Saturday, October 23, 2010

Bhutan day 13

Woke up at Drukies and negotiated an Indian breakfast of alu and gobi parathas - with hot water to drink. Tsettim and Mr Raam showed and took us to the Bank of Bhutan where Tsettim's friend expedited some currency exchange for us. Then
we visited Tsettim's other friend at Bhutan emigration. Meanwhile our taxi dude Jaggju showed up with his shaky Tata and we fronted $1000 of the committed $2500 Rupees fare (so that he had enough money to fill the tank). Next our 3 staff shepherded us to Indian immigration in New Jagaon, the border town corresponding to Phuentsholing. Then we said goodbye to our Bhutanese staff and threw ourselves on the mercy of Jaggju. Not sure how we would have managed this transition without help from T&R.

It was a long journey, 5 hours, over horrendous roads, with a weird whining sound emitting from the Tata's transmission. Most of the journey was through tea plantations


With occasional wild life


Finally after asking directions half a dozen times we found New Jalpaiguri (NJP) train station. Had a great lunch for 40 cents and generally killed about 6 hours waiting


for this train I am on now



Our train finally left at around 9:45pm, 30 minutes late.


1st class AC is comfortable but not exotic.

- from my iPad

Location:Paharia Express, NJP to Kolkutta

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