Crossing the border to Nepal...a ride to remember

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So we sat around the rooftop cafe for the afternoon with a French girl Sophie and a Czech guy called Lada. They were not a couple but had hooked up to travel across the border into Nepal. Private buses only ran three times a week in the morning so doing this would mean staying another night in Varanasi. This would have been totally fine but we were itching to get on to Nepal, being the second country on our trip and were looking forward to something a bit different after 6 weeks in India.

We decided to take one of the infamous government buses that evening which run frequently. This would drop us at the border early the next day and we could 'sleep' that evening on the bus. After we left the hostel and wondered through the narrow lanes to find the main road, there was a distinct lack of rickshaws. We had noticed that on the way in, our driver had to bribe a police office with a few rupees in order to get near the hostel so maybe there was some restriction.

There was one not too far away but of course by this point, there were four of us with two backpacks each. Amazingly, we squeezed ourselves in with three backpacks on the back shelf, three people on the back seat, two backpacks on our legs and Lada and his backpacks up front next to the driver half hanging out. No problem we thought, this is how the Indians do it anyway. It was a sight and I would love to have taken photo but of course I was wedged in unable to move. It was a manic 20 minute ride through town and as rickshaws have three wheels, quite unstable around some of the tight corners. It was a fantastic last rickshaw ride in India.

After arriving at the bus station, we had no problem getting on one of the frequent buses to the border at Sunauli. Amazingly, our big backpacks fit on the luggage racks and we found at seat and waited for the bus to leave. A group of people from the hostel we recognised also got on the bus but soon got off as one of the guys had lost he wallet. He searched all around on the floor but it was in vein and was becoming obvious that he ha been pick-pocketed. The group left so the poor guy could cancel his cards and call his parents.

The bus got fuller and fuller and eventually there were half a dozen people standing in the aisle. The journey was incredibly slow at flirt getting out of the city. The bus was on its way down the bumpy roads, stopping frequently much to our annoyance but only costing us 274 rupees each. We did our best to sleep but we knew that it would never happen given how bad the roads were and the bus's ancient suspension.

At just after 5am, we arrived at the border town getting only the odd half hour of broken sleep through the night. The border was full of mosquitoes which loved the taste of tasty but thankfully I was not so appealing to them. To make matters worse, poor Stacey was feeling a bit queasy which we put down to bushing her teeth with water from the tap at our hostel, which in hindsight probably came straight our of the ganges.

We walked up to the border and woke up an Indian official to get an exit stamp on our visa. Begrudgingly he got up and did this, finishing off be saying “50 rupees”. Lada laughed and said “is this for you; like a backshessh. Happy Diwali”. We had a laugh and didn't pay but the guard was alright and went back to bed. Our final attempted rip-off as we departed from India, the border only 10metres away.

We crossed over into no man's land and then into Nepal. We bought a visa for Nepal which had gone up to $40 for 30 days but payed up anyway. The process was quite swift and efficient so we were on our way at about 6:30am. Sophie was headed to Pokara so we said our goodbyes and got on what we were told was a tourist bus headed for Kathmandu and that we would be there by about 3pm. Of course this was not strictly true: it was a private bus headed for Kathmandu and didn't really get going until 2 hours later until it had traversed the local area picking up a many people as possible before departing. Our bags had to travel on top of the bus, along with about six or so Nepalese people. The bus was compact, with minimal legroom and with people and sacks of rice sitting in the aisle. It was uncomfortable to say the least, and bumpy road again made sleep impossible. We stopped off a couple of times along the way but we didn't have any Nepalese rupees so were unsure about buying food. The views got better as we headed further inland with lush valleys and high cliffs with fast rivers flowing through the gorges.

Of course, the bus journey took much longer than we were told and we didn't get off the bus until about 7pm. We were dropped off, totally knackered but at least our bags on the roof had made it as well as I had visions of them being flung off into valleys, or just being taken from the roof. Thankfully, we were in sight of an ATM and after getting some cash, we were fortunate enough to get on a local minibus that run in Kathmandu instead of a bus service. This took us to the tourist district of Thamel for a small fare.

Lada had been recommended a hotel but someone he'd been travelling with so we attempted to locate it in the dark and succeeded after several wrong turns and conflicting sets of directions from locals. The place was clean and cheap so we booked in and set out to find some much needed food.

Thamel is a tourist Mecca with hiking shops, Tibetan craft stores, supermarkets and best of all, off licenses. Now drinking in India is a bit taboo. Prohibition is in force in some areas and most areas are dry by choice of the local government so outside of Goa, asking for a beer could sometimes get you some funny looks. I suppose in a country where so many people are poor and undisciplined, alcohol could make things much worse. We treated ourselves to a small bottle of rum and some coke and retired to our room at 11pm for our first proper sleep in 36 hours or so.

The next day we had a big lay in before exploring the area in daylight and looking at a few different trekking agencies for our trip to Everest base camp. We met up with Lada that evening and said our goodbyes as he was leaving the next day to do some trekking.

The following day we made our choice of agency- a friendly one which was professional looking and with a good price. We negotiated hard and settled on $685 each for a 13 day trek including guide, porter, meals, accommodation and a return flight to Lukla. This is pretty good as the return flights themselves are $226 each. The only problem was paying for it. They accepted cards but a 4% surcharge is added here. Determined to beat this, we wandered around several different cash points extracting funds. We couldn't get the full amount out because of the daily withdrawal limits and at one point I was really worried that my card had been cancelled by the bank because of a disturbing message the ATM gave me when it refused me any more cash. Unfortunatley, there was no way to check until the next day so it played on my mind and stressed me quite a bit.

We had enough for a big deposit on the trip which the guy was happy to take, agreeing that we'd pay the rest the next day. We had just enough left over for some hiking gear and we headed for a shop where we'd found the best prices. We had selected two sets of the following: waterproof gloves, thermal underwear, North Face down jackets and North Face down sleeping bags rated for -20 degrees Celsius. For two of us, this came to 11,300 Nepalese rupees or £94. This was a bargain compared to the prices in Britain. Of course, it wasn't genuine North Face gear but none of it is in Nepal and it is used on all the treks up into the Himalayas, and from our inspection the quality was top notch. Of course, this all made my day as I love hiking & camping gear so we'll have to send this home when we're done trekking. Best of all, a few hundred rupees left- just enough money for dinner at a locals cafe and then went to bed completely broke.

The next morning our first task was to check that our debit cards work and amazingly they did. After nightmares of having to phone the bank in the UK and explain why my card had been used at half a dozen cash machines in Kathmandu within one hour, I was very relieved. With our new found wealth, we payed off the remaining balance for the trek and set about buying last minute supplies and packing before our 7am departure the next day.

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Comments

[valda blewitt]

hi
Looks like you are really getting the hang of this travelling. Pleased your cards were ok as had enough trouble with stacey's cc bill.