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Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Tuesday, October 28, 2014 22:12:05

INDIA & BANGLADESH 2014: 11 From Khulna, Bangladesh to Bhubaneswar, India

Friday, October 24, 2014

Breakfast yesterday wasn't worth the effort, so we skipped it today – always an error for a traveller! The program sounded easy: "Transfer to the Benapole Border. After immigration and Custom formalities, walk to the India side. Meet our representative and drive to Kolkata (Calcutta)". As our pick up was at 8:30 AM it looked like we would arrive at our Kolkata hotel in time for lunch at 1 PM. Wrong!

The roads on both sides of the border were bad, increasing driving time to about 7 hours. Bangladesh formalities were quick, although no one warned us of a departure tax of 500 taka each. The India side was a nightmare – the line for immigration and customs was 2 to 3 hours each, in 35C (95F) degree heat.. It made for a long, very uncomfortable, hungry day, as it was too late to stop for lunch.

Sending us by this route was pure insanity. We were told there are several 45 minute flights a day from Khulna to Kokata, the first at 7:30 AM. Our guide & driver would have had an earlier start to return to Dhaka and two employees and a vehicle would not have needed to make a brutal trip to the border and back.

When we finally arrived at the very good Hindustan International Hotel, tired, hungry and sore, we got our gear to the room and immediately made full use of the bar before and during dinner!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

We were met by guide Partho, a historian who has his own business. Being Saturday, and the last day of the Diwali Festival there wasn't much traffic. There is a lot more to see in Kolkata than we imagined, even though we were here once before. Many tourists avoid the city, but it really is worth a visit.

According to Partho there are 47,000 buses and 80,000 tuk tuks in Kolkata, and a lot of rickshaws pulled by hand. Kali is the protective god of the city, and for the festival there are large statues of her all over the place. There is a lot of construction going on in the outskirts, and on a new overhead highway system in the city.

Calcutta was the capital of India until 1912 when it transferred to New Delhi. The population is about 16 million, 5 million of whom are Bangladesh refugees. Many can been seen living in tiny shelters on the sidewalks. Partho says in total there are 50 million of these refugees in India.

We visited the last home and current resting place of Mother Theresa, who built her Catholic "Missionaries of Charity" into an international organization with over 750 branches around the world. She arrived in Calcutta in 1928 and taught geography until 1950, then quit teaching to start her charity work, with no funding. We later found that three aunts of the maitre d' in the hotel dining room were among the first 12 volunteers to join her.

We then visited a spectacular Jain Temple started in 1867, where the grounds are dotted with statues. It is decorated with bits of broken ceramic and mirrors. The effect is dazzling. The Jain religion is a 599 BC offshoot of Hinduism, but it does not recognize the caste system or the millions of gods - it has only one. It respects all religions. Members are not permitted to kill any living thing, including insects.

An 1891 Buddhist Temple of the Maha Bodhi Society had a number of faithful in prayer before various statues of Buddha in different poses on the third floor of a downtown building.

At the famous Hogg market, a huge building with hundreds of individual stalls, Marilynn got to do some shopping! We stopped at a wine shop – half a glass in the hotel costs 860 rupees, a whole bottle of the same wine cost 505 rupees in the wine shop! Now that is a mark up! She also bought a table cloth.

A stop was made at the large 1847 St. John's Cathedral, and the Victoria Monument, built between 1905 and 1921 in honour of Queen Victoria, an enormous marble & granite building. We went into the cathedral, but didn't go into the Victoria memorial to see its 6 galleries. Apparently it takes about 6 hours to get through it. We opted for a walk around the beautiful grounds instead.

The British East India Company played a huge part in placing India under British rule. It was incorporated by special charter in 1600, then struck a deal with the Mughal Emperor in 1634 to trade in the Bengal area of India. Eventually it establishing its headquarters in Calcutta. In 1757 the company army defeated the Mughals and gradually established company rule over all India without British government involvement. It was a commercial fiefdom that did not rule locals kindly. In 1820 there was a cholera pandemic in India that killed 10,000 company soldiers, and all but 10% of the management of the company. By 1857 the company's private army numbered 280,000 men, however in that year there was a revolt of the troops (the Sepoy rebellion) and in 1858 the British government ended the company monopoly and stepped in to rule India. Company fortunes went down hill, and it was dissolved in 1874. India became an independent dominion in 1947.

