Kolkata

Kolkata gets an undeserved bad rap.  For most people it conjures up an image of desperate poverty, squalor, filth and overcrowding.  Yes, it does have all of those things but it is also a vibrant, cultured, intellectual, hardworking place with a fascinating history, wonderfully evocative buildings, friendly people and a vast, beautifully kept central park known as the Maidan. The mighty Hoogly river, a distributary of the Ganges, separates it from Howrah, a huge industrial city on the West Bank.

The city was the capital of the British Raj until 1911, when it moved to Delhi and many fine buildings from that time remain in good condition. Many more are decaying and reverting to nature with trees etc. growing out of them, but they are still there, you just look up, and squint, to picture how it would all once have been.

We've just had a fairly frantic couple of days here and leave for Sunderbans in a couple of hours. ifor the rally family it has been a time of reunions with old friends and meeting new ones, catching up on sleep and trying to defeat jet lag, exploring this most interesting of cities, enjoying the calm comfort of the Oberoi, and clanking around the old city on decrepit old trams (marvellous).

For me personally I have thrilled to hear first time visitors to Kolkata express their surprise about what a truly great city this is. Few tourists get here, mainly because of geography - it's not really near any other  place of interest for the traveller, but they really should. 

This morning we leave Kolkata behind and go to Sunderbans. It is home to the largest concentration of Bengal tigers in the world - 103 in a recent census, and is situated in the largest river delta n the planet. There is truly nowhere like Sunderbans.  We will drive for about three hours to the dock before boarding our boats to reach the lodge which will be our home for the next two nights. There are no cars in Sunderbans, but who knows?  We might see a tiger or two. Please...