K2K Kolkata to Siliguri, Welcome to India

K2K, Kolkata to Siliguri, Welcome to India

August 28 2018

Flight from Adelaide to Kolkata

We’ve been having strange feelings about this leg of our K2K trip. Having been home for quite a long while and a lot of life changing happenings in the last twelve months, there was a lot to keep us at home, and quite happily. But there was unfinished business on the road.

So, with some adjustments to our gear set up and a big effort to get under our thirty kilogram baggage allowance, we find ourselves at Adelaide airport, checking the bike boxes through oversized baggage once again.

Of course, once checked in and relaxed, we needed to have a look at trip mascots once again. Last time we took Katie the Kangaroo but she turned out to not be much of a star.  So it was time to go with something more recognisable and we settled on a cute little Koala. We are still working on the name, with Kevin, Blinky, Kranky and even Scott being suggested so far. Not quite sure where Scott came from.

We had a great flight on Singapore airlines into hazy Singapore, and then the wait began. What is it about Singapore airport that just doesn’t work for me? It was boring, but had to be done.

We were then onto a Silk Air flight to Kolkata just as the full moon rose over the South China Sea. This flight was a bit bumpy, and we were both beginning to crash hard, it was a long day. It was 10:30pm when we touched down in Kolkata and we were very quickly through Immigration as we were the only foreigners. We were unprepared in the form department as we hadn’t filled in the arrival form, probably because we must have been asleep when they handed those ones out. Luckily the guys at the immigration desk were very patient with the newly arrived, blurry eyed, sleepy Aussies and handed us the forms and allowed us to proceed to fill them out at the desk.

Then the fun began.

We had booked a nice hotel close to the airport to allow us time to get our bikes put together and organise sim cards etc. But we hadn’t booked a car to pick us up, thinking we would just rely on winging it. First, we needed some cash, and got ripped off because it was late and their was only one money changer open in the airport, something about government tax on money changers. Funny how there is none on the atm’s.

Then, once outside, we couldn’t get anyone to take our bikes as they wouldn’t fit in the tiny yellow taxis. So one guy said, I know, we will take two cars, we can fit one bike and one person in each car. We negotiated an outrageous price, times two, and then they ran off into the nearby scrub to get their cars. Well, they turned up with even smaller cars, and then a maelstrom of men turned up all giving opinions on how to get the bike box into the car, moving seats back and forth, laying them down, leaving windows open, trying everything. Eventually they got them in, and then packed Mary into a tiny space between the box and a door, I got much the same treatment. Mary’s car took off to the sound of Mary yelling, “David, I have no money,” and she was gone. I told my driver to follow closely, but the twenty or so guys who supposedly helped to get the bikes in the cars decided that they needed to be paid for their ‘help’, (pointing, arguing, advising, laughing at each other and us) I don’t think so. If I had got my wallet out, I think half of Kolkata would have turned up with their hands out. With a little more urging, the driver took off in pursuit of Mary’s car, now long gone.

What ensued was a mad cap example of Indian driving prowess, weaving in and out of traffic, horn blaring, up on two wheels around corners (kidding, but it felt like it). We arrived at the hotel and had the car searched for bombs before they let us in. Is this where the adventure starts?

The hotel was great, and needless to say, we just crashed into bed, and slept like babies after twenty four hours of travelling.

29/08/18

Rajahat, Kolkata

We know now to treat ourselves to a nice hotel to start our adventures, and the Swiss Hotel in Rajahat is great. The rooms are very good, and the food is amazing.

We had a really lazy breakfast, still tired and a bit caffeine deficient. Once we sorted that out, we assembled the bikes in our room and then started our errands. Most importantly we needed local sim cards. We had done a bit of research before we went and worked out that Airtel was the best option, 28 days with 1.4gb data per day and unlimited talk and text for 239 IRP, less than 5 bucks Aussie.

So that’s what we did. The hotel directed us to a nearby dealer about ten minutes walk away which was a good chance to checkout the street scene. Once we arrived, the helpful guys apologised that there was no power, and they couldn’t serve us, “come back after five this evening”.

No probs, we went and chilled out for a while.

About four thirty, it started to rain quite heavily, so we waited for that to ease and didn’t get down there until about five thirty, and the shop was busy.

