Chapter 70: Entering India

In this land close to China, the idea of taking money from people to help them avoid disaster is also widely accepted. At least the official in Sikkim who took money from Chengxin strictly followed this idea.

Early the next morning, he somehow managed to get three ordinary civilian cars and parked them outside the house where we were resting. He was explaining to Chengxin why we couldn’t use military vehicles and would be taking us all the way to the capital of Sikkim.

I am not good at these kinds of social interactions, and I don’t care about them. It’s better to have an expert like Cheng Xin Ge take care of them than for me, a “half-baked” person, to worry about them.

I was doing my morning exercises as usual, but compared to the vigorous and vigorous posture of Hui Gen’er’s morning exercises, I was like a poet reciting poetry.

Ruoyue looked at me and smiled happily, her eyes like crescent moons, brightening up the morning.

The weather after the rain is always beautiful, and I see that Lushan, who got up early in the morning, has also recovered a little. At this moment, he is helping Tao Bai to fix his collar. The fact that he has the leisure to do this shows that he has temporarily put aside his heartache, so I don’t need to say anything or worry about it.

Our breakfast was noodles with vegetables, a specialty of Sikkim. It tasted a lot like Tibetan noodles, but it was more primitive and simple, so it tasted fresh and rustic. I ate two bowls.

After breakfast, we got into the car and drove all the way to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. Under such a clear sunny sky, I had the opportunity to take a good look at this neighboring country, which is very unfamiliar to me.

The road winds through the valley and up and down the mountains. The mountains on both sides of the road are covered with subtropical plants. In the sunny weather after the rain, they are wet and full of a primitive vitality.

There are occasional dwellings in the mountains, and the style of the buildings is extremely simple. It feels like China before industrial development, with scenery everywhere.

In the small towns along the way, I experienced a different kind of charm, as if I had traveled back in time to a long time ago, without any electronic products, TVs, or pop music, which represents everything modern. There were small stalls selling tea, shops selling cold drinks, and local residents selling freshly picked wild vegetables along the street, which were so fresh and green.

“If you want to take a lonely and primitive trip, this is paradise.” After seeing so much of the scenery in Sikkim, I couldn’t help but say to my brother Chengxin sitting next to me, “If you want to take a lonely and primitive trip, this is paradise.”

Chengxin brother adjusted his glasses and said, “If there is really going to be any development of tourist attractions here, it’s best not to let the Chinese know about it. By then, do you think you’ll still be able to see scenery like this? It’s almost like a human zoo. Everything here is preserved because there is little human damage and the scope of modern civilization’s ‘invasion’ is small.

Chengxin’s words are not without reason, but this is not the focus of our discussion. We are just in the mood to see and experience more since we have already left China.

But the oolong is that after driving for more than two hours, we realized that it was a stupid decision to go to the capital. At first, we thought that since the capital of a country is naturally the most economically developed city in the country, the transportation there would naturally be well-developed.

But the cruel reality tells us that we were wrong. In this place, Gantodo, the transportation is not developed at all. There are no planes, no trains, and not even a shuttle bus! If it weren’t for Chengxin’s chance conversation with the driver, we wouldn’t have known that we had made such a stupid mistake.

“Chengyi, what should we do?” Brother Chengxin looked at me helplessly.

“Since we’re here, we might as well make the best of it! After all, we’re just hiding and running away, so I don’t care anymore.” Even though I wanted to get to India as soon as possible and find the man named Johnny, I couldn’t be too picky when I was away from home, or else I would seem even more helpless.

Chengxin brother sighed helplessly and could only accept this reality.

Sikkim is not a large place, but the roads are very bad. It took us a long time to get to the capital, Gangtok, in the afternoon. The moment I saw the capital, I had a feeling that I had arrived in a smaller version of Chongqing.

The city is built on a mountain, and the entire city is built up in layers according to the mountain’s topography. Standing at the bottom of the city, looking up to the top, it feels like a city in the sky.

The city is small and clean, but it is also full of an indescribable human touch. It is beautiful!

There are only three main streets in Gantod, and the rest of the small streets and alleys are not too many. It doesn’t take more than an hour to walk around at will.

It is not possible to spend money here, because there is almost nothing to buy. We had a big meal with the driver, and it only cost us about 50 US dollars. Fortunately, we were not traveling to shop, so we didn’t care about this. However, we were satisfied with the experience of the different customs.

I just didn’t expect that the main food and specialty here would be Chinese dumplings!

As the saying goes, “Eating makes people soft-spoken and accepting of favors.” After eating our meal and receiving some money, the drivers who were hired by the border officials became more enthusiastic. Compared to the Chinese, the Sikkimese are more practical. These drivers enthusiastically pointed out the fastest way to India for us and expressed their willingness to send us to the larger city of Kolkata, where we could take a train to India.

We didn’t want to delay too long in Gangtok. We had already experienced the first foreign country, so we left. After all, no matter how beautiful or good a place is, if it’s not your home or your homeland, there’s no reason to stay.

I thought that taking the train shouldn’t be too far, just like most of the cities we are in, you can take a taxi to the train station for less than 100 yuan. Even if the capital of this place doesn’t have a train, there must be one in the neighboring area, right?

But the cruel reality quickly shattered my thoughts. In Sikkim, you have to take a train to the big city of Kolkata in India. You have to take a train to the border between Sikkim and India. This time, we swayed in the car for nearly five hours and finally got off at a small town called Siliguri.

This small town is the town where Sikkim and India meet. There is a direct train to Kolkata from here. The reason we chose this big city in India is because we didn’t have any other big cities to choose from. We were also unfamiliar with India, and we didn’t want to go anywhere else because we thought it would be easier to get things done in a big city.

According to Chengxin’s plan, when we get to Kolkata, at least we can go directly to Raipur without having to transfer, and at least India won’t be like Sikkim. The big cities should be well-connected.

Facing Chengxin’s plan, Xiao Chengqian said disapprovingly, “If this were Europe, you wouldn’t need to make such a mess of the planning here. I’m familiar with it like my own backyard.”

Chengxin brother helped his eyes and said to Xiao Chengqian, “Sorry, but unfortunately this is India!”

Xiao Chengqian was speechless by this sentence and could only grunt a few times and shut his mouth.

Fortunately, we made it here. Although it was night, we unexpectedly got on the train. The train schedule here is almost useless. Whether you can get on the train or not really depends on luck. We were able to get on the train without waiting too long, which was really a stroke of luck!

If we didn’t feel the atmosphere of going abroad in Sikkim, then we really experienced the taste of being in a foreign country on this train.

After all, the Sikhs don’t look much different from the Chinese, but the Indians are very different from the Chinese. As the train stopped more and more along the way, the number of Indians on the train began to increase, and the train became crowded. In the strong smell and the babbling of various languages, our group was like an island in the sea, isolated and conspicuous.

After 14 hours of swaying on the train, I was dizzy and confused. Finally, the train stopped at the station in Calcutta.

As soon as I got off the train, I had been holding it in, but after walking through the exit, I threw up all over the place.

Xiao Chengqian stood by, gloating, and whistled, saying to me, “Welcome to India, dear Chen Chengyi!”

I glared at him, completely unaware that a large group of people were walking in the opposite direction at high speed. After all, even in a big city, the train station was still a mess in 2000!