Return to India

We are now in Gorakhpur. Thank God!

Today we saw more flipped, crashed, broken down trucks than we have seen throughout Nepal.

The driving in Nepal is notoriously bad for many reasons such as bad roads, big cars, crazy drivers, and landslides. The bus rides there were the biggest drawback of Nepal, and make the trains in India look like heaven. So I was a little nervous about the bus ride from Chitwan to the border, and relieved to get into a JEEP for the ride from Sunauli to Gorakhpur (place in India where we can catch a train to Delhi). The JEEP turned out to be much less pleasant than I had hoped.

Imagine driving in a truck with 13 people rammed into it (and this is less than they normally try to fit, but I threw a bit of a tantrum at the driver for shoving me in where there was visibly no room-note: first time I have really lost my head on this trip). Now picture that the roads are like a life-sized sandcastle wall (slightly, but not much, more sturdy than a sandcastle) with big drops on the sides and way too many huge trucks trying to get past each other and getting stuck in potholes of sand. Anyway, we did this bouncy and crammed ride for about 3 hours, but we were stuck to nice people, so that made it better.

We are in ugly Gorakhpur now and I don't like it. I'm looking forward to our train ride to Delhi tonight. After a few hours in Delhi we're back on a two-day train to Goaaaaaa!!!!

Until next time,
Leanne the exhausted one.