It took about an hour, but we both left happy with new sims and connection, essential for our navigation. On the way back, we were following a couple of cows up the road. They wanted to cross, and we were stunned to watch what happened. They new exactly where the traffic cops were just a little bit further up the road, and the cops stopped the heavy traffic to get them across safely and then they just wandered up the side street weaving between the waiting cars and motorbikes. Obviously, they knew the safest way home.

One of the young guys at breakfast tried to sign us up to try their specialty, Bengali Thali tonight. As that was definitely something on our must do list, we said yes, which I am sure earned him some brownie points with management. That’s cool, we got looked after so well.

What a feast we had. For those that don’t know what a Thali is, it is like a tasting platter, with rice in the middle and then several bowls of different dishes all around. Mary had a Vegetarian one and I had Non-veg. Seriously, there was so much food, we should have shared one. A nice Kingfisher to wash it all down, and then the chef brought us out a baked sweet yoghurt desert to try, it was all so awesome. We then waddled back to our room for as many zeds as we could get before our ride start tomorrow. Did I mention that we are nervous?

30/08/18

Rajahat/ Kolkata to Kalyani

We were up early after a pretty good sleep. Breakfast done and then concern set in that this was possibly the last good coffee for a while. So, we had another one. It really wasn’t going to do me any harm to drink less coffee for a while, I had been over doing it at home.

Then we get to do the fun bit. Taking the fat bikes down in the lift and across the lobby of a nice hotel. We love the surprised looks we get.

Outside we loaded up our gear and went to load our destination into my phone, when we found that I had no connection. Mary’s was working, so we swapped her phone onto Larry for navigation. Finally, we rolled out at about 9a.m.

We had found a back route around the airport which took us winding through the real Kolkata for about twenty k’s, this was quite an eye opener. There was lots of traffic on these very narrow back streets, mostly bikes, motorbikes, rikshaws and motor rickshaws with varying loads. They were carrying everything from sacks of grain, to a tonne of bricks, to bales of brightly coloured cloth. The road surface varied from smooth bitumen (about 100metres of it) to muddy tracks with huge pot holes and everything in between.

We dodged and weaved all over the place, trying to find the best line without being hit by the oncoming traffic. This was a very early reminder of why we ride fat bikes, we can smash through almost anything if we have to.

It was ok, while it was all going the same direction

People were bathing in swampy mud holes full of rubbish, while right alongside, builders would be laying the brick walls of a new house. We rode through markets full of fresh produce, all the usual tropical stuff, but no mangoes at the moment it seems. The street dogs warily ignored us, they actually looked in quite good condition.

Once we re-joined NH12 heading North the fun really began. The traffic was insane, or at least the drivers are. Everywhere is “Drive Safely” signs of one form or another, they need a new strategy. It is clear that Indian men’s favourite movies are the ‘Fast and the Furious’ series, because that’s how they drive. It is obviously a game, a game of who can be in front. And I wonder if India’s economy would grind to a halt if they banned truck, car and motorbike horns. I doubt it. We thought Indonesia was bad for that, but they’ve got nothing on India.

We struggled to find lunch today, we could have got fruit at the markets but Mary was feeling a bit off and thought better of it.

Bus Stop with the Mobile Phone Guys in the background

It started to rain, so we stopped for a while in a bus shelter. I tried to sort out my phone, thinking that it was a setting problem, but no. Then I realised that there was an airtel agent right next to where we were sitting. There were five guys working in this tiny wooden shack of a shop and none of them spoke English. Eventually I got across what the problem was and they helped heaps, making phone calls, checking settings, but nothing worked. Finally, they worked out that there was no credit on it, and I was going to have to recharge again, which I agreed to do. He boss made sure he got the details of who set it up for us in Kolkata, as he was disgusted. I had to pay for the recharge, but these guys wouldn’t accept a tip, even after helping me for over half an hour.

Meanwhile, Mary was sitting on the pavement surrounded by a crowd of people just intrigued by the bikes and all having a conversation and two bits to say about our trusty steads. A very kind gentleman from the fruit stall where we had lent our bikes up against gave Mary a piece of newspaper to sit on so she could sit out of the dirt. Such a kind hearted and thoughtful man.

Anyway, phone now working, rain almost stopped, ride on.

We were really feeling the heat now. In the traffic and the fumes it just seemed to be amplified. Luckily, we only had about eight k’s to go, and it went smoothlyish.

