Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Smiles and sorrows in the slums of Calcutta


Since I am home and with a jet lag and cant sleep, Ive put up some photos from a day I cant forget. It was that day in India when I saw the biggest contrast I had ever seen in one day. It was the day we went into the slums of Calcutta, and went to a five star hotel for lunch.

























And then, lunch at a five star hotel...

Jet lagged but happy!




After 35 hours of flying i am back. Back in Norway. Back in Fredrikstad. And back with my little nephew that i have never seen before! He was born in february and I met him yesterday. He is the cutest. I bought him a little flowery, green shirt from Fiji. My brother said he should get a gold medallion around his neck too. Then he would fit right into a gangster movie from Hawaii. It really good to be back, we had a big family dinner yesterday. The sun was shining and its SO green everywhere!
Its kinda weird as well, coming home to the lawn and the little forest behind my house where I used to play as a kid. Home feels like a funny place when you have only seen places you have never seen before the last six months. Suddenly there is this place on earth where you KNOW everything. You know the culture, the people and the way everything works. It feels relaxing and a bit surreal at the same time. You kinda have to pinch your arm when you wake up in your own room, after waking up in the weirdest places the last six months. A balcony in Varanasi in India, dirty beds in scummy hostels, a school in the north of India, a wonderfully clean hostel in Kuala Lumpur, a bungalow in Gili Islands in Indonesia, Simons mums house in little Harvey in WA, a tent in the outback, a five star resort, at Maris place in Fiji, in a dorm with twenty people in Bounty Island in Fiji and finally, on a plane back to my home country. No wonder I feel a bit disoriented when I wake up in my own bed!!

Here are some of the places I have been:

Sunrise on in the Himalayas:




In the slums of Calcutta, the poorest and dirtiest of Indian cities.


Indian color festival.
Extra in a Bollywood movie!
Agra and Taj Mahal.
Mandatory. On an Indian train.

School kids playing cricket in Nagrakata, India.
Burning dead bodies in Varanasi, India.
Elefant festival, Kerala.


Surfing in Gili Islands, Indonesia.
Backwaters in Kerala.
School kids in Nagrakata, north of India.
Varanasi and Ganges at sunrise.

Goa, India.
Nuse Lembongan, Indonesia.
Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia.



At last, Bounty Island, Fiji: