January 30th - Making the most of it

We present ourselves at breakfast on the dot of seven. The buffet is not yet laid out but we are offered toast to go with our black tea, and a choice of eggs. R thinks that omelets will be quickest and they are ordered. All done and dusted by 7.20 and we leg it to the aforementioned Information Kiosk. All shuttered up and no sign of a boat. Back to the hotel who tell us that the only way to get to the bird sanctuary is by speedboat at 7,500 rupees and that it is not worth going without a Forest Department permit. This place really is the pits. We adjourn to our cottage in a huff. We seem to have goofed by booking  here in the hope of getting in some decent bird watching. Even worse there doesn't seem to be much else to do. It is resolved not to spend a third day and night here.

It will be necessary to come up with Plan B. As a first step we decide to take a walk along the coast to the north. The morning is rather hazy and the temperature quite pleasant for a stroll. 

The road is under construction along with some basic sea defences. Pink tourists are very clearly a novelty in these parts. There is a bit less litter but clear evidence along the road side that Mr Modi has not yet been here to build a latrine. The village temple is a very colourful place devoted to Lord Jaganath. Locals suggest that we enter but we are not really up for it and point at our shoes. On a palm branch by the temple there is a Brahminy kite and on a telegraph pole we see a bright yellow Black Hooded Oriole.

The road continues beyond the village to a set of substantial guarded gates. There are modern buildings and well tended gardens inside but no indication as to what the place is. The guard notices us rubber necking and slams the gate shut. We don't care. There is a side track that looks like it does a loop through the fields and we take that. The only interesting bird is an unidentified thrush like thing but there are some large and colourful insects to entertain us. The sun has burnt off the haze by now and it is getting distictly warm. We walk back through the village towards the hotel.

As we arrive back at the harbour complex we notice a stand on the north jetty for the local Boatmen's Union. There is not much English spoken and we don't even know which language the locals are speaking but one chap tells us that we can get a boat to Nalbana Island this afternoon for 800 rupees each. At least we think that's what he told us.  We say that we will return this afternoon but right now we are desperate for a cup of tea and find one in the hotel restaurant where breakfast seems to have overrun. 

For us the temperature has now hit hot and A/c beckons. There is blog to be updated and some admin to attend to in order to initiate Plan B. R opts for a snooze. D phones Mangalajodi to see if they have a vacancy for tomorrow but we are out of luck. Instead we opt for an extra day in Bhubaneswar but at a hotel that is not the Grand Central. D breaks the news of our early departure to reception who do not seem surprised or put out. They promise to sort out a cab for us. When R wakes up we head for the north jetty. This morning's English speaker is nowhere to be seen. After a bit of mutually incomprehensible chat it becomes clear that we need to return to the main jetty where there is another Boatmen's Union counter. D makes a note to send R to Odia classes if we decide to come back here.

We retrace our steps under the blazing sun and find the counter, a sort of flimsy gazebo construction. The two seated men do not admit to any English but D ploughs on regardless. 'Boat to Nalbana? Two people, possible?' Yes. 'How much?' Fifteen thousand comes the reply. 'No thanks.' We walk away feeling even more hacked off. 'Wait sir' One of the Boat Union chaps is pursuing us. 'Fifteen hundred sir' This sounds more like it. Back at the counter we check the details. Two people, Nalbana Island, three hours. It's a deal. They even have change for a 2,000 note. Our pursuer walks us back to the north jetty, tapping us for a tip on the way.  Given that he made the effort to chase us D slips him a small note.

 At the north counter our details are taken and we are delivered into the care of the skipper of boat number 16. He runs off to get a pair of life jackets, camouflage pattern,  very new and shiny but a trifle on the small side. There is a short walk to the boat which is quite sizeable and mainly dry inside. It has raised points at both ends and looks very similar to the fishing boats that we have seen. The only difference is that ours carries a framework to support the plastic tarpaulin that acts as a sunshade. We make ourselves comfy on a thwart and watch the ship's boy cast off and punt us out into clear water. The skipper fires up the outboard motor and sets a course to the east. On the water the temperature is very pleasant . Every now and then there is something in the water ahead,  usually drifting vegetation. There are Irawaddy dolphins in Lake Chilika but we are not banking on a sighting. There are various wooden structures that look to be supporting permanent nets as well as egrets and terns.

