A Passage to India (after Hemingway) 29 December
We thought it would be exciting to travel overland between Nepal & India - see the countryside as we went, the little villages etc etc. Very romantic ideal, but crap in practice. Overland travel in Asia is not recommended.
Bus would have taken 17 hours to India border from Kathmandu (and these are not Aussie Greyhound buses, but we'd be sardines in rust buckets). So we cut that & flew domestic. Costs USD$40 for Indian/Nepal nationals, but USD$100 (!) for foreigners - for a 45 minute flight. Ripped off. Kathmandu airport is essentially a do-it-yourself airport. Sit on own luggage while wait. Check yourself in as staff too useless to do it for you. Discover new taxes you must pay before you depart, as no one else will tell you until the boarding gate. Conduct own security check as the frisk as like being whipped with feather of small, timid duck.
Taxi from regional Bhardapur airport to border was huge drama. Leaving airport, met a very friendly & generous Mrs. Kumai who offered to share her booked taxi with us. The criminal taxi racket at the airport frowned on the whole affair & harassed us for almose 40 minutes! Shouting (in Nepali & Hindi, of course), barracading the taxi from leaving, rocking the vehicle, wriggling their hands through the window- we feared for our luggage on the roof! But after the fight, our taxi driver drove forcefully off. We're fine & our luggage is fine. Thank goodness.
We shared Mrs. Kumai's taxi (very generously) all the way to bustling Indian town of Siliguri & from there into a shared jeep (think Toyota Landcruiser from 1970, with 16 people inside. Fantastic. Cheap.) up, up, up into the northern Indian hills to the gorgeous little hillstation of Darjeeling. Slow, winding drive but breathtaking scenery.
Bus would have taken 17 hours to India border from Kathmandu (and these are not Aussie Greyhound buses, but we'd be sardines in rust buckets). So we cut that & flew domestic. Costs USD$40 for Indian/Nepal nationals, but USD$100 (!) for foreigners - for a 45 minute flight. Ripped off. Kathmandu airport is essentially a do-it-yourself airport. Sit on own luggage while wait. Check yourself in as staff too useless to do it for you. Discover new taxes you must pay before you depart, as no one else will tell you until the boarding gate. Conduct own security check as the frisk as like being whipped with feather of small, timid duck.
Taxi from regional Bhardapur airport to border was huge drama. Leaving airport, met a very friendly & generous Mrs. Kumai who offered to share her booked taxi with us. The criminal taxi racket at the airport frowned on the whole affair & harassed us for almose 40 minutes! Shouting (in Nepali & Hindi, of course), barracading the taxi from leaving, rocking the vehicle, wriggling their hands through the window- we feared for our luggage on the roof! But after the fight, our taxi driver drove forcefully off. We're fine & our luggage is fine. Thank goodness.
We shared Mrs. Kumai's taxi (very generously) all the way to bustling Indian town of Siliguri & from there into a shared jeep (think Toyota Landcruiser from 1970, with 16 people inside. Fantastic. Cheap.) up, up, up into the northern Indian hills to the gorgeous little hillstation of Darjeeling. Slow, winding drive but breathtaking scenery.
posted by Aditi & Brent at 5:22 pm
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