Calcutta (India)......................Kolkata

Advantages: Amazingly hospitable, Great people, Historical British architecture, Great transport links, Good food .
Disadvantages: Racist overcharging of foreign visitors. Third world government for a first rate people .

...Calcutta. A city of 14,000 000 people, and one of the most vibrant and interesting cities in the world, and typically for India very hospitable too. Indians are beautiful people. If you like architecture, its a living museum of British architecture with Howrah railway station and bridge, the biggest lighthouse(Shahid Minar) I've ever seen, slap bang in the centre......Tagore House, The amazing Marble Palace(free entrance), the old writers building on Dalhousie Square and best of all the Victoria Memorial. A huge white building not too dissimilar to the White House in size and in looks. Then there's the Birla Planetarium, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Kali and Paresnath Temples, and numerous other mosques and temples to visit. Never been so enthralled with the buildings of a city as I was with Calcutta. There are just too many to...

Jarrac 04.04.2008 (30.04.2008) · Read review
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Review of Calcutta (India)

Calcutta is Kolkata

Advantages: many connection
Disadvantages: crowdy, no facilities for passengers

...well I had been twice on Calcutta, now kolkatta airport, when I was going and coming back from Ranchi. It is very crowded with not much facilities for passengers. As it is main hub of eastern India so many passengers rushing here and there. Flight schedules often changes without notice. No good facility of drinking water or food. No Television sets out side of security check in. safety issues are there. we have to be cafefull all time for our luggage. staff is friendly though over loaded. Calcutta has many connected flights for eastern part and north eastern part of India. Any holiday to north east India has almost unavoidable stop over at Calcutta. So it is better to get ready for crowdy and mismanaged airport before landing there....

imwhoever 14.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Calcutta Airport (CCU)

I LOVE CALCUTTA (KOLKATA)

Advantages: BEAUTIFUL, CHEAP, helpful people, cultural, colourful
Disadvantages: dirty, crowded, old. hot and humid.

...Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) is the capital of the state of West Bengal located in East of India. It?s a very populated city but filled with culture, tradition and history. It has many of it buildings crumbling and streets smelling, which might make you think that it is a filthy city. But after you spend some time, you?ll realise that the city has been unfairly defamed. If you try to know it deeper, you?ll realise why it has been accredited as the cultural capital of India. It has some of the finest remnants of British Raj in India being the capital of British India till the beginning of 20th Century, but it still has a strong Bengali heart. It is also considered as the India?s friendliest metropolis. It is the birthplace of several famous people like Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, novelist William Thackeray...

rishmitra 16.09.2004 · Read review
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Review of Calcutta (India)

Calcutta - not for the faint-hearted

Advantages: The cities outskirts are beautiful, cheap to travel
Disadvantages: pollution, electricity failures, language barrier

...Never been abroad to a developing country? After having recently visited Calcutta, I recommend this city to be visited by all who feel they need a new challenge, and at the same time wish to revel in the sunshine and, for once, smile when it rains cats and dogs. The challenge? Whilst many of the shops and services are labelled in English, many people of Calcutta prefer to speak the language of Bengali although many will understand English. The taxi is possibly your best method of transport, and the value of the rupee to the pound allows you to travel across the city for less than 10 pounds. Taxi rides can be fun what with pot-holed roads or flooded streets but if you have back problems this place is not for you. Be prepared for many mosquitoes and insects....the more on the outskirts of the city you are, the more insects there will...

raylax 12.08.2000 · Read review
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Review of Calcutta (India)

"City of Joy" brings "Joy" to shoppers like me

Advantages: Lovely food, lovely people, a shoppers paradise...
Disadvantages: Too hot at almost any time of year & traffic's a nightmare

...A born and bred Londoner (British Indian) I visited Calcutta as a child and remember disliking it immensely because of the heat and apart from being spoilt by relatives I couldn't wait to get back to London. I didn't visit again till January 1998 for 2 weeks when I enjoyed my trip and with one thing and another didn't get to go back until December 2003 and since then I've been back in 2004, 2005 and 2007 usually for 2 or 3 weeks. Are you sitting comfortably? This is a long one? Some facts for you to digest firstly, to give you an idea about Calcutta in general: • It was renamed Kolkata in January 2001 (Kolkata is how native Bengali people pronounce Calcutta). • Calcutta was the capital of India until the British changed it to Delhi in 1911. Mother Teresa, after coming to Calcutta in 1929, was a permanent resident...

anonymili 29.06.2005 (28.05.2008) · Read review
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Review of Calcutta (India)

