Lions and Tigers and Bears (oh my)

It's amazing what a new hotel and earplugs can do for one's experience in India! The last straw for our hotel had four legs and a tail. The first night we stayed there, we saw a mouse in our room, and tried to change rooms. Instead, they sent a kid in with a can of Killex to spray all over. He assured us that after the treatment that there was no problem. We should mention that our room had no ventilation. There's a window, but you'd have to break it to get out. We tried to plug holes in the walls where we thought he might be coming in, but, 2 nights later, while watching Hindi TV, Kelsey felt something tickling her hair. She turned and saw our little friend running off the bed and down the curtain. We stayed up until 4 am trying to chase him out from under the bed. The next day, we packed up and found a new place.

Mouse House:

Critter-Free Room: Kelsey in our new fort. From no air to too much air; there isn't glass in the windows and so we have set up a mosquito net. Safe and sound at last! The only thing left to fix was the incredible noise pollution coming from the very busy roads outside. We've mentioned it once already, but the honking is incessant. It's like a crazy horn orchestra from another world. We often have to shout just to hear each other in our room, so we pulled out the ear plugs and have lived happily ever after.
We are trying to check off our "must-see" list for Kolkata so that we can make a move out of the city. So yesterday we visited the Indian Museum in a very fancy old building. Admission was a bit pricy, but there were still a lot of neat artifacts and fossils.

After seeing the bone versions, we decided to head to the zoo and see the real animals.

The Zoo within a Zoo:
On our map the zoo didn't look that far from the museum, so we decided to walk it. BIG MISTAKE! The first part of the walk was great, but we then had to follow a busy fairway breathing up fumes and enduring horns all the way. Of course hardly any streets are marked and so we weren't sure where we were and had to ask for directions. Which gets a huge response (because people are very helpful and interested in us) so we had 10 guys all trying to tell us directions in a mixture of Hindi and English. FINALLY, we can see the zoo (did I mention this is all happening mid-day with no lunch so we are both starving). Once inside with people everywhere, cricket matches, picnics and school groups, it is as interesting to watch the people as the animals.

Note: the zoo is in disrepair and many of the buildings and cages are in rough shape. We did manage to get some nice photos, but it wasn't the ideal zoo conditions. Perhaps since the average quality of life is not high for people, humane treatment of animals doesn't seem to be a high priority.



This lion was the lucky one in a nice pen. However, most of the lions, tigers and bears were in very small concrete cages for better viewing (we guess).
We did enjoy the zoo and it seemed that all the animals were coming out to play with us. I think it was because we were there around feeding time. All the animals, except the hippos, were walking around or showing off for us. The king of the jungle was the greatest show, the lions were ROARING, and it was amazing to be standing so close while they roared. Such a deep and thundering sound, it was like nothing we had heard before.

So, now that we've started to find our groove for travel in India, we're seeing past the difficulties and experiencing the greatness of this place. Our plan is to head north towards Darjeeling and the Himalayas in the next few days.
Stay tuned for more of our Indian adventures.

K & T