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....

Our friend Evan suggested we meet him at a waterfall that he'd heard was in a national park south of Varanasi but didn't know the name of, or have any other details of. He thought it was at the end of the road going into the park, and when our guesthouse owner confirmed there was a waterfall about 50 Km south from Varanasi and gave us the name on a piece of paper, the decision was made! Evan would ride his motorbike there and we (along with our friend Leo) would take the bus. What could go wrong?

Well, lots it seems!

Strike 3 – When we were told to get off the bus, it was at a chai stall by a dusty main road.. No National Park and no Evan in sight.. The chai lady directed us to a small path that lead to the waterfall and it was okay. Certainly nothing to travel 3 hours each way to see though!!

After another chai, and another failed attempt to get internet reception to contact Evan, we found out that the bigger waterfall was a 5km walk away down a dirt track to the other side of the chai stall. Of course it was! I mean, who needs signs anyway? It makes perfect sense that the chai lady had presumed we wanted to see the small, barely flowing waterfall, and not the big, apparently impressive one! Feeling hot, hungry and exhausted we decided to not walk the 10km return, and instead sat by the road waiting for the next bus back.

We were making good time on the new bus when, all of a sudden, we stopped… Along with about 50 trucks, 7 other buses, cars and tuktuks… This didn’t seem like a quick pitstop. Roh went investigating and found a truck completely blocking the road, with about 80 Indian men standing around staring at it’s axel…

And there they stood.. staring at the axel and waiting for it to magically fix itself for about 1 and a half hours.. In 37 C heat..

At one point our bus tried to turn around. Atleast that's what we think it was trying to do. It failed either way and also ended up across the road blocking other traffic. The bus driver didn’t appear concerned.  

Suddenly, a tow truck appeared and with it, everyone ran back to their trucks and buses, started their engines and started jostling for poll position, to be the first vehicle to pass the truck and get going again.. Which meant that on both sides of the trucks, vehicles were trying to overtake the other vehicles on the wrong side of the road. So even after the truck was moved, nothing could get through at all! It was like a Mexican standoff of the automobile kind. 

After 4 months at the ashram, and many tears of goodbye this morning, followed by a nice lunch and play date with Ishi, we are on a train! And will be for the next 22 hours... Next stop, varanasi!

We were warned to avoid sitting class trains in India so many times. So naturally, we were a little apprehensive when the first train we booked ONLY had 2S - second class non-AC seating available. We figured that we didn't have much choice and bought the tickets.

Everyone knows travel in India is slow. You expect things to be delayed. So when we decided to head to the Himalayas to stay at a commune 4-5 hours from Rishikesh, we expected 5-6 hours. We didn't expect 7.5 hours!!! 

And the crazy thing is, we didn't even encounter any delays!! It simply takes 7.5 hours to drive 80 km.. 

It took 3 hours to get to the city of New Tehri. From there we could even see our destination - a tiny village called Pratap Nagar, high up (3300m) on the mountains, on the other side of the dam. 

Awesome! We are nearly there we thought! We just have to drive over the dam we thought....

No... We had to drive AROUND the dam..  

Did I mention how BIG the dam is??

All of the roads are switch-back hairpin turns going up and around and down and around and up again. It took forever...

The scenery was mind-blowingly beautiful though! And so humbling to see farm land carved out of every surface no matter how steep the gradient. Women and children would just appear out of nowhere to jump on the bus, or disembark somewhere with no visible buildings around. It was just amazing. 

And when we finally arrived, 7.5 bum-numbing hours later, we were met with an amazing view. something we were not expecting at all, and suddenly, it was all worth it!

Wow... Maybe we will stay awhile...

Road trip!

Our trip to India freakishly matched the dates one of our good friends was visiting aswell! So, as good friends do, we hitched a ride with them up to Rishikesh for a couple of days!

Travelling is ALWAYS fun, but it’s so amazing when you can rekindle with really great friends for a couple of days and explore somewhere new together!!

The drive was mostly uneventful. It was a real luxury to be in a car after 2 months in a tuktuk!! 
We did find the "flora" interesting though...

Yes, that is what it appears to be. Weed, growing as a weed by the side of the road. And not just in one small patch either, for kilometres on end!! 

Apparently even though it grows wild, it is still illegal to chop it down and sometimes policemen will hide in it waiting for someone to try to!?! Indian logic at it's best.. There is sooo much, they could make a lot of hemp clothing or rope etc if they wanted to!