Notes on Travel, Part 6
12:55 AM 9/20/2005 Kolkata (Calcutta) Time
Woah. At long last (something like 36 hours of travel), we finally made it to India. Stepping off the plane, the first thing that hits is the humidity— not quite as stifling as Singapore was, but almost. The second thing that hits is just how many people there are running around here. At 11:30 at night, the drive to our hotel was a death-defying high-speed chase down narrow roads while dodging around pedestrians, taxies, bicycles, buses, and the occasional cow. The sidewalks were packed, shops were still open, there were apartment buildings of all sorts, sizes, and states of repair everywhere we looked. There were at least five specific instances where we came within two inches of other cars. There was no evidence of painted lane markers, traffic signs or lights, etc. Oh yeah— they drive on the left hand side of the road here. All in all, it was a ton of fun, if a bit harrowing. What was really weird was when we got to our hotel, which is a new-ish Hyatt. Inside, except for the Hindi and Bengali television channels, and odd electrical outlets, you'd never guess you were in a foreign country. All in all, my body and mind are both very confused about what's going on right now, so now that I've had a nice hot shower to clean off several days worth of airport, I think I'm going to bed.
Woah. At long last (something like 36 hours of travel), we finally made it to India. Stepping off the plane, the first thing that hits is the humidity— not quite as stifling as Singapore was, but almost. The second thing that hits is just how many people there are running around here. At 11:30 at night, the drive to our hotel was a death-defying high-speed chase down narrow roads while dodging around pedestrians, taxies, bicycles, buses, and the occasional cow. The sidewalks were packed, shops were still open, there were apartment buildings of all sorts, sizes, and states of repair everywhere we looked. There were at least five specific instances where we came within two inches of other cars. There was no evidence of painted lane markers, traffic signs or lights, etc. Oh yeah— they drive on the left hand side of the road here. All in all, it was a ton of fun, if a bit harrowing. What was really weird was when we got to our hotel, which is a new-ish Hyatt. Inside, except for the Hindi and Bengali television channels, and odd electrical outlets, you'd never guess you were in a foreign country. All in all, my body and mind are both very confused about what's going on right now, so now that I've had a nice hot shower to clean off several days worth of airport, I think I'm going to bed.
posted by steve | 12:26 AM
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