Bikes lined up outside a doorway where the owners were hiding from the rain

Kids as is their want found the rain to just give new ways to play in the street.

The streets after flooding had subsided

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2003-09-01 - Banbassa - Mahendranagar (Nepal) (Day 139)

I didn't sleep well as could be predicted, though I'm very happy the bed bugs stayed out of my sleeping bag and when the Tata trucks started with their horns just after 6:00am, I gave in, got up and started packing everything back into the bags. The room was covered with a mess since I had unpacked everything I own so that the fan might dry out a little of the dampness. That being accomplished and having a stomach that was still on strike if it could only have the road food breakfast of "omelet / chapatti", I prepared the bike to go. The rain started well before I was finished and quickly increased to a very hard downpour. It really wasn't a day to get on the bike but I was assured my stomach was not going to give in and eat the road-rood and there was potential for dying of starvation even though I was directly above a restaurant. So off I went into the rain.

The first part of the journey was strange in that I was driving on a small track, seemingly too small even for a jeep across the top of a very long damn. There were no people around and it was very confusing on if this was the border and if I was going to be shot or something if I did not get my passport properly stamped and all. In the end the border was past the dam though it was through a locked gate, it was too early for it to be opened, and I was sitting in the rain for 20 minutes until a guard came and opened it.

Down into the border village it was a dirty little village of a few small shops on a dirt road that had become deep sticky mud keeping me almost sliding instead of driving into town. The Indian exit stamp was straightforward enough, the long document that I was leaving though the immigration officials insisted on stamping that I'd exited from Delhi for some reason which I didn't feel comfortable with but so be it. Off I go and come to another check post, which looks at my passport again. After looking at it they tell me to move along down the road which looked to be off into the villages of Nepal. No one had marked the passport with a stamp for Nepal so I kept asking for a stamp, which the guards did not understand at all. I also knew I had to pay customs for the bike so when I finally mentioned customs they pointed me back the way I came. Heading back I'm asking about for the customs house and find it is right next to the Indian office. Ok, that makes sense, guess I just missed it. There was no clear pattern as I was the only one who was bothering with passports and stamps, the Indians and Nepalis flowing unimpeded across the dam from either direction.

I walk into the office and yes they were customs so I sit down and watch as the officer slowly thumbs through every single stamp of my passport, which now has about 100 pages). After spending 10 minutes just sitting there, he starts asking the basic questions, name, nationality. Its right here on the cover - "United States of America" and the first page that you'd looked at for five minutes has my name on it, I responded, temper a bit short as I'm sitting in my own puddle waiting for him to finish, quite cold and very hungry. "Ok, you can go then..." Huh? What about the stamps for Nepal? "Oh, that's further down. This is Indian customs" Urrgh!

So on I go, the same guard box stops me again as they've changed shifts and looking through my passport again and finding, yes they already have the information in the logs I'm waved on down the road. The road has already changed from deep mud to perfect pavement and I head down another kilometer to another guard box. This was the Nepalese visa office. Going in the officers fill out the forms for my visa and attachs the stamp to the passport, all well and good, then ask for US$ 30. The following conversation ensues:
Me - Can I pay in rupees, that being all I have?
Officer - If you have 100 rupee notes, ok. (100 rupee notes being worth about 2 dollars)
Me - "I only have one, can't I use 500 rupee or 1000 rupee notes (which I have a pile of - ALL of my money being in 1000 rupee notes)?"
Officer - "No, they are not valid in Nepal."
Me - "HUH? I'm 1 kilometer from the border of the second largest country in the world - and you are telling me their currency is not valid?
Officer -"Yes, sorry. Please pay, US$"
Me - "I don't have any US$!"
Officer -"Sorry, you can't enter Nepal then."
Me - "Is there a bank I can change money in?"
Officer -"Sorry banks will not accept 500 or 1000 rupee notes, only 100 rupees"
Me - "Ok, what about Visa cash advance?"
Officer -"Sorry only in Kathmandu"


As I've already made yet another puddle and its still cold I'm not happy. I can't go back to India as my visa has now been canceled and the only place to get a new visa is Kathmandu, 1000km from here and I can't go forward as I can't pay the visa fee. I can't even say, "Hell with it! And get on a plane as there isn't an airport!"

Me - "Ok, I ONLY have Indian 1000 rupee notes. What should I do?"
Officer -"You can TRY the money changer across the street, they may do you a favor but they will charge extra."
Me - "Lovely"


I walk across the street getting drenched anew in what has become the worst downpour I've seen yet. I show the money to the money changer who reluctantly agrees to change the money but takes an extra 5% as a service charge. I walk back across the street, again drenched and seeing that the luggage on my bike is absolutely soaked through, so much for dry clothes...and into the visa office.

Me - Ok, how much in Nepali rupees?
Officer - I'm sorry you can only pay in US$.
Me - But they don't change to US$ across the street do they?
Officer - No.
Me- So, I can't pay in Nepali currency?
Officer - No.
Me - What do you want me to do then?
Officer - Well, I could go change it at the bank for you...but of course that will be a little extra.
Me - Fine! How much is it then!
Officer - 2000 rupees (about 46 US$)
Me - Its an extra 50% if I pay in Rupees???
Officer - Not quite 50%....but close, you are good at math arn't you?...


Great, I'm in the country 10 minutes and I'm swindled by corrupt border guards. Frankly I'm just not in the mood to argue as I'm too hungry and want to get dry so I pay it and move on.

30 meters down the road I'm stopped again by Nepali customs and brought into a small building that is already packed with locals trying to escape from the rain by hiding in the customs office. They ask for the paperwork for the bike so I go out and pull off one of the side boxes, trudge back in with it and there in the office. The motorcycle papers are at the bottom and I pull them out, starting another conversation..

Officer - "No, your registration card please"
Me - "this is all they gave me."
Officer - "'I'm sorry but you need a registration card to bring the bike into Nepal"


It is at this point that I realize that the registration card was being sent to Lalli Sing as it was going to take another 4 weeks so I was going to pick it up from him, the plan being to return to Delhi before coming to Nepal - that would probably have been something good to remember BEFORE I crossed the border. Oh boy!

Me - "this is the purchase slip and these are all the papers I got from the dealer. The registration MUST be in there"
Officer -"its not"
Me - "Well, these are all I have."


We sit staring at each other. We both know I can't go back and unless he ok's it, I'm not going forward.

Officer -"Are you coming back through here when you return to India?"
Me - "No, I'm going to Sikim"
Silence
Officer -"alright. So how many days are you going to stay?"
Me - "60 days"
Officer -"I'm sorry you can only stay a maximum of 30 days"
Me - "Fine, whatever. Nepal doesn't want me to spend my money for an extra month here, I'll only stay 30 days!"


The officer takes the fee, gives me the customs document for 30 days and I'm out of there! It only takes a few minutes to get into what is a nice clean little town with broad streets and nice looking buildings and I can already tell Nepal is going to be very different from India - just crossing the border from the slum village of Banbassa to the Nepal side was night and day. There is a hotel just a couple of minutes up the road and I check in even though its only 9:30am, I'm clearly not going to make much progress today.

Room service and Star Movies are the order for the rest of the day in the room which now has every surface and place to hang something covered with my belongings spread out in the hopes of getting dry. Welcome to Nepal!

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