Kolkata Travel Guide

The Salvation Army is a pretty good place to stay but often full, so have a back up.  Calcutta is a better transit place, travelling between India and SEA, than Delhi, fewer hassles.  If you're trying to get from India to SEA, like Bangkok, ask the hotel manager to organise it for you.  It's easier and they usually get you the best deal.  I've had a flight organised in this way for the following day.  Check out the book bazaar, books are extremely cheep in India and there is an entire district with little stores.  Don't be put off by having to travel around with a stack of books, instead send them home via book post absurdly cheap.  You'll have to get them packed specifically for book post at the post office.  Usually there will be two or three (unofficial) men sitting outside the post office to perform this complicated feat for a fee, negotiate with them.  Apart from the usual temples, try and find someone to take you to Tolly Ganj [sic] a former raj club now for mid-class club members.  The food is great and it feels like it's in the country with wide green grounds and a golf course.  Don't feel righteous by not hopping on a man-pulled rickshaw.  They need to make a living too.  But do be careful about which beggars you give money too... it's a well known fact that there are women with babies (hired babies if you will) who prick them with a pin to get them wailing and illicit sympathy, then give their beggar-pimp a cut of the money and are hauled away at the end of the working day in a van by said pimp.  Don't not give money, but just use your discretion.  If you go out at night be prepared to see the hundreds of homeless rolling out mats on the footpaths to bunk down for the night.  It is a little shocking for sheer numbers... despite all this Calcuatta is my favorite Indian city.  The people are extremely friendly, and there really is just so much to see.  Just walking around the streets aimlessly is a treat. 

The best way, and the cheapest, to get around the live and bustling city of Kolkata/ Calcutta is to travel in public buses !!
Kolkata is very well connected with its bus transport system. All one needs is to be-friend a localite to know which route bus to board.
You can get anywhere around Kolkata in just about