The waterway is quite busy with fishermen and what appear to be passenger ferries. Most of the tourist boats turn south to Kalijai Island with its temple. We press on towards the haze shrouded east. The lake is a huge expanse of water, almost still calm. After about an hour we see a very flat coastline in the distance with a couple of concrete towers. As we get closer we see a line of pinkish white at the waters edge. This is the Flamingo colony of Nalbana Island. There are marker posts in the water indicating that engines must be switched off and the chaps punt us towards the island. We don't get super close but using binoculars and the camera zoom we get good views and some decent pictures. There are also lots of Ruddy Shellducks and a Marsh Harrier in the distance. It is very pleasant drifting in the silence and watching the birds. 

A fishing boat pulls up next to a patch of reeds. It is only waist deep as two of the crew quickly spread nets around the edge of the reeds. The boat then moves to the opposite side of the patch where other crew members start banging poles in the water. Presumably this drives the fish towards the nets. The relative peace is disturbed by the arrival of a boat containing a bunch of teenage boys. They appear to have had an engine failure and not much idea how to fix it. They jump in and out of the boat shouting at each other. We try to ignore them and carry on watching the birds. Suddenly their engine fires with a loud bang and the flamingos are spooked, all taking to the air in a blaze of red and pink. A good outcome for us but probably not one strictly in the interests of the birds.

They settle back down a lot further away and we agree with our skipper that it is time to head home. The boat is now heading towards the sinking sun and we need to don sunglasses for the glare. Suddenly our boatman cuts the engine and points ahead excitedly.  There is a group of about 20 flamingos feeding in the shallow water ahead of us. Because of the position of the sun they appear as totally black silhouettes. They walk across our bow, totally unconcerned and, as the angle to the sun changes their colour appears. We celebrate by passing round the Orange Bites. A bit further on we come across several acres of floating Ruddy Shellducks that take fright and fly away. On the return journey a bit of a swell has arisen and the boat develops a corkscrew motion. The ship's boy is being taught how to steer. Hopefully he will get better at it. Arrival back at base is just in time to stave off numb bums. As we disembark the skipper is anxious to know that we are happy. Very much so and we demonstrate this with some folding stuff.

A beer seems to be in order after this triumph and we make our way to the OTDC AC Beer Parlour. This is a gloomy dive full of smokers that has wallpaper identical to that seen in the Public Bar of the Crossbow in Camelon in the early 1990s. We share a Kingfisher and move on. The hotel and environs is much quieter this evening. There do not appear to be any other cottages occupied.  After sprucing ourselves up a little we head for the Lake view restaurant in the smart enclosure. We are approved for admittance and greeted at the door of an empty restaurant.  As we take our seats the Ac and the TV are switched on. This is tuned to some kind of Bollywood Greatest Hits channel. Tonight we order Pomfret fry as well as veg dishes. These are small flat fish served in a spicy sauce. During the meal there are a couple of power cuts, par for the course in Odisha. There is a member of staff whose only duty appears to be retuning the television when power is restored. Even with the fish our meal is only about £3.50 each.

 Just as we are going to bed a very junior member of staff from the hotel restaurant comes to the door to ask if we will want dinner. They must be getting lonely.

29th January - Changing Rooms

Another disturbed night as somebody started dragging furniture across the marble floor outside our room at 1.18 a.m. The sooner we get some overnight train trips and some proper sleep the better. Our train is due out of Bhubaneswar at 7.10 and we get to the station in good time. The platform stalls here all sell disgusting frothy chai out of vending machines which we are boycotting.  Hopefully there will be a proper chai vendor on the train.

