Team Wanderlust photo essay

Last year we spent Christmas in Calcutta, India. We were supposed to spend it on a riverboat in the Ganges searching for wild tigers in the Sunderbans of West Bengal. But sadly all the expeditions were booked until well after the new year. Plan B. If we  couldn’t make it to the Sunderbans we thought we’d spend Christmas at the Simlipal National Park, surrounded by beautiful waterfalls, rolling green hills and forests filled with tigers, elephants and monkeys. But this time all the trains were booked! The gods of travel were frowning upon our Christmas plans. All trains and excursions throughout India were booked solid for the holidays. Being a predominately Hindu nation, I was surprised to find that Indians celebrate the holidays much like we do in the West. We wanted to get the hell outta the city and back into nature for the holidays, but it wasn’t gonna to happen. So we made the best of it in Calcutta. Instead of a turkey dinner, we had a three-piece chicken dinner at KFC. “Garçon! Super-size that combo and throw in some extra gravy. It’s Santa’s birthday, dammit!”. Classic.

Calcutta is actually a very nice, modern city. Admittedly, I was bracing myself for the worst when we got there. But to my surprise (and relief) it was nothing like the dirt-hole the media portrays it to be. It still had it’s share of persistent beggars, crusty street dogs, shady street hustlers, claustrophobic over-population and snot-blackening pollution, but what Asian city doesn’t!? The city itself was sprinkled with beautiful colonial architecture from the days of the Raj, and the people of Calcutta were very kind and helpful to us. The lesson Calcutta taught me was not to put too much weight in what others tell you. Experience life for yourself and form your own opinion. Believe in your own experience. Merry Christmas, everyone!