Day 8: Kalimpong to Phuntsholing

I could have spent a week in Kalimpong, it was such an easy-going place and I'd love to have explored some more. But in the early, early morning we were off, back down the hills to the hot plains.



This journey was billed as six hours but actually took much longer because the road was so bad. Not the hill roads so much - BRO was there to protect us! The signage got more bombastic and self-congratulatory. [more road signs] But also caring:



More splendid lorries



We crossed a high bridge at the foot of the hills and got off and walked across to admire the view - spot the people in this shot.



And soon after that we were making slow progress along a badly potholed road past tea plantations. It was baking hot on the plains, so although the pickers look tranquil, they were working hard.



We were supposed to stop for lunch en route, but pushed on, pausing only for a toilet break and for a minor accident - more on that later. One of the best things was passing through the busy little towns and villages on the way. I would love to have stopped and looked at all the shops. They were hives of activity. We saw all kinds of craftspeople at work, making wooden and bamboo furniture and tin trunks, weaving baskets, making pottery and iron beds, repairing cars and bicycles, making clothes; and there were shops galore of course. And the transport was varied too, rickshaws and bicycles and tuktuks and cars and lorries and handcarts. I saw one lovely bicycle rickshaw that had a little cart at the back instead of the usual two-seater arrangement, and into the cart were clambering half a dozen tiny schoolgirls, all in uniforms and pigtails, heading home for lunch.

We were bumping around too much to get any decent pictures, but I managed to get a little film of one town.



As I said, the road was pretty bad, and the drivers had to keep their eyes peeled. At one point our car went across a bridge and hit a concealed pothole with a great BLAM, followed by a clanging crash as the retaining bolt on the spare wheel snapped off. Luckily the car behind wasn't following too closely so didn't hit the wheel. And because the wheel was bolted on to the bottom of the vehicle it fell off flat on its side rather than on the tyre (you'll remember the horror of a loose tyre bouncing towards you, Mum!). We pulled over and the drivers manhandled the wheel into the back of our car, where Gurmay was sitting - he looked very uncomfortable with his knees up to his neck, but ever the diplomat insisted he was fine!



At long last we arrived at the border town - Jaigaon on the Indian side and Phuntsholing on the Bhutan side. Gurmay joked that you would be able to see the difference as we crossed the border - poverty on one side, wealth on the other - but in fact the whole area is thriving because of the cross-border trade. The border itself was low-key, with just a few guards standing around, and our formalities were actually done later after we got to the hotel.

At the hotel we said goodbye to Gurmay and the drivers, who then faced a six or seven hour journey back to Darjeeling and then, for Gurmay at least, only a day off before heading back to Bagdogra to meet another tour group. And we met our Bhutan team: the guide, Tshering, and Gopal, the driver. Yes, just one driver. Gurmay had phoned ahead to make sure we had a bus rather than jeeps, to save Tshering the chore of juggling seating arrangements. I was a bit disappointed; it was a nice little bus, to be sure, but not as much fun as the jeeps and it made us more of a "tour group".

The Druk Hotel was a bit of a step down in standards too. The service was lovely, the food good and the building very nice... but the beds were so hard! I asked Tshering about this later and he confirmed that hard beds were traditional in Bhutan. A thin little mattress on a board... argh! My hips were aching after just one night.

After a very late lunch we boarded the bus for our first Bhutan visit - to a monastery, where else! Very nice it was too, up on the hill overlooking the town and the river beyond, surrounded by trees and drifts of prayer flags.







After a rest and a very nice dinner (including our first taste of ema datshi, Bhutan's classic chilli and cheese stew - super-hot chillies in a yak cheese sauce - the recipe is here if you want to try it. John, you would love it!!) a few of us ventured out for a walk, just to stretch our legs after the day's long drive. It was interesting peering into the shops, but we were nervous of getting lost and the pavements were rough - Linda has problems with her balance - so we didn't go far.

I slept very well, despite the hard bed!