Holiday in India & Bhutan (2): getting there
On Wednesday, we flew to India with Emirates. The flight from London Heathrow to Dubai was in a double-decker Airbus A380 and took six hours. We left over an hour late because of – as the pilot put it – “the situation worldwide” (an oblique reference to the conflict between Israel and Iran). Our second flight from Dubai to Kolkata was in a Boeing 777 and took just under four hours. By this time, our departure was an hour and a half late.
Once at Kolkata, the journey from the airport to the hotel was quite long (an hour and a quarter) but quite fascinating (solid traffic, wild driving, some rickshaws, crumbling buildings, bustling markets, ubiquitous colourful advertisements). So it was noon before we were in our rooms at the Taj Bengal Hotel, long after the hotel breakfast we were promised in our original schedule.
Thursday was allocated as rest and recuperation from our flights. However, ever intrepid, Jenny and I thought we might go for an afternoon stroll, but we found that the hotel is not near anywhere interesting and there was a crashing thunderstorm with thunder, lighting and heavy rain. Tomorrow the group will tour the city …
Calcutta (as it was then called) – nicknamed the city of joy – was founded in 1690 as a trading post for the British East India Company and later served as the de facto capital of British India until 1911. It was the second largest city in the British Empire, after London. In 1756, it became infamous for the incarceration of British prisoners in ‘the Black Hole of Calcutta’.
Today Kolkata (its official name since 2001) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 50 miles (80 kms) west of the border with Bangladesh.
Kolkata is the seventh most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million, while the wider region is the third most populous metropolitan region of India with a population of over 15 million. The city is regarded by many as the cultural capital of India. It is known as a city of rickshaws, sweets and wall posters. India’s five Nobel Prize winners all come from Kolkata.