Colonial Kolkata

Arrival

We landed on time around 0100.  Seated close to the front (because I paid, because I had been auto-assigned a bad seat), I was through immigration promptly.  One stands high up on steps at immigration perhaps in order to access the fingerprint scanners that may have been introduced after the desks were made. A Chinese man was at the next counter and they staff asked me to interpret with my limited skills; he understood English but was just a bit slow.

I prepaid for my taxi ride then searched for an ATM and found one with some difficulty, since there was only one.

My taxi was a yellow Hindustan.  The old driver didn’t speak much English and was wearing a wrap as it was  just a tiny bit cool.  The streets were largely deserted and the air very hazy.  I was getting bitten in the vehicle by mosquitoes … from my childhood experience, they like to hide in dark places.

With some difficulty, he navigated to the Great Western Hotel where the grate had been pulled down, and the two staff sleeping on the floor.  I got to my room around 0230 for a short night’s sleep.

Exploring colonial Kolkata

I woke at 0730.  It wasn’t the heaviest night sleep I’ve had.  After a room service breakfast, I braved up for my morning exploration.  Even though it’s probably my ninth time in India, it is still a daunting place.

It was about 30 mins leisurely walk along the busy road flanked by the park to get to Victoria Memorial.  I got there just before it opened at 1000.  It a pricey at INR500 for a foreigner ticket.  I wandered around the grounds and realised that I had entered the grounds from the back … just as well because the light was better for photos and there was no scaffolding.

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After exploring the inside, I returned to the hotel for a rest before ordering room service lunch of egg curry and roti.

I continued my exploration at the BBD Bagh (formerly Dalhousie Square) where ther was a concentration of colonial government and commercial buildings.  It really does show that this was once the capital of British India.

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Pharmaceuticals are cheap in India and I normally like to stock up on a few items like antihistamines, mucolytic and paracetamol.  I went to a few pharmacies.  Some are modern, computerised with young well-dressed staff.

But my favourite is a two-storey place where I make my enquiry to the man at the ground floor counter.  He shouts up the name to the man upstairs who retrieves the product, throwing it down (avoiding the ceiling fan).

While getting my few supplies, I took time to research more serious stuff and find that the original medications sell for 7 to 23 times the local generic price!  Comparisons are approximate due to varying package sizes and sometimes the mg.

You can easily recoup your international airfare buying here; getting it home might be an issue depending on where you live.

Examples in NZD:

• Memantine HCl  10mg (dementia medication used by family member).  $0.32 per tablet. NZ price for Ebixa is $8.18 (not funded) for the original.  In Malaysia, $3.20 original or $1.67 generic.
• Finasteride 1mg (for male hair loss).  $0.14 per tablet.  In NZ, Propecia sells for $1.60 per tablet.
• Sildenafil 50mg (erectile dysfunction).  $0.32 per tablet.  NZ price for Viagra is probably around $2.91 (limited information online on NZ price).
• Levocetrizine di-HCl, 10mg (antihistamine).  $0.27 per tablet.  In NZ, Levrix sells for $1.99 per tablet.
• Ambroxol HCL 30mg (mucolytic).  $0.04 per tablet.  Not a medication I’ve seen in NZ and I can’t remember the Malaysian price.

With my purchases all done, I settled in my room.  Even though I’ located in a street with a few good restaurants, I opted to order room service of mixed vegetable curry.

I surprised myself with how well and how much I did today, despite less than five hours of light sleep.  Pat on the back!