look forward to this.

Kathie spoke so highly about calcutta walks but we decided that we did not want anything that intense. Given the way i have been feeling, i think we have made a good decision.

We had a nice dinner tonight in the general restaurant. I had an 'indian' pizza with shrimp and chicken marsala. it was quite good. K has chicken strogonoff. Our waiter made us up two plates of both indian and western desserts from the buffet table. 1690rp.

Waiting for you to leave the hotel and report on Calcutta!

"I guess all of India is built up when you think about it"

Er, no. Some of India is profoundly rural, just try driving across Karnataka.

Glad your cold is better. I've been traveling with one too, no fun.

I agree with Kathie - a quick google shows Kolkata's Muslim population at around 20%, vs 13% for India as a whole.