We have just found the platform when our train pulls in. It starts here so is empty (not always a given in India). There is only one reserved coach, almost at the front of the train, so there is a march along the the platform to get there. Today is two seats in Second Sitting (2S) which are quite cozy.  We are on the train before most and quickly stow the bags on the overhead rack. The people sitting opposite are twenty seconds behind us and dip out. Their bags have to go in the grime under the seats. A proper chai man arrives so we can breakfast on biscuits and take our tablets. 

This train is an Express which means that it is faster than a Mailor a Passenger but still a bit of a plodder. There are open, barred windows and when we get underway we have to resort to long sleeve cover ups. Our TTE works very hard to keep the unwashed and unreserved out of Coach D1. The task is made more difficult because the reserved coach is indistinguishable from the rest of the train. D gets in some door riding and there is a constant stream of vendors, singing beggars and a solitary hijra. If you don't know Google it. All too soon we are at the last major station before our stop.

Chilka Station is a rather quiet wayside halt with ground level platforms. We manage the descent from the train and use the almost brand new footbridge to cross the tracks. Everybody else just jaywalks across the East Coast main line. Outside the station there are autos. Thank god!  The chap quotes an acceptable fare to the Barkul Panthanivas OTDC hotel, our base for the next three days. The auto deposits us outside some elaborate crowd control barriers which we have to negotiate to get to reception. 

After filling in several forms we are shown to our AC Cottage. We debaggage and settle in for the long term. An exploratory walk seems to be in order. The hotel is next to a harbour on Chilika Lake, a huge brackish lagoon that is the winter home to millions of migrating birds. Last year we stayed at Mangalajodi, an Eco Resort at the northern edge of the lake and had two days of great birding. Barkul is definitely not an Eco resort. The litter is just horrendous even by Indian standards.  There are hordes of day trippers here to catch boats out to Kalijai, a temple island situated a few kms out into the lake. There are also boat trips advertised to Nalbana Island, a large bird sanctuary.  

Despite the throng of humanity there are some interesting birds on view, mainly waders, but also a Brahminy kite which gets into an altercation with some crows. The morning has been very hazy but the temperature starts to rise around lunchtime and we take that as our siesta cue. Having found a way to get photos on the blog D is thwarted by a feeble connection and once again we have to post the latest update in text only. 

Outside there appears to be a party in full swing and any sort of snooze out of the question so we ready ourselves for some more local exploration. Just as we are leaving one of the hotel staff arrives to tell us that we need to change cottages. According to him ours has faulty AC but the only fault we have noticed is that the electric geyser sounds like a moped when switched on. We quickly grab our things and move next door. The new room somehow has a cheerier feel and a reassuringly quiet geyser. 

Resuming our explorations, we head up the road which brought us here. There are a few eateries and several small shops, some of which have large jars of Orange Bites on display. There are also dozens of coaches parked up in a field.  We rather stand out in the crowd and have to answer the 'What country?' question a few times. There are surprisingly few requests for one photo. Perhaps our looks are fading. We decide to enquire about boat trips to Nalbana Island, a bird sanctuary out on the lake. Our plan is to go tomorrow morning begore the day gets too hot. At the Tourist Department Information kiosk a young man with reasonable English tells us that there is one boat tomorrow at 7.30 a.m. That will do nicely.

On the harbour waterfront there is a rather smart enclosure with a restaurant,  playground equipment,  a wooden outhouse labelled Shopping Arcade and some kind of elevated structure with no obvious purpose. A sign over the entrance suggests that this is another Orissa Tourist Development Corporation venture. We are ready for a cup of tea and decide to try the restaurant.  A man in uniform seated at the entrance apparently decides who is worthy of admission and quite a few aspirants are turned away with a dismissive flick of the wrist. But not us. He even stands up. The restaurant is welcoming and has AC. They regret that they cannot supply black tea, only chai which we order. It is disgusting vending machine hot, sweet, frothy liquid that needs to be called something other than chai. We ask to see a menu and enquire about opening times. They are closed for a function tonight but open until 8 p.m normally. We have the option of the hotel restaurant for tonight.