Nicco Park - It's Park Full of Amusements

Advantages: Fun day out for all of the family
Disadvantages: Really poor toilet facilities

...Nicco Park is in Salt Lake which is on the north-eastern side of Calcutta, India. It's basically an amusement park - Calcutta's Disneyland if you will. It was opened in 1991 and has amused locals and tourists ever since with it's 40 acres of park and rides for all age groups. Nicco Park was the first amusement park in India to receive ISO 9002 accreditation. I have visited Nicco Park twice in the last five years when visiting Calcutta, the first time I went was back in 2004 and most recently I went in December 2007, having thoroughly enjoyed myself on both occasions. It's best to allow yourself the best part of the day to explore Nicco Park and it's much more fun in you are in a group of people with varied tastes so you can all go on different rides with each other and people don't feel deprived if you are too scared too go...

anonymili 05.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Nicco Park, Calcutta

A SHINING LIGHT IN A BLACK HOLE

Advantages: see text
Disadvantages: see text

...Calcutta.......a wonderful city, with every kind of person you could wish to meet and some of them whom you wouldn't, and plenty of them! I spent some time here about 4 years ago and my first impression on landing at the airport, was the SMELL. There is nothing quite like it on earth. It hits you before anything else, including the heat, when you step out into the street! Imagine your nostrils being assaulted by the worst and the best smells you can imagine and multiply that by a thousand, and you are somewhere near to the smell that greeted me on my arrival. The second thing to strike me on emergence from the airport building were the beggars.......from the very very old to the very very young they were there en masse. They will do anything for a few rupees and it is especially heartbreaking to see the amputations that have been...

LICARUS 05.02.2001 (30.06.2001) · Read review
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Review of Calcutta (India)

CCU Has Improved But Still Has Some Way To Go

Advantages: fairly polite staff who all speak and understand English
Disadvantages: overly laid back staff, no cash point machines

...Calcutta (now called Kolkata) Airport is also known as CCU (airline short code) and NSCBI (Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International) and also Dum Dum (pronounced Dom Dom and not dumb dumb as you just imagined) Airport. There are two main parts of the airport - Domestic and International and as I've only ever flown in or out via International I'll stick to discussing my experiences of the International side. I've flown in and out of Kolkata 3 years in a row now during the December period - this is a popular time for people to visit as it's winter and for those of us acclimatised to the UK weather the Kolkata winter is pretty similar to our summer/springtime here. I noticed when I first arrived in Kolkata in 2003 that the staff didn't seem to be in any hurry to deal with passengers coming off my flight - I took British Airways...

anonymili 02.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Calcutta Airport (CCU)

Mrs D'Silva - a source of inspiration

Advantages: Evocative of place and time, entertainng and inforamtive
Disadvantages: Not as much culinary info as expected

...During a picnic excursion with his mother Joan and other families from Calcutta's Anglo Indian community, ten year old Errol makes a gruesome discovery - the partly decomposed body of a young woman. The victim turns out to be Agnes, a young woman brought up by nuns, lately married to a much older man. As witnesses, Joan and Errol are required to attend the inquest at which a verdict of suicide is implied. After the inquest, Anil, a former pupil at the school where Joan teaches, and Philomena, both friends of the dead girl, confide in Joan that they believe that Agnes was murdered and ask for Joan's help in finding out who was responsible. So Joan, with the assistance of her charming new colleague, Philip, is drawn into the affair which quickly becomes more complicated when Anil is arrested for the murder of a local factory manager...

fizzytom 25.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Mrs D'Silva's Detective Instincts and the Shaitan of Calcutta - Glen Peters

West Bengal Comfort

Advantages: Clean; airy; big room; great food; service
Disadvantages: Can I press the lift button myself please?

...Arriving in Kolkata (Calcutta) to begin a trip around the north of India provides a hell of a culture shock. The city is a sprawling mass of seemingly unending squalor and people. After a while, though, you come to realise that the Bengali people are particularly friendly, and Kolkata is somewhere you can see almost every facet of life. And so, leaving the potholed streets, the people sleeping by the side of the road, the shacks and the dogs and the cows and the beggars, you arrive at the Taj Bengal, Kolkata's branch of this chain hotel. Right from the imposing chap in a turban opening the car door (yes, I know it sounds like I'm dealing in clichés, but he really was there) there's a feeling that you're going to be looked after in here. A separate man on each of the two doors going into the massive lobby adds to this sense...

blackpuddinonnabike 30.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of Taj Bengal Hotel, Calcutta