I Returned To The World's Most Polluted Country ( And Instantly Regretted It )

A year ago I visited India and after seeing the state of it, I said I'd never bloody come back ever again Well for some reason oh shit. What am I saying? Well for some reason Well for some reason I did hello Calcutta I'm here again to give Hindustan one last chance see if India can impress me we're gonna travel to the mysterious bloody hell to the mysterious northeast of this vast nation let's go on a journey together to a land of mountains and probably lots of

litter lots of litter lots of noise join me thank you boys sub see you guys up we're back in India let's have an adventure bloody hell regress it already sex? no sex? that guy in the purple just approached me and said do you want to have sex? does he not realize I'm a heterosexual? hello hey how you doing what is is it? What is it?

50.

50?

Oh my God, 50 so much.

Baby.

For baby, give it to the baby. Right, I'm going here.

Where am I going?

Nice to meet you. Oh my God, get me out of here, it's too much. I regret my decision to come back already. Right I'm gonna do my intro again in case you didn't hear it was so hectic because I just discovered also a Lenin statue in the middle of Calcutta randomly listen I'm back in India despite saying I'd never do it again we're gonna go north to the mountains to the jungles of Assam and calm down

I realized actually I'm a big fan of yours I've been watching your videos for a long time. So I realized...

We've met someone here in Kolkata who recognizes me. Unbelievable.

Thank you.

But I charge a hundred rupees. I found the Lenin statue.

Yeah.

I can't believe it because Kolkata, Bengal was a communist...

That's right.

Bengal used to be a communist state basically run by a communist party and so they do they have a big Lenin statue here in the very center of the city.

Yes exactly.

Wow.

We're gonna follow the old tram tracks.

Hello sir.

Tram tracks.

Well I say tram tracks and someone shouts out yes. We're gonna follow the old tram tracks. Indians are mental. We're gonna follow the old tram tracks to Howrah station and we're going to find a train north through this divided land of Bengal. Muslims on that side of the border, Hindus on this side of the border, struggles, hardships

for the people on both sides of the border. Let's head to the railway station and head north.

What do I say? Excuse me. Yes my friend. You're my subscriber. Goodbye sir. Excuse me.

Yes my friend. You're my subscriber. Wait there, let me see. Yes. That says Harold Boopter. Remember I was saying there are struggles on both sides of the divide? Well that's because many people have to

live in, unfortunately, abject poverty and filth like this chap down here. Goodbye sir. Oh, the fuck, your foot's rotten. abject poverty and filth like this chap down here. Namaskar bhai sahab. What happened? Oh, the f**k, your foot's rotten?

Yes.

Oh, what happened?

I got a thud.

You messed your bloody foot up?

Yes.

Oh, you can't walk?

Okay, okay.

Okay, okay.

Where are you from? Bihar?

Yes, Bihari.

Bihari? Okay. Well we've given that guy a quid, we've given him a quid for his bad leg and that guy there is a Bihari and Bengal, this side of Bengal has been flooded with Bihari migrants who've come to look for a better life in the big city surrounded by all this former British architecture. Look at it, this beautiful British architecture. The old British built post office here in Calcutta. Parcels and letters would have been sent from here all the way back to London. Look at it, magnificent

buildings we left the Indians and look how they treated them basically places to squat but once upon a time Calcutta was a magnificent place to be. Do you know what else is magnificent in this video? Today's sponsors the magnificent Nomad eSIM which saved me from spending my first hours in the country arguing with a bloke at the Calcutta Airport phone counter about SIM cards. This time I

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Down there is the early morning flower market. Flowers like this are a very important part of Hindu rituals, Hindu ceremonies. And so people buy these to garland upon gods, maybe to throw in the river as offerings to the gods. And so down there was a flower market. But we're here on Howrah Bridge, a massive cantilever bridge built by the British of course.

And someone's bedroom also, bridge and bedroom together, bridge bedroom.

