It seemed like a good idea at the time…

When we began planning this trip early last spring it seemed to make sense to us that if we were going to travel halfway around the world to visit Nepal then we might as well go to India too because it’s just next door! OK I said let’s do it.

Well, our Nepal adventure is formally over & today we crossed over the border into India.

Up at 5:30am for breakfast at 6:00 & on the bus at 6:30. Manu cautioned the group that we would have a very long day due to formalities at the Nepal & India borders plus a very slow 300 kilometer drive over incredibly rough roads! We thought he was exaggerating a bit.

We arrived at the border at 7:30 and everyone had to get off the bus because we had to walk across the border and pick up a new India-licensed tourist bus on the other side.

First we had to be checked out of Nepal, passports stamped, then we walked along a two lane road crowded with hundreds of transport trucks waiting to get into Nepal.

Our luggage was piled high onto cycle rickshaws which were pushed behind us.

We came to another inspection station with one man at a desk who looked over our passports and visas and then waved us through.

Manu went ahead with the luggage while we walked about 500 meters to yet another checkpoint in a very small building on the opposite side of the road. There goes Manu with our luggage!

Next checkpoint was easy to miss!

All of this took about 2 hours which was an indication of what lay ahead. We boarded a large highway coach (same size as Greyhound at home) and off we went.

The driver immediately started the non-stop horn honking which went on for the next 15 hours, with small breaks for lunch and toilets. Manu called it death defying driving and this was not an over statement. Thankfully with this bus – size matters, so the driver accomplished a lot of passing maneuvers that people in smaller vehicles would never dare.

And we thought the ride down the mountain from Ghandruk was rough! It was, but the worst of it only lasted 90 minutes. Today it was just as rough for over 10 hours! Almost impossible to stand up on the bus when it was moving.

Photo below: a welcome break

In fairness to India, most of the rough roads were due to the fact that long stretches of the highway are under construction. The parts that are completed are very good but they are few and far between.

We went through many towns with large produce markets and street food stalls, as well as a few very fresh chicken stands.

Traffic at times was very very heavy.

At other times we just sat parked bumper to bumper on the road. Once we got stopped on a bridge at sunset which turned out to be a great photo op.

At the next bathroom break Manu told us we had travelled 150 kms over the previous 8 hours and we were only half way. ETA for our hotel was well past 10:00 pm so Manu decided to postpone our sunrise boat ride on the Ganges as he wisely realized that he would had a mutiny on the ship.

One advantage of traveling at night is to see Temple areas lit up at night with oil lamps.

When we finally reached our destination around 10:00pm we had to walk the last 500 meters because the road was too narrow for the bus. The walk was no big deal for any of us as we were all soooooo happy to finally be off the bus!

Varanasi was hopping as there was another festival related to Diwali going on, with lights, music and gatherings on the street. Once we got our room, it didn’t take long to get to sleep! Stationary and horizontal never felt so good!

Cheers!