The 57 hour Express to Calcutta

From Manali we took two days to get to Kalka, from where we were to catch the train to Kolkata (Calcutta). Rejane had done some very diligent research and managed to figure out the fairly complicated but surprisingly efficient Indian Rail booking system. Being in the middle of school holidays, the time of Diwali and a very big festival dedicated to the Goddess Durga, all we could get were waitlisted tickets for our Kalka to Kolkata train ride. We’d been assured that since we were high up on the waiting list, we’d have no problem getting seated on the day of travel.

We arrived at Kalka train station around 5pm and spent a hot, sweaty hour getting the bike wrapped and packed for the train trip. Then we settled in for the 3 hour wait until the waitlist charts were prepared and we’d know whether or not we had seats on the train. At around 9.30pm, when the waitlist sheets were released, we were told we had not been granted seats – it was the middle of holiday season afterall. We were then told to wait until 11pm to speak to the train station manager who might be able to organise something. At 11pm, the train station manager was nowhere to be found. Now what? The bike was already booked, packed and paid for to go onto Kolkata.

That was when the chaos kicked in: our enquiries as to whether or not there was any way at all that we could get onto the train led to us being surrounded by several people, including the packing department guys, some police/military officers, porters and a couple of other random people all with very little English and each confidently claiming that he’d organised everything for us and knew what would happen next... each had a different story...:
1. we would be getting 2nd class tickets straight to Kolkata.
2. we would get 3rd class tickets to Delhi (about one third of the way to Kolkata) and would be given new tickets there to go immediately onto Kolkata.
3. we would get some ticket to Delhi and would have to wait there for a few days to get a new ticket to Kolkata.
4. we had to buy new unreserved class tickets for Kolkata (this option meant being squashed with an uncountable number of people on hard wooden seats for the 33 hour ride).

Better not misplace those elephants...R1000 maximum liabilty claim

By 11.45pm we were sitting (listening at various times to whichever one of our ‘organisers’ was not running around at that point organising our tickets and/or tea) on the train station platform, hot, exhausted, hungry, not knowing whether or not we’d get on this train or not or have to find a hotel room at midnight in a small town we’d never been to before. About 5 minutes later and with 5 minutes to spare before the train was to leave and still with absolutely no idea as to what our eventual fate was to be, Dave was ushered to a desk on the platform, ordered to buy new unreserved class tickets (the class with the wooden benches that always has space for just one more) and we were ushered into comfortable 2nd class seats ...??? ...but we were not complaining... – this only took us to Delhi though. To have been in various states of limbo and confusion, surrounded by chaos for 7 hours and then for everything to turn out OK in the last 5 minutes is, well... what can I say... just a very special, very Indian experience...

Our bike-packing wallahs

We arrived in Delhi at 6am in the morning tired, lugging our backpacks, helmets and all the heavy bike stuff. No tickets to Kolkata were available for that day but we managed to get tickets to leave for Kolkata the following morning so we were forced to enjoy the Delhi chaos for a night. We arrived in Kolkata two days later – having taken 57 hours to complete what was meant to be a 33 hour express train journey.

The Victoria Memorial and Museum - Kolkata

As big Indian cities go, Kolkata is one of the nicest. It’s still an Indian city though, so after enjoying some especially lovely high teas and getting our Bangladeshi visas, we hightailed it out of there and headed north for Darjeeling.

Stopping for tea under a very big, old tree on the way to Darjeeling

The bike ride to Darjeeling was beautiful. The lush, tropical landscape is a dead ringer for Port St, Johns on the Transkei Wild Coast. Darjeeling itself is prime tea growing area surrounded by the snow-capped Himalayas, with views of Kanchendzonga, which at 8600m is the world’s 3rd highest mountain. We got a great hotel room with panoramic views of the surrounding landscape and mountain tops and all we had to do for spectacular sunrises was to stretch over, pull open our curtains and wha-la!

Beautiful views from the road of rice-paddies and farmers at work

A view from our hotel room in Darjeeling - Kanchendzonga in the distance

From Darjeeling we were on our bike again and up to the magical province of Sikkim. This used to be a kingdom under India’s protection, but a referendum in the 70’s resulted in the abandonment of the monarchy and Sikkim’s absorption into India. Sikkim is thought by many to be the true location of the fabled Shangri La, which is thought to be a derivative of Sikkim’s “Wild Alder Pass” or Sangali La. True or not, this is definitely one of the most beautiful regions we’ve ever seen (ja, we know we’ve said that before but this country just keeps on surprising).

Sikkim is mountainous, but most of it is below 3000m above sea level and so it is covered with lush, pristine, indigenous forests dripping with vines, streams and rivers – some a startling bright blue, as well as all sorts of colourful flowers, butterflies and birds (including the Red Jungle Fowl – the original chicken). Towering in the west is the snow-capped Kanchendzonga.

We headed first to the capital Gangtok which, despite being a bustling city, is still enclosed by forest – most cities are quickly deforested but somehow Gangtok’s forest has remained intact. There we spent a night before heading to nearby Rumtek the home of one of Sikkim’s most important monasteries. We stayed 3 nights at a beautiful lodge in a wood-panelled room with a balcony overlooking the forested valley.

The lodge offered good food comprising of Tibetan/Ladakhi vegetarian meals including the ever-popular momo’s which are steamed dumplings filled with minced veggies and a lovely balcony with spectacular views from which to enjoy our meals. After a few days of veggie food, we located a non-vegetarian restaurant in the village and feasted on chicken and fish. The funny thing with many parts of both Buddhist and Hindu India is that eating meat is frowned upon and thus often only available at equally frowned upon alcohol bars. These bars generally consist of small curtained cubicles where you can secretly drink your beer and/or eat your chicken safe from the disapproving stares of the general public...