Arriving at ‘The Dolphin Palace’ hotel had us worried. We were worried they were going to have captive dolphins. But no, it was just a random name.

They were doing renovations, and as we chilled out under the aircon in our Bollywood style room complete with hidden blue lighting, we laughed so hard we nearly cried. Maybe, we were just a little surprised we survived that day. Oh, and there was no window but it did have a balcony.

The hotel had a restaurant on site, so we went down for a late snack. We tried Masala Peanuts for the first time and some French fries that were very good. Meanwhile, the nice young manager had convinced us to come back later for dinner and try a Tandoori meal, as this was their specialty, so we agreed that we would. Then our French fries, and Masala peanuts arrived in very generous proportions, and they were excellent apres velo food. We smashed them, and were then very full. So we went back to our room hoping we would be hungry again but just got tired. I don’t think we have quite adjusted our time zones yet.

Freshly Dyed Cloth Being Dried

We didn’t want to let the guy down though. So, down we went and it turned out that we were the only ones eating anyway, so luckily we did. The Tandoori Murgh was awesome, Mary had some interesting baby corn dish that was hot/ not hot. This means that we asked for it to be not spicy, but it was, as usual. The poor guy was worried we didn’t order enough, but really we couldn’t fit in another thing.

Back to the blue lights of the Bollywood suite, and out to it. Welcome to the real India Sir/Madam.

31/8/18

Kalyani to Krishinanagar

We had a great long sleep and awoke refreshed and ready for breakfast. We were joined by another Aussie who is working in India on a very interesting research project. The company is putting a lot of time and funding into the research of bio-waste and it being used in agricultural applications. They have had some amazing results already and things are looking really positive for this work to be used in this country. www.stumpjupmfoundation.org.au

With breakfast done, bags packed we then had our first video call with Isla and Lauren. To see little Isla’s big smile when she saw us on the phone at the other end made our hearts sing. We had a great conversation with lots of chattering from Isla, lots of smiles, waves and kisses. Another special moment shared.

Jute Sticks Drying In The Sun

Ok now it was time to get back on those bikes and brave the unknown once again. Once back out on the main drag the traffic was as crazy as before. Lots of ambulances today, sirens blaring trying to be louder than the cars and trucks honking and tooting and weaving madly through the traffic. A couple of times there we thought we were nearly going to be their customers.  We found a side road to turn off onto so we could stop and have a breather. Amazingly there was no one around. No one came to check out our bikes or just stand and watch us. Just one lady passed by barefooted and dressed in a beautiful bright pink coloured sari who just said “Bengali” and smiled and walked away. She spoke no English but looked like she wanted to say something.

We got our experience of an Indian traffic jam. All vehicles came to a dead stop, engines turned off and drivers getting out of their vehicles. It was weird as it was so quiet, no honking, no tooting, just a  long line of trucks and cars for over three km’s. We were able to keep mobile as we were able to ride on the verge passing this great line of stalled traffic in peace and quiet. Then it all peaked up once more, all of that stalled traffic had to pass us once again. Up a bit further we could see what had caused the traffic jam, it was the work being done on the railway crossing. Things were being dug up and we presume were being fixed.

Time to stop for a cold drink, nice thought but within 30 seconds we were swamped with blokes wanting to see these bicycles. Questions were flying left right and centre, lots of head nodding, smiles and laughter and offers to sit down outside their shops. So very friendly and welcoming. Even the barber in one of shops who was trying his hardest to cut a little three year old’s hair came out to take a look. The child was screaming his head off not wanting a hair cut so I think the barber used us an excuse to exit his shop hoping that the screaming child would calm down when he returned. Nope he was still screaming his lungs out, poor little fella.

We arrived at our hotel just beating the thunder and the rain. We got cleaned up and had a rest before heading to the restaurant for an early dinner. The waiters were fantastic, explaining different dishes on the menu and helping us to decide what to order. We really enjoyed our dinner, the food was really beautiful and the service so friendly. A lovely end to a successful day.

1/9/18

Krishinanagar to Mayapur

A few locals had asked if we were visiting Mayapur, a big temple, while we were here. So, we did some research and found that there was a Krishna Ashram on the banks of the Ganges nearby, and while a little raw, we thought we would check it out. We had two route options, the shorter of which involved a ferry crossing which had Mary a bit worried. Playing it safe we took the road route, which was still only twenty k’s.

