Borderlands

We are crawling north on the National Highway 34 in West Bengal along the Bangladesh border to the Nepal border near Siliguri. From the eastern outskirts of Kolkata we almost made it through the city without hassle, but got off too early from the “No Rickshaw Expressway” we greased our way on to, and landed in the heart of Kolkata. In my mind, besides Cairo, Kolkata has the most horrific driving conditions in the world. David cruised right through.

From Kolkata, we landed in Baharampur, not a spectacular day in kilometers but the traffic jams on the two lane pothole infested national highway slowed progress. The roads are obviously a problem for commerce. Road maintenance is part of the State and National budgets, so funds are obviously being funneled off to line government officials’ pockets. The towns up north are darker and poorer. Intermintent power and no street lights gives Baharampur a gloomy edge and the proximity to the border causes headaches. Bangladeshi citizens are flooding the rural towns here for a better life. We are now in Raijanj and will cross the border into Nepal for our final 600 kilometers to Kathmandu. We've been focused on the drive and sort of forgot that we will soon see an entirely new country and culture-- we can't wait to see Nepal.