Our task for today was to head to the South of Kolkata looking for some of the best Durga Puja Pandals. We filled up on a delicious meal of rice, butter naan, mixed veg curry and Chana masala. We ate a lot and it was so good!
Using our Metro Smart cards makes getting the underground a breeze. It was pretty quiet at Park Street station and we had a comfortable ride 6 stops south. The first Pandal we discovered invited us in, gave us a take away food box full of food plus some Indian sweets! We ate the sweets but couldn't manage any more food. We managed to pass it on to a lady who needed it more than we did.
We had a relaxing stroll through the park which had a huge lake. Lots of families and children were also enjoying the park. We saw a range of Pandals and walked quite a way today. Some were small ... and some were huge with interesting themes and incredible decorations. We met lots of children who all said, " Hi!". One little boy was asking lots of questions stating with, "Are you a foreigner?"
We had a few interesting moments as we walked from Pandal to Pandal. We took some short cuts across railway tracks and through some very poor areas, in the dark. We were certainly not alone. There were crowds of people everywhere and some huge queues to visit the Pandals.
We got the metro back to central Kolkata. Everyone in Kolkata is out tonight, all dressed up. It was quite full but we managed to squeeze in. Next stop more people got on and at the next stop even more. It was quite funny and the locals were all enjoying being absolutely squished, giggling away. A couple more stops, no one got off ... more people got on. Now we had a huge issue. How on earth are we going to get off? We wriggled our way towards the door but unfortunately the platform alternates and we needed to be on the other side! The locals helped us as we wriggled to the other side. When the train stops you have about 5 seconds to disembark. It stopped, we wriggled once more and made it onto the platform. Everyone was giggling, including us. What an experience that was!
Using our Metro Smart cards makes getting the underground a breeze. It was pretty quiet at Park Street station and we had a comfortable ride 6 stops south. The first Pandal we discovered invited us in, gave us a take away food box full of food plus some Indian sweets! We ate the sweets but couldn't manage any more food. We managed to pass it on to a lady who needed it more than we did.
We had a relaxing stroll through the park which had a huge lake. Lots of families and children were also enjoying the park. We saw a range of Pandals and walked quite a way today. Some were small ... and some were huge with interesting themes and incredible decorations. We met lots of children who all said, " Hi!". One little boy was asking lots of questions stating with, "Are you a foreigner?"
We had a few interesting moments as we walked from Pandal to Pandal. We took some short cuts across railway tracks and through some very poor areas, in the dark. We were certainly not alone. There were crowds of people everywhere and some huge queues to visit the Pandals.
We got the metro back to central Kolkata. Everyone in Kolkata is out tonight, all dressed up. It was quite full but we managed to squeeze in. Next stop more people got on and at the next stop even more. It was quite funny and the locals were all enjoying being absolutely squished, giggling away. A couple more stops, no one got off ... more people got on. Now we had a huge issue. How on earth are we going to get off? We wriggled our way towards the door but unfortunately the platform alternates and we needed to be on the other side! The locals helped us as we wriggled to the other side. When the train stops you have about 5 seconds to disembark. It stopped, we wriggled once more and made it onto the platform. Everyone was giggling, including us. What an experience that was!