Into Mother India!

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Just a short blog with a few images from my border crossing into Mother India as our tour leader Chandra refers to her.

We set off early and crossed the border at Sunauli at 6am and bleary eyed we passed under the Nepal arch at the border and into the land between before crossing into India. Hello India!

We then had a 5 hour drive to Varanasi which was a killer and though the roads are of better quality than Nepal the driving quality did not improve on this side. Playing ipods at top volume failed to drowned out the irritating and constant hooting on the busy India roads. And to some extent it was worse than been in Nepal in that now we had dual carriageways, or I believe that is the idea of a road with two lanes separated by a barrier but under Indian driving rules vehicles travel in either direction on either side of the carriageway!!!!!

The journey was punctuated with screeching brakes following a couple of near misses; just avoiding hitting dogs and other obstacles in the road I secretly longed to be back in Nepal - least there dirt rutted tracks don't allow any speed to be achieved.

At one point we stopped in a small town where Chandra said to be prepared to see a magic act! We scrambled out of the vehicles, uncreased aching muscles and headed to the local Chapati and Chai stand where we sampled the most delicious road side food and watched the little Indian bloke crouched down making Chapatis. We all stood around enjoying a refreshing cup of Chai, served in little terracotta cups which had to be broken after use by being thrown down on to the floor though some of use took them as souveneirs.

And if you are wondering about the magic act - well that was the crowds that gathered around within minutes of our arrival just like magic - some secret magic communication happened to announce our arrival and the township slowly arrived to watch the spectacular. We were the novelty act in a town obviously not frequented by tourists but it was all friendly and good humoured and a strangely nice welcome to India.

After 6 very long hours will made it to Varanasi and the start of our adventures in India proper but that is another blog (if I ever catch up on them that is!!!!)

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Photos

And so the magic act begins!
Chandra said to be prepared for a magic act - turned out this meant the crowds turning as if by magic in a few minutes of our stopping

Cuppa Chai
And the little terrocotta cup has to be smashed after use but we kept them as souveneirs