Night Train from Varanasi 0_0

Travelling from Varanasi to Kolkata should have been a piece of cake with a train connection taking 14 hours… However, when I arrived at the Varanasi station bags in toe I noticed that the train did not appear on the schedule board… hmmm

Turns out the train had been cancelled!! PANIC… Over to see the tourist police who then go to the station masters office and after some discussion announce that there is a train which will go from Varanasi to Kolkata which was due to arrive the day before… But was delayed!! For a day!! Anyhow - long and short of it is that the train did appear at 8.30pm and a small band of western tourists three, two Polish and myself all got onto the 3AC carriage and awaited departure commenting on how empty the train was - we were pretty much the only passengers in the carriage… Turns out that not many people wanted to travel yesterday and so had not booked the train - now that it was a day late, few people had turned up to get it on the day… so nearly empty. The train however needed to wait for a slot on the track to depart and therefore did not actually leave the station till 12.30am!! Followed by a marathon 16hr journey stopping every so often to give way to other trains.

The scenery of West Bengal is very different from that of Utter Pradesh and Rajasthan, it has gently rolling hills and lots of greenery including palm trees and banana plants. It is also cleaner with less visible rubbish along the tracks.

Arriving in Kolkata the first priority was a cab to the hotel for all of us seconded by a shower. Two trains in two nights is a bit much…