The Wandering Chocoholic

Butwal, Nepal

I’m in Nepal!

The long journey

Today began at the ungodly hour of 4:15am, when we left Varanasi and hit the road.

First, a six-hour train ride to Gorakhpur, which we spent mostly sleeping. It was pretty boring, moderately uncomfortable, and broken up only by the chai walas walking up and down the aisles with their constant chant of “chai? chai?” (Answer: yes, please.)

Then, a three-hour minibus drive to the Nepalese border, in a tiny, cramped van with our luggage strapped to the roof. We wound through Gorakhpur’s traffic, navigated around road construction, and stopped for lunch at a totally unremarkable and mediocre restaurant about halfway through the journey. My dosa was nothing to write home about, but it was my last meal in India so I suppose I should mention it.

Border crossing

The border crossing into Nepal was chaotic on the Indian side. We went into a small building to get stamped out of India, which took forever for no good reason other than This Is India. Then, the minibus crept slowly across the border, waiting in line behind endless trucks. About a half hour later, we crossed the official sign and, voila, we were in Nepal!

Nepalese border formalities were much more efficient, even despite the fact that most of us needed to buy our visa then and there. We handed over passports, photos and completed forms, and a few minutes later, voila, here’s your visa, enjoy your stay! The one wrinkle was that the guard didn’t want to accept my US $20 bill towards the $25 visa fee because it had a tiny rip in it; since it was the last cash I had, I was a bit stuck. Luckily Chris had a more acceptable $20 to trade me, and they let me in. Hopefully that was the very last cash crisis issue of the trip.

Once that was done, I had just enough time to pop into the Ncell shop to pick up a local SIM card, which also required a passport photo and thumbprints. So my thumbs were purple for the rest of the day. I don’t have any credit for it yet, but that’s okay, because there’s no signal yet either. I suspect there won’t be much of one until Pokhara.

Then, we stopped off at an ATM to withdraw Nepalese rupees. For the first time in ten days, we could drive up to an ATM, not wait in line at all, get cash, and leave. No stress, no muss, no fuss. I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting that was. It’s the little things that matter.

Saturday night in Butwal

We drove about another hour or so to our hotel, which is in the small town of Butwal, near Lumbini, not far from the border. This is just a conveniently-located overnight stop; we literally did nothing today except travel. But the hotel is quite nice, with a rooftop restaurant, swimming pool and resort. It also has the best shower of the trip so far.

For the first time this trip, I finally feel like I’m on vacation.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant — good food, the usual slow service. I had my first momos (Nepalese dumplings) of the trip, and washed them down with Everest beer. Then, we headed off to abuse the hotel WiFi and get to sleep. After all, it had been… I don’t know how many hours since we woke up, and I’d prefer not to think about it.

There’s a giant party going on by the pool, which includes karaoke. It’s kind of funny to hear the drunk guys massacre Adele. Beats the sound of honking horns anyway. (Chris disagrees with me; she prefers the horns.)

Nepal observations

A few exciting things about Nepal so far:

• No cash crisis. Being able to stroll up to an ATM and withdraw cash, no queue, no stress. It’s the little things, I tell ya.
• Relative efficiency of bureaucracy. Okay, very limited sample to go on so far. But compared to getting stamped out of India, getting stamped into Nepal was a snap. I hope this is a good sign of things to come.
• Totally unique time zone. After crossing the border, we set our watches ahead 15 minutes. That’s right; Nepal is more Newfoundland than Newfoundland; a half-hour offset is too plebeian for them, so the time zone here is GMT +5:45. For reference, that puts us 10 hours and 45 minutes ahead of Montreal right now. (Fun with flags fact: Nepal is also the only country in the world to have a non-rectangular flag. Vive la difference!)
• Immediate respite from the chaos. Nepal is a poor country too, but as soon as we crossed the border, the landscape changed. Gone were the piles of trash, the chaotic horn honking, the cows and dirt and smog. The air feels cleaner here. The buildings, while simple, are prettier. There’s room to breathe. I think we’re all feeling a sense of relief for being here. Not that I didn’t appreciate India, because I did, but in many ways it felt like a battle every moment of every day. I think I experienced India, but I get the feeling I’m really going to enjoy Nepal.
• The purple bus. Our home away from home for the next week is a purple minibus. It’s comfy, cute, and the driver seems willing to turn up the radio and play some tunes.
• Everest beer — sure, it tastes the same as any generic commercial lager, but it has a picture of Mount Everest on the bottle, which is pretty cool.
• Momos. Nepal’s answer to dumplings. I have a feeling I’ll be eating a lot of these.

We’re just here in Butwal overnight. Tomorrow we’re off to see some temples and then to visit a national park. It’s highly unlikely I’ll have much WiFi or phone signal until we reach Pokhara on Tuesday, so the next few blogs might come on a bit of a delay. But stay tuned; I’ll check in when I can.
Nepal, you’re all right so far. Can’t wait to see more!