The first eight k’s was just up highway twelve, which rather interestingly turned into a nice new dual lane carriageway with a nice wide verge. We looked at each other wondering how long that could possibly last. Once over the Jalangi River, we turned West toward the Ganges. This was a nice quiet country laneway leading between very intensive farming. Large stacks of Jute stalks are drying on the side of the road, waiting to be processed into fibre.

Water Buffalo Having a Cool Off

Mayapur is a holy town to the followers of Krishna, as it was his birth place. ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, operates a large temple complex here and are currently building the massive Vedic Planetarium.

We started to get glimpses of the triple domed Vedic Planetarium as we approached along the road. Despite being still a few years away from completion, this is already a highly impressive building.

Of course, the town and it’s one million pilgrims annually, are serviced by a tiny narrow road full of pot holes and mud. Choked by the tourist buses, rickshaws and bicycles, lined with a cacophony of street vendors selling all the usual things.

We found the entrance to the Ashram we were staying at, Jahnavi Kunja Eco Yoga Ashram, and ventured down the tiny laneway, barely wide enough for our handlebars. We passed through a small bamboo gate and stepped into another world, peace and tranquillity. Well, ok, we could still hear the beeping horns in the village, but you get the idea. 

The Dome of the new Vedic Planetarium

A lovely South American lady by the name of Chumbak helped us to settle into our tiny hut and showed us around. She explained that there is a festival starting today to celebrate Krishna’s birth and lots of special events will be held over the next couple of days. This was quite a large facility, with all sorts of accommodation, from bamboo huts to treehouses, cool. We wandered down to the river for our first real look at the Ganges River. Apparently, Ganges river dolphins are common here around dawn and dusk, so we couldn’t wait to get our chance to see them.

They served us an amazing lunch, they only have two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, so it was quite substantial and yummy too. It is strictly vegetarian here.

We chilled away from the crowd for the afternoon, but soon found we needed to go out and get some mozzie repellent from a street vendor. They are really very bad, not surprising as we are really smack bang in the middle of a giant river delta system and there is lots of water everywhere.

Fisherman on the Ganges

We headed down to the river for sunset, which was beautiful. To top it off, we had several sightings of the dolphins. They are very different from salt water dolphins as they are very light in colour, almost pink, and have long narrow snouts and a small dorsal fin almost like a miniature humpback whale. They look quite prehistoric, and we feel really lucky to have seen this endangered species, and hope that the Indian people can come up with a plan to save them.

Ashram Life

Our first morning started later than the devotees to Krishna, so we were able to listen and enjoy the sounds of chanting, bells, drums and horns while we relaxed in our hut awaiting the sunrise. As the light appeared we wandered down to the river bank to sit quietly and meditate. With great surprise the dolphins appeared once more.

Breakfast was served in a large open aired, covered bamboo platform, above the ashram’s temple where yoga is practiced. The breeze up there where you are surrounded by trees and the help of overhead fans was blissful. Breakfast was simply amazing. A large plate full of fresh and dried fruit, granola and an unusual bowl of vegan like yogurt that was sweet and delicious when mixed with the granola.

Our Little Ashram Room

With belly’s full it was time to gain strength and venture out the gates back into civilisation. As soon as we hit the street we were offered left, right and centre rickshaw rides, so we claimed one to take us on our way to the ISKCON Temple. Wow I think I feel safer on the bikes, it was so hectic out there on the tiny lane way with cars, small buses and big buses full of people arriving to visit the Temple on this most important celebration festival.

On arrival at the temple we spent time looking at the new construction and the incredible detail of the buildings. The whole of the outside is white marble with beautiful ornamentations of peacocks sitting high on the outside walls. The enormous domed roofs were of a sky blue with large gold minarets, even though unfinished at this stage, the sight just blew us away. The decorative art work around the windows and doorways will look stunning when completed. The due date of completion is 2022 and from what we are told the opening will happen on that date.

