India-Nepal Border crossing: a harrowing bus journey

Nepal border

The border crossing from India to Nepal is a rather involved trip—I only recommend it for those that have the time and/or can’t afford to fly. Flights between Delhi and Kathmandu are plentiful and cheap, so if that will work into your schedule then just do it. Believe me. Don’t get me wrong—the Nepal countryside is beautiful with spectacular views, but it is a trying two days. Especially during the monsoon season, you don’t want to be on those roads.

There are also flights from Varanasi to Kathmandu and possibly Pokhara, but these are pricier and less frequent. Faced with the choice of $200+ plane tickets or a 2-day land border crossing, we went with the latter; in hindsight though, that $200 keeps sounding better and better.

Logistically, expect things to take 2 days for a land crossing. You may get lucky and fly through the border crossing in time to catch the last buses onward from Sunauli to Pokhara and Kathmandu by 11 am, but don’t count on it. And especially in rain, do not trust your life to a local bus here as the drivers certainly do not leave much margin for error. In any case, our time was unpleasant enough breaking it into two days, so I can only imagine that being miserable trying to rush through it.

I should state up front that while slow, this is a halfway pleasant journey with breathtaking views in nice weather. Our bus ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu a week later was exemplary of this. Do not take weather here lightly though, and do be careful, especially in monsoon season.

Here’s our story.

The route 

First off, here’s the route:

• Varanasi > Gorakpur (overnight train)
• Gorakpur > Sunauli (local bus, 3 hrs.)
• Sunauli > Lumbini hotel (local bus, 1 hr.)
• Lumbini > Pokhara via Sunauli (...it’s complicated) 

This course took us a full two days—as in 48 hours—including an overnight train, followed by a series of local buses culminating in Lumbini close to the border for a one-night stay, and then a 6-hour bus ride to Pokhara that wound up being a 15-hour nightmare bus marathon. More on that below.

The train

Our journey was cursed from the onset. Maybe Kumar secretly jinxed us with some kind of Hindu curse or something, who knows. Ok probably not, but it wasn’t pleasant.

While waiting at the Varanasi station for our 12:30 departure, it started to rain. Now let’s be clear—when I say rain, I don’t mean a light rain; I believe Forrest Gump referred to it as “big ‘ol fat rain.” For a second there, I saw flashbacks to the flooding streets of Delhi and Jodhpur, thinking of the disarray downtown Varanasi must be with all this. This torrential downpour would be our travel companion for the next two days.

This of course meant that our train was delayed. We waited with another traveler until the train finally arrived some hour or so later than scheduled.

While waiting, we noticed a more-than-small wrinkle in our plans—our tickets were actually for the day before!! [Traveler’s note: when buying tickets for trains departing after midnight, be mindful of the dates.]

In our case, luckily this was a train that departed every day. Upon debating how to handle the situation, we decided to throw the dice by pulling the tourist card and feigning ignorance. As long as we board the train, we’ll at least get to our destination and everything will work out, we think.

We cautiously boarded the train—was someone already sitting in our “assigned” berth? We decided to nonchalantly walk by and check, then run and hide somewhere as stowaways until the train departed if the seat was taken. Luckily, no one was there... or were our tickets actually for the proper day? I’m still not sure, to be honest.

Relieved for the moment, we take our seats and wait for the train to depart. It’s already almost 2 am at this point, so we’re ready to crash. Just our luck though, the ticket master decides to make his rounds BEFORE the train pulls out. Great. Apprehensively, I hand the tickets over, prepared to act surprised when he tells us that we have the wrong tickets.

To our pleasant surprise, that moment never came! Whether we had the right tickets or he simply couldn’t be bothered to deal with the situation properly I don’t know, but he simply handed the tickets back and went on his way. Maybe the berth occupants had just gotten off and he was feeling nice. At this point, we didn’t care—we just wanted to sleep, and sleep we did.

The best momos EVER in Lumbini

We awake just before arriving in Gorakpur. There was a short, but relatively painless scramble to find the now familiar cramped minibus to Sunauli. Three hours later, we arrive in Sunauli and walk to the border. A little paperwork and $40/person later, we're in Nepal. It’s still raining, but we feel liberated. Gone are the pushy salesmen of India! Gone are the scams!


A friendly local directs us to the bus to nearby Lumbini. Before departing, we decided that Lumbini would be a more pleasant place to crash for the night than Sunauli. Now having done it, I'd stick with this assessment. I even half wish we had stayed there for the day as Lumbini is a small destination in its own right, being the birthplace of Buddha and all. A day should be more than enough for most people though.

A harrowing bus ride

In the morning, it was still raining. At 6 am, we board a bus to Pokhara that we booked through the hotel—as we would find out shortly, however, this would not be our last bus of the day.