As it gets dark we shower and dress for dinner, heading to the restaurant at 6.30.  'Opens at 8' we are told. We seek out a bottle of Club Soda for medicinal purposes and retire to fester in our room. There is a knock at the door and one of the hotel staff is there. Perhaps the restaurant is opening earlier, perhaps it is time to change rooms again. Neither of these. He is here to ask if we want any beer. How kind. One is ordered, just to show willing. At eight prompt we hit the restaurant.  Much to R's disgust the India v England T20 cricket is on the TV. We are the only punters and are invited to order from a wall board headed 'Lunch Menu'.   Our vegetarian choices are once again very enjoyable and filling at a total cost of less than £2 each. Back at the room D tries to follow the cricket on his phone but falls asleep. 

28th January - Train to Bhubaneswar

At intervals during the night a dog is making a fearful din under our window. Not the most restful of nights. Alarm at 6.00 a.m. Breakfast is a quick cup of tea and a banana along with our first anti-malarial tablet of this trip. We check out and come up against the same taxi bandit. We have luggage and there are no other cabs in sight so we settle on his idea of a fair price. The roads are clear and, at this time of day, traffic lights are considered ornamental. There is time to buy essential supplies such as bottled water and biscuits before the train is announced.

Our booking is for lower berths in Two-tier AC class, not our first choice but a recent change on Indian Railways automatically allocates these seats to old codgers. We find our names on the chart posted by the door, stow the luggage and take our seats. The coach is fairly battered but nothing out of the ordinary and we can see out of the windows so that is a plus. Our neighbours are an Indian couple with a grown up son. We exchange a few words with father but his accent is very heavy and conversation peters out. The first chai wallah produces a very acceptable cup, not too sweet. By now we have left the city behind and are travelling through quite lush countryside,  mainly devoted to rice paddies. The TTE arrives and approves our tickets without even a glance at our passports. D is rather relieved as these tickets were booked after the withdrawal of Senior concession fares for non-Indians but before the booking  website had been amended to reflect this. We settle down to enjoy our last half price rail trip. To be honest it always seemed rather odd that we got a subsidy - just as long as they don't start adding a foreigner surcharge.

The Faluknama Superfast Express rattles along at a good pace. Most passengers are going through to Secunderabad but we get off at Bhubaneswar, a mere 440 km, so do not have to gear up to sleep on this train. Until the last 20km or so we keep good time but then are reduced to a crawl, ultimately arriving around 30 minutes late. Our accommodation is at a hotel we have used before, the Grand Central, only a hundred yards from the station.  This means we only have to spend a hundred yards telling numerous people that we do not need a taxi. We check in and crash out for a couple of hours.

After our siesta it is time to go shopping.  We have had difficulty buying 'Orange Bites' in Kolkata but a small shop opposite the hotel had them last year and still does. These small boiled sweeties are an essential part of our Indian travel kit. Just down the street is an ATM with only two people queuing.  A message on the screen tells us that only 2000 notes are available but so far we have been able to change these without too much of a problem. Essential tasks completed we retire to the bar at the Grand Central for a refreshment and a plate of onion pakodas, the first this year. Back in the room D tries to solve the problem with posting photos to the blog. He succeeds mainly in burning off a lot of data and decides to go out to get a top up, known here as a recharge. The Orange Bite man does these and Rs 251 buys a Gb of data plus, strangely, Rs1.07 of talk time. By the time D is back in the room the phone has received 4Gb of data. This happened last year but only for one free Gb.

It is past our supper time so food is sought.  The dining room is deserted but a waiter soon arrives with menus. We have both been enjoying veg food so far and decide to stick with it. No naan available tonight, so we have rice, daal, chapattis and mushrooms jalfreizi. This is delicious. We need a recipe. The energy boost provides stimulation to solve the IT problem. D digs out his old tablet, which automatically downsizes photos before sending them. This does the trick. 4G phones are very clever but D's provides no obvious way to do this.

And now the problem is lack of signal Grr!

27th January - Dahn Sarf (with photos)

Apologies if you have already seen this post. It had to be resent to get the photos to appear. 

