I’m travelling to Kathmandu via rail and road from India and would like to connect with individuals who are doing the same (or at least as the final leg). This may be out of cost concerns, or (for non-residents) because you’re also visiting India.
There are a few connected airports in India close enough to to Kathmandu that a bus trip will take around 12 hours: Gorakhpur, Darbhanga and Bagdogra (this one may be a far stretch). I’m myself taking a train passing through Darbhanga and ending at the border town of Jaynagar, from where I plan to cross into Janakpur in Nepal, and then find a bus from there. A more common crossing is via another border crossing Raxaul–Birgunj. If there are enough of us, we may be able to hire a van for ourselves.
A couple of notes of caution.
- The viability of this route may depend on visa situation. On the Indian side, I have heard that foreigners with e-visas can exit via any border, but when entering must come by one of few ports that support e-visas. This may cause issues on the reverse trip. I’m completely unaware of visa-on-arrival or e-visa facility for land crossings into Nepal.
- While I am floating the idea of hiring a van for ourselves, I will not be able to coordinate it myself.
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@ajinkya, thank you for sharing all of this! I am sure it will be helpful to many.
If it turns out that there is a group who will be traveling via the same route and it makes sense to hire a van, I could reach out to our local partners in Kathmandu to see if they have any resources or know of any contacts in the area who may be able to help. Just keep me posted and I am happy to try!
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Hi @ajinkya , Thanks for sharing the details, I am travelling from Kerala and this information is helpful as I didn’t choose a travel method yet. I will also keep updated.
Thanks @jamaica . Hopefully we do get to deal with this problem.
@salmanfarisvp looking forward to seeing you again, and possibly joining in some part of the trip. Highly unlikely, but in case you’re planning on taking a train all the way, the dates have just opened for reservation, and we’re already in waiting lists.
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Interesting!
We have an opportunity to also present the upcoming GOSH at indiaFOSS in Bengaluru, a week before our event in Kathmandu. I am personally planning to be there to host the booth.
A trip like this would be great, but i should be up in Kathmandu a few days before the gathering, as i am part of the orga workgroup…
what are your estimated travel dates?
My train arrives in Jaynagar @ ~02:00 on 1st October. I pass through Varanasi and Darbhanga. @dusjagr how soon do you need to be there and are you exploring taking a train all the way (you’d be looking at 45+ hours of travel with long possible delays)?
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A little more update on the visa front. On the Indian side, Raxaul is an admissible entry point with e-visas [1]. On the Nepali side, Birgunj is an admissible entry point with e-visas and has visa-on-arrival facility [2].
Thus, it seems the Raxaul-Birgunj border is the only [3] option if we want to travel together with people who need visas. My original plan for Jaynagar-Janakpur might not work in this case. On the positive side, this allows for a return trip to be possible as well.
My plan is relatively flexible since I can get off the train earlier and make my way to Raxaul separately. Or if everyone in the group can make the journey, Jaynagar-Janakpur is currently the only (passenger?) rail in Nepal.
If anyone is planning on taking this route (or even if flying in), it may save you time to get an e-visa for Nepal as well instead of going for visa-on-arrival. This is based on experience with another country.
[1] https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/tvoa.html (Note that different parts of the website seem to say different things)
[2] https://nepaliport.immigration.gov.np/
[3] There are other options into Nepal and a couple more into India that are further from Kathmandu which may be interesting for some.
If your return plans involve a train in India, you should look into buying tickets now (i.e. 60 days before). This applies only for those trying to get a regular ticket; the foreign tourist tickets work differently.
Also, something I just learned: if you’re an Indian citizen flying directly from Nepal to a third country, it seems you need to obtain prior written permission from the Indian embassy. So either do that (which may be hard within the timeline of your stay for the event) or travel into India first.