the travel junkies
  • Home
    • About us
    • Our journey so far!
    • Interviews on the road
    • Contact us
  • Blogs
    • Australia 2015-17 >
      • Free-camping - travel tips
    • Misc ramblings
    • Nepal 2014 >
      • Accommodation list
    • India 2014 >
      • Accommodation list
    • Sri Lanka 2014 >
      • Accommodation list
    • Taiwan 2011-2013
    • Australia, Borneo & the Philippines 2011
    • Asia 2008-2012
    • Baby in a backpack
  • Travel tips
    • Practical travel tips per country >
      • Australia - Tasmania
      • Bangladesh
      • Hong Kong
      • Indonesia - Bali, Java & Sumatra
      • Laos
      • Malaysia - Borneo
      • Malaysia - mainland
      • Myanmar
      • Thailand
    • Driving around Australia
    • Money matters
    • Our budget per country
    • What we carry with us
    • Tour guides we recommend

35 hours of travel....

10/18/2014

3 Comments

 
Picture
India has the worlds most extensive rail network system in the world. There are trains going to and from everywhere, 24hours a day. It’s crazy.

Sometimes they run on time.. Most of the time they don’t. If even one train is slightly delayed for whatever reason, it has a domino effect on the entire country.

We’ve taken quite a few trains and, so far, have been pretty lucky! They’ve all either been on time or only half an hour or so delayed.

Knock on wood.

We really should have knocked on more wood….

We booked our train from Varanasi to NJP (the closest station to Darjeeling) and specifically chose the 9pm departure, 1:30pm arrival. We figured that Gypsy would already be asleep when we left, we would have breakfast on the train, and arrive just after she awoke from her nap. Perfect! A nice, easy 14 hour trip.

So we took our tuktuk to the station and checked the board. Delayed by 1.5 hours. Oh well, it’s coming all the way from Delhi on the other side of the country, that’s to be expected I guess. At least it’s not delayed 17 hours or 11 hours like the 2 trains above ours on the board!

We really should have knocked on wood..

So we casually make or way to the platform and started our wait. Inconveniently the board giving train times and expected arrival times for our platform wasn’t working so I found a page on the internet that I could track it on. Wait.. it’s now 2hours delayed.. Oh well.

2.5 hours.

3 hours.. 

4 hours..

Let’s go and ask the station master. Maybe this webpage is wrong.

“Go away. I don’t know. Leave now.”

Well that was helpful..

5 hours.. It’s 2am. Guess Gypsy and I are going to sleep here on the platform for a bit!

Okay this is getting ridiculous..

Oh yay! It should be here in 15 minutes time finally!!

Did we miss it? It’s been half an hour? Did they change the platform? Let’s go ask the train guy again.

“It’s late. Same platform. Go away!”

Oh hang on, the webpage just refreshed.. 7 hours now..

8 hours..

It’s nearly 5am.. They sun will be up soon..

Hang on, was that our train just announced? Yes! It’s arriving now to a different platform on the other side of the station and only stopping for 3 minutes!?! OMG! Quick! RUN!!

What carriage are we? It doesn’t matter! Just get on before it leaves without us. That would be the ultimate irony.

Okay, here we are. Here are our beds. Now lets get some sleep.

Seriously? I know it’s 5 am, and the sun is coming up, and some people are early risers but Mr room mate. Please turn off your music and stop talking so loudly to your girlfriend..

No? You are awake? Oh look! So is gypsy now… Thanks buddy… Just awesome..

Oh well, it’s only a 14 hour journey. We will sleep when we get there..

22 hours later…

Yes.. It was 8 hours late, and took a further 22 hours to reach our destination..

2 nights for the price of one!!

It was 3 am the following morning when we finally arrived.

Just in time to jump in a jeep for a 4 hour journey to Darjeeling.

OMG, is that the Himalayas? Is that Mt Everest?? Wow..

Okay, I guess it was worth it but still…

We really need to knock on wood more often....

Picture
Trying to sleep on the train platform.
3 Comments
Pamela webber
10/18/2014 04:22:50 pm

How beautiful does mother and child look?

Reply
Joyce Garness
10/18/2014 09:03:48 pm

One trip you won't forget! So better late than never, but I think I would have been physically sick!! Better luck with the next train ride!!

Reply
Cheryl
10/19/2014 12:11:26 am

The 10 hour plane trip to Nadi, 4 hour bus trip to Suva, 4 hour ferry trip to Koro doesn't seen bad at all now.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    NAMASTE!

    We are Roh and Rob and we are backpacking around India with our toddler Gypsy. Follow our adventures!

    Archives

    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    Amritsar
    Animals
    Ashram
    Chandigarh
    Delhi
    Dharamsala
    Flora And Fauna
    Frustrations
    Himalayas
    Manali
    Nashik
    Pratap Nagar
    Punjab
    Rishikesh
    Roadtrip
    Shopping
    Spirituality
    Temples
    Trains
    Travel Tips
    Uttarakhand State
    Varanasi
    Warnings
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.