Luckily there were two University professors sitting in our neighbour compartment (first class) during the train ride and besides a few very interesting conversations, they also offered us a ride into the city. At Howra train station, private cars are allowed to drive up all the way to the platform. Therefore the University Professors driver already waited for our arrival and we didn’t have have to carry our luggage through masses of people. Friendly as Indians are, we were dropped off in front of our hotel (Bodhi Tree Hotel) – this was a great luxury to start with. It took the driver about 1.5 hours to find the hotel but time is not such a great matter in India and the University was obviously closed that day …

Immediately after checking in, we started walking towards downtown Kolkata. Somehow we underestimated the distance and after 2 hours we were only half way to the city but luckily Kolkata has a very efficient Metro system, connecting North to South – this eases things a lot. Warning: The Metro is always packed but yet easy and fast. We got out at Chandni Chowk – the closest station to Howrah Bridge, since we knew that there was a flower market below the bridge and this was our desired destination …

Anyway, we didn’t find the flower market but we ran right into the wholesale fruit market of Kolkata, where trucks from all over India, Pakistan and Bangladesh arrive with all kind of fruits that are auctioned off right on the spot. That day, it was banana and orange day. We had to maneuver through piles of banana stalks and oranges and every few meters was a selling area, where auctioneers auctioned off all the fruits with megaphones. All of this action happened in light rain which transformed the road to mud mixed with cow dung … Not the most pleasant walkway.

The working men who unload tons and tons of fruits and vegetables are all in perfect shape (even though they’ve for sure never ever seen a gym from the inside). If a bag of fruit is too heavy for one person, a few other men will kindly lend a hand. After all, they are all in the same boat…

At the end of the day, we were pretty exhausted and happy to land in bed at our lovely hotel.

Pure manpower at the wholesale fruit market in Kolkata.

The railway tracks lead right through the Slum area in Kolkata.

A typical market scene at the wholesale fruit market near the Howrah bridge in Kolkata.

Rickshaws can be seen all over the city of Kolkata.

Thousands of taxis and buses cross the Hoogly river on Howrah Bridge every day.

Men washing themselves in the streets of Kolkata – a typical street scene.

The hands of a Rickshaw driver in Kolkata.

The Victoria Memorial Hall was built between 1906 and 1921. It’s dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria and is now a museum and tourist attraction in Kolkata.

Working men at the fruit wholesale market in Kolkata.

Crossing the Hoogly river on Howrah bridge in Kolkata, India.

Portrait of a nun’s in the streets of Kolkata.

Knife sharpeners can be found all around the city of Kolkata.

Working men at the orange section of the wholesale market in Kolkata.

If grinding poverty hurts your sensibilities, Kolkata is not the place to be in. If grinding poverty hurts your sensibilities, Kolkata is not the place to be in.

Getting ready to lift up a heavy pile of vegetables at the wholesale market in Kolkata.

General Insight Of Darjeeling:

For most travellers visiting this remote region, the stepping off point will be New Jalpaiguri/Siliguri (either arriving by train or air plane). We travelled from Kolkata by train overnight and arrived early in the morning, so there was no rush to get to “Dar”, as it is called by the locals. We negotiated with a few options how to get there because unfortunately the “Darjeeling Express” didn’t run then. The train tracks were a victim of a great landslide in 2010 and are not rebuilt until today. So we decided to go with a taxi driver who told us that he knows the road inside out. After packing everything into the cab, we realized at the first intersection that (again) a little Michael Schuhmacher was behind the wheel. He reassured us that nothing was wrong and speeding was fine. He was in charge and we had no choice but to trust him…

Some days before our arrival there, a leopard had striven into Siliguris urban areas and after getting nervous with the unfamiliar surroundings, killed and badly wounded some locals … We asked our driver about the incident and he told us that he had seen leopards many times while driving up to Darjeeling. He said that there are still many around but unfortunately we didn’t see one.

The road was winding its way uphill and during summer time the area can be covered in thick fog as soon you get to higher altitudes (which was the case when we arrived there). A few route diversion due to landslides are pretty common and these diversions are pretty challenging due to the steep tracks. Our driver couldn’t be bothered … he just used the gas pedal to get the maximum out of the engine to master very steep sections.

The few villages up the way to Darjeeling looked very beautiful. Pine trees are growing beside the road and the second half of the trip, you start sharing the way with the railway track which leads along the road up to Darjeeling. Traffic is pretty high and sometimes it’s a stop and go when big trucks want to pass and the train steams along. Sometimes the train crosses the street, so all cars have to wait; it’s pure action and very noisy with all the honking.