Sunset Over The Ganges

Meanwhile, there is already a functioning temple on the same site that is really worth seeing. You have to check your cameras and phones, so sorry, no inside photos. But once inside, it totally blew us away. The main area drops down a few steps to a beautiful marble floor with inlaid lotus flower design. The centre is a beautiful dais with the golden statue of Krishna housed within it. All of this was covered by the massive domed roof, decorated with amazing mosaic depictions of the life of Krishna and other deities. What an incredible sight, you can only imagine the grandeur of the new temple to come. As always, circles are the key, and you can wind your way around the inside, going clockwise of course. This culminates in a roof top look out that takes in a large bend on the Ganges/Hooghly as well as a great view of the Vedic Planetarium. Very much worth the visit.

Then it was back to the crazy street outside and lunch back at the Ashram.

We chilled out for a while over lunch, and a bit longer, catching up on the blog etc. Good excuses for sitting under the fan.

Our boat ride, with Vishnu tidying up

Vishnu, one of the guys at the Ashram invited us out in his brother's boat for a paddle on the Jalangi River which runs into the  Ganges just below us. He took us to his family home on the river bank and we met his cows. Vishnu's brother was the Captain, so off we went for about an hour and a half on the water.

We saw fisherman, kids swimming, and quite a bit of birdlife including eagles and kingfishers. On the way back we went down stream of their house a little bit and saw the overloaded ferry boats that we had wanted to avoid.

The Iconic Kingfisher

Static Fishing Nets 

The Ferry

Next morning, Mary got up early to do the group meditation while I headed to the river for dawn with the camera. We saw dolphin’s again, but I wasn’t quick enough to get a shot of one yet.

After breakfast we went for a walk, had Masala Tea in a tiny tea stall, which I really liked. So many people know us as “The Cyclists” now, it’s hard to walk up the street without having to talk to lots of people. Very fun though, as long as you don’t get flattened by a bus.

Lunch Time at The Temple

The Ashram was preparing for today’s festival. All Krishna devotees were fasting today as part of the celebration of his life. A lot of activity was happening all day in preparation with cleaning and decorating the little temple, ready for a ceremony at midnight tonight, celebrating Krishna’s birthday.

At 7pm we were invited to join in on the celebration in the temple. Lots of chanting and music filled the temple from 7pm to midnight. Before midnight an offering of 108 different dishes were presented to Krishna and at midnight the fast was broken. It was an amazing experience to be involved with the celebration and we were very thankful to have been made feel so welcomed.

The Beautiful Little Temple At The Ashram

4/09/18

 Mayapur to Bahahrampore

Our Host

Last night left us feeling a bit slow this morning. We couldn’t get breakfast until 8:30, which on a riding day is quite a problem. We just had to relax and go with the flow, we only had about fifty k’s to go and I had managed to find a mostly back road route until just before our hotel on NH12.

We said our goodbyes and rode out of Mayapur, past the ISKCON temple again and made our way through some eye opening farming country. The road was very rough, and varied from potholed concrete to hard packed cow shit. The bikes were handling the conditions well. Sometimes next to a small dairy of five or six cows, the whole road was awash with liquefied cow shit, and you couldn’t see the pot holes. We just had to ride it.

There was still a lot of Jute harvest going on, with the tepee like stacks of stalks drying in the sun. The rice paddies looked to be heavy with grain and also nearing harvest, beans grew on trellises. This is very productive country, but I must say, that so many of these people are living with major flood risk. The whole area is really just a big swamp.

A Bowl of Flowers, We Think Star Jasmine

It was just starting to rain and there was a bit of thunder around as we arrived at our hotel, that didn’t exist. Oh Oh. We checked again, for the first time we had used a booking service called Yatra, and as with these types of companies, when you book a place it drops a pin at the location of the hotel on your google maps. Click on it and press start and it guides you straight there. We booked ahead with this one as there were no alternatives in this town, so we didn’t want to just turn up. What we were looking at was a secondary school. We dialled the number, disconnected. We re-searched it, we were in the right place however we looked at it. Scammed.

The next town ahead with anything other than a Dhaba (Indian Truck Stop) was Berhampore, another forty or so k’s away. We were both already tired, but had decided that we were going to go for it as we really need somewhere cool and clean to rest and recover.

First, we needed food, and about seven k’s up the road we found a dodgy looking Dhaba and ordered a Roti with Dahl and a lemonade each. Also, some cold water to top up our thermal bottles with for the hot afternoon. This was pretty ok, and set us up for the time trial ahead.

