As we approached the end of our lengthy and very enjoyable stay in Calcutta, we had to move to a different hotel in the south for the last couple of nights given some logistics with previous plans. In this blog, I will cover our last day at Culcutta Bungalow and then the two full days we had in South Kolkata before we fly north and into the mountains. This may be a shorter blog than normal as it’s only three days, we’ve been taking it easy in the heat, and I’ve run out of interesting facts about Culcutta!

Thursday –

We had got into the very pleasant habit of getting up for a leisurely 9am breakfast, and Thursday morning was no exception. The breakfast was good as ever, and I’d been converted to the Bengali breakfast of a mild potato curry with fried bread over the eggs on toast. Once we had eaten and got ourselves ready, we headed once more by metro to Park Street and to a coffee shop just opposite the station entrance. The coffee shop, Blue Tokai, served really excellent coffee though the air-conditioning units were fighting a losing battle with the morning heat. We were actively sweating when we made it back outside and decided to really lean into it by having another street-side Kati roll from the famous hole-in-the-wall shop, which was as delicious as ever.

We walked down the side of Maidan, Calcutta’s Hyde Park, and to the Institute of Fine Art. The Institute was a small building nestled behind the imposing St Paul’s Cathedral, and had been notable by its absence from any guide books or recommendations we had read. Still, we decided that art galleries tend to be a cool place to spend some time, so we headed inside. Institute of Fine Art is probably a stretch, as the art-works seemed more to be displayed of local artists and art students, but nonetheless it was a nice break from the baking heat.

From the art gallery we crossed the road and went back into the Victoria Memorial. Honestly, the building was so impressive it warranted another look in its own right, but additionally we decided that we should have a look inside, given we were so close. Inside, the building was divided into only two large rooms, each with wide galleries on either side. A couple of these were blocked off, but the other two displayed a rather eclectic mix of colonial era art. In one wing, there were huge paintings of scenes such as the Maharaja of Jaipur riding on an elephant with the future Edward VII, along with model galleys and the enevitable display of rifles and cutlasses. The other wing had a gently interesting exhibition showing paintings of Indian monuments, temples and palaces by British artists as they travelled the country for display back in the UK.

We had our fill at the monument, we found an Uber to take us home and to the air-conditioning. We lounged at home for a few hours, then made our way out to a Chinese restaurant which was at the top of one of Calcutta’s many shiny new malls boasting all of the Western designer brands. The restaurant was modern and up-market, and did a delicious smoky negroni that only I could have as Ellie was still taking antibiotics (sorry Ellie). The food was really good and it was nice to have something a bit different to the “continental” or Indian fare. After eating, we made our way back out into the stifling night air and Ubered back to the hotel and to bed.

Friday –

We made for the breakfast table at 9am on Friday as per usual for our last breakfast of Calcutta Bungalow. A few days before we had breakfast at the same time as a British couple in their 50s or 60s. They had come to Calcutta to visit their son who had a work experience placement in the city for 6 months. It turned out that they had done a similar trip to ours in the 1980s, and we’d had a good conversation over a couple of breakfasts about Calcutta as well as our lives back home. They were there at breakfast on Friday, as well as another young British couple – one of whom was a ST5 (registrar) in Obs & Gynae in Oxford. We had a enjoyable and slightly surreal breakfast talking about the Midlands and medical training pathways, before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the room to pack our bags.

We ubered from Calcutta Bungalow in the Shyambazar area to the north to Corner Courtyard in the Ballygunge area to the south. Corner Courtyard was a decent hotel, but felt a little shaby and the staff a little cool compared to CB. To be expected, of course, given how much we had enjoyed it there. It was gone midday by the time we arrived, so we dropped off our bags and headed out to a local art cafe in the area. The Ballygunge area of South Calcutta felt very modern and arty, and we enjoyed a good coffee and sandwiches in the boutique Sienna cafe and art shop.

