India to Nepal - The Journey!
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2006
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15
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Trip End
Aug 20, 2007
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Sunauli,
India
Friday, November 3, 2006
We had a 600 Rupees (8 pounds) through-ticket from Varanasi, a 12 hour bus journey to the Indian border, 4 hour stopover in a hotel on the Nepali side and then an 11 hour bus journey from the border to Kathmandu. We started to question why we hadn't taken a flight, but it had seemed so close on the map and everyone we'd spoken to said overland would be fine. Unfortunately, the 700km journey was going to take forever due to the condition of the roads and the mountain passes in Nepal.
Our adventures began when we arrived to take the bus at 5pm, to be told it wasn't a bus, but a private car that would take us and 3 French 25-year-old lads to the Indian border. At least this was safer than the bus (or so we thought), we squeezed in and off we set with us all practising our best franglais. A record 7 hours later (he drove fast!!), 3 stop-offs at dodgy truckers cafes, 2 off-road detours and many 'what the hell is going on?' laters, we arrived at the Indian border.
It is midnight, we are in the middle of nowhere and the border is deserted. Our driver has strangely lost the power of communication and as if by magic a orange-turban wearing man appears from nowhere as if to our rescue.
01 The lovely toilet at our border hotel!
He tells us the border is closed (not 24hr as in the Lonely Planet) and we would have to wait until 6am. Luckily for us, he happened to have 2 rooms available in the only hotel in town and for a bargain 500 Rupees (10 times the going rate). We looked to the driver for confirmation that the border was closed and unfortunately for us, our driver gives us 'the wobble'. This is the frustrating head wobble that the Indian people give in answer to any question whatsoever. It can mean anything from 'maybe', 'ok', 'I don't know what you mean' or in this case 'you stupid tourists I'm trying to rip you off by making you stay in my friends over priced cockroach infested hotel from which I will make a nice cut'...this was no time to be wobbled.
As luck would have it, we spotted a uniformed border guard asleep on the side of the road. Although the street was deserted, there was so much debris around that sleeping bodies along the pavement just blend in and we failed to notice them for a while. Waking the snoring guard (not a happy chap about being woken and tried to say the border was closed - we were not getting fobbed off by that one!), it is apparent the border is 24 hour and you just have to find the correct sleeping immigration official to sign off your passport! Nepal was in sight 100m away, and the final obstacle was a drunken, armed border guard trying to send us back into Indian. No way - we dodged him and were through.
On the Nepali side, again out of nowhere, a guy from our hotel came to meet us. How he knew we were there, we have no idea. It is now 2:30am and the graffiti on the bedroom wall says it all 'Welcome to the worst hotel in the world' - just see the photo of the bathroom and we will say no more. We lay in this prison-like cell and waited for the 6:30am bus to Kathmandu.
So at 6:30am, the 5 of us set off on the next leg to Kathmandu, 12 hours into our 24 hour journey. The bus was cramped, the driving still crazy, but all the locals on the bus seemed pleased to have us along, trying to chat whenever possible. Although it was a long journey, we travelled through the valleys, along the rivers, past the waterfalls and rice terraces along the route. The drops at the side of the roads were amazingly steep, but the over-taking not too risky. The locals prefer to travel on the bus roofs where the views are even more amazing. The frequent chai stops were a welcome relief and finally at 5pm we arrived!
