!NDIA ; Date of expiry visa november 20th 2018
We are in Lahore in the hangar of the IFC and we have 8 days of visa left to cross India and arrive in Nepal. Daan and Yolene found four new walls and a roof for their house so mission accomplished. And now it is with some regret that we have to go and leave our friends for a short time. For good reason: the expiry date of our Indian visa and, despite all this adventure, named Underpass # 3, which we have overcome together; we must also refocus our energy on the organization of the new years eve party in Nepal.
“Anyway, we will continue. ”
It is with a bit of a knot in the stomach that we leave the hangar this day after a well-watered evening in Mouthfull / Lahore organized to celebrate the new walls of the truck and our departure. On the program: turntables and stilt performance. (Note that since Turkey, speakers will have surfaced in every country!)
Indeed we will miss Pakistan.
The kindness of the people we met and their generosity, the “dynamic” atmosphere, carnaval-tank trucks accompanied by their symphony of horns, smells in the streets from sweetest scents to the foulest odors that are unique to this country. The sympathy of the hangar workers with whom we lived for 3 weeks, the curiousity and amazement on their faces when we tested the speakers before the evening. It is high time to hoist the sails and a phrase from our friend “Momo The Welder” still rings in my head:
“So you must already leave? You must continue your mission? “
The Wagha Border border closes at 15:00. We are not early.
We arrived at 14:45, we were parked on a small parking lot, and the usual pattern followed, human passports, canine passports, customs pass, and go see on foot. But this time we do not go to a customs office but are led on green and white stands. We will attend the famous ceremony of Wagha Border where on each side Pakistan and India, drums resound, voices sing in mics amplified by a big sound system, and soldiers make a choreography ….. spectacular. The crowd is delirious. The party is over.
Mother! India, it’s not for us tonight, we’ll be forced to cross the border tomorrow morning.
The portal opens and an intense emotion floods us. I do not realize yet but for my part I just realized a dream of a teenager …
This border post is huge and majestic but a bit deserted. The formalities of the exit of Pakistan are carried out quickly, for India it is a little long … While searching the trucks the bag of skulls and bones, kept for so many miles all along the road for the deco of the parties, caught their interest.
For cultural reasons it won’t be possible to enter India with this treasure bag. After fruitless negotiations we are forced to attend the massacre. 15min of bricks in the bag to reduce our bones to dust. In short, after 5 hours we are in India!
Arrived at Amritsar, the count is now down to six days to arrive in Nepal, with 1400km ahead. But the pulley of the water pump of the Piano Iveco is doing its own thing and we will spend 24h looking for the holy grail, a left-threaded nut.
As far as Luck goes, we now take a big highway, we don’t see much of India but move “fast”.
Days -3 before the expiry of the visa and this time it is the key of the pulley that is the source of the problem, and after a big day of mechanics the problem will solved with a key cut for five rupees.
Until Sunauli, the border crossing between India and Nepal that we want to use, the road is deteriorating. But the landscape is wonderful, the tropical vegetation is flourishing, we see more and more animals including an elephant who will hit the tiles of Lola.
We arrive at Sunauli, in a busy street, with heavy traffic. The Ark of Nepal is at the end of the street. If you ever pass by here, know that to carry out the formalities of the exit of India, the passport office is in the street 500 meters before the border and the customs post is 300 meters after that. The entrance to Nepal is very simple and unhindederd. A sign reads “Welcome to the Land of Peace.”
For the Nepalese visa it is done at the entrance, 90 days for 100 $. We arrived on the last day of a Nepalese festival and under the porch of the passport offices many Nepalese were playing music. Throughout the streets, several musical sources sound. It’s been dark already for a few hours so it’s time for us to go to sleep.
Itinerary: Lumbini to Pokhara. 198km 24 hours drive
… and that’s when we got back to the jungle…
A breathtaking landscape, a bit like the road. It’s unheard of for us five, we look like kids on Christmas Morning.
One evening on the banks of a River some Nepali join us, help us to prepare the fires, and we were delighted to share these moments with them. It was simple and effective.
We have now arrived in Pokhara, our trip seems to take another turn, the streets swarm with Europeans, we can even hear right, left of “DAMN. Did you see the plates of the trucks? ”
After an hour we meet some French who tell us that the truck of a Spaniard is parked at the lake. We go to meet him.
A French couple tells us that right now a trance festival is being organized on a plot 7km from Pokhara. To get the info of this evening you have to go to the Umbrella Cafe! Which is where we go; with a quick result, we have an appointment tomorrow with the organizers of the festival to find a location for our New Year’s party! Very quickly things take a good turn! More to follow….