On the banks of the Ganges River statues from the Diwali holiday were being immersed in the river, as were pilgrims. Bodies are not cremated on the river banks and set adrift in the river any longer. A large cleaning crew were on hand to clean up after the celebration. Kolkata is cleaner than it was the last time we were here.

Back at the hotel we had a couple of beer before a big meal in the Oriental Restaurant, which was superb. We have become favourites of the staff, and were looked after royally.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

It was a morning off - I used it on the computer and Marilynn got a hair cut. At 1 PM we went to the train for the 7 hour trip to Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state of Odisha. This is one of the ancient temple cities of India, which once had over 1,000 temples according to Wikipedia. It was founded over 3,000 years ago.

The modern city was designed by a German city planner in 1946. It became the Odisha state capital after Indian Independence. The metropolitan area population is about 1.5 million. As it is only 45 meters (148 ft) above sea level, it is hot. There is a lot of expansion in the city in IT and other businesses, plus there are 2 universities, four medical colleges and more than a dozen technology or other colleges.

There is a huge difference in first class trains in India. The one from Amritsar was great, this one was shabby, poorly maintained, dirty and smelly. There was so much dirt on the windows it was difficult to see out. An Indian fellow sitting across from me asked the attendant if this was really first class, and when assured it was, packed up his belongings and left the train. His seat had a window that was possible to see through, so I sat there until it was claimed by a passenger from another stop. The electric train was fast, with very few stops on the route. Complementary meals and drinks were accompanied by a bottle of wine in a soda water bottle.

Both guide and driver met us at the train door in Bhubaneswar, quickly taking charge of our belongings and transporting us to another Hindustan Hotel, smaller than the Kolkata version but nice. The room was great, and bar prices a bargain compared to Kolkata - white wine from 860 rupees per half glass to 300 for a full one, a big bottle of Tuborg beer from 350 to 200 and Chevis Regal 12 year scotch from 450 to 250.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Today was a temple tour. According to our guide there were more than 7,000 temples in Bhubaneswar, 259 of which are left. All are covered in very intricate carvings of various sizes. Here is a brief temple summary.

PARA SURAMESVARA was built in the 7th century, by the king of a very prosperous kingdom, and a great supporter of religion and the arts. It was a complex of several temples in regular use.

SIDDHESVARA is a 10th century temple complex. Most of these temples have a similar design- an entrance hall, then the prayer room with the linga and a priest. Here candles or incense are burning. The faithful pray, and water is poured on the linga. I had a blessing in this one, for which a donation is expected.

SWARNA JALESUPRNA – Similar – most are a complex of 5 temples, the main one as described above, another for dancing, another for meetings.

LINGARAJ – This was built in the 11th century, a very impressive complex of 52 temples built on 8 acres (3.25 ha). The largest temple is 55 meters (180.5 ft) high. My feet were starting to get sore!

BRAHMESVARA – Built in 1060 by the wife of the king, with a number of very erotic carvings on the outside. She must have been an interesting lady, one of the first porn publishers.

RAJARANI – An 11th century construction whose sponsor died just as it was completed, so it was never consecrated to Shiva, as was intended. It is now a monument to the person who commissioned the building.

After a good lunch in a local restaurant we visited two adjoining cave complexes, occupied from the first century until the 11th. The Udayagiri has 18 caves, and Khandagiri has 15. The area is overrun with Langur monkeys who happily run among people, including a full film crew, with actors and equipment. Marilynn took hundreds of photos of the monkeys with babies and with each other. They also bum food from people.

The caves have prehistoric art in them that is completely unprotected, the sort of thing found in prehistoric caves in various places, with primitive likenesses of animals. One cave complex has an early intercom – when standing inside a the cave dwelling at one end of the complex the voice of a person talking normally inside another about 50 meters (164 ft) away can be heard clearly.

On the way to and from the caves we passed through the district of the government administration buildings, including the residence of the state governor. His humble home has 160 rooms.

Marilynn is very concerned about the cleanliness of our overnight train to Raipur, which we are told is likely to be as dirty as the one from Kolkata, and I am concerned about the fact that is impossible to buy all four berths in a cabin. I'm not keen on having to sleep with one eye open to watch our valuables. I phoned Amit at Bestway, who promptly made alternate arrangements – an evening flight to Kolkata, a night in an airport hotel and a morning flight to Raipur. I said book it, but when I went over it with Marilynn she was not happy with the more complicated arrangements, so phoned Amit to cancel. I guess we'll see about the train shortly!