Day 43 Friday 7th October 2011 Kathmandu to Bhadrapur
After breakfast we took the hotel taxi to the airport (600r). The airport was very crowded & check-in counters had very little control so there was lots of manoeuvring & pushing in.
Finally our flight to Bhadrapur was called & onto Buddha Air. It was an ATR 42 for any of you interested in such things. It was a full flight but we managed to get a seat on the left hand side. Unfortunately it was very cloudy & although we were travelling at 15,000 ft we were unable to see Everest for a final glimpse.
I also wanted to see the Arun River Valley which I trekked up to join the Everest trail in 1980 but poor visibility meant very little to be seen.
An hour later we landed…at an airport which had a sign called Chandigarh
It was in the middle of nowhere but there were plenty of taxis & mini-buses. We paid 1,200r for a 17km mini-bus to take us to the border town. The road was awful so once again we had a bumpy ride. Buses going both ways were crowded with plenty of people sitting on the bus roof…fortunately we haven’t had to do this yet.
The minibus dropped us outside the Nepal Immigration Office (which also happened to do a bit of money changing) and once again, a quick stamp & we were through.
Next we got a bicycle rickshaw to take us across the bridge to the Indian border. What a fit young man to cycle us & 3 bags for 40 rupees.
Into the Indian Immigration post at Raniganj & 2 detailed forms to fill in. Not much later we were in India
The driver whistled & sang like a lark for most of the way so he must have been happy with the fare.,
All along the roads, preparations were being made in each village for the festival activities. Huge colourful stages & tents were being erected & lots of fairy lights everywhere.
In one area we passed there had been rain earlier in the day. We hadn’t seen rain since we left Bishkek. We also passed very large tea estates with their neat rows of tea bushes.
Arriving at New Jaipaiguri we were directed to a ticket office & queued for an hour. A very officious woman at the counter was very unhelpful. Finally we had tickets for the Darjeeling Express leaving at 8pm tonight. The only seats we could get were for an air-con 3 tier seat. We had no idea what this was so it was with some trepidation we waited on the platform for the train to come in.
Before settling down on the platform we had veg thalis for dinner at the station refreshment room which is now known as a food plaza, very pretentious name for not much of an establishment. Cost us $2 for dinner and a drink for both of us.
Lots of activity on the platform with large family groups all waiting, eating, talking & a few foreigners who had been up in Darjeeling
The train arrived & lots of pushing & shoving & jumping onto the moving train. We found we were in an 6 berth compartment, 3 tiers (6 bunks) a further two bunks were in the corridor at the end.
A blanket, clean pillow & towel & freshly laundered sheets still in their laundry paper was a welcome sight & we settled down for the night with our new bedmates.
On train platform
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