Arriving at the “Towns Square” at the end of the road, we quickly decided to check into the nearby hotel. We were totally exhausted from the trip and one could feel the height as well. We were lucky that our room (even though it very small) had a breathtaking view over Darjeeling. Lots of Hotel can be found in the area, some of them still looking very colonial. You can enjoy High Tea at the “Planters Club” terrace or many other places. The Planters Club has rooms with open fireplaces which is nice, even though everything is a bit aging, but nevertheless still got the colonial charm from the past. Opposite is “Pineridge Hotel”, an interesting example of a bygone era … checking out the rooms of the hotel was a bit spooky to be honest…

Anyway, setting out to check out the town immediately after arrival, we realized that walking around was really tiring. The altitude is about 2200 meters and the area is very steep, so you need good shoes (especially when it rains because then it gets really slippery).

A Toy Train.

On the next day we took the Toy train in the morning down to Kurseong. The train looks so cute with its little carriages and the station was still original as it was when the British built it around 1880. The steam engine has a very noisy horn, honking constantly to warn people and cars of its passing. Since 1999 the train is a “World heritage”; a real masterpiece of railway construction. When the train passes Batavia loop (and the weather permits), you have a fantastic view above the valley … Another option to see the area is on a horse. You can hire horses and go for day trips into the valleys. But don’t expect to gallop through the area. This is not possible since it’s too steep and the horses walk very slow.

Some Monasteries are along the way and houses are built like eagle nests along the steep roads and everybody is very friendly.
Arriving in Kurseong we got into a little place and ordered some “Momos” – the local speciality. It’s a vegetable mix wrapped in dough and then steamed. Yummy!!! After walking around a little bit, we started our way back to Darjeeling by foot and somewhere along the road we spotted this beautiful huge cannabis plant growing in a front yard … You could smell it immediately and we wondered that it grew just along the main road without anybody around … Finally we stopped a car and drove back up to Darjeeling because its too far to walk all the way back, especially since we planned more walks for the next days…

Tea pickers working under the sun of Darjeeling.

Typical trucks come all the way from Kolkata up to Darjeeling.

Tea fields cover the entire area and surround small villages of Darjeeling.

This woman greeted us at the train station in Darjeeling. By the look of her wrinkles, she must be about 100 years old.

The train ride up to Darjeeling mostly leads through thick fog right next to the street.

Even in villages along the way to Darjeeling, the train passes right through.

A local man selling his “fresh” fish at the market in Darjeeling.

The buildings of Darjeeling, India.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the “Toy Train”, is a 60 cm narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling.

So since I’m missing Vietnam a lot right now, here’s a really awesome video of Leon Visser‘s summer vacation to this terrific country (filmed with a Panasonic GH2). What I like about this video … well everything! The atmosphere, the music and of course the images…

From Kolkata To Nagaland.

Travelling beyond Kolkata into the North, through the “needle eye” of India – the distance between Bangladesh to the right and Nepal to the left is less than 20km – can be a challenge to itself. As I wrote about train travel through India in an earlier post, the numbers of 1^st & 2^nd class seats are limited. Many trains are just ordinary local connections and therefore don’t have compartments with privacy. But this way you also travel with the local community (which is a good thing is in any case). There is a strict non-smoking policy on all the trains and animals are also not allowed as well.

After a long night in a 3^rd class non-AC sleeper, where our fellow travellers talked and chatted far beyond midnight, where the overhead fans fiddle constantly with an immense noise and bright neon bulbs light up the wagon, topped with the sweet smell of obvious huge cannabis fields out there in the darkened area (yes, believe me, the smell of cannabis filled the train a long way after passing Siliguri), and with passing trains that gave us the feeling that the train would jump out of the tracks due to the suction, we arrived in Guwahati – tired, but healthy. We only had a few hours layover here before we were off to catch the next train to Dimapur – the starting point for any Nagaland adventure.

A Short Stop In Guwahati.

Walking out of the station just for a quick look was immediately interrupted by a policemen “Come with me for registration!” he said.  “What?” we replied.  “You have to register with the police” was all he said. So we followed the tired policeman to his office, where more tired policemen hung around; one took our passports and started writing into a huge old book. We waited and looked around. We could see lots of dusty files & documents lying around and we couldn’t help ourselves and asked if anybody would ever even look at them. The policeman shook his head and said “Probably not but it’s British bureaucracy.”

After the registration process we finally got out of the station in Guwahati for a stroll. We immediately notice the heavy military presence. Lots of army trucks, armoured vehicles and soldiers were around and we saw a huge building opposite the station – thinking it was a hotel for a breakfast treat – which was an Army barrack. After wandering around for a few hours, the train to Dimapur was ready to board.

Travel Tip (Women Only, Sorry).

• A really good thing at (larger) Indian train stations are the ladies waiting rooms. You have to pay a few Rupees but they have seats, electricity, toilets and sometimes even showers. It took a while for us to find out that such places exist in every bigger station. They’re a real treat between a long journey.

