As the brochures say, this is Incredible !ndia. We flew on November 26, 2012 from Bangkok, Thailand to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India and were surprised at the city. Expecting to see poverty like the early days of Mother Teresa's work, we found a somewhat modern city with an incredibly inexpensive, clean and fast Metro (Los Angeles could take some lessons!). The sound and light show at the Victoria Memorial was a great opportunity for photos-see us in the photo above!
We walked and toured the city seeing the famous British buildings like the GPO (General Post Office, The Writer's Building) and the Moghen David Synagogue which was really amazing. The Bengali Jewish community must have been large given the synagogue we went in and the fact that there were two more in close proximity.
After several days investigating Kolkata and the Kali Temple, we took the sleeper bus (we were the only two tourists at the gigantic and crowded bus station and I was just about the only female) to Puri to see the Sea Beach Festival. The thousands of pilgrims at the Jagannath Mandir was incredible to see even if we were not allowed in as non-Hindus. We have seen so many cows wandering and sleeping in the streets and I am nearly used to the incessant honking which is quite disturbing.
The highlight so far was being including in day three of a Hindu wedding festival. Priyanka, the sister of the groom, explained many customs to us like how her brother rode in on a white horse (which had flashing lights!), and about the bride and groom circling each other seven times (which we did at our Jewish wedding ceremony). I am not sure where we will be on December 19, for our third wedding anniversary, but I am sure it will be memorable here in India during wedding season!
We cannot wait to share more photos and videos with you. Thank you for reading and being interested in our travels. We appreciate it!
Happy Chanukah soon and Happy Birthday to my Dad on December 11!
Lisa and George (Click here to sign up for this newsletter. )
ps. This was set to send on Tues the 4th but this is India...so it did not go so I am sending it now! Last time I was online for 40 min the power went out twice. OOPS! Tried to send THURSDAY ==did not go out. HOPE that the THIRD time is the charm!
Ps. Links to a few recent video posts: From Thailand:on the island of Koh Samui about the Big Buddha, meeting with the Travel Blogger ThinkTank, and sailing to Samui.
