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London–Calcutta Bus Service
- hilux 2y agoThat sounds so amazing. Eurasian counterpart to the Green Tortoise!
- thriftwy 2y agoUnfortunately, the whole middle section of the route has exprienced a demographic explosion followed by political destabilization and muslim radicalization, and you would not want to traverse these countries over land. It makes sense to remember that all these countries were just fine very recently such as to be passable by a bus full of hippies, before they started making a bad use of the area they take up on the globe.
- ghaff 2y agoLeaving aside any physical ability etc., there are a bunch of places that I might have done 30 years ago but wouldn't today whether because of an explosion in popularity or just because it feels as if it would be less safe. (Of course there are also places in e.g. Eastern Europe I might have been less inclined to travel to at one point.)
- chpatrick 2y agoThe West certainly had a hand in destabilizing some of those areas (like Iran).
- dosinga 2y ago> you would not want to traverse these countries over land. You probably wouldn't. But people do and it seems fine. Turkey and Iran have actually decent train networks now, so you don't even have to go by bus. I think you can go all the way to Zahedan. Cross at Taftan and then bus to Quetta, but from there you can hop on the train again to India, cross to Amritsar and on to Calcutta.
- lupire 2y agoIran is likely to imprison a Westerner for years for trying that.
- rsynnott 2y agoFor… taking a train? Getting a visa might be tricky, but I’m fairly sure it’s legal to get a train, even in Iran.
- madcaptenor 2y agoseat61 is a good quick reference for train travel and has a site on London to India overland: https://www.seat61.com/europe-to-india-overland.htm https://www.seat61.com/europe-to-india-overland.htm - as you've said Zahedan to Quetta is the hard bit to do by train. It sounds like the problem for many is likely to be getting an Iranian visa: https://www.seat61.com/Iran.htm#Visas https://www.seat61.com/Iran.htm#Visas
- dosinga 2y agoIf you are American, it will be tricky, yeah. For Europeans it should be doable. I managed to get a 7 day transit visa that could be extended to 10
- jnsaff2 2y agoZahedan to the border: taxi. Taftan to Quetta: a bus, leaves before sunset to travel out of the worst heat. Takes about 10-12h. The bus has two massive diesel engines, one in the front driving the bus forward, one in the back to drive the AC. In the 600 or so km about half of it has some pavement, rest is just desert. The bus does not slow down for potholes, dunes, anything. You jump a lot. Every couple of hours bus stops, half of the time for people to go in the desert to squat and the other half to pray. Try not to mix them up, could be dangerous. The route comes within a few km of Afgani border but that does not matter the baluchistan region does not have much of dealings with the central govt. Quetta is very-very dangerous for westerners, lots of kidnappings. I only found out later, thankfully. The train from Quetta to Lahore takes about 26h. There is 1st class AC sleeper, 1st class sleeper and second class. The 1st class feels like it was last updated before independence. The train crosses wast deserts where temperature is 50C-ish. This was more than 15 years ago, things might have changed YMMV.
- selimthegrim 2y agoGod forbid if someone grades the Russian Federation on use of the area it takes up. The old SCTV skit comes to mind.
- thriftwy 2y agoRussians are constantly asking themselves this question, "aren't we taking up the area in vain". The corollaries to these questions may surprise you, though. I can see how you are are offended by this question, though. People in California had a long thought about it and has decided for the whole world that this question is not permitted, like they decide everything for the whole globe.
- selimthegrim 2y agoI am not in California. Rest assured, though that not only is my family background from one of your “middle section” countries in question, I have many Ukrainian and Russian friends. Let us not pretend you’re referring to some incipient Middle Eastern or Central/South Asian Chaadayev here.
- thriftwy 2y agoI can't believe none of your Ukrainian and Russian friends grade countries in terms of whether they take up the area in vain. They may not use this specific wording, though they might as well do. I wonder if "middle section" countries also use the arguments that they were so great N centuries ago that they don't have to reason their existence today.
- selimthegrim 2y agoActually, what my Russian advisor (studied at MEPhI and Kurchatov) said was that establishing industry in Russia is a less effective use of money than just pumping oil esp. taking into account the cost of heating the factories so it might as well be moved to Malaysia where the climate is better. He also said Turkey was better than Sochi for vacation. Does that answer your question?
- hilux 2y ago> It makes sense to remember that all these countries were just fine very recently The entire Middle East was colonized and f_cked up over a century by the US, UK, and France. I'm sorry that I can't visit these countries now, but (assuming you are a white Westerner) to say that they were "fine" and then blame them for current problems - is a bit steep. You should spend more time talking to non-white people from non-white countries. Just this afternoon I was chatting about global affairs with an economist from an Asian country, and although he is quite "liberal," his educated and very-well-informed point of view on global conflict is very different from what you'll read in American newspapers.
