Kolkuta

I left India yesterday and due to the new visa rule can not return until for another 2 months which im actually very sad about. I liked India. it was beautiful and the people were generally very helpful, making traveling a really easy thing. So, yea i guess ill miss it a lot more than i thought i would and definitely have plans to return eventually.

Kolkuta was my last stop there and it was probably the most chill out of the big cities of India. tons of kids my age, not too many foreigners, and I could find a place that would serve me a beer. By no means was it my favorite place in India but out the the big cities, i enjoyed it the most.

So, there are yoga studios all around the world for me to work and ive had my eye on Thailand for a while,. s.America and s. Africa are a couple of my other interests, but i wanted to sustain life out here and work with these women rescued from brothels. so what better way to get to know what i was getting myself into than to visit the very famous red light district of Kolkuta, Somogachi. We had our friend Akon (about 19 years old) show us through and he was more than happy to, seeing as how he planned to stay with a friend who he had been going to or known somehow for about three years now. My first trip there was fine. For what it was. We were led down a street lined with women who grabbed us and preyed on Erica, thinking she was a boy, looking at me wondering what i was doing here, sticking out like a sore thumb. The brothel itself was a dark, wet building. People everywhere, cooking meat on the floor, there were men in various groups, and a couple small children running though but i never felt threatened. maybe because Akon was there and he knew his way around and they knew him but it was much calmer, uh kinda, than i expected. So, we met his friend and a couple other girls and asked if we could return with a few questions the following day.
I dont regret going the second day. I think i needed to know what really goes on but it was definitely a more intense day than the first. We had our questions prepared and voice recorder in hand hoping someone who spoke Hindi could translate the correct answers because we knew our friend Akon was not going to be as accurate as we hoped. He decided to get a little drunk before going. We walked down that same street where those same women stood. I'm not sure what they wanted but they were grabbing my arm and making that 'come with me' type face. The same alley was lined with girls ranging from 14-30 and we were led back into the same room and sat down on the same bed. It took a few times to get Sudi, the girl we wanted to talk with to agree because, well she had clients and it was prime time money hours but we started talking with some of the other girls and she slowly warmed up. I had a really hard time this trip . There were more men there and i could see their eyes. And one even said how he always wanted to sleep with a foreigner. I felt disgusting and told Erica i wasn't sure if this was a good idea but we stayed. The room we sat in was where 6 girls worked. Maybe twelve feet long and 8 feet wide, wooden beds put together with sheets dividing where the girls slept with these men. It was the dirtiest i have felt in i dont even know how long. As we sat there asking the head women of the house questions while she fed her baby a client came in with Sudi and they went behind one of the sheets as we sat on the same wooden planked bed. I turned to look while the bed shook back and forth and her head popped out and she smiled at me. I was mortified. The more questions we asked the more it seemed like these girls liked their work. they all chose to be their for lack of money and or bad family situations, or even just to pay for their kids to go to school but it was by choice, and they all wanted to stay. Sudi said she did have dreams of becoming a porn star in the states though...i guess at least she has dreams...? But this wasn't what got to me the most. Akon, asked us to wait five minutes for him while he had sex with some girl in the same room as us. So as he undressed we booked it. there was no way i was going to do that. So me and Erica headed back alone. This was maybe a bad idea. We walked arm in arm hoping they would think we were just a straight couple due to the fact that everyone thought she was a boy and would maybe leave us alone but the girls still pulled at both of us. Finding a cab was the biggest bitch. All the men seemed to be gathered around the cabs. One driver wanted to charge us 500 rupees for a five minute cab ride and wouldn't budge on the price so we walked to the next where maybe 6 men followed us to. This guy was more friendly and agreed on the price but getting into the cab was the difficult part. The men grabbed at us and tried to get in asking disgusting questions and inappropriate comments. Erica whipped her knife out on the largest of the dudes and smashed his friends hand with the back of the knife as he tried to push down the window. i was using both hands trying to tare a guys hands from the inside door handle of the cab. It was the most threatened i felt in all of my stay in India. Over all the cannibals, botched holy men, druggies, homeless everything. But i saw what i wanted to see and i think i may go to the one of the ones here in Thailand where a lot of the women are forced into it and even stolen from their families. But Erica is writing an article about it and she wont let me go. So, maybe ill just go to where they are rescued and volunteer my time..

I'm trying to be safe though and Erica and i take good care of each other...

As for now? In a couple days ill be heading to my bungalow on the beach and gettin away from all the white people in Bangkok.

much love
G