A good ship traveling down the Hooghly River to the ocean and in the past ships would have been flowing up and down this river bringing people from Britain. Paddle steamers would have come all the way from London here to Calcutta, the capital of the Empire. Imagine that, what a journey that was and the British people, Englishmen, Scottishmen, Irishmen, Welsh, stepping off on the banks of the Hooghly here in Calcutta for the first time taking in the sights the sounds the smells the noises of India. Wow not many places in the world have the same history

the same intoxicating history as Calcutta and Bengal. Well it's 8.30 in the morning here at British built Howrah railway station. Before there would have been trains going all over the colony. And we're now looking for a train north to the town of Siliguri. But look at this, Howrah. Go and buy a ticket.

Siliguri.

Today at 3 o'clock.

Possible?

No.

Nothing. No tickets today to Siliguri. Tourist quota card. Tourist quota office. Tourist quota office. There's no tickets to Siliguri.

He said what? I can go and use the tourist quota. They have this thing in India where some tickets reserved for foreigners, white privilege or black privilege if you're a black man. I can buy ticket tourist quota in Fairly Place. But to go to Fairly Place I need to cross the river. So to get the tourist quota ticket that I was told about that might be available I've got to jump on a boat and cross the river. Why would they not have the ticket office for foreigners, the white privilege office, here in the railway station? Why is it on

the other side of the river? I don't know, I'm going to go and find out. Let's go. So we got a jump on a boat. I never expected that I'd have to take a boat to buy a railway ticket but that's what happens because the tourist quota office on the other side of the bloody Hooghly. Let's go and look for a for a boat. Right over here maybe wow so here it says fairly look fairly and i'm going to fairly that's where for some reason the flipping oh watch your head the foreigners the white privileged ticket offices

my sir you're a very kind man

six rupees oh come on it's still money thank you you're a very kind man. This car is bad. 6 rupees only. Ah come on, it's still money. Thank you, you're a generous man. This gentleman here just bought me a ticket because they wouldn't accept my 500. So he just said, I'll buy you a ticket. See, I don't care what you say. Yes, the country is grubby.

It's hectic. It's basically a... It's noisy. It's basically a failed state. Your country's a failed state. But you're very nice people. You're very nice people. Where's the boat? So we're actually going to go across the Hooghly. Before we came across the massive Howrah Bridge. Now you get a sense of how vast it is

and now we're going to go back across it to Fairleigh Place to buy a ticket on a boat. The adventures you can have in Hindustan.

Well this unstable looking triple-decker boat behind me is the boat we're going to take across the Hooghly to the white privilege ticket office. Check it out, West Bengal Transport Corporation Limited. Looks totally unstable. Let's hope the British built it and not the locals. We're about to board the triple decker death trap. I'll sit with you, very calm, peaceful.

Correct.

But if you want to see the Ganges, the beauty of Kolkata, both this side and that side, during the rainy season, it is fantastic. I personally like it very much.

But let me ask you a question, you called it the Ganges, but I've been has been named as Hooghly. But this is the Ganga?

This is the Ganga.

We're on the mighty Ganga, the famous Ganga, the holiest river?

Yeah, and another part it has gone into Bangladesh and it has been known as Padma.

So yes, that guy just told me that this is the Ganges River. I've been called the Hooghly. as it passes through the city but it's actually the Ganges River. This is the Ganges River, the mighty Ganges all the way down from Rishikesh from God knows where in the Himalayas and here it is the filthy Ganga. Wow beautiful. Over here are some old cranes used in the past for loading and unloading ships. Ships that came all the

way from England to collect raw materials and take it back to the UK. Now abandoned. Once upon a time, 200 years ago, this was the capital of world industry. Calcutta, the most important industrial city in the entirety of our planet right here on the banks of what we now know is the Ganges River thank you nice it's called bald and bankrupt. I'm both those things. You are very humorous. Thank you sir, thank you. We made it safely. It's a miracle we survived.

