From Jaipur it was back to Delhi for the next flight and we stopped in Calcutta for a couple of days on our way to Burma. Marg was just getting over a flu virus at this stage, while I had gouged my leg slightly at the Amber fort, but our stomachs were still OK, although we were eating less and less, due to not always stopping for lunch. Most of the food was OK, although you had to pick your places. The Hotels usually charged astronomical prices in the main cities, while the smaller hotels you skipped in the country towns, and found nicer restaurants nearby! By this stage we were getting a little tired having been traveling by car for five days and sightseeing quite a lot, so onto Calcutta for three days of hopeful rest. Not to be! Our hotel was right in the middle of the city, and the room was not available, so round to a local guesthouse we went, which was filthy, smelly and otherwise totally unpleasant. While we took all the precautions we could, it was probably here that my leg wound and a scratch on Margs’ arm both totally infected up, and then Marg also got an ear virus, which was very painful for her. At the end of our India stay and we finally got caught with the bugs! My leg wound finally became a tropical ulcer, so by the time I was back in Singapore, it needed to be scrapped and fixed up, and as it was on the shin, no anesthetic to help! The Hotel was very quaint when we finally moved in there the next day, with it being built in 1827 or so, was was full of old artifacts, big, big rooms and set English style meals, which were appreciated at this stage of the trip. Called the Fairlawn Hotel, it was owned and run by the Colonel (ex-British war vet) and Violet and they were very pro-monarchy!!! Walls that had paint on an inch thick and covered with portraits and posters of the royal family. Once we came back to Calcutta to work, it was the only place you could get a beer on a public holiday! Old style servants in colonial uniforms, meals followed the raj style, watery soups, carvery, rice puddings etc, but it was nice in its own way and the Colonel and Violet were very nice people, which we kept in visited all the time we were in Calcutta. Violet came from the Armenian family that own Raffles Singapore and Yangoon, and always bemoaned that her side of the family were the poor ones! Calcutta, a city even more out of control than the others we had been to. There are many homeless people and beggars, terrific poverty, crowding, dirtiness, noisiness, pollution and general mayhem. Words sometimes fail to describe the sights and sounds of these cities, especially Calcutta, although we have met a lot of people who reckon Calcutta is their favourite city. Who knew that in one years’ time, I would be back here and working just around the corner at the Oberoi Grand for the next three years!