Last year around October I found a website about an insane train trip across India from Feb-Mar 2011.  It was super cheap to do (like $250 for the rail pass), covered the whole outer rim of India and was organized by a Westerner (a gentleman from the UK).  It sounded like a hell of a deal, so I shot an email off to a friend of mine, Drew, who I knew would be in India around that time.  I jokingly said “Hey anyone up for this insane trip?“.  Two days later his wife, Christine, responded “Drew’s in!  He’ll do it and blog about it, lock him in!” and that was that!  One thing about travel bloggers, is that when they say they’re up for going somewhere, odds are they really do mean it.

I hadn’t decided on my travel plans for 2011 yet but seeing how I just off-handedly locked myself into India I went ahead and decided I would go for 6 months.  So I got bought my rail pass, got a 10 year visa for India while home in the USA, bought my flight to New Delhi and fast forward, here I am in Goa, India with Drew and Christine.

This Thursday, Drew and I take-off for this epic train adventure.  It’s actually somewhat suicidal, as being stuck on anything other then a 5-star cruise ship for more then two weeks would make most mad.  Train travel in India is the norm but it’s not normal in any way.  It’s rough, dirty and worst of all insane, as all western logic will not work.

~ The Challenge ~

To circumnavigate the entire country of India in 16 days by train, using an Indian Rail Pass.

The biggest challenge for me personally will not be finishing the trip but doing it without a lot of gear.  I plan to live out of a small backpack with everything I need in it.  This will have to include my big dSLR camera, 3 lenses, a laptop, clothes and anything else.  Basically if I don’t absolutely need it, then I’m not taking it.  By far this will be the lightest I have ever traveled in my life.  Normally just the bag I am going to be using is what I put just my laptop and camera gear in, everything else goes into a second larger backpack.  Below is what I am packing for this trip:

1. Sweat Shirt
2. 3 T-shirts
3. 1 pair of pants, that have removable legs to convert into shorts
4. 7 pairs of underwear, that I plan to use then throw away as I go
5. Stocking Hat: it will be cold in Northern India
6. Head Band
7. Plastic Poncho and 2 Small Dry Bags: if it rains I want to be prepared for it
8. Zip-Lock Bags: everyone should have these anytime they travel!
9. Book and Padlock: the padlock will be to secure things while sleeping on the trains
10. iTouch 32GB
11. Head Lamp: a must for reading at night.
12. Extension Cord
13. Sunglasses
14. Notepad and Camera Manual (yeah I still read mine from time to time)
15. Dry Fast Towel
16. Backpack
17. Memory cards and 2 extra batteries for the camera
18. Charges for the camera batteries
19. 1TB USB external hard drive
20. Passport
21. 15″ MacBook Pro, adapters, USB cables, chip reader and Internet thumb drive (for connecting to the Internet)
22. Money Wallet
23. Lens cleaning kit
24. Soap, toothbrush, deodorant , dental floss and a razor
25. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
26. Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5
27. Canon 5D II with Canon 24-70mm f/2.8

~ The Route ~

The route to be honest I have no clue!  Seriously, I have vaguely looked it at and just copying and pasting the below info in.  Ask me to find Rangiva on a map and I’ll give you a blank stare as I make my best guess.  And to be honest I don’t care!  I don’t care where we go, I don’t care where we stop and I’m basically along for the ride.  This isn’t a guided tour and was organized by Mark (the UK guy) on his own.  He assumes no responsibility but I will be traveling with 15+ other people, plus Drew.  So if push-comes-to-shove and it takes a few more days to get home, cool.  If we have to miss a certain section because of a lack of trains, fine by me.  If it’s just Drew and me at the end of the trip because everyone else got dysentery sickness, that sucks for them, but I’ll keep moving on.  I’ll just be showing up when I am told and going with the flow.

Schedule: 18Feb-05Mar

• Day 1: Mumbai
• Day 2: Porbander
• Day 3: Ahmedabad
• Day 4: Jalandhar
• Day 5: Amritsar, Jammu & Udhampur
• Day 6: New Delhi
• Day 7: New Delhi
• Day 8: New Tinsukia
• Day 9: Taxi to Bogibeel, ferry, bus to Dhemaji
• Day 10: Rangiya
• Day 11: Darjeeling & New Jalpaiguri
• Day 12: Howrah
• Day 13: Chennai
• Day 14: Rameswaram
• Day 15: Kanniyakumari & Trivandrum
• Day 16: Mumbai

Below is a Google Map of the route.  Christine from AlmostFearless.com (Drew’s wife) will keep a live update of our progress while we travel.  We’ll be sending her daily updates and photos while on the move and in turn she will be posting it on a live blog platform on her site.  If you click here (after Feb18), you will be able to see her live post on us.  So bookmark it and check it out daily.  If you’re a fan to my Facebook Fan Page for FOGG Odyssey you will also be able to see status updates and daily photos there.

View The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge in a larger map

So I leave tomorrow for the trip, I’m all packed and ready to go and only thing left to do is send out this post.  Am I crazy for taking such a ludicrous trip like this with exceptions of “ah it will work out in the end!” or should I have thought this through more?  Time will tell…

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