- detourdog 2y agoMy uncle has tails of going overland twice once by motorcycle in the the late 60’s and a second time in the late 70’s with a group in an ambulance. Many stories but one I find interesting is that he has 2 photos he thinks taken by the same man at the acropolis. The photos from the 60’s the acropolis looks like an Abandon ruined. The second photo from the 70’s looks like a ruin with a few more people.
- pipes 2y agoI'd love to have travelled Europe and Asia like that, before the current over load of tourists we are now at. (I see this first hand as my home city is major tourism destination ow, number of tourists has doubled in ten years)
- postsantum 2y agoGood news is that you can still have amazing places to yourself, at least in Asia. Vast majority of tourists flock to select few locations, the rule of thumb is if some place sounds familiar to you, it's overcrowded and has been for a while. You either need to do a little bit of research or just take a bike and ride a few kms I visited Calcutta a few years ago (albeit during low season) and I have seen 2 (two) western tourists in a week. Last year I went to Arunachal Pradesh and met exactly zero western tourists in 10 days
- epolanski 2y agoI have been traveling a lot and since the 1980s tourism, as in adventure, and exploration has been slowly but surely moved into the direction of being a theme park. Airbnbs further shoved locals out of their own towns so you get to places just to see few different buildings and monuments but at the end of the day there's no real touch with locals and their culture. Bar Madagascar and India I really cannot say I have seen many places where I didn't feel I was still where I left. Even Japan is strikingly different. Tokyo has changed tremendously (and shifted extremely to the west culturally) to the point Japanese culture in many areas seems a leftover for tourists. Kyoto suffered this brutal westernization a bit less, but feels like it's just slower. Anyway the homogenization of music, culture, language, habits, technologies, food and what not is definitely a con when it comes to traveling and wanting to explore a different culture and life.
- aridiculous 2y agoSounds like some low-hanging fruit for screenwriters wanting to make a great movie.
- mminer237 2y agoSounds fairly similar to the famous Orient Express, if much longer and more unreliable.
- et-al 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_trail
- Balgair 2y agoYeah, so the plot would have to be less murder-mystery, and more action-adventure/rom-com then. The sleekness and opulence being contrasted with a grisly murder works with Orient Express. So to get a contrast with the rugged and dirty and tiring road, you'd need the nobleness of the protagonist/s to shine above that. That or you could have a really depressing tragedy as a road movie.
- golergka 2y agoNot exactly about this bus line, but close enough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_(TV_series)
- electriclove 2y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunki_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunki_(film)
- lawlessone 2y ago>After some years the bus met with an accident and became unusable It was just one bus?
- umeshunni 2y agoThis particular one was a single bus. Looks like there were 30+ operators running similar services: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_bus_routes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93United_Kingdom_b...
- gumby 2y agoMy aunt and uncle took their honeymoon in 1967 by driving from Adelaide to London, where they lived for a few years and then drove home. While a crazy trip, quite a few people did this, including my mother's best friend for her honeymoon. When we visited, we flew. I don't remember how long it took, but by the late 70s, with 747s, the flight had shortened down to 36 hours.
- madcaptenor 2y agoThey drove from Adelaide? Any idea how they got across the wet bits?
- zamadatix 2y agoYou take ferries/ships as needed on such trips, usually with the intent to use them for as little of the trip as reasonable.
- dvdplm 2y agoIsn’t it a bit sad to think that trips like these are pretty much impossible to make these days? The number of countries I would consider safe to live in and raise my children in is much lower today than it was in the seventies. On that metric, things have only gone in the wrong direction for the duration of my life.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoKids in my highschool used to routinely load up a VW camper van and go surfing in Baja and camping on the beach, without cellphones and without contact most of the trip. No way I'd let my kids do that today. Side note it's crazy that today a camper van is unaffordable to the rich yet alone a budget highschool vehicle and Pacifico commercials are on TV. The future is weird.
- ghaff 2y ago>without cellphones and without contact most of the trip Well, that's a big difference. Even traveling 25 years ago it was pretty accepted that, even if I were traveling with a company, I was pretty much not reachable. Among other things, I did a 10 day sea kayaking trip with a company and we'd have been totally out of communication if something had happened. I think they had VHF but it would have been--maybe if there's a ship on line of sight we could possibly reach them. Today, I think a lot of people would have a problem with the idea that I might be incommunicado for weeks or months.
- throw_pm23 2y agoYou are the one who is setting the boundaries and rules for your own life. Not being reachable for weeks or months is totally fine if that's what someone wants.
- ghaff 2y agoOf course. I just think it's probably also true that the expectations of what is customary and "normal" have also changed.
- forinti 2y agoNowadays the longest regular bus trip is from Rio de Janeiro do Lima, Peru. It's 6200km and takes 5 days to complete.
