Changing Faces

My train last night was late by about 40 minutes, so I didn't board until around 11:30. There was an annoying man who sat in Kate's empty berth (by bribing officials). I was a little irritated because this guy kept on telling me "you go to sleep." "go to sleep." His insistence really creeped me out because if he got his was he would be right next to me; and, although my bag was chained and locked, there is something unsettling about being told to go to sleep by someone you don't trust. I was placated by the promise of a refund from the official who probably accepted the bribe. In order to go to sleep, I had to reason that this guy was probably no more or less safe than anyone else on the train.

I woke up in the morning at around 7 am; the creepy guy was gone and I went back to sleep in peace. I woke up for good at around 11 and stared out the window until we arrived. At one point, a tall big woman (who looked like a man to me) in a green sari came to our compartment and said something. The guy in the next berth gave her/him some coins and she touched him on the head in a Jesus-like way. I have no Idea why.

At 1 pm our train pulled into New Jalipaiguri Station. In the station I noticed a few different faces from the India I had seen so far. Among the mostly Indian crowd were a few Indians that looked a bit North East Asian (Chinese/Korean/Japanese, etc).

In the nearby town of Siliguri, I got permits for visiting the far northern region of Sikkim that borders China. The book said it would take 2.5 hous. It took me under 20 minutes.

Feeling accomplised, I walked to a nearby restaurant. The restaurant I chose was like an Indian version of TGI Fridays or one of those other tacky places. All the waiters wore baseball hats and bright ugly aprons. The service was fast, especially for Indian food (on my table two minutes after ordering). After eating, I ran to the bus station.

In addition to seeing a few more Asian-Indians about, I saw an old man that looked exactly like an Indian Bill Cosby. Then I saw a guy who had cheeks like the Grinch. At 4:30 pm I boarded my first bus in India. I was headed to the town of Jaigon on the Bhutanese border.

The bus was cramped; my seat held about 3/4 of my body leaving the other quarter to fight with the passenger in the neigbouring seat. I thought the bus was reasonably full when we departed, but the attendants must not have agreed. They hung out the side door for most of the trip yelling out our destination to anyone and everyone. When someone signaled they wanted on, the bus slowed down and, without stopping, the attendants pulled them on board.

Sometimes people wanted freight carried. For a freight stop, one of the attendants crawled up the side of the bus and tied whatever needed delivering to the roof. Throughout the journey, he would climb up the same way, only the bus wouldn't stop or even slow down. As the attendant grappled the side of the bus, the driver paid no attention. He continued driving at full speed dodging pot holes or crashing through them arbitrarily.

I was assigned to the seat directly next to the door. The seat next to me seemed to be the seat for anyone popping on for a short time only. Over the course of the journey, I had no less than 5 people sit next to me. One of them was an insurance salesman, who I chatted with for quite a while. He was telling me about the kinds of insurance that he sold and about his large extended family that lived in one house. I told him about my day trip into Bhutan, and he enthusiastically told me that the border was open all the time and I might not need to wait until morning to pass.

When we arrived in Jaigon, the Indian border town, I talked to the Bhutanese Guards at the crossing, who were lounging in housecoats. One of them told me that the earliest I could enter was the next day at 6 am. I asked if going in for 1 day was fine and they assured me it was.

I sought out the nicest looking guesthouse, which was absolutely disgusting inside. My room smelled of mold and even though the sheets looked clean, I used sheets I had packed and put up a mosquito net.