To survive the streets of India you need a good driver, good brakes, good horn and good luck. That’s what a local taxi driver taught me and he was right.

The 650km from Darjeeling to Calcutta took us 2.5 days to complete. The road condition was very bad. Most of it was covered with potholes. Trucks, cars, motorbikes and bicycles were driving both on left and right side of the road, in all directions, even on the divided expressway! Animals and vehicles being pushed by hand were adding even more risks. Many vehicles were rolling with their headlights off even at night. And we were still on a National Highway designated road.

After some time the road became sand and then ended abruptly at the Ganges river. We spent one hour to find a way to cross it, as the bridge was no longer in place.