It gets dark here between five thirty and six, depending on cloud cover, and we would have to average about 18k’s an hour to make it by five fifteen. This speed is no problem with a good road, and at the moment it looked to be so, we had a dual carriageway. It’s amazing how the traffic just sorts itself out into relaxed mode, when there is a decent road.

Buffalos Carting Fresh Jute

Then it rained, but in fact, this cooled us down a bit and probably helped, we certainly didn’t want to put our wet weather gear on.

The dual carriageway would end either side of a village. They seem to not have worked out how to get the width through some of them to finish it yet. This caused massive bottlenecks and some very crazy stunt driving. This was seriously knocking down our average speed and we were really feeling the pressure. No Dhaba for us. Other distractions included several mobile selfie stunts from guys on motorbikes. Two guys on a motorbike who virtually made a documentary over about an hour and interviewing us on video as we rode. A train crossing, where said doco maker, had to do his already perfect hair in the bike mirror before filming himself, interviewing us while waiting for the train to pass. Never a dull moment in India.

The Other Iconic Kingfisher

The ninety k mark saw us find a decent hotel in Berhahrampore and I must say, it was very nice and they really looked after us, we were obviously really frazzled, wet, and despite the rain, still smelling of cow shit.

I ordered some cold drinks while Mary was in the shower, and a little later, feeling the effects of my first beer in about a week, I looked at the bottle, Oh Oh. The Kingfisher long neck that got delivered was Kingfisher strong, eight percent. I didn’t know this and it turned out that it was a bad idea to put that in my dehydrated body. It was nice and cold though.

We ordered some dinner in our room, which once again was great and way too much. But we sat in silence a bit, looking at each other, smashed, and wondering who was going to bring the subject up first. There were big days ahead if we wanted to stay anywhere decent. The distance was not the issue, but maintaining the alertness required for random death defying stunt riding to avoid being hit was seriously problematic. We decided to sleep on it and see how we felt in the morning.

5/09/18

Berhahrampore to Siliguri

The choice became clear to us as the door bell rang at 6am, complimentary Chai sir. We had slept like logs but were still pretty smashed. I have become quite fond of the late afternoon street chai. It’s almost like an espresso shot, very strong, but very sweet with milk. The chai this morning wasn’t up to it though.

Our thoughts have come back to our underlying travel policy, if it’s not fun, or we don’t feel safe, do something different. There is lots of joy to be had here, and the people are the main part of it. We always knew that the section from Kolkata to Siliguri was going to be tough and difficult with the traffic. We did the first few days, then had a break.  We went back for one more go at it and realised that this just isn’t fun. This is not the end but recognising the need to change plans to find the joy in this trip.

The best alternative was to catch a train to Siliguri, skip the flat land and continue our plan up to Darjeeling and beyond to Sikkim. There were still some concerns with this, as we won’t have the day after day fitness that we felt we would need for the mountains. There was also the issue that the monsoon may still be having its effects in the hill country. General consensus is that the monsoon in West Bengal had been lighter than average, let’s hope that this is the case for its northern neighbour as well.

The hotel manager helped us to work out a train plan and we had to ride about six k’s to a station on the other side of the Ganges and then catch a train to Azamganj, a junction station not far up the line. We could pretty much go anywhere from there.

Easy Rider

We braved the crazy traffic and got to the station in plenty of time to work out how to catch a train in India. Hmmm. The ticketing staff weren’t very helpful, but we worked it out and we could roll our bikes into a small luggage compartment at the end of each carriage. This was open air train riding, and the wind blowing through the carriage was nice and cool. How easy is this?

We got to Azamganj and went to ticketing, thinking we would have to get a ticket to Farrakka, and change trains to Siliguri. We had been told that there was a 12noon train for that, but it turned out it would be 4:05pm. A helpful guy who worked on the automatic ticketing machine suggested that it would be easier to catch a later train, 6:45, that would go all the way, arriving at about 3am, but we would have to check the bikes in.

This meant a big wait on the tiled concrete benches of the train station, with the constant rock star treatment of everyone wanting to meet us, take selfies of us and of course wanting to ride our bikes up and down the platform. It’s all good fun, but it does wear us down a bit.

At Azimganj Station

Lots of railways staff watched out for us, and made sure that we were on the right track. We couldn’t actually buy our tickets until two hours before the train was due, which made us a bit nervous as we wanted to get a sleeper. But we were about to find out how much India loves it’s bureaucracy.

