Overland from Nepal to India (or visa versa)

There are several options for travelling overland to India from Nepal (or the other way around).  You can go overland at Nepalgange or at other points, but by far the most common common crossing point for travellers is via Sunauli.  In this page I describe how WE did it.

We were in Nepal and wanted to visit northern India.   We travelled firstly to Sauraha (Chitwan National Park) from Kathmandu and spent a wonderful few days here (see my Info Page on Chitwan).  You can easily travel to Chitwan or direct to the border at Sunauli from Pokhara, too.  We bought our bus tickets to Chitwan (Sauraha) from a reputable travel agent in Kathmandu, then later our bus ticket to Sunauli from a travel agent in Sauraha.  The bus from Kathmandu to Sunauli took 5 hrs and cost NR200 for adults in late 1997.  The bus from Sauraha to Sunauli (border) took 5 hrs and cost NR160.  Much of the route from Kathmandu to Sunauli is absolutely spectacular, so get a seat on the right hand side of the bus (or left hand side if travelling to Kathmandu or Pokhara from India).

The stories of travellers getting ripped off for bus packages from either Kathmandu or Pokhara to Varanasi (India) are plentiful.  you gat charged an exorbitant fee for a "through" ticket, when in reality you have to stay the night in Sunauli and change buses like everyone else.  You have no way of returning to make a complaint, so they do it with virtual impunity.  The tip is, don't get a package, buy a ticket for each leg separately (very simple to do).

You need to spend the night in the border town of Sunauli, and it won't be all that pleasant. Don't make our mistake and stay in a hotel on the main road, it is VERY noisy and dusty, and it starts VERY early! In Sunauli, buy a bus ticket to Varanasi the night before, probably from your hotel.  The next morning, simply walk across the very diffuse border, do the immigration stuff, and find the bus.  If you are going to Nepal from India and you don't have a visa for Nepal, you can buy it at the border (not sure if you can get a visa there for India). Be prepared to pay baksheesh if forced to!  The bus cost NR240 and it took 11 hours!  You will be welcomed to India by being "asked" to pay IR20 or so for each bag on the roof or luggage compartment.  In actual fact, you can refuse to pay (locals are NEVER asked to pay), but R20 is cheap peace of mind, I guess.

One option is to get a bus to Gorakhpur in India (about 3 hours from Sunauli) then a train to Varanasi, but I think that’s more trouble than its worth.   For a start, you need to be there on time and get on the right train, and you run the risk of missing a connection to Varanasi that day. Then there are the hassles of finding the station, buying the ticket etc etc.

Finally, we saved ourselves 3 days of travel by flying from Delhi back to Kathmandu 6 weeks later.  It cost US$140 one way in Jan 1998.  The flight took only 1 hour!  You have the option of the daily flights with Indian Airlines or Royal Nepal Airlines (RNAC).  At the time, RNAC flew before Indian A.   We bought our tickets a couple of weeks earlier from a travel agent in Jodhpur.

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