September 16, 2016.
Secunderabad Railway Station. The Falaknuma Express was standing on the first platform, ready to embark on the 1550 kilometre journey from the City of Nizams to the City of Joy.
One by one, my co travellers arrive - Bose, Pavan, Sagar, and Lucky. We settle down for the 28 hour journey. I am a person who generally likes train journeys, but train journeys on my treks in South India are generally not more than 15 hours. After about a day spent in the train, trying to while away time by playing rummy, and reading books, we got fed up and booked flight tickets for the return leg from Calcutta to Hyderabad with an exception - Lucky. This girl just marks her territory, usually the upper berths and then sleeps; sleeps all throughout the journey, so, she did not want to fly (even when we were getting the tickets at ₹2500 only).
We reach Howrah Station on September 17, after sunset, and there was the first shock. We stepped down from the train directly onto a road that goes through the centre of the station. We had to catch the Kanchankanya Express from Sealdah Station which will drop us at Hasimara - 20 km from the Indo-Bhutanese border. We had 2 hours to spend, and we hailed a traditional yellow taxi to an area in Calcutta called Esplanade renowned for its hotels, and treated ourselves to a dinner of Chicken Tandooris, Mutton Curries, Parathas and Naans.
We reach Hasimara station at 1030 hours the next day, September 18 after a journey of 43 hours. We take an auto to the border town of Jaigaon and are dropped at the Indo-Bhutan Friendship Gate.
Seeing this gate in pictures and the internet is different , and seeing it right before your eyes is a whole lot different. Indians do not require a Visa or a Passport to get into Bhutan. One just has to cross the SSB gate step over the border and through the Royal Bhutan Police gate into Phuentsholing, Bhutan. As this was the first time four of us, (barring Sagar) were crossing over an imaginary line that separates a piece of land from another that we call our country, we were pretty excited, and the very first view was not of the super clean streets of Bhutan or the traditional gown like dresses of the Bhutanese, but the super pretty Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) woman on the border and her angelic smile.
Dayyum, welcome to the land of happiness!
We checked into a hotel on the border, checked the timings when the permit office opens and the timings and fares of buses to the Bhutanese capital Thimphu from Phuentsholing, and then treated ourselves to an assortment of meat dishes in a local Bhutanese/Chinese cuisine hotel.
The next day, after spending 3 hours in the permit office, we got our permits, sat on the bus to Thimphu at 1230 hours, Bhutan Standard Time, and we were off on way to Thimphu.
To be continued...