Now we've got to look for the white soon as I crossed the Ganges. Where is Fairleigh House? Fairleigh House. Railway ticket. This one? Ok. Fairleigh House. We're off to buy a ticket. How are you?

Watch out! Watch out! At least if I get run over, I'll be run over by a colorful bus or a nice old ambassador that's the way to die if you're gonna die you might as well do it in style Eastern Railway reservation foreign tourist Bureau white privilege Bureau oh my god, the spice. Fucking spices in the air.

We found it though, look at it.

Oh, fuck.

White Privilege Tourist Bureau, Eastern Railway. We found the White Privilege office, but it seems to be closed. It's closed today. Open after 10 o'clock. 10 o'clock, thank you, thank you very much. Okay, there we go. The ticket office opens at 10 o'clock thank you thank you very much okay there we go the ticket office opens at 10 o'clock

i'm going to buy a ticket i buy a ticket 10 o'clock 10 o'clock now it's closed by 10 o'clock

what is your name benjamin benjamin what is is your name? Okay, I write your name.

You write my name?

Okay, you write my name.

Because there is a line.

Ah, there is a line.

Line.

Thank you.

There is a line.

But you are not tourist?

I am tourist.

You tourist?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

You tourist? Where are you from? okay we are going to Hyderabad and you came today from Bangladesh? no we came yesterday

got you

there you go

so I'm not the only tourist using the white privilege office there's actually Bangladeshi tourists here also going to different parts of India we're going north to Siliguri they're going to Hyderabad, Bangalore

long journey south throughout India because even though the country was divided in two different parts of India we're going north to Siliguri they're going to Hyderabad Bangalore long journey south throughout India because even though the country was divided in two people still have relations and families on different sides of the border correct yes yes there you go you see oh there you go brothers white privilege just enjoy it like why fight it why say it's unfair? Life is unfair.

I think the white privilege office has opened. Let's go and get a ticket.

Oh, what's going on? Sorry, brother.

This is the white privilege office, right? Original passport, copies of person, visa page, immigration stamp, photocopy.

Where is the photocopy?

Xerox.

Street one?

Okay.

Okay, sir.

Oh my God.

I need to get copies of my passport, my visa page. This is just to buy a train ticket. Where is Xerox, sir? This one. White Beard? Yes. Yes, that's it. A helpful Indian is showing us where the Xerox copy is. Why would they not have one in the office that people can use? Wouldn't that make sense instead of sending me bloody 10 minutes away?

Oh, hello Sarah, Sarah Lilly. I got distracted by Sarah Lilly. Right, where are we going?

Xerox, Xerox, Xerox, Xerox, Xerox. Ah, Yevala. Namaskar Ji.

Ah, Yevala, Yevala. Hindi, Hindi, Hindi.

Right, we've got our Xerox copy. So maybe that means we can finally get a ticket. What a pain in the backside to get a ticket in this country.

You were number 10?

Okay, no pushing in. No pushing in. My ancestors built this station. I should have bloody, not white privilege, I should have flipping British privilege. It wasn't for my ancestors. This would not exist, or the railway line, or the train.

Should be British privilege. Brits to the front of the queue. Yes, you get to the back. This is a joke. I'm number 8 in the queue, I've been here 45 minutes and he's only just called number 2. So it took him 45 minutes to do one bloody ticket, this old geezer.

And I'm number 8, so I've probably got like another 5 hours just to buy a railway ticket. And some people have the audacity to compare this country to bloody China. You can't compare this country to flipping Bangladesh. What do you think brother?

What's happening?

Here's my Bangladeshi friend. He wants a ticket too. Like subscribe. Like and subscribe. But instead of like and subscribing, I'd rather you just bloody got me a ticket. This is a piss take. This will literally take me three or four hours by a ticket

right where's the white privilege six hey number six okay come on we're making progress come on guys number six yes number six I've got number concert punch huh 15 or you got a long time okay quite badly okay we're making progress How many do you have? Five? Fifteen. Fifteen? You've got a long time.

