finishing the India visa

I took a short internal flight to Kolkata, thinking (i) that I should see this important city, and (ii) that it would give me relatively easy access across the border to Bangladesh, where I intended to go next.  As well as some ten days to catch up with admin (sorting out photos, sending overdue emails, checking Bangladesh entry requirements, etc) and sleep, with the added bonus of having found a reasonably comfortable hostel for £3.50 a day including breakfast!

The first thing on my agenda was to complete the online Bangladesh visa form and take a printed copy of that and various supporting documents to their visa application centre.  However … the lady there who went through my documents informed me that it takes 18-21 days to get the visa, and I had only nine days left before my India visa expired, so this route was not open to me (not to mention her feedback that they could not process the application without my providing them with an Indian phone number!).  So, sadly, I booked a flight to Thailand instead.  & THEN discovered that it was possible to get a Visa on Arrival at Dhaka airport (not on a land border crossing) provided I had accommodation bookings, an onward flight booking, and a letter of invitation from a relevant party (eg a tour guide) … and to my surprise I found a (British) tour company who were still taking bookings for a tour of Bangladesh starting only two weeks ahead, and who would be prepared to issue me (through their local agent) with a letter of invitation and proof of accommodation starting on the day my India visa expired.  So I cancelled my flight to Thailand and bought one to Bangladesh, and booked myself into a cheap hotel for the four days before the tour started.

Then finally had some time to wander around Kolkata.  The prime attraction is the Victoria Memorial (see photo above), which I found to be a most interesting place in terms of the different sides one saw to the India-UK relations over the years.  The plaque in this photo, “honouring Victoria's gracious assumption of the title of Empress of India”, is actually found beside a statue of Queen Victoria in the India Museum; this and the eagerness with which Indian tourists asked to take selfies with me when they discovered that I am a ‘Britisher’, showed one side – the side which seems to dominate.  But permanent exhibitions within the Victoria Memorial building include one on the resistance to the British colonial occupation and the fight for independence – interesting in itself but also interesting to find it in this location!

As there aren’t that many ‘sights’ in Kolkata, I also fitted in a very tiring trip to Konark, to see the UNESCO-listed Sun Temple (there and back on so-called ‘sleeper’ buses, with a full day in Konark).  A fairly impressive place, built in the 2nd century AD to honour the sun – the patron deity of the place.  However, as with some other ancient monuments in India (such as Khajuraho, which I visited in 1984), the most striking element of the place is all of the erotic carvings which adorn its walls.  I cannot imagine what the culture must have been like at this time, where such an aspect of life was publicly celebrated, and am also very surprised that they have not been destroyed by subsequent, more conservative, cultures.

But all too soon, my year in-and-out of India was over, and I took my flight onwards, to Bangladesh.