Already somewhat hesistant about spending 12 hours on a night bus to Siliguri, Claire and I happily boarded at 6:00pm December 29th knowing that we were finally leaving Kolkata. Oh, the adventure in store for us that night … most likely best told via timeline.

December 28, 2008

1:00pm - Meal
6:00pm - Boarded bus
7:30pm - Departed
Middle of the night - Bus stops to replace damaged tire
Middle of the night - Pass checkpoint(?) where Army official boards, shines flashlight in face of each traveler and video records. (Note to Indian government: Your foreign tourists find this alarming).

December 29, 2008

7:30am - Bus stops for unknown reason as traffic grinds to a halt.
10:00am - Bus resumes travels, pass overturned bus on the side of the road (ahh, so that’s why we stopped).
12:30pm - Rest stop. Claire and I engage in chit chat with Indian. Ask him how much longer until Siliguri. 1 hour? 2 hours? He says, “8 hours.” We laugh. Surely he isn’t up on his English numbers.
7:30pm - Arrive in Siliguri. Immediately proceed to hotel, find restaurants closed so buy some crisps and watch Schwarzenegger movie on HBO.

December 30, 2008

10:30am - Board shared jeep to Darjeeling. 12 passengers inside jeep. One passenger outside Jeep.
1:00pm - All 13 passengers arrive safely in Darjeeling.
3:30pm - Eat.

Total bus time: 25:30
Total time without a meal: 50:30.

Distance traveled on bus: ~600km. Rate of travel: 23.5km/hr.

All in all, it went very well though. We enjoyed the adventure, didn’t kill each other and Darjeeling is gorgeous!