D has great fun at breakfast as there are two chaps who want to go by train to Varanasi on Monday but have no idea how to go about it. They are dispatched post haste to the Foreign Tourist Bureau on Fairlie Place. They are suspicious as this is nowhere near a railway station. Wonder how they got on?

Our previous visits to Kolkata have missed out the south side of the city apart from one after dark visit to a rather sad themed restaurant. Today that will be put right. After a quick stop at the ATM, where a request for Rs 9,900 ensures that we get some small notes, we head down into the metro and buy tokens for Kalighat. Two young men vacate the Seniors/Disabled seats for us. We are not sure which category we are considered to be in but are happy to sit for the five stop ride.

Kalighat is the centre of Hindu worship in Kolkata but we have read that it can be quite intense so we give it the swerve and think retail. We step out in an easterly direction as a gentle rain starts to fall. The weather app said 2% chance of precipitation today. Happily we are just by the entrance of a covered market and we dive in. 

It is early and very quiet so stallholders are happy for us to gawk and take photos. Some even engage in polite conversation. As usual we see swathes of vegetables that we fail to recognise. There are also some things like small coconuts with pigtails. No idea what they are. R decides that she is too delicate for the fish section so we head back outside where the rain is now quite heavy. The bright yellow rain jackets that we don are an instant fashion sensation. People stare, point and laugh all around. The street market outside has devotional idol stalls. Nobody tries to sell us one. On the other hand the flower sellers compete to have their photos taken.

The rain abates and we decide that it is time for tea. The online map is consulted and delivers us to Mrs Magpie, a very pleasant tearoom and cake shop. There are a lot of well heeled locals in here but no other tourists. It is comfortable, clean, with good service and reasonable prices. The walnut brownie is superb. It wins the Radinja award for excellence in tearooms.

Restored we walk on to Rabindra Sarovar, a park area around a large lake. It is still overcast, cooler than yesterday, and very comfortable for walking. There are several islands in the lake which are home to countless cormorants. Hang on. That is an awfully big cormorant. In fact it is a painted stork and there are quite a few of them lurking. R is delighted. Another small island in the lake is home to a mosque, linked by a footbridge. It is Friday lunchtime and the call to prayer booms out.

We do almost a full circuit of the lake, pausing from time to time to watch the birds. There are various ducks and a couple of kingfishers so we don't lack entertainment. There are even a few trains running on another section of the Suburban Circular line. We decide to take a tram back to the city centre and make our way through leafy suburbs to Gariahat Tram Depot. 

There is the usual cohort of men in khaki reading newspapers and they invite us to take a seat in front of the office. D enquires about getting a tram to Esplanade and is told that there will be one "after some time". We make ourselves comfortable. The yard is full of trams, ancient and not very modern, so D enquires about taking photos. "Restricted Area. Stand over there." Over there is probably the best place to take pictures from so everybody is happy.  The trams all seem to be carrying stickers saying WBTC where it used to say CTC. Has the State government taken them over?

After some time arrives and one of the more ancient trams is started up. We climb aboard the rear car and occupy the seats at the back. The remaining seats are so dusty that even the locals seem offended. It takes several minutes to edge out into the traffic which has got much heavier. The fare is Rs 6 each so D proffers two ten rupee notes. This is two much effort for the conductor who returns one note and gives us Rs 5 tickets instead. Progress is intermittent at best and eventually we bail out and walk the last quarter mile or so. 

Afternoon tea is on at the Fairlawn so we partake before heading upstairs to shower and pack. The plan is to have a beer in the garden before heading out to eat but there is bad news. The Fairlawn has lost the liquor licence for the garden and can only serve residents in the lobby area. We make do with this but it is not really the same. On the way to the restaurant we notice another of the Sudder Street bars all locked up. What is going on?

Dinner is taken at Bhoj & Co, a Bangladeshi place along the street. The waiter has a bit of English and helps us through the menu. We have a huge pulao rice, daal, mixed veg and naan bread for less than £2 each. It goes down very well. Back at the ranch there is a period of wrestling with Blogger before we turn in.

26th January Another Republic Day in West Bengal

Last time we spent Republic Day in West Bengal we finished up in a police station. Such peaks of excitement were not achieved today so thrill seekers can switch off now.