- o999 2y agoIstanbul to London, 12000 Kilometers https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccahughes/2023/03/29/the-worlds-longest-bus-journey-will-travel-through-22-european-countries/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccahughes/2023/03/29/the-wo...
- AltruisticGapHN 2y agoA damn shame such a cool article has no photos.
- dyauspitr 2y agoExactly. I really wanted to see what a bus with sleepers for everyone, a full kitchen and restrooms looked like. It couldn’t possibly have fit that many passengers. Edit: I found pictures. It was a double decker.
- gia_ferrari 2y agoThere are photos in the article references! I didn't find one of the kitchen. https://curlytales.com/this-was-the-worlds-longest-bus-route-from-kolkata-to-london/ https://curlytales.com/this-was-the-worlds-longest-bus-route... https://www.techtraveleat.com/story-of-london-culcutta-bus-service/ https://www.techtraveleat.com/story-of-london-culcutta-bus-s...
- amit9gupta 2y agoMore pictures here: https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/search/london-to-calcutta-bus https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/search/london-to-calc...
- julienchastang 2y agoSomewhat related: check out the book "The Way of the World" (L'Usage du monde, in the original French) [0] by Nicolas Bouvier about a pair of friends that travel by car from Switzerland to India in the 1960s. As others have mentioned, such a trip may be impossible today. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Usage_du_monde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Usage_du_monde
- DrNosferatu 2y agoThe Beirut-Baghdad over desert bus was apparently more quite something too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairn_Transport_Company https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairn_Transport_Company
- pixelpoet 2y agoHoo boy, you weren't kidding: > The drivers were a colourful group of mostly English, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, or Americans, known for their drinking and whoring. In order to keep them out of brothels and know where to find them, the Nairns gave each one a house and a girl for company. One-eyed John Reid used a Cadillac to chase down and shoot a cheetah. Ryan, an Australian, was often drunk and filled his water bottles with arak, a local spirit. Different time.
- DrNosferatu 2y agoWouldn't mind being a desert driver for a while, as a between-STEM-jobs occupation ;)
- DrNosferatu 2y agoIs it seeing this with rose-tinted glasses, or before the late 70s it was indeed actually safer (physically, not medically) to undertake such a trip?
- LorenPechtel 2y agoI would say it was safer back then. The thing is the governments weren't hostile. And bandits didn't have guns. Crossing southern Iran we actually came across bandits. There was a chain of people across the road, including some that did not appear to be adults yet. The instructions from the authorities: treat it as a deadly force situation. Do not stop to render aid if someone is hit. The driver stepped on the gas, the line broke at the last instant, I think we passed a couple of feet from one of them. How would that play out now??
- chaghalibaghali 2y agoSomething similar launched recently: https://bustolondon.in/ https://bustolondon.in/
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- brainless 2y agoI think the more developed we become, the less time we have for such things. We blame safety but folks used to take ridiculous risks back in the days. They didn't have global maps or network to call home for starters. There were no translation tools and there weren't as many airports or international flights in case someone needed to get back home. I have personally realised that we pay in our own life's time to achieve the modern ways of life. We gave up our explorer ways, nature loving ways to be in nicely walled houses and the city lifestyle. We became apprehensive of the old ways.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- SoftTalker 2y agoAlso the ones who didn’t make it back didn’t write enthralling tales about their adventures. You only hear about the trips that went well (well defined as returned home alive).
- stevage 2y agoNot true, there are adventurers for whom we hear the enthralling tales that preceded their demise. Or ones whose disappearance triggered enormous interest - consider Amelia Earhart or George Mallory.
- brainless 2y agoWe dedicate so much to the ones who perish along the way. I'm not saying we recollect everyone but it's not that they aren't known. Being more nomadic than my peers, I have felt that rural parts of many places are much safer than cities. People are welcoming in ways we have forgotten.
- tim333 2y agoThe mortality rate from things like long bus trips is very low. I'm not sure bus trip problems are that enthralling though, on the whole.
- ghaff 2y ago
- henvic 2y agoLooks like this was the bus: https://i1.wp.com/www.techtraveleat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/albert-bus.jpg https://i1.wp.com/www.techtraveleat.com/wp-content/uploads/2... From a link I found in Wikipedia: https://www.techtraveleat.com/story-of-london-culcutta-bus-service/ https://www.techtraveleat.com/story-of-london-culcutta-bus-s... https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/search/london-to-calcutta-bus https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/search/london-to-calc...
- ac29 2y agoLove the advertisement for British Overseas Airways Corporation on the bus: "Next time we'll fly"
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- spoonjim 2y agoHow did this bus cross the English Channel?
- desas 2y agoProbably used a ferry just like lots do today.