Like aliens in Fall City

We came down from Darjeeling expecting to spend our 3 remaining Bengalee days unwinding in another hill station, on a rhino safari, and visiting Bhutan for an afternoon. But travel in India being what it is, things didn't go our way. The so-called "gem of a hill station," Mirik, turned out to be an armpit, a mix between cold war landscaping and the crowded hills of Darjeeling so after 5 minutes we decided to have some tea and toast and catch the first taxi out of town. In Siliguri we thought luck was going our way as we just caught the last bus out to the town nearest the Jadalarpa wildlife reserve. The bus' puppet master was Zack's new best friend and insisted we take the front seats next to the driver with a full view of every catastrophic near miss over the next 3 hours while dodging other buses, goods carriers, cars, bikes, rickshaws, cows, and people. Finally after nightfall we arrived into town and even found the tourist lodge (!), got a room (!), and they signed us up for an elephant safari ride in the morning (!). Team Red, as we christened ourselves after our red puffy jackets, sat in the bar to kick back with some Kingfishers and gloat at our success. For a few hours at least.

We set out on the safari at 7 a.m. and were elephant bound by 7:30. Zack and I got the elephant all to ourselves and his rider felt that we were adventurist types and would enjoy a lot of bushwhacking on the back of an elephant. Yeah that's fun the first few times, but after a while you realize this elephant is going to barge through any tree regardless of what's on his back so we spent considerable time ducking and unwrangling ourselves from tree limbs and vines. However, we did come upon a one-horned rhino in the bush and photographed it, but not well enough
for it to come out clearly. Think of it as a rhino in the jungle done by Monet. Around the park a little more....monkeys, deer, peacocks...and it was back to the start only an hour after we'd begun. Fortunately there were 2 cute baby elephants huddling by their mamas so I could play with them and satisfy my craving for wildlife a little more. We felt shortchanged that there was no visitor's center or educational center or other place to learn more about the sanctuary's
wildlife or anything at all. For all thathubub and worry about getting into the sanctuary, we were left with not much at all.

Back at the tourist lodge at 9 a.m. we figured we could spend the rest the day visiting the Bhutanese border town that was reported to allow visitors into Bhutan for a day without a visa. The lodge's manager politely (with the ubiquitous Indian head bobble) squashed our idea when he said that was only for Indian visitors and that foreigners need a real visa to visit, even for the day. We poured over our Lonely Planet guides and found the small print in another area of the book - foreigners need a visa at least 15 days in advance. Crap! We were stuck in the urban equivalent of Fall City with nothing to do for 2 days until our train left for Kolkata. Like Zack said, it was like aliens coming to town after hearing about the Falls and thinking that would take up a day's time, then wondering what the heck else there is to do after only an hour. We tried wandering around, but this 2 street town didn't offer much but lots of stares and inquiries about where we were from. We retreated to the lodge which grew more and more repulsive as the minutes ticked by and resigned ourselves to reading for the next 2 days. At least it was free from mad taxi drivers, noise, and heavy pollution. Instead, filthy cows, goats, and dogs roamed below our balcony and ruffled through garbage and grass.

The next day afforded our escape and we made it safely back by mad bus to Siliguri where we waited for 5 hours for the overnight train to Kolkata. We were relieved to be ending this part of the trip and on our way back home. The mountains had been fortuitous, but outside of that cherished realm India was not our friend. The train was a quick night's sleep to Kolkata (highly recommend 2nd class) where we tried to cheat India one more time in the early morning. Our plane flight to Mumbai was scheduled to leave around 5pm, but having already done a long layover in Kolkata on the way up we had no desire to waste more time in this depressing city. So we gunned it by taxi to the airport to see if we could make an earlier flight. We made it in plenty of time, but the agent said the flight was full without batting an eye. Bullshit! No one in India is capable of knowing anything. I asked about a waiting list and he said there wasn't one. I asked other airlines, but theirs had already left for the morning. We were about to find a place to sit and read for the next 8 hours when the agent waved us over and said it would be an extra $90 for 2 seats on the early flight. Without hesitation I exercised my god-given American right to buy my way out of any situation and gave the guy 4500 rupees. Team Red was on the move and getting the hell out of Bengal. Zack and I toasted our resourcefulness and luck with some machine produced
cappuccinos and made our way back to the heat of Mumbai.