Made it to the Border Hello Nepal

I know I have said that arriving in a different country is exciting and it is but never before on this trip have I been so pleased to leave a country. The main reason for this was the driving!! I have ridden in some of the worst cities one can think of as far as traffic congestion goes but India tops them all. I think that if I entered with nine lives then they have all gone, every day when we got into the hotel I was truly pleased to be of the road, if we had landed in India first I don’t think I could have done it. I love riding the bike but here it was so stressful I was exhausted every day.

We had so many near misses with over loaded trucks and cars that think just as long as they blow their horns they have the right of way. There are no laws here to say you can’t do this or that or you can’t drive if your vehicle has no tread on the tires or if the brakes don’t work ANYTHING GOES and that makes driving a huge risk, So to say that I was pleased to see the border well come give it a try and you will know what I mean.

Dreaming of Buddha on the way to Nepal

India itself was one of the dirtiest countries we have seen so far. I remember reading in one of Ted Simons books (Dreaming of Jupiter) that he had never seen it so bad and I can confirm that all we saw was dirt and that is dirt of every description. 

After all the paper work to get in
 Getting out was easy

The people of India are however very resilient. They work hard like I have never seen before and they can make most things work again when we in the west would just throw it out and buy another one, they can make a water pump power a pickup truck, a bicycle into a portable tool and knife sharpener and manage to get a truck to haul a load that is three times its capacity and the whole time do this at break neck speed. One person told us it is how they have to be just to survive. They are friendly and inquisitive but do not know about personal space but with so many millions of people in this country nobody has any space!! (India gives birth to the population of Australia every year) And I think that is the reason the roads in India are so bad, in every other country we have visited once out of the city the mad traffic or rush hour is gone.  India rush hour never ends anywhere not even in the villages at five in the evening.

You bet I'm happy to be here

So after spending nearly four weeks and doing around five thousand kilometers we think we have seen a lot of India and we where both pleased to see the border and enter into Nepal. Getting out was a lot easier than getting in No fees were taken and it took less than forty five minutes to get the carnet and our passports  stamped out.  

Sure happy to be here

Entering into Nepal was easy too, the only cost was $25.00 for our Visa and we needed photos of our self’s for those (which we happen to have) Show them the bike, stamp in the carnet and off we went. They even had a tourist info where we got free maps and info on what to do while we are here. NICE

We checked into a guest house in Lumbini thirty minutes down the road and got a beer.  The whole place seemed to resonate with a different sound.

Namaste and welcome to Nepal!!