We're making progress. We're doing it.

Eight?

Finally, number eight.

Come on, get out of the chair. Bugger off. Thank you, Mr. Ghosh.

Thank you, sir.

Number eight, sir.

Number eight. Finally, we meet. Thank you, sir.

We meet at last. I need to go to Siliguri tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. 9 to 10. I don't know what time, but tomorrow.

Not available, nothing?

Okay.

So different train, next one?

14, 16, 5. Okay, okay. Five quid, ticket to Siliguri, overnight train. Okay, okay. Five quid ticket to Siliguri overnight train. Sleeper, five quid. Okay, don't worry about it.

Thank you so much for your help. Thank you very much. Thank you.

You're a lovely man.

Thank you. Oh, we have our ticket. Success. Bye bye, my friend. Nice to meet you. Have a nice journey.

Nice to meet you. Bye bye, guys. Shukriya, nice to meet you. Have a nice journey. Nice to meet you. Bye bye guys. Good luck. Well finally, finally after three hours I've got my ticket on it. It says

cleanliness is next to godliness as a man spits in the background you dirty little bugger.

6 30 off to bloody Siliguri. I don't even want to go to Siliguri but I feel like now I've just completed this mega side mission of buying my ticket to Siliguri. There's water drips on me from an AC unit. I should go to Siliguri. So I'm going to go to Siliguri on the 6.30pm overnight train. Well it's the next day and I'm now heading to the railway station, once again Howrah station to get my train north to Siliguri. Let's do it.

Look, Shreya AC full sanitise. I'm glad that the prozis in this country are fully sanitised. Wow, bloody hell, listen to the noise! People often wonder why India doesn't win many gold medals at the Olympics despite having over a billion people. Well, I think I just found the reason. Look at the office of the Sports Federation of

West Bengal. It's basically a shed, a corrugated shed with an old mangy dog. That is the office of the Sports Federation. What hope do you think any Olympian has if they have to train in that shed? Whilst our British athletes or American athletes are training with the latest facilities. No wonder they win no gold medals.

How are you?

Just having a pee?

Just some guys having a pee in the street as families walk past. Somewhere in the distance as I make my way to the railway station I hear a megaphone blaring and some noise. That's not an unusual occurrence in the great Hindustan. Let's go and investigate a little bit closer and see why people are walking up this street towards the noise like moths to a flame maybe it's anti-british protest we're about to find out let's hope i don't get lynched

here is the protest and here are the guys having a pee next to the protest just or a shit let's have a look closer don't spit on me wait Wait there, stop spitting. I need to come past. Thank you.

Go.

I'm calling you, I'm calling you.

Sister, sister, sister.

Sister, sister, sister.

Okay.

Yes, yes, yes. Oh, look at this. Yes, we're supporting Didi. Yes, yes, yes. We're supporting the Babis. Yes, yes, good. Good luck. Move away! Move away!

Sister, go!

Move away, save the country!

Well, the Babis of India support this party for some reason. I don't know, it's the big Babi party. Why do you support this party? Why? Why do you support this party?

Why do we know? This is going to say that we are the achievers of this government. The government has provided us all the facilities, where else from the boat onward I haven't received all such things.

No?

No, all, all, all, all, no.

Here in India, despite the different languages, the different people, the different nationalities, the different ethnicities they still managed to keep their country democratic. That should be recommended, commended. I'm an old hand now at traveling around Kolkta. I even know how to get tickets for the ferry which is what we're about to do. We're about to cross once more the Ganges to railway station so we can make our way north on the 6.30 express train to Siliguri. There's my boat. Hello, what is this?

Scan.

What is this? Is this technology?

What are you talking about?

I know a little bit. Wow, did you see that? There was like a scanning machine. Wow, technology has reached the Ganges.

