I love travelling and
learning about different cultures. Here, I am going to share my experience from
one of my recent travels that I embarked on with one of my friends to Gorakhpur
(India) from Kathmandu (Nepal) using public transportations. It’s quite cheap
and easy-yet adventurous to travel between these two countries by land.
Day 1
We went to Kathmandu bus
stop at around 11 am and had to get our tickets from a counter, there were many
counters and it was quite confusing to find the correct. A small tip, be prepared
for a little harassment as there’d be many people yelling and trying to help
you. But nevertheless, we got our ticket, and a man led us to our bus to Bhairahawa.
There are plenty of
local buses available every hour and the journey will cost you 550 NPR (5 USD).
The bus ride to Bhairahawa wasn’t too bad and it took almost 10 hours to reach
our destination, with a few stops during the course of the journey.
By the time we reached
Bhairahawa it was late and dark, therefore, we decided to stayover in
Bhairahawa. There are no hostels available in this town, hence, we booked a
hotel called “Daisy Park” which cost us around 1500 NPR (13 USD) for a twin
sharing room.
I have read stories
about people being threatened and forced to buy overpriced bus tickets on the
Indian side of the border, even in broad daylight, so it was advised to not
cross the border at night.
 |
| Kathmandu Bus Station |
 |
| Bhairawaha Sunauli Road |
Day 2
Around 8 in the morning
we took a local bus from Bhairawaha bus stop to Sunauli, which cost me 15 NPR
(0.13 USD). Once we reached the Nepali border, we located the Nepal immigration
office on the left side of the border and we had our passport stamped. Then we
walked towards India through the Nepal-India gate.
There were no security
checks since we were foreigners but after crossing the gate, it was quite
difficult to locate the Indian immigration office. We got some help from the
locals and walked for about 15mins (Around 750 metres) from the gate to reach
the Indian immigration office.
We go the visa stamped
from the Indian office and then took a local bus to Gorakhpur, which cost 112
INR (1.60 USD), after a 4-hour uncomfortable bus ride, we reached Gorakhpur.
 |
| Nepal Immigration Office |
 |
| Border Gates |
 |
| Border Gates |
 |
| Indian Immigration Office |
 |
| Sunauli Bus Stop |
It’s difficult to
exchange your currency into Indian rupees near the border, so it’s better to
change some in Kathmandu.
From Gorakhpur you can
take a train or bus to most of the cities in India, we took a bus to Agra which
cost me 1300 INR (18 USD)
1. Kathmandu to Bhairawaha (10 hours) (550 NPR ~ 5
USD)
2. Bhairawaha to Sunauli (20 mins) (15 NPR ~ 0.13
USD)
3. Sunauli to Gorakhpur (4 hours) (112 INR ~ 1.60
USD)
P.S - I got the Indian
visa from my homeland (Sri lanka)
If you’re embarking on this
journey and have any questions, feel free to ask me sending me an email or a
message on Instagram and I would be happy to answer them for you.
