It was sad to be leaving after what felt like a lightning tour, plus there were a lot of things we didn't get to see because they were closed. But here we were, flying up and away - in a Druk Air plane of course; only the national airline flies from Paro. Tshering wasn't even getting the rest of the day off - he was collecting his next group later on. They were about 30 Americans on a super deluxe tour. They normally fly by private jet but had had to hire a Druk plane for Bhutan. Gopal was driving back to Phuntsholing to collect his next party.
The temperature in Bhutan had been perfect - not too warm, not too cool. Kolkata was stinking hot, hotter than before we left for the hills. And we were back in the mad honking traffic, the frantic pace. I was almost tempted to stay in the hotel, that cool, hushed haven of marble, maybe have a swim in the pool. But I was in Kolkata! Can't waste the day lazing around! Ajay offered either a river cruise or a tour taking in the botanic gardens, a Jain temple and a place where they make religious statues. Desi fancied the river trip but no-one else wanted to so she fell in with us - and was sweet enough not to say I told you so later on!
We had a bit of a rest - I went and did some emailing in the beautiful business centre - and then met in the lobby for the tour. The guide, a woman whose name I didn't catch, took us to the gardens first. It was mildly interesting - there's an enormous tree there, except it's more like a grove of trees. It's a banyan - aerial roots come down from the branchs and turn into trunks, so the tree gradually expands into its own forest. It was gloomy under the foliage so my photos aren't up to much.
We actually drove around the gardens in the bus - very dull business. The Jain temple was next - Desi said they are usually beautiful, airy places, so I was looking forward to it. And then we hit the traffic jam. The beeping, honking, revving, smoking traffic jam. The guide tried to keep us entertained by sharing her philosophy of life. "I think it's important just to take people as they are... when I meet someone new I accept them for who they are, and if they don't accept me as I am then that's their problem. So many people have expectations about other people...." blah blah blah, on and on and on as we crawled along in three raucous lanes of buses, lorries, cars, taxis, tuktuks, rickshaws, scooters, bicycles.
I was just about ready to kick the door open and run for it, but the people up the front of the bus were apparently rapt, soaking up every word. Merle, however, was slumped with her head in her arms. I caught her eye and rolled mine, and now we were the bad kids in the back seat. After a hissed conversation about how ghastly this was, I took the intiative and interrupted the guide's monologue to ask when exactly we would get to the temple. "I don't know, the traffic...." she waved vaguely. I explained that I was very tired and that our wake-up call was at 4.30am and I for one would quite like to have dinner reasonably soon.
It turned out that the people up the front were just as bored/hot/tired/annoyed as Merle and I and chimed in with requests to please just go back to the hotel if we couldn't get round the traffic. So after an age we managed to turn off on to a smaller road, and suddenly we were hurtling along, whizzing past all kinds of interesting-looking places, including the book market that we'd been meant to see on our first day in the city. In what seemed like no time at all we were at the hotel. The tour had taken about four hours and we'd seen almost nothing.
I went straight to the restaurant with Merle and Desi, and after a Fawlty Towers display by the waiters (to be fair, I think there was a change of shift as we were trying to order) we had a delicious meal.
And so to bed... oh the bliss of that bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment