Day 55 - 10th Apr 2009

We needed to leave the lodge by 8am this morning but this still gave us time to have a bird watching walk and have breakfast. (Things start very early in the jungle.) So we said goodbye to our home for the past 3 days and heading to the town to get the bus. We made it to the bus office and waited for our bus to arrive, When it did arrive it made the bus we had previously caught from Kathmandu to get to Chitwan look positively luxorious! I guess it wasn't too bad but it certainly wasn't comfortable, well at least not after the first 20 minutes of the 5 hour journey! And the driver drove as though he were practising to be a racing driver but just didn't quite have the vehicle for it! There was a quick 15 minute lunch stop which was a welcomed relief from sitting. When we finally made it to the final destination, slightly ahead of schedule, we then had to get some transport to take us to the border. We opted for a cycle rickshaw. The guy seemed confident he would be fine with us and all our luggage. I felt so sorry for him as he put all his effort into moving us along. Plus it was really hot. But he got us there and the only slight problem was we thought we were going to pay in Nepali money and he wanted the same amount but in Indian money, surprisingly his maths was good and he knew which was the better deal. After exiting Nepal it's a short walk over to the Indian Immigration office. Although it really isn't clear where to go and you feel like you're just walking along the high street and then one of the shops is the Indian immigration office. However the guy helping us fill in the immigration form was the friedliest immigration officer I have ever met. He got chairs for us to sit on, helped us to fill in the form and then adviced us on where to get the bus and how much it should cost.

We walked a short distance towards the buses but decided to see the alternative transport options, the buses loooked perhaps even worse than the mornings bus! We ended up hiring a jeep to drive us to Gorakphur, about a 2 hour journey. We decided to pay extra and hire the whole vehicle for oursleves. This meant the luggage didn't have to go on the roof and we had some space which was a welcome change. So we set off, this driver obviously fancied himself as a competitor to this mornings driver and was not going to drive behind another vehicle for any length of time. This made for a slightly hair rising journey as I held on for dear life! We stop at a road side cafe for some snacks, which was probably owned by his uncle or something because he was very insistent that we got out and bought something! Anyway we eventually made it to the train station, unfortunately about 6 hours too early so we found a seat and camped out at the station. This seemed to be a popular pastime as the place was buzzing with people, generally much more prepared than we were with blankets to sit on and picnics to eat. However we found we were quite an entertainment for people as they starred at us as though they hadn't seen Westerners before. Well to be honest we only saw 3 others the whole time we were there! When Adam got his book out to read this caused quite a lot of interest with several people asking to look at it, I'm not sure if they don't have many books or liked the look of it or thought it was a way to start conversation. Anyway we chated to a few people, although we were always half worried they were planning some great robbery attempt, a bit sad I know to expect the worst from people but then later we had the train staff telling us to be careful when we put a bag on the floor.

Unfortunately the train ended up being about an hour late, which in some ways was good as we wouldn't get to Lucknow quite so early but we were pretty tired. By the time the train was half an hour late I was feeling kinda ill, we had taken our malaria tablets earlier in the evening and they never seem to sit particularly well in our stomachs. So I was almost doubled over with stomach cramps when the train finally did arrive. Thankfully the toilet in first class wasn't anywhere near as bad as the toilets at the station! Luckily we had been allocated a cabin to ourselves, so Adam took the top bunk while I collapsed on the bottom.