Arrival at Kolkata and to Nepal

Flight was delayed in Spore for an hour. We arrived Kolkata on 28 Sep at 11:30 pm. We stayed overnight at a nearby hotel. 
Breakfast a Babul Hotel in Kolkata
The next morning we scheduled to depart for Bagdogra. But the flight was delayed for more than six hours due to “technical problems”. The wait was exasperating as the authorities were not giving us an assurance if the flight indeed will take off. Thank God eventually the flight took off.

We reached Bagdogra at about 7PM, way past our scheduled time.  Bishop Samuel Sharma and his son Abishek have been waiting since 12 noon. So we had three older ones and three youths in the team now.  But we had to rush to the Nepal border as the  border gates closed at 8:00PM. We arrived at Nepal Border in good time but to our surprise, we learnt that the Immigration Office closed at 6:30pm and will only open the next day at 6:30 AM.  That would mean that our entire program will be disrupted. We were in a state of hesitation, not knowing what to do. We had to make a decision either to stay on the Indian side for the night and forgo the plan to visit Nepal or take the risk and go through the border. I prayed. 

We decided to take the risk and  go through the border gates. As our vehicle drive through, the border guards stopped us. They shorn the torchlight unto our vehicle, and to our relieve, waved us to go. 

Just as we thought the worst was over, there was another check point 500 meters away. This time another set of guards wanted to search the vehicle and asked our coordinator Bishop Samuel Sharma to come out of the vehicle. Our hearts almost stopped beating but as Bishop came out the guards told us to carry on. Praise God we went through without any problems. Yet again another sigh of relief.  Please don’t try this on your own without any supervision.

But that was the beginning of the ordeal. The roads were terrible as we tracked up the mountains in Eastern Nepal. The vehicle was literally crawling as the tracks were full of big rocks and slippery stones. The tracks were unbelievably narrow and with no barricade by the side of the cliff. It is one of the worst roads we have travelled. We travelled the whole night and the bumpy roads stole our sleep as well.  Strangely there was no other vehicle on the road. It was really the grace of God that we arrived safely at a village called Ketuke. 

By day break, we were mesmerized by the beauty if God’s creation. The mountains and the valley were literally singing forth praises to God. Beauty at its best. It was about 6:30 AM.
Kettuke in Okhaldhunga District in the Sagarmatha Zone of mid-eastern Nepal.

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