Having had such bad experience with the Indian roads, we decided to continue the trip by train. Eager to get out of Calcutta as soon as possible, I purchased tickets to the next train to Bombay, a train called “Mumbai Mail”. The tickets were very cheap (at 10USD/person and 40USD/bike for the 34 hours 1950km journey).

The train station, named Howrah, is a masterpiece of architecture design, completed in 1905. Unfortunately, everything inside and outside was extremely dirty. Piles of trash, people peeing without remorse on the platform, beggars, homeless and so on.

The train itself had the appearance of a refugee or a prisoners of war train, with bars at the windows. Laura burst into tears thinking about the next 34 hours. The smell was unbearable (for us). Fortunately, I could not close the window, so I got a cold that prevented me from further feeling the smell.

Somehow, we managed to survive the journey and we finally arrived in Bombay after 2 nights and 1 day of travel. The train station was also very beautiful, itself a UNESCO world heritage site, valued for it’s Gothic architecture.