Udayan - a new beginning

After a few very busy days, today was more laid back. We decided to have a much later start this morning and after breakfast we went off in search of local bargains. Firstly, we made our way through the busy streets of Kolkata to a bookshop that stocks English books. We all bought something to bring home with us such as books about the city, Indian culture and Bollywood music. With our purchases in hand, we made our way down to the market, where we had bought our Indian outfits the day before. We split into two groups, one group went into the indoor market to buy pashminas and the other group browsed through the outside stalls, basking in the Bengali sun. The group managed to get a great deal on bits and bobs to bring back to England.

We returned to the Fairlawn and Mrs Weldon took us to a few places of interest in Kolkata. First stop was a stunning Jain temple. This was a beautiful place with really intricate detail on the walls and ceiling, made up of little mirrors, coloured glass and jewels, which was really brought to life by the afternoon sun reflecting throughout the temple. We saw people gathering for a wedding outside of the temple and preparations for a number of funerals which just further proved to us what an important building this was. We also bought lots of little mementos to remember this lovely place we were lucky enough to visit.

After hoping back on the minibus we shortly arrived at the side of the River Ganges. We walked along the riverside and then walked down some steps so that we could dip our toes in this sacred body of water to the Hindus. Jason was the only one to touch it, he decided to step into the river with his bare feet! The smell of incense all around confirmed the importance of this place to the people. Afterwards we made our way back to the hotel.

For a change of scenery we walked the short distance to another hotel to have dinner in their restaurant. Most of us chose local food but some took the opportunity to eat something more familiar! We all came back to the Fairlawn feeling very full and decided to have relaxing evening in the hotel.

P.S. As we finish writing this we see the hotel’s resident cat run though the lounge, as we let out an adoring ‘aww’ these sounds of adornment soon become loud and horrified gasps of disgust as we saw it carrying a dead rat in its mouth! Liam’s heart dropped as he realised his room door was open, unfortunately (for the rest of us) it ran past his room and onto the balcony.