Spent a couple nights in Kolkata. A very very busy place!
My train north left the main RR station at 10pm. I got there about 1.5 hrs early–the traffic in Kolkata is such that you never know how long it takes to get from A to B.
Shared a sleeper cabin with a family heading to the same stop as I. They were off to a wedding.
The train deposited us at Siliguri. I took me a while to find the Pre-Paid Taxi Stand. But once I did I was zipping my way to Darjeeling.
You can’t believe the road. We climbed UP this mountainside and then UP a nearly knife ridge. All going too fast, with crazy passers coming at us, lanes blocked by “construction” and broken vehicles. Never seen anything like it. Get to do it again in a couple days, heading down hill!
A quick shot in the Kolkata RR station. It was far more crowded than this shows.
The main clock in the station:
A town along the way:
A couple pics of Darjeeling, a little less that 7,000 feet in the air, population about 100,000:
