Travelling to Nepal

I had decided to take a ‘Tourist Bus’ to the Sunauli border and walk across into Nepal.

The first obstacle of the day (as usual) was getting an auto-rickshaw driver who actually knew of the place that I wanted to go. Once this was sorted, it was mostly plain sailing from then on.

I got to the office of ‘Paul Travels’ (no really, that’s what it’s called) and got my ticket checked, having a frantic moment when I realized that I had no American Dollars with which to pay for my Nepal Visa (seriously, Dollars are required). Eventually I got onto the minibus and realized that filling it with fully grown adults can never be described as comfortable, cozy maybe, but not perfect. It was however, more convenient and quicker than getting the local bus, and I got my own seats!

I got talking to a pair of Australian-Italians who are visiting Buddhist pilgrimage sites, which sounds really interesting! They are hoping to go to Lumbini, which is one of them. It was nice to chat to them and they gave me some really helpful advice on Thailand and South East Asia.

I was on the bus a good eleven hours when I finally got to Sunauli! It was very odd there as I had to walk into the Indian Immigration Office and get stamped out of India and then go through the ‘Nether-Regions’ aka no-man’s-land and THEN walk into the Nepal Immigration Office and get my Visas! Whew! What you do if they don’t let you in I’m not too sure, as technically you’re not allowed back into India. I guess you have to live the rest of your life in the ‘Nether Regions’.

Getting a Nepal Visa was relatively easy, and I had only two issues: 
– Firstly the man in the office who checks the photos was being funny about my passport photos. In them I am wearing a Maxi Dress with a bikini top underneath, however all that you can see is the halter strap of my bikini. I hadn’t actually thought about it until then, when the man turns to me and says, “no clothes?” and I was mortified! 
– Secondly, one of my $1 notes had a slight (2 mm) rip in it and the man was being awkward. I had only exactly $80 for the Visas, so if he didn’t accept the $1 I was buggered!

I explained calmly that this was all of the money that I had for the Visa and eventually he let me through!

Once in Nepal I decided to join my new Australian-Italian friends in the hunt for a hotel. The others in the mini-bus had tickets all the way through to either Pokhara or Kathmandu, but I had been warned against this as sometimes doing this across a land border can be rather sketchy.

I ended up in the S.R Hotel, which was just literally a bed for the night, but it had a hot shower, so I was over the moon!