The non-local tourist buses onward depart from Sunauli, so we first take a connecting bus ride there. An hour later, we board the bus for Pokhara in Sunauli. The ride was bumpy, but that was that was the least of our troubles.

A few hours into the (supposedly) 6-hour trip, we hit our first snag. Traffic lined up as far as the eye could see—a bridge was out apparently. After waiting for what seemed like about an hour, the bus owner waves us all off the bus and herds us onto a smaller local bus. I don’t think he wanted to put his bus through what he had planned for us.

Now on our third bus, we turned down a small road into a valley. The cramped bus drives down an even bumpier road until it dead ends at a river... or so we thought. THE BUS DRIVES RIGHT THROUGH THE RIVER AND KEEPS GOING!! On a particularly bad bump in the road, someone sitting on the rear bench seat is bounced hard enough to hit the ceiling. At this point in the journey, we were still highly amused by it all.

The bus plods on slowly, going back to the main drag and eventually on through Chitwan event-free. Our lunch stop was less than desirable, most likely a consequence of being switched to a local bus.

Obstacle #3: river fording

After lunch, we come to our second obstacle on this course: an overflowing river. At least one truck got stuck, requiring the locals to get out and push across some rather swift and treacherous-looking currents. Amazingly, they all sported shit-eating grins from ear to ear. This sort of thing is a regular occurrence to them; maybe it’s their only source of entertainment. Once our turn comes, of course our super bus has no problem powering its way across, although I did feel the bus being forced down current maybe 50 cm.

Given stories I’ve heard, I’m sure that more than one bus has capsized here. The locals seem almost proud to regale us with tales of overturned buses, or buses tumbling down the mountainside in a landslide. Mother Nature can be a real bitch before she’s had her coffee, it appears.

We weren't out of the proverbial water just yet. Further down the road, we hit our next roadblock: this time a landslide. We waited for at least an hour or two. Then, just when it seemed like we’d either have to either stay the night or walk across and take our chances finding a new bus, the road gets cleared. We had actually chosen the latter and walked towards the damage when things started moving. Not entirely enamored with our local bus, we elect to hitch a ride in a tourist bus for the remainder of the trip.

Now in our fourth bus, it’s already dinnertime. After a brief stop at a much nicer place than lunch, we hit our final obstacle in the outskirts of Pokhara. As a recurring theme it took us quite a while to find out exactly what was happening, but we finally piece together that there was a fatal accident up ahead involving a motorcycle and a bus. Remember to wear your helmet, people!

By this point, I felt the onset of sickness, starting to develop a fever. The 14 hours now in four buses were taking their toll. With all the weather we had seen to this point, I was starting to think we were cursed or something.

A fellow rider put things in perspective a bit though. His words of wisdom: we all have the same luck. True enough—we were all stuck in this together. We even all have the same chance of getting sick. I should have expected such sagely advice from the country that gave us Buddhism.

Another hour of waiting and possibly even a bribe to the policemen later, we finally enter the home stretch of our voyage. Through torrential rains, two rivers, a landslide and an accident, 15 hours and four buses is what it took to get to Pokhara.


As I mentioned in the opening, Nepal can and will show you the harsh and unforgiving nature of... nature. Shortly after our arrival in Pokhara, a group of tourists died in an avalanche climbing nearby Mount Annapurna in the opening thralls of climbing season. As we found out, monsoons are not to be taken lightly, especially on poorly-maintained roads. Accidents can and do happen. If it is raining, it might be worth staying put for another day to wait for things to subside.

On the flip side, the natural beauty of Nepal is truly a sight to behold. In clear weather, a ride from Pokhara to Sunauli or Kathmandu will take you up on jaw-dropping cliffs along mountain rivers and through undulating hills. Behind what would pass as the mountains in any other country, the Himalayas add yet another snowy layer to the backdrop.

I was sick for 3-4 days in Pokhara following this trip, but I couldn't think of a more pleasant place to veg out. Very nice little town. More on that next time.

On the bus ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu

Visa details

The visa process for Nepal is straightforward. Visas are available upon arrival at $25 for 15 days, $40 for 30 days and $100 for 90 days. You’ll need a passport photo.

Also, be mindful that if you plan on returning to India, a multiple stay visa for India requires you to give them your detailed itinerary back home when you apply for the visa. Others have told us that refraining from doing so requires you to spend 2 months out of India before returning.

We think we would've been ok as we gave our itinerary in Tokyo and our visas didn't have any language to that effect. We flew from Kathmandu directly to our connecting flight from Delhi to Istanbul on the way out though, so didn't get a chance to find out. Note that we are American and Japanese, and we applied for our Indian visas in Japan.