What happened?

Fast, go fast. Go, go great people. And you're guaranteed to get to the best of them.

And you're guaranteed to get to the best of them. And you're guaranteed to get to the best of them.

And you're guaranteed to get here to is a lifetime of memories, of adventurous, of fun moments. And that's what life's about, right? Funny, adventurous, exciting moments, meeting crazy people, seeing some history, memories that you'll take to the grave. And if you come on a holiday to India, you're guaranteed to get plenty of them. Well, we've made it inside British built Howrah railway station all these people here look

Waiting for their trains to take them all over India. Some are going north to the mountains of Kashmir Some will be going to the beaches of Goa, down to Tamil Nadu. Anyway, let's go and chill out for a little bit before our train. Oh at last. What are you doing here? Surely this is the last time. Surely. Probably isn't to be fair. We'll be back next year this is mental we've got no chance there's thousands of the buggers oh my god someone tried to pick a pocket me what we doing here that why we need to you what we doing I told you if ever I

suggest indeed just say no oh man at this man. Oh mate we've got no chance. Oh mate. This is mental.

Oh look.

150 years of celebrating the Mahatma.

This lady banging on the door.

She's so impatient.

We're in.

The chaos begins.

No one's queuing. Come on now have some decorum. We're in. Chello! Oh my god.

No one's queuing. Come on now, have some decorum. We're going in.

Come on guys.

Ah!

Check in!

Come on, there's no rush. There's no rush. The train's not going anywhere, you've got so much time. Okay, no need to push. Relax ladies, bloody hell.

Hi mate.

Oh mate, what are we doing here?

Mr. Bosch.

What's his name, Bosch?

Mr. Gosch. Mr. Gosch from the ticket office, he screwed us right up. He can see we're taller than everyone else, he's put us in the middle bunk. Mr. Ghosh if you're watching this, you old codger, he stitches right up. Thank you. Okay, now I'm going to give you some advice about traveling in India.

If you're going to have a piss or a shit, do it at the beginning of the journey, not after a few hours when everyone's had a go. So right now it's actually not too bad by Indian standards by Indian standards it's all right let me be the first to christen this bog before everyone comes and shits all over the seat

we've left on time we've left at. Pulling out of Howrah with my new friends. Who's this guy? I don't know. Is he an actor? I suppose he's charismatic. He's got the points of an angel. Why is he coming in here? I think they are together. You are coming from Orissa to Assam.

Orissa to Assam.

Big journey. You were doing puja in Orissa. Wow. So these people have been making a pilgrimage to Orissa. To the Jagannath temple. To pray and make puja.

And now they are going back to Assam. So they're travelling for like four days probably. They went down to the temple, did their puja with the garlands of flowers and things and now they're going home. That's how dedicated many Hindus are to their gods, Krishna. Nice to meet you. So the good thing about trains in India is that there's policemen, armed policemen, walk up and down just checking everything so that thieves don't nick your bags.

If you're a young Ukrainian girl you don't get stabbed to death. So there's a lot of safety on trains when you're travelling up and down and we're gonna need it because we're gonna be heading Through Bihar Bihar is one the most dodgy states in India So good that the old coppers are on board, right? Last time. Pressure. Working?

Well as we're... Serious serious face. Well as we're travelling north I'm noticing different faces of the different nationalities of India here on the train. There are people with Asiatic features, people with Tibetan features, not the typical features we think of the subcontinent as we head north towards

the northeast of India through the Siliguri gap, a piece of land that separates Bangladesh from Nepal. That took me five takes, I made up the last one.

Thank God. Eight. Eight. Eight.

Eight. Eight.

Eight.

Eight. Eight. in them oh they didn't even say thank you. They didn't say thank you. Ben's gonna pay.