The working Buddhist monastery in Rumtek

In Rumtek we decided to explore the forest and ended up semi-lost for a few hours clambering through the thick vegetation beneath towering trees, wondering about the prevalence of tigers and king cobras in the area, until we emerged in tiny village where we walked back to Rumtek along the road. We also visited the Rumtek monastery which was colourful and filled with the usual Buddhist imagery of crazy fire-breathing monster-things and a huge statue of Buddha - for a religion without a god, Buddhism certainly incorporates a lot of other magical beings... The monastery did have a lot of positive environmental messages and was doing some good recycling work.

Getting lost in Sikkim's lush forests

Breakfast and spectacular forest views - on the balcony of our hotel room in Rumtek

From Ravang La we travelled on to the town of Pelling which faces the mighty Kanchendzonga mountain. Here again we were blown away by the beautiful hotel room - complete with ensuite bathroom, balcony looking straight at the peaks and satellite TV - for just R80 a night… We did a couple of day trips from Pelling doing some of the best biking so far on empty roads through dense forest with the odd waterfall on to the road to keep you cool. First we visited Khecheopalri Lake, a beautiful peaceful lake filled with fish and surrounded by forest littered with prayer flags. Prayer flags are basically flags with prayers or mantras written on them that are thought to spread good vibrations to all livings beings when fluttered by the wind – nice thought, though like most superstitions completely illogical and can lead to beautiful natural places becoming defaced with millions of flags fluttering.

We visited another temple called Tashiding, which was interesting, but far surpassed by the beautiful scenery on the ride there and back. After 4 days in Pelling we headed to our favourite spot in Sikkim, a brilliant homestay on top of the steepest road we’ve seen, in the village of Chakung.

VIDEO: The road to Khecheopalri Lake - forests, waterfalls, snow-capped mountain views, landslides..

Khecheopalri Lake - surrounded by thick, indigenous forest

The Kazi Koti homestay (www.kazikoti.weebly.com) is the old home of one of Sikkim’s democracy leaders who fought the monarchy there. It is surrounded by a beautiful flower garden and working organic farm and is managed by his Grandson, Bhaila. The rooms are comfortable and the view of Kanchendzonga breathtaking. We ate meals with the family in the kitchen – with meat! - and enjoyed millet beer, a clearer version of umqombothi back home. The home had beautiful hanging chairs where we chilled drinking tea and reading books. Great spot!

The stunning front garden of the Kazi Koti homestay

Relaxing in a garden swing chair

More swinging chairs, breathtaking views and beautiful organic gardens

Making our contribution to the Kazi Koti gardens - two guava trees

Our very hospitable family in Chakung

After about 2 weeks in Sikkim we headed back to Darjeeling, where we left our motorbike at our friendly hotel and hopped on a bus to Bangladesh. We entered at the very north of the country at a little-used border so we were the centre of attention, attracting lots of crowds, as tourists are virtually unheard of here.


Our first night we slept in a basic hotel with big spiders and then headed to Rangpur, the first large town. Bangladesh is a very flat country with thousands of rivers in every direction. The giant Himalayan snow peaks and glaciers we visited in north India melt and flow down mostly towards Bangladesh with a third of the country looking like a giant river delta… one of the reasons why Bangladesh is so prone to flooding.

Bicycles and 3-wheeler rickshaws everywhere - a welcome relief from the noisy, polluted traffic-jammed Indian towns

It is a beautiful country which feels like it is how India must have been 30 years ago. There’s very little motorised transport and the towns are filled with many thousands of 3-wheeler bicycle rickshaws which transport everyone all over the city for between R0-50c to R2 a trip. It is almost eerie travelling silently on a rickshaw amongst hundreds of others along road devoid of the very noisy traffic that India has, like a silent travel movie. Rangpur also has a new phenomenon which is the electric three wheeler taxi, a smart looking car-thing with a motorbike front which can take 4 – 6 passengers and runs on electricity. To buy, this taxi cost just R10,000 (US$1,300) and takes 8 hours to charge on a normal household socket and can cover 120km on a single charge. It’s made in China and is definitely something that other countries, including South Africa! should consider for inner-city transport.

The rural landscape is lush green with endless rice paddies as far as the eye can see, with the odd banana grove here and there and tree-filled villages.

VIDEO: Cruising on the back of a 3-wheeler rickshaw taxi in Rangpur

Rangpur is a bustling university town with an awesome night bazaar filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful delights and it is where we began our street food fetish, kebabs, mini curries, breads, fruits, chai, sweetbreads - all costing just a few cents - is our standard dinner these days. While India is heaven for vegetarians, Bangladesh would be hell, there is meat in almost everything (which suits us carnivores just fine) although you have to look into the pots carefully or you could be in for a lung and tripe surprise...Other than the bazaar, though, Rangpur didn’t have much to detain us so we bordered another bus and headed to Rajshahi, another large town on the banks of the Padme river. In the evenings the riverside has a dilapidated boardwalk vibe with chai and food stalls which we’ve visited while watching the sun set across the river with India visible in the distance.

This country is just one massive, beautiful rice paddy!

Bangladeshi’s are friendly people who have a standard series of questions:
What is your name?
What is your country?
What is your occupation?
What is your qualification? (Bachelor? Masters?)
What is the purpose of your visit?

And Dave seems to be the man (or the badboy) for having a Bangladeshi girlfriend although sometimes Rejane is thought to be his interpreter… Dave has great novelty power here and can stop traffic by just crossing the road and can turn every head in the market with his (good? white?) looks!