"The journey took fifty days"

You used to be able to travel pretty much anywhere on the east coast by local bus or trolly. Even the unincorporated areas that didn't have local service had something that you could get from one edge of a city or town to the next. The bus companies then convinced cities to get rid of trolleys, and then the car industry helped do away with many of the bus routes leaving only very local service and very long distance service. Gone worthy roots that serviced the more rural sections and the unincorporated parts of towns.

East coast of India?

I'm guessing he means America

Out of interest I googled the distance from Estcourt, Maine to Keywest, Florida which is 1,996 miles. From London to Kolkata is 5,681 miles

My pops drove London - - > Mumbai in a VW Bus with some buddies, with big hair, bell bottoms, and the signature big sunglasses of the time. Photos are hilarious and so crazy to me. I guess I should say almost, as some guys had Indian passports and had to fly over Pakistan..

I mean imagine trying to drive through Afghanistan today? Very few cars would I trust to that journey today..

Must have cost a fortune

As as American, we gotta start thinking like not everyone on the internet lives in America. Shits getting embarrassing.

85 pounds to travel london to calcutta 65 on the return

Inflation adjusted. to around 1500 pounds and 1200 respectively

No one’s going to talk about how it got across the large body of water on the way, eh? Put the bus on a boat, I assume?

You mean the channel? I’d guess a ferry lol

So you’re saying magic was Involved?

My wife, 4 other men, and myself did the 'Hippy Trail" in 1972 in a Land Rover station wagon. Bruma was closed when we went so you couldn't go overland to Singapore. That meant that most of the overland travelers ended up in Madras, now Chennai, where you could get the ferry to Thailand. It is a shame that trip in virtually impossible now days.

Oh most definitely

Man just out of interest, what year did he go?

I'd guess late sixties, early seventies. Would have to look at photos or ask my uncle to know for sure. He did all sorts of stuff like this, travelled the globe, lived, raced, and worked in Africa. Grandma spent a lot of time worrying between irregular telegrams..

Back then, it sounds like you could have really had a crazy adventure. I wish the world was still like that.