The road back to India

Tuesday 28^th April 2015

We woke up early this morning ready to leave Nepal. While at breakfast the sky clouded over and became heavy with rain. By the time we were packed and ready to go the rain was falling hard. We checked out and waited in the reception for it to ease off but it didn’t. The ground was one big puddle as we made our way to the bus stop, but we didn’t get a bus we negotiated a decent price for a taxi to take us to the border and from there we would get a bus into India.

The drive took about 40mins and was comfortable enough we arrived at the bustling border town of sonauli and were immediately pounced on by taxi drivers wanting to take us to India we refused them all and went in search of the border office.

It took only a few minutes in the Nepalese border office to be stamped out the office was clean and tidy with two men working there. As soon as we walked across the Indian border things changed the ground was immediately full of pot holes and covered in rubbish, the streets were full of people and the immigration office was full of people all doing nothing.

They took our passports and then went back to watching TV. We had to fill in arrival cards and still no one moved to do anything or even give us the courtesy of telling us why we were waiting. Eventually someone said the computer systems were down and so he couldn’t scan our passport so we continued to wait as the office filled with more and more people and the sludgy water and rain came in through the door.

After a time it seems they got bored of waiting for the computes and with nothing more than a stamp in our passport we were sent on our way. We walked down the road careful to avoid the deepest grime filled puddles to the bus which seemed to be wetter than outside. The roof leaked and as such the floor was a puddle of water and most of the seats were wet. We found the driest one we could and settled in for the long journey to Gorakhpur.

It took about four hours to get there with many stops along the way. Thankfully the bus didn’t fill up too much so we could leave our bags on the seats where they stayed a bit dryer than if we had to put them on the floor.

The further south we went the nicer the weather became and so we arrived into Gorhkapur in sunshine and blue skies. We found the closest place we could to get food and then set off looking for an ATM somewhere to top up Marks phone and to find someone to change our Nepalese rupees.

The phone turned out to be the easiest that was a struggle as the man didn’t really speak English we got there in the end and I changed the Nepalese rupees with some taxi driver on the street after no money changer would take them I got a shit rate but luckily I didn’t have too much so only ended up losing about NZD $2

By this stage I was flagging heaving my bag around so we went to the station and I found a nice little spot to sit with the bags while Mark went and found an ATM. When he came back we sat for a while but soon the mozzies were tormenting us so we put our bags in the cloak room and went to explore the city.

We went in search of the local market and found streets and streets of shops Mark was looking for a watch after his got lost in the crash so we stopped off at all the watch stalls, the search was a success and he got a cheap thing that lights up all the colours of the rainbow. Before leaving the station we had a look in the lonely planet and it said there was a Tibetan market in town so we also searched for that but when we found it it was all closed up.

After walking around for ages I was tired and wanted to sit down so we went to find food. I wasn’t really hungry and felt quite bad that I left most of my thali as they guys running the shop were so kind and attentive I think they thought I didn’t like the food but it was delicious.

With nothing else to do we went back to the station and got our bags we found a waiting room and camped there for the rest of the evening. There was a bathroom which gave us a chance to clean our wounds and brush our teeth. Thankfully our tickets were finally confirmed an hour or so before the train arrived as we had been wait listed all day and the thought of spending 14 hours in general class wasn’t happy.

The train came and we got on, as usual there were people in our beds that we had to kick out we pretty much went straight to sleep although it was hard for me as the guy one bed up and opposite just stared at me when I asked him what he was looking at he told me not to worry but continued to stare. Thankfully I was so tired I just fell asleep.

Wednesday 29^th April 2015

I tried to sleep as long as possible on the train but it soon became hard as it was so noisy. I sat up and turned the bed back into a seat and we watched the world go by for the next few hours. The most exciting part was when a small herd of some sort of large deer ran alongside the train for a while.

By the time we arrived into Delhi later than scheduled we were hot and tired and hungry. We left the station and headed across the road to Pahagang a horrible horrible place but somewhere that would do as a bed for the night.

We found a place to stay and dumped our bags then headed back to the station to try and get a train to Rishikesh for the following night. We went to the tourist booking office in the station and took a ticket we were number 263 and they were currently serving number 80. In true Indian fashion the room was full of staff sitting around eating, talking or watching TV while only two or three people actually served the growing number of people waiting.

We soon gave up and ended up booking Tadkal tickets online. With that done we went looking for food. We found a cheap local place and ate while the rest of the restaurant craned their necks to stare at us. Feeling fuelled we got some water and walked to Connaught place in search of an ATM and to have a wander about.

We got cash out and then walked around the huge circular shopping street looking for jandals and an ice-cream shop but we didn’t find either. Mark did get his ears cleaned by the creepy arse ear cleaning touts I was so disgusted I went to look in the markets while I waited and was soon being followed by a beggar child who kept poking her snot covered fingers into my cut up arm and didn’t seem to understand that I had no money despite turning my empty pockets out for her several times. Eventually someone told her in Hindi I had no money and she shot me a disgusted look and left.

The sun was burning down on us as we walked back towards the guesthouse. We checked our ticket status and it hadn’t changed we ended up cancelling those tickets and buying ones for the early hours of the following day as it seemed more likely we would get those ones.

We went back to the station and found someone to ask about stations as it wasn’t clear where we needed to be for out new train (annoyingly it was Old Delhi Station meaning we would have to get a rickshaw there)

With tickets sorted we went and found some dinner at a rooftop restaurant. Neither of us were very hungry but it was entertaining to sit up high watching the comings and goings on the street.

Back at the guesthouse we finally had a shower the first one since leaving Nepal! I crashed out pretty early as I could barely keep my eyes open.

Thursday 30^th April 2015

We woke up at 4am feeling like we hadn’t even been to sleep. We dragged ourselves out of bed and threw on some clothes and packed up our things before heading downstairs. We had to wake up the hotel staff who were all sleeping on the floor of the lobby to let us out. Outside the street was a fair bit different than the hustle and bustle of the day but it was still strangely busy with tons of rickshaws about and loads of stray dogs roaming in packs.

We got a rickshaw to Old Delhi Station where our train to Haridwar departed from. The rickshaw took about 20mins and we got there in time to find out platform walk to it and pretty much step straight onto the train.

We found our beds, dumped our bags and went back to sleep for the next few hours until other peoples chattering became too loud to sleep through.

For the rest of the journey we read and chatted and before long we had arrived. Haridwar is one of the holiest places for Hindus as it’s the start of the Ganges as it flows out of the Himalayas and as such it is a pilgrimage destination. Luckily we didn’t come in the pilgrimage season and so finding a place to stay wasn’t hard.

We checked in and had a shower with the idea that we would go and find some food but we both sat down and before long it was several hours later and we woke up sweltering. We roused ourselves and went in search of food both still feeling heavy lidded and heavy limbed.

We didn’t go far just a few doors down we found a cheap local place and had a delicious thali. Feeling full we stopped off for water and then headed back to the room where we put on the AC and spent the evening near comatose in bed in front of the TV.