Day Six

It was the last day of our trip ...
if the previous few days and the trip in the morning was good , then the travel back was total contrast , the trip back to Siliguri was bad but the next journey from Siliguri to Kolkata in private bus was Ugly !
for the first time in last few days we dint have to get up very early , we left @ 8 for Rumtek Monastry which was below Gangtok (southern side) we reached pretty quickly in about 30 min , the monastry is a pretty famous and has had its share of controversies/disputes and is the seat of religious head ( who is in exlie). The place had high security with a posse of policemen around the monastry and a couple of other places in the complex . The ones near the main entrance were extremely rude to ppl ( just 3-4 visitors were around). The monastry had no specific timings and was closed when we went in the morning , we enquired in a shop nearby and were told that it would open by 8 in the morning but due to some reson it was no opened that day. There was the famous Golden Pagoda in the monastry and also it has university for religious studies for Buddists.We went to another monastry which was also beautiful in its own way , the architecture was totally different.
We reached Gangtok by 12 and then went around the main market area to pick up shawls and sweaters for ppl back home and moved to Jeep stand by 1 , we had get back to Kolkata , we had to catch a jeep t Siliguri andf from there we had booked tickets in a private bus @ 7 to Kolkata
We expected the Journey from hills of Sikkim to plains on Bengal to be another fun trip , but thanks to mad man at wheel of the crowded jeep the entrie journey was a nightmare , we were glas to reach Siliguri alive !
We went staright to railway station outside which is the busstand .The The journey was supposed to be 12 hr one , and we had flight to B'lore @ 10 so we wanted to reach the place by 8-8:30 so had booked thr bus @ 7 . But bus we were supposed to travel in had some problems and we had a delay of more than 1.5 hours before we finally got started . to add to our miseries the driver and conductor (perhaps irritated by our constant questioning) told us that it might take 14 rs to reach Kolkata which meant we may not make it in time !everytime we saw a signpost indicating distance to Kolkata we were making mental calculations about when we might reach !The roads were extremely horrible and the bus after travelling on these roads was a total wreck creaking and shaling each time we passed over a pothole , which was like every other minute . most of the seats were rickety and window panes kept shaking and moving and cold air kept coming in ... All this meant a horrible night topped by fear of missing our flight !thankfully the Airport was on the way , before we reached Kolkata city so we saved a lot of time and made it to Airport by 9 ( flight was at 9:50) and reached ontime. It was a journey which we could never forget for the sheer tension , frustration and exhaustion , i remember sleeping for some 15 hrs straight after reaching home that evening !!!on the whole it was total fun and gr8 trip given the fact that we had very little planning !