We had a reasonable night's sleep and were glad that we packed our earplugs. After breakfast we loaded up the day pack and set out for some fun. Outside the hotel we were hailed by one of the regular Sudder Street taxi bandits and, after tense negotiations, a fare was agreed and we climbed into his battered Ambassador. R cracked open a window resulting in the pane of glass descending irretrievably into the innards of the door.

In honour of Republic Day all of the buses had been diverted and were required to do U-turns across Chowringhee, causing traffic chaos and some Bengali bad language from our driver. Once free of the buses we made rapid progress south and then west across the 2nd Hooghly Bridge which has proper name but nobody remembers it. There is plenty of green, white and orange bunting on display to mark the day and a lot of shops seem to be closed.

Last year we got to the Botanic Gardens too early and were refused admittance. This time, after buying our tickets, we are in no bother. The object of the excursion is bird watching and almost straight away a Lesser Goldenback Woodpecker is spotted. A good start and lots more follow including several brightly coloured kingfishers. 

The morning is heating up and the crowds building. The Botanical Gardens seem to be a major Bank Holiday attraction in these parts. There are the usual groups of youths who want to have their photos taken with us. They seem put out when D asks for Rs20 but seem to forget that Foreigners pay 20x the local rate for admission. Why should we also have to provide entertainment?  A couple of family groups also ask for photos and we oblige. One gent explains that they consider our visits to be a great honour. Hmmm!

Having seen a sufficiency of feathered friends we took a taxi ride to Howrah, whence we embarked on the ferry back to Kolkata proper. Well worth the 5 rupee ticket. On the east bank of the river runs the Kolkata Suburban Circular Railway. In six visits over seven years we have never seen a train on this. Today, as we were crossing the track at BBS Bagh station an imminent arrival was announced. D had to wait to see it as it trundled in off a single track section. Can this line be worked into the plan?

Once across the railway the streets were virtually deserted. Notices posted on the Reserve Bank of India stated in large letters that only Indian Passport holders who have been living abroad had any chance of changing redundant 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Not that we have enough to get worked up about.

As we passed BBS Bagh we spotted a tram that seemed to be heading our way. It was and we hopped on. We were the only passengers and the lack of traffic meant that we travelled express pace throughout. A demonstration of how good Kolkata trams could be with a bit of planning and traffic management.

Back at the Fairlawn tea was being served, very welcome on a humid afternoon. The restaurant choice tonight is limited because of the holiday and all bars are shut. We opt for the rooftop at the Lyndsay, a nearby hotel which we have survived a couple of times before. We eat veg and it is good even if the appetiser arrives after the rest of the food. We are not tempted by their garishly coloured mocktails and stick to water. 

The city seems rather subdued tonight. Not much noise, no fireworks and very little amplified music. Perhaps an England win in the T-20 match has done this. Probably not.  Forward planning means that we have a couple of cold beers in our fridge to enjoy before lights out.

25th January . Admin

Things are certainly changing in India.  It appears that there is no longer a requirement for airline passengers from elsewhere to be sprayed with pesticide/deodorant/placebo in aerosol form at some point en route. We often wondered what it was that the Indian authorities were so worried about. The immigration form has been vastly filletted and can actually be completed as you shuffle forward in the queue.

We sailed through immigration and congratulated ourselves on how well it had all gone. Back to reality as we then waited for our luggage which was in the last dozen items to arrive on the conveyor. The Prepaid Taxi counter was not doused in brandy this year and we were soon Ambassador bound for downtown Kolkata. 

First impressions were that things seemed to look tidier and that people who supply and apply blue and white paint must be thriving around here. There has been no improvement in air quality nor has the traffic improved any. Our driver seemed to know his way around the back streets as we came into town by a route that we did not recognise. He was insistent that our hotel was situated on a one way street and he could not turn that way. He must be the only person in Bengal who thinks that. We walked the last fifty yards. We have been awake for around twenty five hours by now and have little appetite for a row.

