Departing Bhutan, Returning to India

After saying goodbye to the California group, we stayed the night at the Pedling Hotel, planning to take the bus to the border -- RainbowTours nicely took me to the bus station very early, but all tickets were sold out! We arranged for a share-taxi: 6 hours in a cramped miniminivan, down to the tropical town of Phuentsoling and the GreenVillE (pronounce the E) Hotel for a last bit of Bhutanese hospitality. The hotel arranged for an Indian taxi to pick us up in the morning and take us across the border to the train station.
The next morning at 6:30, the Bhutanese police were smartly dressed and waiting efficiently at the border crossing, to stamp our passports. No guards on the India side, but we had to get our passports stamped properly, so we trudged down the street to the ramshackle bungalow of India Immigration. The guard on duty was pleasant, and the bungalow was open, but the passport official was "out for a walk". Thirty sweaty minutes later, he strolled in, stamped our documents. The taxi drove quickly to Hasimara, getting us to the station 5 minutes before the train arrived, on time. Whew!
Here is a slideshow of some Bhutan pics [note that lots of pictures are in GooglePhotos, at http://picasaweb.google.com/jotlaptop/200707Bhutan