Right. This one has been LONG overdue. Goodness. The YEP Kolkata, India Trip. Had a long post about this one a while back. See it here. Probably the most eye-opening experience of my life. The first time where I was able to see an entire different culture and way of living than ours. So here is the pictorial view of what happened. Warning: There might be a couple photos that you might not be comfortable seeing. Well, its pretty mild, but thought I'd just say this anyway. =p
12 November - 4 December 2004
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Arriving @ Changi Airport with the precious cargo of computers. | The team; made up of all sorts of people. | Ahhh... Can't complain when you travel with SQ. |
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Kolkata Airport | An eventful 10 minute cab ride. | Our guesthouse for the 1st few nights. |
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This was just next to the guesthouse... But we weren't worried *sweats* | Our first road trip out! | First glimpse @ India streets |
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Boy did we have fun with fireworks that night! | Flute-seller | A local temple. |
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A total-waste-of-time trip to the hospital. More of a promotional stint by them than us learning something useful | First restaurant we visited. Chowmin! And I left my cap here. ZzZZzz... | Ooooo... Shopping mall with cineplex! What a change. |
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Moving out to the church hostel. | Proggaloy | Fluffy! Am I right? I think? |
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Simple but pretty delicious meals served everyday, 3 meals a day. | We took a walk down to the suburb town of Barasat. | One of the most interesting ways to travel... |
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These trishaws & their amazingly fit drivers. | A couple of us went back to town @ night. | We were greeted by an amazing festival! It was the last day! Lucky us! |
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Some quirky food sold on the streets | Some you would probably find about a decade ago in Singapore | No camera trick. The ferris wheel was really bloody fast! |
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Just as we were about to go back, a dude drag our whole group here, cutting a queue about 500m long... | Amazingly this is a temporary temple made for a festival contest. Guess what? They won first! | Third from right. The cool dude who brought us in. All he wanted in return was a photo of them for us to bring home. How cool is that? |
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Every morning we had PT! Followed by soccer for the guys. | We had gardening for 1 of the mornings. | We had mixed emotions about the gardening though. |
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Now I know the mosquitoes were a problem, but this is just "duh".... | A glimpse of our rooms. Not mine but they all look pretty much like that. 3 to a room | 1 of the many blackout nights |
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Amidst the lessons, during the weekends we would take trips out to various places, like the St. Paul's Cathedral. | A fair in town. | A group photo @ a cultural centre. |
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Visit to Diksha, where both sides shared their lives. | Nirmal Hirday, 1 of the many homes by Mother Teresa. Met a Singaporean nun! Reminiscence of home! | A home for the Sisters of Charity. |
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We had a trip outside of Kolkata. Howrah Railway Station. | Railway stations always seems to have a wide range of people coming together @ 1 place. | A lot of the homeless around. |
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Shoe polishing. | Forgot how long the train ride took, but it definitely wasn't comfortable. | Had all sorts of entertainment though. |
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Santiniketan, a University town. | Our not-too-shabby motel. Terrible service though. | The infamous meal... |
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This town was definitely much more rural than Kolkata. | Slacking outside the dusty motel. | Another waste of a time of a tour. Only because we had no idea what the guide was saying. |
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Had some really excellent chapati @ the roadside. | Visited a traditional suburban home. Very cosy I must say. | A photo with the very hospitable family. |
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A hot spring in the middle of nowhere. | Yet another temple in the suburbs. | Had some interesting rock formations next to the temple. |
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If I wasn't mistaken, that is actually cow dung on the wall. They had a reason for doing that, but can't remember what. Ha! | Photo on the rock formations. | Travelling in the suburbs for hours at a time, sometimes you see celebrations like this. |
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A dam. | Reached a small little town & managed to witness this. | A goat slaughter house. Too bad I didn't get shots of the chicken slaughtering. |
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Now enough of the R&R for a while and back to our objective. | The Kishalaya Boys Home. | On the 1st day we were presented gifts from the boys! |
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We gave simple & short lectures. | Gave lots of hands-on practice. | Also gave them a look into our lives in Singapore. |
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After lesson photo! | We even had a soccer game with them, which we lost 2-1. Haha! | Even a cricket match too! Which we also lost. Haha! |
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We prepared friendship bands for all the boys as our gifts for them. | Cultural Exchange Day! Also the last day we would see them. | The whole home turned up to watch the show. |
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Our present to the home. | They put up many shows for us. | As we did for them! Even got to do yoyo for them! Haha! |
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More gifts & symbols of thanks from the home & the boys. | Saying goodbye was particulary difficult for some of us. Many tears shed. | A final photo with us. |
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May we meet again somewhere in the world! | The whole group split into 2, for Kolkata City & Darjeeling. I went to Kolkata. | A bookstore in the city. |
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Post Office. Men sit outside offering services to type letters as most quite a number of people are illiterate. | A shopping market looking much like Bangkok's Chaktuchak, only with more conmen. Beware! | Something very memorable was a visit to Mother Teresa's final resting place. |
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Victoria's Memorial. Probably the most prominent symbol of Kolkata City. | All sorts of eateries in Kolkata. Forget about finding Mac or BK in Kolkata. There's only Pizza Hut. | After 22 days, we finally were on our way back. |
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Almost forgot it was going to Christmas till we settled in on the plane. | Reaching home @ 4am was not very good for the mind. |
Photographs by Andrew & Gary