As ever the Fairlawn was ready for us and we were soon having a snooze. Refreshed, it was time to tackle the burning issues of the day. In recent months Indian life seems to have been dominated by demonetisation, a process that saw 85% of the currency in circulation effectively cancelled. Cash suddenly became hard to get and much of what can be got is in 2000 rupee notes that are difficult to break down. We managed to get cash from both an ATM and from a Forex counter with a reasonable breakdown of 100 notes. 

We went back to our regular phone Walla for a SIM card. The good news here is that there is no longer a complicated registration policy for foreigners wanting an Indian SIM. For Rs 400 we got a card with a Gb of data, a few calls and valid for 90 days. The packaging seems to confirm that this is a legit deal for tourists. A up for calls and texts and it's good to go. We even got change for a 2000 note.

R was very taken with the Kolkata Christmas lights last year which were still working in February. As it got dark we strolled down that way but she was in for a disappointment as the only lights to see were plain white ones wrapped around the lamp posts. The Kolkata branch of the Oxford Bookshop seems to be following in the footsteps of the Delhi one. Books are being evicted to make way for an overpriced coffee shop.

Park Street's OlyPub did not disappoint however. Still grotty and out of stock of cheaper beers, it appears not to have changed for decades. In one way it has moved with the times. A proffered 2000 note quickly brought the cashier and a shiny new card terminal. We decide to eat early and paid a repeat visit to Peter Cat, a vaguely Afghan themed spot that seems popular with locals and tourists alike. Chicken Biryani, fish kebab and chickpeas were all good and we probably ate too much.

And so to bed.

They're Off!

Here is the traditional luggage shot. We don't seem to have achieved much by way of downsizing since last time. A lift from our neighbour M saved us the walk to the station. 

Our first train on this trip (LIN - GLQ) was Unreserved and standing room only. After a couple of stops R got a seat and D found a perch on the luggage rack at the end of the coach. Good practice for later in the trip.

Transfer and check in went extremely smoothly. No queue at all in security. We did discover that R's bag weighs 9 kilos as opposed to D's 17k.  That will need to get sorted.

Emirates provided a sufficient number of episodes of The Big Bang Theory as well as a few bevvies, a decent lunch and we only had one circuit of the desert before landing in Dubai. Things got even better in the Duty Free where our medicine of choice was on a three for two deal. Even better we were able to pay for it with air miles that we never use otherwise. Need to make sure that we don't smash the lot on the floor at the prepaid taxi counter this year.

Boarding the Kolkata flight was rather less chaotic than previous experiences. It included a stern lecture about restrictions on cabin bags that were promptly ignored by 90% of passengers. Welcome to India. Take off was almost on time and the cabin darkened so we tried to sleep. 45 minutes later all the lights went up and breakfast service commenced. Curried peas at 1.00 a.m is a dubious treat.

The sun rose over a mainly cloudy India so there was little to see. Before too long we were doing a wide loop over south and east Kolkata and making an on time landing.

Pester Power

Various people who should have much better things to do with their time have been making requests for the link to our latest blog.  Your editor has been somewhat reluctant to share this as, until now, there has been nothing to see.  This hasn't changed much but time is flying by and we are now only three days away from lift off so it's time to launch Radinja7.

D has rather grudgingly allowed himself to be dragged into the 21st century so the pile of paperwork doesn't look too impressive this time as a lot of stuff is on the smartphone. 

If you are one of our regular readers you know what the score is. Plenty of trains, a bit of bird watching, some delicious meals and a few impressions of the colourful mayhem that is India. It will be the usual mixture of a few familiar places and some territory which is new to us. Please do feel free to comment/heckle/ask questions

For those who are really keen here is the back catalogue.

Radinja   http://wwwradinja.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/monday-14th-feb-under-way.html

Radinja2   http://radinja2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/here-we-go-again.html

Radinja3   http://radinja3.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/goodbye-snow.html

Radinja4   http://radinja4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/dubai2.html    

Radinja5   http://radinja5.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/touch-down.html

Radinja6   http://radinja6.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/fwd-bit-of-panic.html