Getting Warmer

Hello Folks
Tues 6th of Feb, and all is going well. We went across the road tonight to enquire about joining the local sports club. They gave us a wee tour round, a restaurant, pool table, billiards table and squash courts. There is of course a swimming pool on the roof - with no water in it. They say it is still too cold! It's that warm we can hardly go out sometimes. But there are people walking about here wearing woollen hats, jumpers, shirts and even coats - and who knows what else! They still see this as winter. Anyhow for us it is getting warmer by the day, although people here say it hasn't started to heat up yet.

With the heat is a lot of pollution, we give up smoking totally when we got on the plane but the fumes and smells are so strong that I don't think my lungs have noticed the lack of nicotine.

A few more images. One is of what they call 'Roadside People', in stark contrast the second is of a property advert that illustrates the promise of the new Calcutta that is arriving, the third is a fairly common scene where people who may have a house of sorts but do not have running water go and have a roadside bath. They turn on a water pump and all shower each other or throw buckets of water over their heads. We pass scores of people doing this every morning and I am starting to get the urge to go and join them. In the hot dusty weather it actually looks like it might be refreshing.

We are starting to think about a few trips about the place before it gets too hot, possibly up to Darjeeling, and to the Sunderbands hopefully to see the Royal Bengal Tiger. We also hope to get up to the Golden Triangle to see the Taj Mahal. Tomorrow I hope to visit the Maidan and will get a few pics of that infamous relic of British colonialism The Victoria Memorial. I have to say it is a stunning and grand building and speaks loads about the power of the British Raj.
Well that's all for tonight. Slan, Raymond and Clan