Itinerary mostly completed - any advice?

machadinha

nb Weatherwise in places like Delhi Oct. or Dec. will make all the difference, winter is brief. The Himalayas are just different. Best look up some weather charts to get an indication. I've a chart here listing Delhi as min. 19 in Oct to min. 7 in Jan. for instance; Darjeeling is listed as min. 11 to min. 3 for the same period (minimum degrees Celsius, not minus!)

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machadinha

As noted, Kolkata - Chennai should be around 27 hours on a fast train, maybe faster today. It's doable & quite an experience.

machadinha

ppps Regarding temperatures see also http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...php?photo=7621
Over + out.

andygoodyear

Thank you all for your great advice. I have decided as many people have suggested here to go from Darjiling to Kolkata and then make up my mind when I get there. Will probably take the train to Chennai and then head up the coast to Mumbai. Just a further bit of info if you can, where in Kerala should I go for a trip on the backwaters (3-4 days) and is there a way to get from Darjiling to Kolkata thats cheap and not by train. Possibly a flight>

machadinha

Flights go from Bagdogra near Siliguri I think, don't know about prices. Did you get yourself a guidebook yet? Worth the money. Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri is like your main access point in the plains. NJ - Kolkata should be just about 12 hours by train btw.

Popular places for the backwater trips in Kerala include Kottayam, Kollam (Quilon), and Alappuzha (Alleppey). That scene seems to have developed quite a bit so I'll leave it to others to answer, there are many threads about it.

iyou

There is no air connection available in Darjeeling at any price, so that's easy. From Siliguri there are expensive flights. You could take a bus, but that would be a hellish way to go. A taxi would cost less than a plane and have the added benefit of being more exciting/terrifying than a bus ride (small vehicle = no right of way whatsoever). As for the backwater tour, most people go for the quick and crowded 8 hour experience, which you can read about in the guidebooks. If you're talking about doing something longer then you're talking about renting the whole boat, and that is a horse of a completely different color, where the color is gold, as in big bucks.

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machadinha

Hm yes more precisely, it used to be (is this getting to be an old tune?) you had the Kottayam - Alleppey stretch (2.5 hours) and then the Alleppey - Kollam stretch of 8 hours. Combining the two was the best. In fact there are boats plying up and down all along the backwaters I believe and there are other routes, these are just the main or popular ones. The regular service is just a local ferry, it's like a bus on water. It's very nice though and hardly costs a thing. You'd be besieged though by touts trying to convince you that for some reason you couldn't get on and had to take a private boat (not if you were coming from Kottayam however which used to be just a sleepy but very nice little town). The regular boats being just public transport and hence normally very crowded, to get a good view it wasn't such a bad idea to get one of the latter, after the usual haggling to get it down to a somewhat realistic price. Mind you people ply these boats all the time, they'd probably be happy to let you have the good view as a visitor if you ask but being stuck in the middle with a couple of caged chickens on your lap is not unthinkable.

Like I said the scene seems to have developed a lot so I can't say how it is today, this is more than ten years ago. Most of what you read here is about several-day stays on houseboats which didn't exist at the time or not that I know of, I understand they don't come cheaply but looks like a nice option.

Member Beach has an unsurprisingly good post on the subject (2003).

btw You have two months to travel around, why splash out on a flight to Kolkata unless you have good reason to? Cheap and flying don't go together in my mind.

torryquine

There is a daily flight between Bagdogra and Kolkatta. Unless prices have changed since January it costs $90 one way with Jet Airways and leaves around 2.00pm I seem to remember. I think Indian Airlines also have a daily flight for about the same cost but I'm not sure what time.

Check out their websites (Google) all the Indian airlines now have up to date schedules and mostly booking facilities online

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Judi

You can take a jeep (shared or otherwise) or taxi to Bagdogra airport for a flight to Kolkata (either from Darjeeling or Siliguri). Last time I checked the fare was about £125/£150. If you are in a hurry to get to Kolkata then that is the best way to do it. If time is not a priority, then take the train - if you travel overnight you are killing two birds with one stone.

Ooops - sorry. The £125/£150 was for a round trip!

andygoodyear

Thanks everyone. You hae been great. I do have a fewguide book sbut just found it all overwhelming. You have helped very mcuh