The train ride from Guwahati to Dimapur would take a few hours. The landscape was pleasant with rice paddies and the occasional ox-car meandering the fields. Our fellow train passengers were tired Indians who snored their way to Dimapur – only interrupted by the few food vendors and the conductor who checked the tickets…

More Nagaland Stories.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 1 – Getting There.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 2 – Impressions of Dimapur.

Travelling Nagaland: Part 3″ – Kohima & Surroundings.

Bording the Indian Railways in Siliguri to get to Nagaland.

Train stations in India are bound to be packed with people any time of the day.

Guwahati offers many amazing sights – including this Christian cemetery.

The market in Guwahati was one of the most impressive we’ve visited.

Rice fields along the railway tracks in Nagaland.

So before you agree to anything remember: If you need a ride into the city and don’t want to spend a fortune, think like a local; almost everywhere there’s some sort of public transport to the city because most locals can’t afford a private taxi. Take a deep breath and brace yourself for another ten minutes of consideration. An airport bus, bemo or train will be available at any hour.

Look around carefully and the budget option won’t be far away. Maybe you have to walk out to the main road, but you will save at least 20 dollars; and we all know that with 20 dollars you get a lot in a third world country…

If possible plan ahead.

I know this is not so easy, but it definitely helps. Always remember, there are over 1 billion Indians, so trains are full at any day. If you want to travel in your preferred class, you have to plan ahead.

The perfect train-search is Iindianrail.gov.in. There is a link on the left side of the page, which gives you the availability at major stations. That’s a good way to start; type in your point of embarkation and all trains for the next 7 days will show up. I know it’s a bit of fiddling around, but a great start for your the next steps. As a foreigner you unfortunately can’t book through this site. You have to book through Cleartrip.com. On this site, it will be a lot easier if you already know which trains and classes are available. The different classes can be checked out at Seat61.com, a great train travel site for any train travel around the world. The guy who maintains this site deserves a huge “Thank you”!

So, once you have booked your ticket, you can go to Iindianrail.gov.in again and check out the left sidebar to find the train schedule with all the stations the train is going to stop in. If you print out this schedule, it helps to know if the train is late and where you are while on the train.

Once at the station there are signs on which platform the train arrives or leaves. Sometimes the platforms change, they say it through the speakers. But if the platform changes shortly before the train enters the station, everybody starts running and this is a good indication that the train will arrive at a different platform, so go with the flow. Train carriages are indicated with little signs overhead on the platforms, or just ask someone if you need help. The trains are almost always arranged with a system. You also find all this information on Iindianrail.gov.in under information – train type information, but it’s a bit time consuming.

1st class.

Easygoing with electricity supply. It’s pretty comfortable with clean linens and it only lacks the real Indian experience. Why? Well, for example in the train stations, food sellers always tend to stay away from the first class carriages because they don’t sell a lot (most Indian travel 2nd or 3rd class). Even the pantry car guys seem to forget first class, so ask the conductor to send one guy over to order food.

I had my water kettle with an extension cord for my mobile phone, laptop, etc. with me, so brewing tea and coffee was easy.
Most Indians who travel first class are very educated people (University professors or doctors), so most of them speak very good English and therefore a nice conversation is possible.

Comfy first class on an Indian train.

2nd class.

More people travel second class and therefore the contact with the locals is more frequent. I was offered all sorts of delicacies from families who brought them onto the train. Sleeping is not as comfy as first class but you also get a pillow and blanket. There are some power plugs for re-charging you electronics.

3rd class.

Well, what can I say? If you didn’t book early enough and everything else is full, this often is the only possibility to continue your travels without waiting time. It’s packed but people are very friendly and I had the impression that stealing is not a problem. Not so fun: It’s noisy with up to 20 ventilators running and bright neon lights, so sleeping can be tough. In sleeper your best bet is the upper bunk. The conductor will help you get your space if you are helpless getting it yourself (Indians don’t seem to care about sear numbers…). The bonus of travelling third class (or as I like to call it “cattle class”): It’s so cheap that you should treat yourself to a better hotel room upon arrival. I think I paid something like 5 Euro for over 700 km.

Important Gadgets To Bring:

• Sleeping mask and ear plugs for 3rd class.
• Travel food: Bananas – even if you don’t like them, you will start to love them; no mess, easy to peel, no need to wash them & they fill the stomach without feeling stuffed up.
• (Moist) Toilet paper – in general, the toilets on trains are clean. They clean the sanitary rooms with high-pressure cleaners every few stations.
• A small towel.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me for assistance. There’s still a lot to be said but for this post, it’s enough for the moment.

India’s train stations are crowded any give time of the day.