Day 4: Kolkata to Raxaul

I take a taxi from my hotel in the Salt Lake district to downtown Kolkata,. I’m dropped off at Park Street, supposedly the most famous street in old Kolkata. It might be the rain that forces me to stay within a 1 km radius of Park Street (it’s monsoon season here in East India), but I’m not very much impressed by the city. The traffic is not as bad as I’d thought and the poverty here is not much worse than I’ve seen it in other places in South-East Asia.

Taking a taxi in Kolkata during monsoon season

I spend some time at a little Indian café, enjoying a nice Chai tea and make my way to a bookstore across the street. I have a little browse in the Lonely Planet for Kolkata, and find out there’s actually not much to see in this particular area… unfortunately, I will have to make my way to the train station in about 1 hour, so there’s no chance of going to another part of town. I buy the first book in Stieg Larson’s Millenium trilogy: “ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and settle down in a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant for some lunch. I have a delicious Chicken Marsala and some of the best Naan bread I’ve ever tasted!

I get in a taxi a about 2pm and ask the driver to take me to Howrah station. Howrah is Kolkata’s sister town on the other side of the river. It will take almost 45 minutes to cover the 10km from Park Street.

Howrah station, is the largest and busiest railway station in India. When I get there, I have about 1 hour left before my train to Raxaul departs. I enter the station and am greeted by, I estimate, 20.000 to 30.000 fellow travelers, all looking for their train. I walk around for about 20 minutes, checking out the station and buying some supplies for my 18-hour journey: four 1 liter bottles of water and 4 slices of Walnut-Dade cake. 

Girl in the streets of Kolkata, selling food

Once I start feeling too dehydrated I notice a sign for the 1^st class waiting room. Although I don’t have a 1^st class ticket, I manage to get in (the guy at the door seems a bit confused by the ticket I printed, and decides to just let me in). The waiting room is airconditioned, and it’s very nice to cool off a bit (it’s about 35 degrees in Kolkata today).

After 20 minutes, I make my way to the train, the 3021 Mithila express. I’m in coach A1 (one of two air-conditioned coaches), seat/berth 30. The train looks quite old, but everything seems to be in working order. My fellow passengers are not in the mood for a conversation, so I spend much of my time reading my Stieg Larson book. (I don’t have a window seat, so there are sadly no pictures of this train ride… (the sun goes down two hours into the trip anyways)

My bed is to the side of the train, top bunk. There’s no window to look out of, and the bed itself is rather small: 180 x 50 cm… As I sleep with both backpacks in my bed, the space becomes even more cramped. I manage to sleep for about 3 hours that night.

I’m awoken around 6am by local tea vendors making their round through the train, shouting “Chai!, Chai!” As most people stay in their beds until the train arrives at Raxaul, at 10am, there’s not much for me to do then read… before we get to the border with Nepal, I have finished all 550 pages of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The train pulls into Raxaul station, the final destination of the Mithila Express at 10am in the morning, I get off and now need to find my way to the border with Nepal and somehow get to Kathmandu before nightfall.

Namaste from Nepal,
Steven

What’s on my ipod today? Miike Snow: Black and Blue

Journey totals: distance (%) - time (km/h)

Train:    2639 km  (13.20%) -      54 hours     (49 km/h)

Taxi:         90 km  (00.45%) -      2.5 hours    (36 km/h)

Ferry:          2 km  (00.01%) -     0.5 hours       (4 km/h)

Car:             0 km  (00.00%) -        0 hours       (0 km/h)

Plane:    1800 km  (09.00%) -        0 hours       (0 km/h)

Total: 04531 km (22.66%) -  0059 hours (76.8 km/h)

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