Dudhia

New country, new writing rules... I apologise in advance to the French speakers who preferred French and to the English speakers for my far-from-perfect English. But I am seizing the opportunity of entering India (a Commonwealth country !) to start writing in English, and thus allow my hosts to read about the rest of the journey ...
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30 more kilometers and I was at the border. Both nepali and indian citizens can cross it without any fees nor visas so it's quite a busy spot.This morning one could even say it was a giant mess : big traffic jam on the bridge separating Nepal from India.
Then a man at the first checkpoint in India did not want to let me in cause my passport had not been stamped when leaving Nepal - from the Nepali side, I could just cycle through without anyone stopping me ! I even asked two police officers if this was normal but they showed me the indian direction and said : just go ! In the end, at the proper indian immigration office they did not care at all about this missing departure Nepali stamp and let me in without any difficulty...

15 more kilometers in India, accross bright green palm trees and tea plantation fields, and I could reach Danny and Roxana's lovely country home, near Dudhia. There they breed a few country chickens for the meat and cows for the milk and seam to live a pleasant semi-retired life. Danny if half indizn-hzlf Nepalese and Roxana if from Ukrzine. They met in Ukrzinr when Danny was doing his engineering's master. Their two grown-up children live with Danny's parents in Kathmandu.

Danny contacted some of his friends to help me find a cheap guesthouse in Darjeeling and they basically spoilt me like a child with good food, a comfortable bed and... some whisky.
I easily convinced Danny to become a member of the "warm showers" community ! I can already certify that he is a great host :)Read more