HN Reader

A very different scale, but this reminded of the Green Tortoise which was an American, mostly West Coast affair that once ranged from Alaska to Belize.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Tortoise

edit: oh wow. It still runs!

http://www.greentortoise.com/

> In 1957, a one-way ticket cost £85 (equivalent to £2,589 in 2023), rising to £145 by 1973 (equivalent to £2,215 in 2023).

Oof that really puts inflation into perspective doesn’t it?

Back in the 60s, my partner's mother drove all the way from London to Afghanistan in a tiny Fiat 500. This was a family of four!

The past really is a foreign country sometimes.

Was discussed here a couple of years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40649091

Someone found some photos on Shutterstock:

https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/search/london-to-calc...

Very impressive! I got curious and found this photo and brochure from the Indian Memory Project [1]

[1] https://xcancel.com/Indianmemory/status/1277521026813882368#...

50 days one way? Some research shows it was £85 vs. £200-£400 for a one-way plane ticket. What is the use case for this?

I guess:

- very motivated to go

- plan to stay for a very long time

- absolutely CANNOT afford a plane ticket

- or, afraid of flying

Reminds me of a lot of Amtrack routes in the US. I looked at trips from NYC to Chicago. I thought it would be fun and I needed to get to Chicago. But it was more expensive than flying and like 25 hours. There is just absolutely no reason to travel that way.

A sidenote about this cross-continental trip. Dervla Murphy's book Full Tilt is really good. It talks about her crazy bicycle journey in the middle of winter from Ireland to India. Rest of her books are great as well, but this one is my favorite.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/163921.Full_Tilt

Sounds amazing.

Last year I took buses from Lima to Rio de Janeiro (not one bus, but a long trip, all by bus). In total, 3,800 miles. I've been meaning to maybe write blog post with the details (exact costs and times, etc).

For me, trains are much preferable to buses and buses much, much preferable to flying. I guess I just like to look about the window and see everything between points A and B.

It's interesting to think how non-linear progress is; geopolitical tensions ended this overland route and it would still be incredibly risky.

Related, the Damascus <-> Baghdad bus from the 1930s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlmpfHuLo14

It's a Calum documentary. He does these in-depth studies of historical curiosities like snow trains and WW2 rescue buoys. One of my favorite channels.

Related: Berlin-Baghdad railway [1]

Some historian say this might have actually caused the 1st world war since these German activities provoked the British empire.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin%E2%80%93Baghdad_railway

Here's a picture of Albert, the double-decker bus:

https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/article1124887.ece/ALTERNA...

Similar discussion last year:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40649091

I did a similar route for similar money in 1991 with a Dragoman overland truck from Kathmandu to London. They used to do it regularly like a couple of times a year but don't seem to do that route anymore. The political instability was an issue - it was originally supposed to go through Yugoslavia but that was in the messy process of ceasing to exist at the time so they had to use a ferry to Italy. Also half the passengers had to fly over Iran due to the Iranians being difficult with visas. Still some problems there.

I had a genuine reason for wanting to travel overland from India to Schengen this year (Pet travel), and came across this and wished it still existed.

If this fascinates you. Im sure you will also be fascinated by maharaja express [1] which is orient express equivalent in India. Fairly expensive and targeted towards foreign tourists but i do find it fascinating.

[1] https://www.maharajasexpress.com

Interesting. I did a quick search but doesn’t look like there are any personal stories on this.

Can see it having been a unique experience, bonding with people over such a long period of time.

Looks like photos from inside the bus are also not available sadly.

There are quite a few African "Cape-to-Cairo" variations of travel by land tours they have been a thing for a long time and still going by the look of things ... if you have 23-weeks!

https://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/trips/cape-town-to-cairo-23-...

https://compassexpeditions.com/special-tours/major-expeditio...

While money would be in the okay range, few can afford 50 days off.

For a trip of 30000km, would a bus not need any service? My car today wants a service every 10k or year. I guess if it's only oil change the bus drivers back then where also service men and mechanics.

Well, these days you can catch a Flixbus from London to Sofia for a mere 150 Europounds, and 48 hours of your time. And from there, Calcutta can't be that far, right?

(But, seriously, you can probably do it in another 48 hours...)

A picture would have been a great addition to the article.

There are busses you can take from London to Cape Town and back up to Kenya.

Dragoman is one, still running.

So that's what the people were using before commercial flights were common.

I didnt know this existed. Would be pretty cool if they restart the service.

Why can't Google Maps calculate London/Berlin to Kolkota?

People back then had a lot more spare time evidently ...

All the cold cuts in Calcutta are smelly. Please Mum buy meat at the New Delhi.

Wow. Mind-blowing!

operated by albert travel. aptronymy strikes again

Imagine a couple who broke up somewhere in Iran and still had to share a seat for another thousand miles.

Operator was Mr. Travel himself! Maybe he invented long journeys.

hooooooly, that's a long journey

Reminder that everything was better in the past. Prior to WW1 you could travel around most of Europe without even a passport too.

Is Calcutta India here?

Interesting that I saw this article earlier today on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1q841...

Was the Reddit article the impetus for your post?