As myself and my faithful companions are relaxing in Kathmandu – I say relaxing but really we are just being plain lazy – its time to say how the hell we got here in the first place. And it was long but fun in the end when we got in our beds in Kathmandu.
I start from Varanasi – Varanasi, the post flowing on the holy Ganges, lost for a year – We left the hotel and headed to the train station to catch the night train to Gorakhapur. Its incredible what can be carried on a rickshaw. We have seen up to 6 people on the back of one. So 2 people and 2 huge rucksacks was not a problem. As usual, at the station it was chaos. Its incredible to see the number of people travelling by train - Unseen in Europe since the Golden age of Rail. Train travel is the best way to travel around India. The road can be unreliable and unsafe in monsoon season – at 11pm, the station was packed. Finding the platform of a train is a gamble. The train is expected at a platform but can arrive at another platform. This is not known until the last minute. A lot of western travellers were at the station, waiting for the same train as and heading to Nepal. Everybody seem to be confused. We met a lot of people on the platform. As we have been travelling through India and Nepal, we have a met a lot of French, after the Israelis the largest group of travellers. As the train arrived, on the wrong platform, a mass panicked ensued to find our carriage. We booked on the 1st class sleeper - FC in india railway language – FC is not the top most class. Let me explain the classes of the indian railway night train. The heighest level is AC1 below this is AC2, AC3, FC, Sleeper, Second Class. AC is air conditioned. However after travelling from Lucknow to Varanasi in AC3, we found FC a lot more confortable. It is not worth traveling in AC3 -we were 9 to a compartment mainly snobish locals – than FC – where we where just 2 – just for the air conditioning. There were fans in FC. To find the carriage you just have to hope that you spot the name as it goes by. The order changes every time. Most of us headed in one direction down the train, unfortunately in the wrong direction. Not great as the train are very long. So we started running in the other direction and the train started moving. Luckly the train was not leaving. We discover later that the train normally stays at least 15min at every major stop so that people can find there cariage. In Sleeper and Second class, the name of the passenger are attached on a printed sheet. So you have to find your name. After our little mini marathon we found our carriage. Luckly there was only one FC carriage. On board we first met Norbert or Norbie a hungarian traveller heading to Kathmandu. We started to chat together and we decided that we will try to get a jeep from Gorakhpur to the border together in the morning. The conductor unfortunately would not allow us to continue to chat and would you believe it sent us to our room – relatively confortable cell - and told us to shut the door.
After a long night, the train arrived - 2hr late but this is normal – at Gorakhpur. Our party in the morning increased from 3 to 5 with the addition of 2 German – very silent German. We headed out of the station to hunt for a jeep. We could take a bus to the border town of Sunauli but we thought it will be more fun in a 4x4.
I may not have mentioned this before, but everything is a negotiation in India. Foreign travellers are seen as walking money. There are local prices and then there is tourist prices. For everything. From bananas – more in a later post – to taxis, hotel room etc. We got asked repeatedly where we were from and how long we have been in india and Nepal. This is not to be friendly but to gauge our experiences of priced in the country. It becomes a big game. We start to ignore there 1st price and divide by 2. Off course it was the same with the jeep. We managed to negotiate for the 5 of us but they would not leave until they fill up the Jeep. We were luckly that another group of 5 joined us. 4 French from Chamonix and Carrie from Chicago via her native Poland.
We were 10 + an Indian national already in the Jeep, + the driver, so 1 in total but this still was not enough people to leave. They wanted another 2. They try to find them without success. So in the end the jeep left with only 11 passengers. At least we got the answer to the question of how many people we can get into a jeep: 1 Brit, 1 Italian, 1 Pole, 1 Hungarian, 1 Indian, 2 silent German, 4 French and the driver. We headed off to the border. Thank god It was a 4x4. the bumpy and cramped journey from Gorakhpur to Sunauli took about 3 hrs. At least we had fun in the jeep. Irrespective off how we travel, as long as it is with a great bunch of people.
Off course we did not arrive at the border crossing. Even if the driver wanted to drop us off at the crossing he could not have made it down the road with all the trucks, rickshaws, bikes, people, cows, dogs and sellers cramming the road. So we grabbed our rucksacks and headed in a single file towards the crossing, meandering as we went along. It was about noon, the hotest part of the day. We have been travelling for over 12 hours. We started to loose our fellow travellers along the way. We lost the Germans and French – who were heading to Pokhara. Hence the reason I cannot remember their names – So it was myself, Kia, Norbie and Carrie who wandered across the Indian border crossing via passport control and walked into Nepal. I should waived into Nepal. As we entered Nepal we headed to a bus agent to book the bus to Kathmandu. As we were sitting discussing what bus to take – we choose the 3.45pm bus, which was lucky as it was the only choice - we realised that we did not visit Nepalise immigration. Myself and Kia already had our visa but Norbie and Carrie did not. So Kia – with my passport – Norbie and Carrie headed back to the border.
After lunch and banana buying we headed to our bus. They are called buses but in India they are more like coaches. No standing is possible. Buses in Nepal and India are a work of art. Kitch Art. A lot of the time the most popular colour for cars and taxis is dented, battered or smashed but not buses or trucks. A multi colour canvas. As we seated ourselves, we thought that the we have not done too bad. As the bus left we stoped for a second time at the bus station to picked more passengers. So now the bus was full. All seats taken. Then we stopped for a third time, fourth time, fifth time… All the way to Kathmandu. A stopping bus you may say what is unusual in this, well when the buses stopped people got on without people really getting off. People where sitting on stools in the corridor and star gazzing class on the top of the bus. The conductor never said no to a passenger. Later we realised we have taken a local bus and not a direct bus. Not a problem, at least it answered another question of how many people we can get in a Nepalise bus: An infinite number of people! The journey was even more crammed than the jeep. But we at least travelled with local people and enjoyed a good disco while travelling; Flashing green and red lights.
We were told that we would be arriving in kathmandu at 5.30am – we added at least another hour or 2 – A good time to arrive. But no we arrived at 2.30am. So we had to find a hostel. We found a taxi and asked him to take us to a Hostel Carrie found in a guide book. We discover fast that a taxi driver may say that he knows where a place is but it does not mean that he does. We did not find the hostel we want but we did find others. Unfortunately occupied. On the seventh attempt we found one and collasped to sleep at 4 am. We had been travelling for 28 hrs.
