Friday, November 20, 2009

Long Journey to Gorakhpur and Dusty Transits to Belahiya Nepal

Slumbertime at the Gorakhpur station. This photo only courtesy of www.travelpod.com's benandsabine.



So here I am standing in the cascading bowels of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. It has been a harrowing, physically draining journey. My unconfirmed train ticket from Delhi needed to be confirmd to get my train's couch and seat number. Then i neded to know the name of the train - which was in Hindi - so that I could know the platform I was to leave Nizamuddin station from. I was at the uppermost tier - so for the most of the journey, I was cooped lying on my back for most of the 13 hours! All I had for food was this frooties biscuit I bought for situations like this. The wallah that was selling chai and food would just shrug if I ask him what food it was or how much... so I didn't eat.
I arrived in Gorakhput (the Indian-Nepali border) at 12 Noon. I saw some omellettes being cooked at the platform and bought 2 pieces. That would be my meal for the day until I get to the bus at the Nepali side.
The border crossing was the easiest Ive ever had. In fact, I almost missed the Indian border office. It was just a small stall, with no-frills crossing, and people just walk around the area like it wasn't a border. The Nepali stall was at the same (right) side. It was easy too, not 3 minutes and I was in Belahiya - the border town that other people just lazily refer to as Sunauli - pronounced Sonorli! An australian guy hooked up with me as we changed our money to local currency - $1 to 71. He had to go to Chitwan National Park so we broke up at the bus station.
My Kathmandu-bound bus left at 7PM and arrived at 5:30AM the next day. I wasn't expecting how oppressively cold the weather was - 4 degrees, and winter has just started. Windshields would fog every minute, and fumes simmer your every breath, like dragons. I was so cold I couldn't think! I wanted to open my padlocked baggage and secure more shirts and wear 5 one after the other - but the road was so dark and it was hard to move my fingers. I was gonna turn popsicle if I stayed a second longer. But guess what? I got what I wanted!




Gorakhpur Station marvelously photographed and courtesy of nickswolandnx2.


This is the Eye in the Sky.




2 comments:

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