Sunday, 25 January 2009
We left the hotel at 0900am and headed off to the church service at the Armenian Church. This was built in 1707 and is the oldest church in Kolkata, however, there is a grave there dating from 1630 which historically means the Armenians were the first trading people to establish in this area. In fact so highly respected were they for honesty and loyalty, this continued up to Independence where uncertainty drove a large proportion to leave. The Church though is heavily financially patronisedand really well restored and maintained. It is surrounded on all sides by a mouldering city. On watching the service for a while we left and walked around the outside meeting a lady who is passionate about the history of the church and Armenium culture here in Kolkata. It was nice to hear the stories of the church and how this small group of people had so integrated into the area.
We delved back into the local streets and found the Mullick Ghat Flower Market – talk about colour and fragrance. There were huge mounds of garlanded marigolds etc, constantly being moved in huge bundles on mens heads. Everywhere you looked there were flowers making for a colourful and sensory overloaded spectacle.
We eventually left the market and walked across the Howrah Bridge which is 700m long and crossed the Houghly River and although built at the beginning of the century is still packed with traffic.
We decided to visit the Howrah Train Station (another edicifce to British Archite ture). Built in 1906 this station is still packed with what feels like millions of passengers. We finally found the area to book tickets to Delhi and got prices and train time information. We then decided to head to the Chowringhee area to find a different hotel (hopefully cheaper) etc, so caught the ferry from Howrah Ghat to Babu Ghat.
This provided the best view of the Howrah Bridge but due to pollution it is extremely hazy. It is also much more humid today. We got off at Babu Ghat which is near the Maidan where we walked yesterday. Today the walk was made a bit more difficult due to heaps of baricades put up for Republic Day celebrations tomorrow.
We found Sudder Street and had a walk around finding a small Dhaba for a late lunch and also looked into several hotels, finally booking into Sunflower Guest House. We then walked around the block and found an internet cafe and booked the Bengali cooking classes for the 27th and got a price for flying to Delhi and decided to get the train, so re-traced our steps to Howrah Train Station to find that as it was Sunday the booking area had closed early.
We gave up and went back tothe hotel. SB looked like he had a tan, but after a hot shower it turned out to be dirt – gross.
We ate at the hotel restaurant and then had a walk around the area again, but as it is a public holiday tomorrow, it looks like everyone has closed up shop early.