Day 16 – Renault India Diamond Trail – Kolkata to Siliguri
The scale of our pan India road trip driving the Renault Kwid is massive. We’re spending a day or two in almost every major state in India and that only means that we’re experiencing a different culture and a different language every day. Sitting at home one doesn’t realise how diverse India really is. On day sixteen of the India Diamond trail we drove the Kwid from Kolkata to Siliguri.
Yesterday morning we visited the Victoria Memorial and the Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, two places highly symbolic of India’s capital city during the colonial times. We drove the Renault Kwid through the 750m long Howrah bridge, which was commissioned in 1943 and is one of the longest cantilever bridges in the world. The Victoria memorial too is a beautiful sight to behold with its century-old marble structure so well maintained.
With sightseeing for the day wrapped, I relished some ‘Butter Motor Paneer’ while the crew feasted on ‘Motton Rice’. Soon, we headed to our next stop, Siliguri which was 13 hours away. The city is the entry point to North East India and also Bhutan if you’re traveling by road. And this had been the worst driving route so far on the India Diamond Trail. The entire journey was plagued with heavy vehicle traffic and roads weren’t all that good either. There were kilometre long jams and at intersections, the roads looked like a mad circus. In the Kwid however the crew was comfortable. In fact, shutter bug Sachin made high decibel snoring sounds while sleeping on the comfortable rear seats of the Kwid. This speaks for itself how the car performs in such stressful situations.
With Siliguri ticked off our list, we’re next headed to Guwahati. This might prove to be the most challenging part of our drive as resources become more scarce once we delve deeper into the North East. Let’s wait and watch!
Missed out on our Day 15 Blog? Find it here
