Indigo

India's largest internal airline, Indigo, has far more planes than British Airways. There is an unsurprising demand for travel around this vast country of close to 1.5 billion people and despite rapid rise of air travel the railways are still crowded and roads manic. We flew with Indigo from Bangalore to Kolkata yesterday and found it very efficient, pleasant and good value. On our first trip here we used more trains, but the day and a half from Bangalore didn't appeal nearly as much as two and a half hour flight.

The biggest factor for the choice, though, is simplicity. Booking a train is challenging, starting with simply choosing the best train. For example: 

--  timing (few long distance trains run daily, but there will be a couple of daily options for this route), 

-- class (there are many, and every train has a few different ones),

--  reputation (some might always be at least half a day late or be renowned for filth, others be well known for great catering).

Then class has to be considered and we're so fortunate that we can afford any class we choose, with first class being around air price though to "sleeper" costing about the same as the bus from Kirkwall to Stromness. But the bus would not be likely to be infested by cockroaches. There are various configuration of second class and they've proved fine in the past. But we're older now.

Now the process becomes tricky, especially from a distance, as several of the booking sites simply don't allow non-indian booking. Having found a site to book through and checked availability you can only request - the booking is not confirmed for several days, apparently. 

It's so much easier to use Indigo's understandable and modern website or app, confident that the booking is confirmed. Even buying flexibility is surprisingly good value (or maybe shockingly expensive in the UK) at about £10 to upgrade to fully changeable and includes a drink and sandwich on board.

Very long winded introduction to yesterday! We flew out from the older of Bangalore's terminals which felt pretty new and was immaculate. A drink at Jones the Grocer before boarding, then a two hour flight with time to read and enjoy our multi-coloured paprika chicken sandwich.

We're in Kolkata for the wedding of Jen's oldest friend's daughter and are being hosted amazingly so far! We were met at the airport and driven to the centre where we're booked into the Saturday Club, a faded but thriving relic from colonial times; sports, social and cultural club with rooms at least thrice the size of a Travelodge. Decor and fixtures are multi generation, wiring obsolete and more likely to be not working, but it has a ceiling fan, a fridge, comfy beds and is wonderfully eccentric.

We wandered out in the evening towards the Victoria Memorial. Kolkata is so much older than Bengaluru - buildings, streets, cars, even people. There are footpaths by the roads, unfortunately these are mostly collapsed, have street furniture blocking them or are full with stalls selling all sorts, so walking on the roads is necessary. I was wrong in thinking no-one could use their horns more than Bangalore drivers.

Short traffic video

Preparations were going on for Constitution Day (26th January and a very big deal) in the restaurant we picked so, surrounded by green, orange and white balloons we tucked into momos and biriani along with a wonderful butter mushroom dish - somehow the mushrooms were crunchy in the sauce.

Wedding festivities begin this evening with a meal at the club. We're just hoping to keep up with the pace of the next few days!