Crossing the border

---

The wake up call came at 0345 and I was up and about getting ready. I think I've gone beyond tired now, as I had no problem getting out of bed, I don't know how I'm functioning, on approx 9 hours sleep in 3 days.

In reception at 0430, everyone was looking weary and feeling drained, especially Keiran the Ozzie girl who had the worst hangover (I'm glad I went to bed when I did) Shakira slept though her wake up call and was a bit late and also feeling worse for wear. I didn't think she was drinking but apparently she'd polished off the gin vodka and whiskey-it seems chica has the breaking strain of a kitkat.

I'd said to Molly Brown this morning that the room sharing wasn't really working too well, and would she think about maybe going halves so we could both have a single room? I said I'd been unable to sleep and couldn't even catch up in the afternoons as she'd been sleeping then also. I know she can't help it but I also didn't like having to wake her all the time either then neither of us gets a good sleep. I knew it wasn't ideal as it was more money we hadn't budgeted on spending, but could she maybe think about it for when we got to Nepal? She seemed to snap at me 'I've not budgeted for this either! I'm on a pension!'

I said I appreciate that but I'm just trying to think of a resolution that would work and was fair for the both of us, but at least think about it and let me know. I was trying to come up with something that was fair and would work for both of us, but I stand by my thinking that I had on day 1 (even more so now) that she is a deliberate pain in the ass in order to end up with a room to herself without the extra cost. She just seems like that sort of person. Then to play the pension card........



Anyway, back to stupid o clock and we got a tuk tuk to the train station-a different one from the one we arrived at. I couldn't believe how many people were up and about before 5am, it was so busy, and there seemed to be a lot more trucks on the road. In fairness the roads were so congested in the day that maybe the nighttime is the only time they can get anywhere. It seems their road awareness was just as bad though when one reversed onto our side of the road and into our oncoming path. The tuk tuk swerved just in time, and all I could think was 'it's not even 5am'



Our train was already on the platform so we made our way through the rows of sleeping bodies and boarded. I had a window seat, so donned my earphones and eyemask, stuck my mozzie hat on put my pillow by the window and tried to sleep.

After 6 and a half hours (and with only a delay of 1 hour) we arrived in Gorakhpur which was a really busy busking station. We waited whilst some people went to use the loo, and with that the usual random crowd of men gathered to stare. One man even laid right down next to where Keiran was sitting and just stared at her. Lloyd gestured for him to move on and luckily he did. (Although with Harry and Lloyd being South African, they are by default quite tall men so I guessed most people would do what they say!) Raghu had told us this town was full of crime and wasn't a nice part of India-we needed to get across the border before dark as it wasn't really a safe place to be.



So off the train and straight onto a bus for another 3 or so hours. It was really hot and quite cramped today, but still I tried closed my eyes and drifted in and out of a light sleep. Halfway into the journey we stopped for lunch at a place called Sushams Haveli hotel and restaurant.

Raghu told us it was best to pick something vegetarian as it would be quicker to cook, and also baca use he didn't know how fresh the meat was. I ordered a vegetable biriyani and a naan bread and took my malaria tablets before I forgot. You're meant to take them with food and as this was the first time we'd stopped all day, I thought I may as well whilst I remembered.



Back on the bus, we reached the border at Marharajganj where our bags were taken across by cycle rickshaw and we went on foot via the visa office. The place was stinking and again there was litter and honking horns everywhere. I was becoming increasingly happier to be leaving india . I just hoped things weren't too similar over the border.



We handed our passports to the Indian office for stamping and was told to wait outside. After what seemed like forever, sitting in the sun listening to honking horns, we made our way across the border into Belehiya Nepal, and straight into the visa office. We filled out the visa forms and paid $25USD For a tourist visa. They were being quite difficult with some people and weren't accepting any dollars that had the slightest tear in them. By now we had been travelling 12 hours and people's patience was wearing a bit thin. To explain how ridiculous it got, Mr Wong paid for his and his wife's visa totalling $50 with a $100 note. They gave him a $50 note in change, which Mr Wong then swapped with someone who's dollars had been refused. When they went to pay, the $50 note was also refused, despite it coming from the visa people in the first place!

