We checked out of our Palolem shack, and flagged down a reasonably priced taxi to take us to the airport. We zipped by the stunning countryside, and the trees slowly gave way to increasing amounts of civilisation as we neared the airport.

We arrived at the airport in good time, which was lucky because everything took a very long time . We scanned our baggage, checked in, got our boarding passes, went through security for domestic flights... that all took an hour and a half. We got some food and coffee in departures, and wondered at how so many people were packed into such a small airport. Our flight was an hour late. It passed uneventfully, taking took two and a half hours to cross India, from west to east.

We arrived into Kolkata and were immediately beset by Indian city worries. We took a prepaid taxi into the city centre, though there was no information given to us on where to go to actually get the taxi. The man behind the pre-paid counter tried to unsuccessfully make us pay twice, and ignored our repeated question of "where do we go to get the taxi?"  Frustrated, we made our own way outside to find a rank of taxis across the road. Here, a man 'helped' us get the next taxi in line, which had someone in it. We declined to use it and headed for the next taxi, which caused the 'helpful' man some consternation . We went anyway, not willing to be duped into paying for someone elses taxi ride.

We were unsure of our taxi driver. He asked for our hotel's phone number, and got Ken to type it into his phone. We assumed this was for directions or something, but he had a chat and then passed the phone to Ken, because the 'hotel' wanted some information on our booking. Ken declined to speak to them on the phone, because we didn't actually know if it was the hotel on the end of the line. After hanging up, the taxi driver asked us if we understood Hindi. It all felt a bit dodgy. The taxi driver also took a long route into the city, which we assumed was to try to avoid the worst of Kolkata's legendary traffic jams. We arrived in one piece, coughing from the pollution, and deafened by the horns blaring.

The hotel appeared to not have our reservation, but they sorted out a room for us. It was okay, though it had rubbish behind the door, there was no window, and the air conditioning unit made plenty of noise but didn't actually condition the air . Jayna had developed a minor cold, and the plane journey and pollution didn't help with sinus issues. So we hid away for the evening - at least the wifi seemed to work.

On Thursday 26th, it was our last day in India. We were inwardly celebrating moving on, but our spirits were dampened by the very cold shower in the hotel. The reception staff called us multiple times to tell us when check out was - we already knew when this was - and when we ordered breakfast, it didn't come with the juice that was part of the set. Plus we hadn't slept well, and in the morning the internet wasn't working. All of which meant that we were off to a bad start for the day.

We had a few things on our list for activities in Kolkata, most of which were based around the numerous gardens in the city. We started with a walk along the chaotic streets to the first set of gardens, which were closed until 3pm. We thought this odd, and kept walking around, passing St Paul's Cathedral, until we reached the next set of gardens . This was the Victoria Memorial. We paid our entrance fee and headed in, past crowds of people. The Victoria Memorial was a memorial to, you guessed it, Queen Victoria. Commissioned after her death, it was a beauty of a building, made of marble, and contained a selection of artefacts, paintings and sculptures. It turned out that Thursday 26th was one of India's 19 national holidays, called Guru Nanak Jayanti. It seemed to us that just about the whole of Kolkata's population descended on the Victoria Memorial. Which made the memorial not very fun, as the crowds meant that we couldn't spend long looking at anything inside of the building. This was a shame, particularly as the security guards were simply hurrying people past displays. We saw a piano that Victoria played as a child, and climbed upstairs to walk around the top of the dome on the inside of the building.

We were glad to leave the building to relax in the gardens, and took it in turns to snooze a little on the grass . We were contemplating heading off to another set of gardens when a university student called Tanya came over, sat down, introduced herself and proceeded to chat at us for some time. We were suspicious of everyone, including Tanya, which was a shame because it turned out that she actually seemed nice, and didn't appear to have a hidden agenda. By the time we worked this out, we'd already lied to her about our names, where we were from, our next destination, when we were leaving Kolkata, and why we'd gone to Kolkata. She didn't take our non-verbal queues that we weren't into chatting, and told us some things about her life, her parents, her studies and her job. It would have been a good chat, if we weren't so suspicious. In the meantime, her friends were taking pictures of us from a distance. When Tanya said goodbye, other people started to come over and ask us for pictures, which was our queue to leave.

We took the long way back through the gardens, and went into the first set of gardens we'd originally walked past. These were now open as it had gone past 3pm. These were pleasant, and whilst we found a musical fountain, it wasn't musical for us.

We walked back through Kolkata's streets, dodging the heavy traffic, to get back to our hotel. Here, we had some dinner and leeched off the wifi, which was working once again. When it became time to get to the airport (and we gave ourselves plenty of time), we went outside to flag down a taxi. Ten minutes later we still hadn't succeeded, so the hotel receptionist offered to get us one - for a price, of course. We agreed, not wanting to miss our flight or spend any longer than absolutely necessary in India, got the more expensive taxi, and spent the next 70 minutes in traffic jams. We still arrived at the airport in good time for our flight, and relaxed with a coffee, whilst waiting for our check in desk to open.

Next stop - Bangkok, Thailand!

We found India to be a country that was hard to like, let alone love. The cities were polluted, scam filled, dangerous and genuinely unpleasant places. Goa, on the other hand, was a great place to relax for two weeks, if you don't mind not doing an awful lot. As Jayna was sick and it had been a busy few travelling months, we didn't mind not doing a lot for two weeks. Seeing Pat and Roy was lovely, and the treat of an all-inclusive resort was just the remedy we needed. Unfortunately, we then plunged back into India's cities, reminding us of why we didn't like the place. In most cases, we found India's people to be unsmiling, rude and pushy (both physically and where no doesn't mean no). The dead-eyed stare we received on so many occasions was very threatening and totally unnecessary. For us, it was hard going, a tough country to visit, and emotionally exhausting being constantly on guard.

On the other hand, India was very cheap. The cheapest country we'd been to, in fact. Most people spoke good english (though this was mostly used against us, in trying to rip us off). The beaches in Goa were very nice. The sights of the Taj Mahal and Agra's Red Fort, in particular, were stand out amazing.

If you must go to India, be on your guard but don't let that ruin your trip. And don't go to Delhi, ever.