Bye-bye Bangladesh, hello india!

Yesterday I got up at 5:30 am to catch a bus to India from Dhaka. For the gigantic price of about 11 dollars, I took a 12 hour ride in an a/c bus (well two buses actually). Now you would think in the span of 12 hours, one would go a looong way. Well I will put it this way: it would have taken less than 2 hours to fly between the two cities (closer to 90 minutes) and it took 2.5 hours to go about 75 KM here in India. Long live the developing world!

Anyway, I had a farewell party of four: Rizvi, his older brother, Shaffiullah, and Shafiullah's shop assistant. I stayed at Rizvi's place the last night since he lives 5 minutes away from where I caught the bus. Shafiullah and his assistant met us at the bus office. When I arrived, Shaffiullah was on the phone and handed it to me. Someone else wanted to say good-bye. After that brief convo, we went off to get breakfast. I couldn't eat a thing. I felt sick and I was getting teary eyed. They thought i was scared about going to India and was upset about that. Umm no fellas, I was just overwhelmed by the hospitality you all showed me. I have never had that kind of good-bye from any other country, that is for sure.

Normal for Bangladesh: the man sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me. He spoke very good English (not normal) and worked for the Japanese Embassy, helping process visas. He was returning to his family home in the city of Jessore, which is very close the Indian border.

Abnormal: He did not give me any food or buy me any tea. He had his opportunities. In his defense, he said he wish he could but in the interest of my health, he didn't want to give me food bought from the "road" so to speak. Had I not been feeling queasy (due to nerves primarily) I would have politely informed him that I had survived a month in his country thank you very much, and only had two bouts of stomach problems. He was probably the richest Bangladeshi I met in my travels. I do not regret not spending times in the posh areas of Dhaka. But anyway, let's get back to the trip.

Had no problems exiting Bangladesh.The crossing was about as dirty and bleak as other border crossings I have seen. Just something about them that makes them that way I suppose. Perhaps all the trucks and buses are the cause.

Welcome to India: Walked through a little gate and I was in india. As I was walking to the immigration building, there was a group of men just sitting around. One had a bunch of immigration forms, and I took one. Another asked me, "Do you have a bus ticket?" I said yes. "May I see it?"
I handed it to him.
"Do you have indian rupees?"
"Yes" I replied.
"85 rupees please" he requested.

Yeah dude, I'm just going to hand you 85 rupees and assume you'll give me a ticket here in the middle of this courtyard. Do I look that stupid? Instead of saying all that I said, "Uh yeah, can I have my ticket back? I want to get my passport stamped first." He handed it back and I walked away.

And so I entered the immigration building. As some of you know, my hand writing is messy. That being said, I put some effort into writing things out clearly on the form. Well apparently I did not write them out clearly enough. The immigration officer tore up my form and decided to fill out a new form himself. Doh. What is it with me and immigration people on this trip? At least they are amusing me and not creating problems for me.

After that, a bus employee (who actually had a badge) showed me the way to the bus office, and soon after that, we were off to Kolkata.