From Darjeeling to Kolkata (Calcutta as it used to be known) we had to take our first sleeper coach! We'd seen these before and thought they looked quite comfy. You basically have a little compartment, above the seats, in which two people are supposed to sleep. It was just about bearable with two of us in there lying at opposite ends and the coach was at a standstill. When the coach was moving however it was impossible to sleep. The bus driver was constantly accelerating and decelerating whilst lurching round corners and overtaking – beeping his horn at anyone who dared be in front of him. I was either being thrown head first into the bottom of the bunk or catapulted out of the side into the aisle. We survived but were very sleepy come the end. I was also in need of a bit of a toilet stop by the time we arrived, I'd refused to use the last ones the coach stopped at because they were beyond grim. Unfortunately the coaches in India rarely stop in a proper coach station and just deposit you on the side of the road somewhere, this meant no toilet facilities. Oh well I thought, the hotel can't be too far and there are taxis right there. Forgetting that Kolkatta is a big city with a lot of traffic about 10 minutes into the taxi ride the toilet situation was getting extremely uncomfortable. 5 minutes later and still stuck in traffic it was starting to reach the point of no return. Struggling to contain myself I had no choice but to run out of the taxi whilst it was stuck in traffic and desperately try to find a toilet, leaving Hannah to explain to the driver what on earth I was doing. As luck would have it there was a hotel on the other side of the road and they were kind enough to let me use their toilet. Pheeeewwwwweeeee. 
 
The following day I was very excited because we were going to go and watch the IPL T20 cricket match between Kolkatta Knight Riders and The Rajastan Royals. Before that though we went for a walk through the centre to get our bearings. Kolkatta was stonkingly hot and you literally start dripping with sweat as soon as you stepped foot outside so it wasn't long before we stopped for a rest in a park. Here we got talking to some young locals who were very interested to know about us and life in England as we were in them. After that we had an excellent Chinese meal in a restaurant called BBQ, quite a bit fancier than we were used too but delicious! 

Then it was cricket time! Not like any match I'd ever been too, the crowd were crazy and constantly being egged on by the cheerleaders and pumping music. They loved it when the cameras panned onto the crowd and zoomed in on people to put up on the big screen. They were holding their babies in the air and everything absolutely desperate to get on tv! Hannah enjoyed it too and should now be able to tell you how many balls are in an over! :) 

The rest of our time was spent sightseeing with the highlights being the Victoria Memorial, St Pauls Cathedral and the Museum of Natural History. The Victoria Memorial was a particularly stunning building I thought, another one the British left... not all bad eh? The museum was interesting and one of the better ones in India, although I was a bit freaked out by the preserved animal foetuses they had there as well as a human one!!! 

Kolkatta wasn't actually too bad a city, much nicer and cleaner than Delhi, with a nicer vibe about it. They do say its the city of smiles but we didn't see too much of that – apart from the young guys we met in the park. The heat was formidable here though, definitely the hottest place on our trip so far – mid to high 30's we were told. I've never experienced a place so hot I sweat when I'm sat down doing nothing....at 8pm at night!