Out of Calcutta!

Trip Start Oct 01, 2005
1
6
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Trip End Sep 20, 2006


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Flag of India  ,
Wednesday, October 5, 2005

In a nutshell: We left Calcutta last night on the Darjeeling Mail train, and not a moment too soon! Calcutta is a HORRIBLE city, a complete urban horror story, and we were very VERY glad to leave, although we weren't too sure whether we'd actually make it to Sealdah Station the way our taxi driver was driving!

We were in a 2-tier air-conditioned sleeping berth and it wasn't too bad, we both managed to get some sleep before pulling into New Jalpaiguri station this morning at about 9.30. We had been booked to be on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway to get to Darjeeling, but the train from Calcutta was late so we missed it - not such a bad thing as it turned out as we got a taxi for the 4-hour drive (spectacular scenery) as opposed to sitting on the 'toy train' for 9 hours!

Darjeeling is MUCH nicer than Calcutta, it's cleaner for a start 01 - view of the world's 3rd highest mountain
01 - view of the world's 3rd highest mountain
 ! There's a better atmosphere here, no in-your-face poverty, less people.... and the mountains and clean air of course!

We're not sure how long we'll be here. The plan is to join a 4 or 5-day trek but the weather isn't terribly good so we'll hang around for a couple of days and see if it clears up. We don't mind hanging around up here (altitude 2100m!) as it's a LOT nicer than Calcutta!

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Churchill said, "I'm glad I have seen Calcutta, chiefly because it
will be unnecessary for me to see it again."
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Comments

hallrm
hallrm on Oct 7, 2005 at 02:17PM

Calcutta
Really enjoying the blog updates. Thanks for the information about Calcutta, cancelled my summer holiday after your reviews ;-)

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