From Sienna cafe we headed south, passing through the Rabindra Sarobar park that we’d seen part of a few days before, and out the other side. We were heading for another of Calcutta’s malls, this time for a bit of a mooch (largely because Ellie’s mascara had run out). As anticipated, the mall was deliciously cool and we sat with a cold diet pepsi in the food hall for a bit to normalise our body temperatures after a 40 minute walk. Once we’d got what we came for, we headed back to the hotel for the customary mid afternoon rest.

We had been undecided about where to go for dinner on Friday night, but felt that we should try a speciality Bengali restaurant at least once whilst in West Bengal. As such, we ubered out to “6 Ballygunge Place”, a recommended restaurant serving a range of Bengali cuisine. Bengali cuisine was quite different in some respects to North Indian food, and accordingly we had absolutely no idea what anything on the menu was. With the help of some friendly waiters, however, we managed to order a really quite sensational meal of potato in poppy-seed paste, cauliflower in a tangy tamarind sauce, a mild daal, shallow fried melt-in-the-mouth aubergine, and some hilarious mocktails served in strange glass contraptions. All together, it was one of the best meals of it’s kind we’ve had so far. Full without being horribly uncomfortable, we booked (yet another) Uber back to the hotel (NB – most Uber trips in Calcutta cost about 100-200/- or £1-2, so we aren’t breaking the bank with all the ferrying around!)

Saturday –

After one last lie-in in lovely Calcutta, we identified another branch of Blue Tokai just 2 minutes around the corner from our hotel – one of a very small handful of boutique coffee shops we’ve found in India that we could imagine ourselves happily tapping £4 for in an indepenent in London. This branch not only served the same perfect flat whites and americanos-with-an-extra-shots (no prizes for whose is whose), but was considerably more modern than the other one – with exceptionally good air con! We filled ourselves up for the day with a Shakshuka and veggie full English, enjoying the people watching in this modern and expensive looking Southern Calcutta suburb.

Upstairs in the cafe building was a bookshop we obviously couldn’t resist checking out, which was absolutely floor-to-ceiling with an impressive stock range across the board. I was particularly struck by the amount of queer literature which has been notably absent in other Indian bookshops, and having had his bag weigh in at just under the flight-safe 15kgs the night before we agreed Rob had plenty of room for a couple of new poetry books.

From here we walked to CIMA, a modern art gallery which had been reccomended in the guide books. It was a very pleasant if obviously too hot stroll around the neigbourhood, passing the impressive white Birla Mandir Hindu temple which we snapped through the gate as temples are almost ubiquitously closed during these hottest hours of the day. CIMA was hidden away upstairs in an apartment block, but actually very good. It was beautifully curated and had some really pieces we both really liked, including a series of paintings of mindful looking monkeys which I could definitely see prints of in our house. We couldn’t take photos inside the gallery hence the lack of any here!

From CIMA we uber-ed to some horticultural gardens which made for a very pleasant and shady stroll. They were almost deserted and had stunning little well-maintained enclaves, with ponds, big white flowering trees, little statues, the odd adorable puppy, and an outdoor gym to play with. Once we’d had our fill there, we headed home for Rob to tutor and me to head back to Tokai to pick up some tutoring-fuel salted caramel and chocolate croissants.

We decided to get a last taste of proper Western food in the big city before heading out to much more rural Darjeeling, so went to a recommended Italian for dinner. The food was indeed delicious, and we happily got through pizzas/pastas advertised as ‘big enough to share’ along with some tasty if earthy domestic wine for Rob (only a taste for me as I was, sigh, on my last day of one of the few antibiotics you actually can’t drink on). We got one last blissfully air conned 10p metro ride home before the final pack-up as we said goodbye to probably our favourite city of the trip so far.

The following day, we were set to take a flight to the northern West Bengali city of Bagdogra, and from there a taxi into the Himalayan foothills and to the hill station of Darjeeling. We are in Darjeeling for 3 full days, and we will cover our day of travel and our days in Darjeeling in the next blog,

Until then,

Ellie & Rob xxx