S M F G · A Counter-Clockwise Trip Around The World

From Bangalore to Calcutta. With a stop on the beach

Mar 14th 2009
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As it seems that I am not able to catch up with my travel, I’m posting a brief summary of my trip through the eastern part of india.

Having met a whole bunch of interesting people from Bangalore at the Chennai/Madras dinner (check this gallery) we decided to pay a visit to that city. We stayed at Viddya’s place, and as she was organising meetings and activities, it was totally relaxing :-)

Then it was Hampi. The place is pretty popular among hippies and backpackers, and it was actually recommended to me by Pepe and Sue during my pre-trip to Barcelona. The plan was staying a couple of days, check out the temples and then heading north (Varanasi and the like). Well, things went a bit different: unsurpringly enough, we loved the laid-back atmosphere, and with the complicity of a holy baba who pointed us to the Rasta Café we ended up staying around ten days!—It seems like I can’t stay less than five/six days in every place. I just can’t help it. And this is also the good part of not having a fixed schedule: you make the trip on the flow.

And when eventually was time to go, surprise! With the Shiva Rathi festival approaching, there was no way to go north—especially the trains and buses toward Varanasi were completely booked. I was feeling a bit like in Istanbul {link al post}. Anyway, we decided to book the first transport for a decent-sized city not in the south. That was Hyderabad.

Here I discovered that even after almost three months of spicy Indian food—let alone other two months of Middle East—a proper Biryani can still make me jump from the chair with my mouth on fire(*).

This was also the place where I felt the need of switching off for a while. Although I love meeting new people and all, sometimes you just want to be by yourself. My visa was expiring, thus I booked a flight to Bangkok from Calcutta. And just a look at the map revealed that halfway to Calcutta there was this calm city, a bit off from the touristic route, with a very long beach: Puri.

I spent a day in Bhubaneswar, then I headed to Puri, where I surfed this crazy place, in the middle of the forest. I was the only customer. And the beach was mind-blowing: I was the only one as far as I could see (we are talking here of half a dozen kilometres per side). The roaring of the ocean was the soundtrack, with a turtle skeleton as my only company.

As you all already know, I was not able to get another six months visa from the Kathmandu Embassy, and my three months were eventually almost done. I chose Calcutta as my last Indian stop.

I found the city beautiful and very lively. There are huge parks—where I spent most of my time—and a (real!) subway. The city is also huge, and it really needed more time to be properly visited, but I still got my share of Calcutta’s feeling.

That was India. Of course you can’t see all of it in a single visit: it is more a continent than a country. My next trip to this part of the globe will then be focused on the northern part: Himalaya, Rajastan, Varanasi.

Which country? What’s your given name? Welcome to my country! :-)


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4 Responses

  1. Ally says:

    We will welcome the new countries and the new adventures.
    India was interesting but the spicy food it’s not for me. I am more a sort of Thai fan!

    areyoustill ;-) or is it :-(

    • pt says:

      Imstill.

      But even if you are into Thai food, I would humbly suggest you to avoid the infamous Tom Yam soup! (AFAIK this was also the name of the Asian economic crisis in 1997).

      I have to say that I’m impressed: you are a real time application! I published the article waiting for the boat, and when at destination your comment was already there! Congratulazioni :-)

  2. Ally says:

    The truth is: its luck!
    Some days I don’t have time to check your blog at all…

  3. simone.tomassini says:

    Sei MITICO !!!!!!!!!!

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