New Author in Town! Across the border into INDIA!!
Trip Start
Dec 29, 2007
1
42
174
Trip End
Dec 22, 2008
Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh,
India
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thursday 27/3/08 - Border Crossing into India and 10 Hour Bus Journey to Varanassi!
HOW many lorries to the border?!
Mad n crazy lorry colours!
and more....
Today was an early start to get us out of our hotel by 7.15am. Baggage was piled into a couple of tuk-tuks, whilst we squeezed into some others for the short ride to the border post at Sunali.
Potatoes crossing the border!
Glad we weren't crossing in a vehicle as there was a queue of lorries at least two miles long on the Nepalese side of the border, all bizarrely loaded with gravel - don't they have any gravel in India? - Most of them looked as if they had been there for quite some time, and we saw no movement whatsoever whilst we were crossing into India.
Potatoes crossing the border!
How do these things still run?!
Most peculiar border, which the unwary could cross without being aware they had done so, as it just felt like a continuation of the same street with shops etc continuing to trade in the area between the two immigration offices, and no apparent control over who went from one side to the other - our Nepalese tour guide (Krish) came across with us to meet his Indian counterpart (Abhi) without bothering the immigration or customs officers, and presumably managed to return when we had said our farewells!
Local school bus, just wicked!
Worryingly the baggage was sent on ahead in a couple of rickshaws whilst we filled out the necessary forms for officialdom, but the system worked and we were all reunited with our bags a couple of hundred yards the other side of the border, where a bus was waiting to take us on the 10 hour drive to Varanassi.
Ads watching our disappearing bags!
Mum.... forever the school teacher!
The barren landscape for the first few hrs
Local petrol station...eeek!
Very long day of travel with only a couple of brief toilet and food stops to break the monotony.
Wahoo they have tuk tuks!
Poverty stricken living
Mostly rural countryside with small towns and villages that looked very much like those we had seen in Nepal. 
Crumbling shacks
Chilling in the fields
Passing a wedding!
Madness of the 1st town we reached!!
Cows on the dual carriage way...just MAD!
More amongst the motorbikes....
Classic toilet sign!
Dirt ridden sides of the road
Using the water pump amongst the filth
Many mothers and their children
Crazy piled vehicles...
Selling by the side of the mental roads..
Wicked turban!
Weighing the herbs
How do they do that??
Local transport!!!
Very hard life for an Ox
Leaving work on a tractor...why not!
Local taxi's!!
How much on his bike?!
Road side shacks....
Indian Living is pretty tough, such poverty..
Arrived at our hotel in Varanassi just before 7pm, checked in, then had a brief 'team meeting' to discuss the itinerary for India, and fill out the inevitable forms for Abhi.
Glimpse of the Ganges!
After that we had a very nice meal, along with a couple of beers, in the hotel restaurant before we retired to bed for the night.
