Travelling on the roof top....

DAY TWO..:-

When I arrived in Gorakhpur, I had an option to visit Khushinagar or to head towards the Nepali border. I chose to go with my first instinctive thought. There was a jeep outside the train station was waiting for me. I was almost grabbed by a person as I stepped out of the train station. He precisely guessed that I'm lost in this dusty city. According to the guide book, I was carrying, there is nothing special in Gorakhpur apart from flies and dust. They even advice people to go to Lumbini or somewhere else. I was quiet taken back but never mind, I followed this stranger.

He is the driver of the mini van which will take me to the border. We had to wait for a couple of hours to fill the mini van. Even though I was the first passenger to be there, I was asked to climb on top of the roof with my luggage and the others'. I leant quickly that that was the place for someone who would reluctantly pay the demand fair. I did not mind travelling on top of the roof of it since I gained enough experience of this sort of travelling in Sri Lanka and in India.

Two westerns, myself and fifteen others are packed in this little mini van and we are ready to go. We slowly began to leave the dusty city behind us. It was a rush hour. The main high way is crowded with lots of lorries and containers.

On the way to Sunali border, we stopped at a local shady restaurant to have lunch. It was almost four in the afternoon. I had some runny lentil in a metal plate with a couple of chapaties and a boiled egg. The total cost of the meal was as high as you dine in a good restaurant in the metropolitan city.

A thirty minutes break was enough for our driver to digest his food. We are on the move again. As we dropped a couple of passengers, the driver was kind enough to give me a little space to sit. I had to leave my legs between the gear stick and now and then I had to avoid getting hurt by the wobbly stick. A kilometre passed since we stopped, I realised why this cunning driver was so kind to me. We had to go through security check point.

We were dropped another kilometre away from the border post. The remaining distance was spent walking with an annoying rickshaw driver. I met one of the nicest police officers in my life in this place. We took our time to go through my documents while sipping a cup of tea. However I was stupidly questioned about the stock of toilet paper!

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