After landing again in Mumbai, Meg and I decided to completely rearrange our itinerary. We decided to head east to Darjeeling and then cross into Nepal. We had originally planned on 10 days in Nepal. But now we have changed that to almost 4 weeks, to allow us to do some real treking in the himalayas. 

To get to Darjeeling we flew from Mumbai to Calcutta. When we arrived we realized that Mumbai was a clean modern city in comparison. The poverty in Calcutta was confronting. As we searched for our hotel after arriving, we walked past families sleeping on the sidewalk. The air in Calcutta is a thick haze, the ground is grey with grime and dirt, and the streets are chaotic and noisy. One description I came across put it well: Calcutta, the former capital of the Raj, is decaying. 

That said, you could tell there is an undercurrent of energy as we weaved through the streets in a taxi.

Calcutta is also the last bastion of the human powered rickshaw.

They were outlawed a few years ago, but the thousands strong union just ignored the law. The image of a barefoot man pulling another person was unsettling. With the trains fully booked and the sleeper buses being too dirty to deal with, Meg and I dipped into the splurge fund and bought plane tickets to Siliguri, which is the gateway to the Darjeeling hills. On our way to the airport the next day i took two pictures that i thought needed to be shared. The first is the common sight of an empty lot that has become a local trash dump.

The second, taken as the taxi took a shortcut around a traffic jam, is of a street along one of the slums. I felt guilt taking this picture, but this was Calcutta.

Once on the plane, Meg and I agreed that Calcutta would not be a place we would return to.