Shakira and Harry had an additional problem in that their passports hadn't been stamped at the Indian side so they had to go back over and re ask to be stamped out of India. What a faff about!

Luckily there were no problems with my visa or dollars, and eventually when we were all sorted, we boarded the bus in Nepal for 1 more hour to reach the hotel.

Already Nepal was seemingly calmer, cleaner and quieter-just what was needed after a week of insane india!

We were meant to be going to Lumbini today, but given the train delay and problems at the border, it was starting to get dark so we decided we'd go tomorrow instead.

We reached the hotel which was a welcoming sight for most. It was lovely, and so clean! There was even a gym and swimming pool but unfortunately both were closed for the night. (I think I was too tired to use either anyway)

We were allocated our rooms and Molly Brown had made no reference to our conversation this morning so seeing as we'd be sharing again, I had to make this work for me somehow. I picked the bed on the side opposite to what she slept so I didn't have a direct snore in my direction and left her to it as I met the others in the restaurant for food.

I wasn't too hungry so I just ordered light bites of veggie spring rolls and chicken tikka, both of which were very tasty. As they accept Indian rupees here and I still had a few notes left, I paid using these and headed off to bed.

Chris the guy from Belgium kindly offered the spare bed in his room should the snoring get too much. He hadn't paid a single supplement either but had had a room to himself because of how the numbers worked out. I thanked him and seeing as he was only next door, could be an option, but still, not really one I wanted to take.

I chatted to lloyd who asked me how I was managing sharing with Molly Brown. I said not so good and he replied he didn't know how I did it as her mouth doesn't have an off button. This made me laugh and I was glad I wasn't the only one thinking similar thoughts. I didn't know if it was because of the sleep thing she was annoying me, but lloyd said that everyone was getting tired of hearing her voice.

Back in the room I had a lovely hot shower whilst Molly was sewing her trousers flicking through the tv channels. She'd left it on some old film that was either in Nepalese or Hindi, and as I got into bed I asked if she'd mind turning it off. Eye mask on, ear plugs in, I said good night and started to drift off to sleep. After about half an hour I heard the familiar rumble and shouted 'Pearl!' No way was she disturbing me tonight, I needed to get to sleep before her snorting began.



I was so glad to be in Nepal, a week in India had been enough for me. Such poverty with such riches, suppression of women and a past female prime minister, a holy place being the one with the most filth, unacceptable to eat a cow, yet figures suggest a woman is raped every 20 minutes, to which no one bats an eyelid. Cover your knees and shoulders as it is offensive yet bare your midriff in a sari. There were too many contradictions for me, and it seemed like a place of all or nothing. Unfortunately many have nothing. Will india ever change? Does it need to? Yes and no in some ways, but even if it was just a reduction in litter and pollution, I think it would be a totally different place, and one for the better. It's almost laughable that we have a congestion charge within a few miles radius of central London, when you come to places like this with cities such as Delhi, Jaipur, and Varanasi which probably belch out a thousand per cent more pollution in 1 day than London does in a year.

I thought about my Nanna back in the 1930s, and completely got why she'd had enough and wanted to return home. Of course India would have been very different back then, but to bring 2 children up in this alien environment must have been incredibly difficult. 1 week was enough for me, let alone the several years she'd lived here, even giving birth to my Grandma-the sanitation wasn't up to much now so I dread to think what is was like then. It was great to experience the culture and see the sights like Agra fort and of course the Taj Mahal, but the incessant traffic, and over crowding, the noise and the filth, the spitting, I had seen all I needed to see, and was looking forward to what Nepal had to offer.

---

Comments

[Mum]

sleep
not long now emma just think of that lovely clean bed and no snoring. you will sleep for England take care xxxx

[grandama and terry]

Hi Em, sounds like you are having an eventful journey,especially with noisy Molly Browns snoring. No doubt when you get home you will catch up. grandma did warn you it was a muck hole.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the holiday and itwon't be long before you are catching up with old friends from previous trips, and you and Daryl will enjoy the next.one. Love for now Grandma and terry. see you soon.