Kathmandu to Kolkata (or 48 hours of nothing)

I've got to write this very carefully or it will switch to Korean. I'm not sure how it's happening but I can't use this latin script long because it keeps switching to Hangul for some unknown reason.

I haven't been in Kathmandu for nearly 3 weeks according to my passport. I left Kathmandu on a Tuesday I believe. I had a message at my hotel but I didn't return it for awhile because I like to procrastinate. It was my travel agent where I bought my bus and train tickets to Calcutta. He was calling to tell me to take an earlier bus, the bus that was leaving in 15 minutes. Needless to say I was unable to catch that bus. I took one that left several hours before I was planning on leaving. It was an interesting journey to Calcutta. I asked the guy when I would be arriving in Calcutta and he told me 12:45 on Monday. That's right I left on a Sunday. So we were driving along in this Nepalese bus, we being myself and Nepalese people. I figured out how to switch back to latin characters. Shift + alt. As I was saying, I met some guy sitting near me. I didn't really feel like having a conversation in broken English so I just answered his questions. I'm a pitiful conversationalist to begin with.

I'm not sure why I brought that guy up so soon. I was told the bus ride would last about 3 hours. I've been on this bus for about 5 hours already and it's getting quite dark. Actually, there was no daylight left. We stop a few places along the way for bathroom breaks and some food. There's no toilet on the bus. My diarrhea had subsided by this point (thank god). I thought it was just a 3 hour ride so I never bothered to get much. The guy bought me some kind of fruit. Like an orange but they didn't quite look like oranges. I had 2 of them I think. At 9pm, the bus pulls over one last time. It doesn't go anywhere for the next 8 hours. The bus just pulls over to the side of the road and we all sleep there on the bus. I wasn't told about this. I'm a bit concerned that I'm going to miss my train plus I'm still in Nepal and haven't even crossed the border. I guess it's because of the Maoists that we pull over. The guy tells me the busses used to run all night. So I slept crammed between 2 seats with no real jacket. Lucky me am right at the front of the bus also with the door wide open bringing in cool breezes. It isn't warm at night in Nepal.

Finally at 5am the bus starts up again and we press on towards Sunauli. The scenery is nice at least. Very green and hilly. Nepalese music is a bit uncreative though. The songs last forever and basically just repeats 10 seconds of music again and again. At least you could learn to sing along rather quickly. It could have been Indian music. I didn't really developed much of an ear for it.

Finally we get to the border. I guess the guy must have said 13 hours to reach the border and even that I now realize it a bit of an underestimate. It looks so close on the map. I catch a rickshaw to the agent who has my train ticket. That goes smoothly enough. Then the rickshaw driver takes me to the border. That goes rather well also. I was kind of worried about the Indian border since I had a transit visa but didn't have my onward ticket since I bought it online and had to give my printed copy to the Indian embassy and never bothered to reprint it. I left them but would see them again shortly.

I got to the guy who is supposed to give me the bus tickets. I somehow managed to lose my train tickets despite having had them for only 15 minutes or so. The rickshaw driver goes back to Nepal while I stay at the Indian immigration office. I left it at Nepali immigration. That bit of stupidity aside it was alright. The rickshaw driver charged me a stupidity fee, well extra hassle or something. He made me give him the rest of my Nepali money for the drive (not much though I doubt it's illegal to take Nepali rupees to India, I'd removed some from my wallet beforehand though). I'd already paid him before that so I had to give him Chinese Yuan since it was all I had.

India didn't go very smoothly. I did understand where the 12:45 Monday came in. That's when the train left for Calcutta. I had no idea it would take so long. The bus guy tells me that if I take the bus I will miss the train. I need to take a taxi now. I wonder if that's even true. I'm a favourite target of small scams. I believed it though since I only had about 2 hours to get to the train station which was in another town. I had no money for the taxi so I had to give a deposit in Chinese Yuan and then they would take me to an ATM in Gorakhpur. After driving about 2 hours we finally get there. They tell me I need to give them more money because my ticket is a sleeper with AC. I tell them no, that I needed some kind of proof that I owed them more money. Anyways, I really have no tolerance for these kind of things, hence the reason I didn't want to spend much time in India. I relented, since I always relent.

I still haven't eaten since I left Kathmandu aside from 2 pieces of fruit or possibly just one. I'm rushed into the station and onto a train. I don't know how long I'll be on this train. I know it's overnight and that I'm not getting to Kolkata by 12:45 on Monday since it's about 12:44 on Monday. So I find my sleeper, top bunk, no access to a window. I end up reading the whole time and sleeping. I finish reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I end up being on the train for 25 hours. Not what I was expecting to say the least. I buy some water at some station and a little stuffed bread thing. I was hungry, not having eaten anything substantial in oh, 40 hours or so. I didn't even get to see much of the countryside. Quite boring.

I had planned on spending 2 days in Kolkata/Calcutta but due to a misunderstanding I have 8 hours total. My flight is at 10pm that night. I try to leave my bags at the train station but they refuse to take them since I don't have a train ticket. I end up wasting all my time in Calcutta. I just take a taxi to Sutter street, eat some tandoori chicken, go to an internet cafe for 4 hours, have some more tandoori chicken and then go to the airport.

Of course, I didn't take out many rupees since I knew I wouldn't be in India long. The taxi which was agreed to be 200 rupees, jumps to 300 when we arrive at the airport and I want to go to the international terminal 200m further. It ends up being a moot point since I don't have anything less than a 500 note. He won't give me any change either since he didn't pick up a passenger. I really had no use for a few dollars worth of rupees so all I had was a 'fuck you' left for him. I'm such a relenter.

Luckily my plane ticket was ridiculously cheap. Only $100 US from Kolkata to Singapore. I really expected the international terminal of the airport to be a lot bigger. There were only 2 gates. I had to stand around and wait for immigration to start their shift. I guess no one flies into Calcutta or out of for that matter. I board the plane and am the only non-South Asian on the flight. Actually that's not true, the pilot was Australian and the flight team as they call flight attendants plurally were based in Singapore. Jet Star Asia was a good airline though. That brings me to the 16th of November now... ok later.