No it's okay. He will pay. My friend will pay. My friend will pay. Give the money back. Yes. My friend will pay. Present. There you go. Ben bought the lady saris. And they didn't say thanks. Unbelievable. From Benjamin. Say thank you. Look at her face. Cold hearted. No thanks. Look at the trash.

Come on.

We're helping the Indian babushkas. And aunties.

And babbies.

Oh, you okay?

Thank you. Oh, you're welcome auntie G. Thank you. Nice to meet you.

Oh, we've made it to Siliguri.

Why?

I don't know.

But we're here. Oh, you're welcome auntie G. Nice to meet you. Oh, we've made it to Siliguri. Why? I don't know. But we're here. Greeted by the smell of urine and poor sleeping people on the platform. But I bet they had a better night's sleep than me. Because I got no sleep. So even though they were sleeping here on the cold concrete floor I think they slept better

than me he looks alright he's having a nice old time good morning oh my god look at the rubbish down there there's rubbish everywhere just why not use bins why not provide bins and why not empty them I've met a chap here this gentleman he's got a taxi to Darjeeling private taxi? Smuka. 3000. We were gonna stay here in... is this his car? What a life! Poor buggers, look, they sleep on the concrete every night with their rickshaw so they can get the first ride of the day. What a terrible life people lead here.

Anyway, a guy just approached us and said do you want to go to Darjeeling and get out of awful Siliguri. I've not seen Siliguri but I can tell it's awful. And we said how much? He said 30 quid. We said yeah we'll take it.

This is why we're pushing on.

Look at this place.

Oh my god it stinks. Siliguri.

Beautiful Siliguri.

Look at it.

Oh it stinks. Siliguri, beautiful siliguri. Look at it.

Oh it stinks of piss. Siliguri reeks of piss. It's a cow eating out of a plastic bag. Oh my god. What is this place? No wonder backpacker Ben who has been here before said let's push on to Darjeeling immediately and not hang around in Siliguri because it is horrific. I don't know if you can see this in the distance look up there the mountains can you see the Himalayas in the distance? The white mountain bathed in light and snow. Wow I think that's where we're heading to.

But first let's escape this hellhole. My god, Siliguri taking the vista. That was Siliguri guys. I don't think I sold it very well to you but I think we saw enough so we're going to Darjeeling. Have you been to Darjeeling before? Ben's been everywhere. Ben's the last real true traveler YouTuber in my opinion. They're doing the old switcheroo with the driver. They drive you 100 meters and they say oh another driver's going to take take you I don't know why they do that but anyway a final chance to see lovely Siliguri why the f*** were you in Siliguri before? I think I was mentally ill

still am, why am I back?

Oh you nasty c***, you are a filthy c*** he's been doing that all trip. Kirmalingi. Darjeeling, the mountains of India. Oh, I'll tell you one thing though, the air is much fresher.

Even George Floyd could breathe up here, it's very fresh, the air.

Oh, come on, bite something.

Look at this.

A Tenzig Norge, do you know who Tenzig Norge is? You should do. Picture. And Edmund Hillary, commemorating when they reached Everest. There we go. Little bit of history here in Fllippin' Darjeeling.

Woo, but we don't have a hotel, we need to find a hotel. Oh my God. Oh, fucking rubbish dump. Oh, it stinks here. Imagine opening your window if you stay there. Oh, we can't.

Oh, look.

Hey, the Brits. The Brits are back. The Brits are in town. Well good morning from pretty little Darjeeling, which is a town that was built by the British as a hill station to allow the Raj to escape the sweltering summer months down on the plains in Calcutta. It's a nice little town of English tea houses, old British churches and shops. I did plan on spending a few days here and relaxing but I had the feeling inside of me that I did Siliguri dirty with what I showed. Surely there's more to the town

of Siliguri than trash and the smell of urine. So we're gonna go back now and we're gonna explore Siliguri further and give it a second chance. we're gonna explore Siliguri further and give it a second chance. Let's show the nice side of Siliguri. Join me.