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India

I know my people have the impression that business travels means having the chance to stay at 5 star hotels, for free.

Now, if you are one of them, then it’s time that you get this impression right.

If it’s not a Hilton or Raddisson, then at least it should be a 4 star, isn’t it? It shouldn’t be that bad, isn’t it?

No. Not even close.

Perhaps a 3 star hotel?

Or 2 star?

Okay. Worse come to worse, it must be a hotel. The worst hotels can’t be worse than 1 star.

Yeah, right.

I’ll let the photo do the all talking. A photo is worth a thousand words, maybe even more.

Is This A Hotel?

Is This A Hotel? - © Bernard Loke

A Bed?

A Bed? - © Bernard Loke

This was a hotel I stayed while I was in Kharagpur in the summer of 2008. Before you start scratching your head thinking where the heck this place is on the map, let me tell you that it’s in India. West Bengal to be exact. It’s about 300km from Calcultta. And it’s not where you want to be.

My Indian colleague and I was really glad to have him with me was supposed to go there for a few days to finsih off some tasks. I thought, “Good, at least something else to see and experience outside Calcultta”.

So, after sitting for 5 hours in a Kancil-sized, small TATA car, driven by a drvier who does not speak a single word of English, we were greeted by a long stretch of paddy fields, indicating we’re approaching Kharagpur. Houses were scattered everywhere through the paddy fields.

Only For FOREIGNERS

Only For FOREIGNERS - © Bernard Loke

The office admin couldn’t find a hotel for us there. So, the first thing we got there was to find a hotel which later on I found out that they are all called hotels, but they are nowhere near hotels, or even motels. I don’t know if it’s bad timing, or we were out of luck. Most hotels there were fully booked because it was the examination week for those who would want to enrol to the local university there.

Students from other places came to Kharagpur to take the university admission examinations which, if they pass, qualify them for a place in the local university. I also found out that the university in Kharagpur is the third best engineering university throughout the whole of India.

No wonder we can’t find any rooms!

But we found one, albeit one that is not so pleasant. And it goes straight to my Worst Ever Stayed Hotel.

Now, anyone who still thinks having a job like mine sounds like fun, I seriously think they should think again, or trying experience all these by themselves. Then, and only then, a 9-5 office job would seem ideal.

Isn’t that so?

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Victoria Memorial Kolkata

That’s the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, a memorial for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom which was built between 1906 and 1921. It’s located in downtown and it’s just about 1km away from the hotel I’m staying.

The weather was looking good this morning and I took a short walk along streets to reach this famous landmark in Kolkata. It’s actually a museum inside. Majority of the exhibits are century old paintings of famous landmarks and places in India, together with some canons and guns used by the Bengali soldiers last time.

Nothing much really interests me, except to snap some photographs from outside as cameras are banned inside the memorial.

I’m now in my final leg for this trip. 3 more weeks in Kolkata (hopefully they don’t ask me to go the city nearby) and I’ll be home and ready for my next dive trip.

And after that, it’s going be a looooong 6 months away.

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When people asked me, So, where are you now?

I replied, Durgapur.

And the next thing I knew was, Where on earth is that place?!!

It’s in West Bengal state in India, about 160km north east Kolkata. To be precise, 23°29′N 87°19′E or 23.48, 87.32.

I was playing around with Google Maps just now, so I thought I would just try to embed the map into this post and see how it shows up.
View Larger Map

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