About 3pm, a guy came up and said that the station manager wanted to see ‘sir’ in his office please. He confirmed that we wanted to go to Siliguri, and that we wanted to take our bikes, which I confirmed. He then explained that the bikes must be ‘checked in’ as it is a passenger train with little room for freight. No problem. Then the biggie, we must prove that we own the bikes in order to check them in. I showed him a photo of us on our bikes from two years ago, this would not do, we need proof, receipt. I explained that we bought them many years ago, not in India. We brought them with us on the plane. Then the penny dropped, ‘so you must have proof from the airline’. Well, no, they just come as checked baggage, in a box. He couldn’t grasp that if India Railways needed proof, then surely an airline would need more proof.

By now there were six other staff members in the steamy hot office trying to help. We produced passports, visas, Electronic Travel Authorities, flight tickets. We just wanted to go to Siliguri on a train. It was starting to look like it would be easier to get back on the bikes and suck it up.

The manager asked me to relax, he could see that I was getting a little hot under the collar. “Please just wait sir, there is plenty of time to find a solution, and that we will”.

Phone calls were made by six men and one woman all at once. Conversations were flying around the room in Bengali, Hindi, and occasionally a little English.

Finally a suggestion, the station manager sat back in his chair for a minute, thinking. And then looking back at me. “Sir, we will have the porters package the bicycles at your expense, 350 rupees. You will pay 140 rupees to the railway. Then purchase two tickets GC to Siliguri. OK?”

I explained that all of that was ok, but can we book sleeper tickets, which he explained “No Sir, not from Azamganj.”

Ok, lets go with that. So finally two hours later we had a solution, and tickets.

A lovely guy, the senior ticket examiner, came to talk with us again, while I was out trying to stop the packaging guys from riding up and down the platform taking selfies of themselves. It was so hilarious. But this guy, explained that it may be possible to upgrade to a/c sleeper, once on the train, and he would call his friend who is on the train. No guarantees.

It seems as though information can only be leaked out in dribs and drabs, you can’t get it all in one dose. Just wait a little longer and we can help you some more.

Finally the train was late, which would actually work in our favour, as the closer we arrived to daylight in Siliguri the better. The sun comes up just after 5am at the moment. We were getting assurances from our new friend that it was looking good for a sleeper.

Priscilla Going "Incognito"

Then we noticed one of the porters walk up to our bikes with two hessian bags and some string. This was going to be interesting. He proceeded to tie the bag from the handlebars to the seats and that was that, they were now packaged. We had to hide in the hot waiting room for a moment to compose ourselves, how does this make any difference? Anyway, we paid the porter and the train arrived. We were whisked away by the ticket examiner to meet his friend, we never saw which carriage the bikes were loaded onto, it was a very long train.

We met the train manager, who looked me up and down and said, “Very tall man, with short pants. Very interesting.”

Meanwhile, there were some discussions. Then we were shown onto a sleeper carriage where he found us two berths in a four berth section, aircon, phew. We were so grateful.

As the train pulled out of the station, veg and rice was handed to us and a bottle of water. Later he came and worked out to pay the difference between our GC ticket and the sleeper. We were expecting this.

We had some light conversation with the other people in the cabin and then crashed out on our upper bunks. What a day.

Surprisingly, we got some reasonable sleep, and woke up at about 3am our scheduled arrival time, but we knew that we had left an hour late. Nobody was announcing stations, so you had to be awake or miss your station.

We rolled into Siliguri at about 4:30am and started looking to make sure that our bikes got off the train. They weren’t in the baggage car around the middle of the train, a porter said to try the end carriage. It was a long way back, so I left Mary with our bags and ran to the far end. Guys were unloading, and Larry was already on the platform, but there was no sign of Priscilla. Trying not to get in the way, I peeked into the carriage trying to see if I could spot her. I caught a glimpse of a wheel sticking out about half way up, the rest of the bike buried under a pile of heavy freight. I was worried now, but when they got her out, she looked fine.

With a little help from a porter we unpacked the hessian covering, loaded the bags up, completed the paperwork at the freight office, and made our way out of the station.

The sun was just coming up, and guess what, we could see mountains, Whoo Hoo. We rode through the very quiet early morning streets of Siliguri, it was cooler, and luckily we found a nice hotel that would let us check in early. Shower time. Phew.