Because our travel is also a way to share our good tips, here you have our « Practical Information » category. Enjoy !
Today, we are talking to you about crossing the border between India and Nepal, from Siliguri to Kakharbitta.
Out trip was from Gangtok in Sikkim but generally, most of the people cross the border from Siliguri. Wherever you are in India, if you need to go to Nepal from the East Side, you need to look for buses or trains to Siliguri or New Jalpaiguri. Both cities are connected and everything is from there.
We are not able to help you with bus solutions from Siliguro to the border (but in India, no doubt about that) because we used Shared Jeep and it is probably the best and fastest solution you may have.
Shared jeeps are located here around Statue of Netaji. Ask people around to be sure to find the right jeep. But easy to find as they are anyway in the Hotel area.
The journey to the border is not very long. Maybe one hour.
Once we arrived at the border (indian side), locals recommended us to take a rickshaw because the border is long and around 12:00 pm, it is damn hot !!
Rickshaw costed us 150 Rps (but we left him more because it was longer than we expected and he was cycling under a killing sun) and brought us to the indian office for leaving stamp. Small office, a bit messy but good atmosphere.
Quickly, we had all document and crossed the river which is the border between the two countries. The rickshaw took us to the Nepalese immigration office. We got the visa on arrival for 30 US$. You need to say if you want a visa for 15 or 30 days. Price change according to the length of stay. Be sure to say the right time to the officer even if you are not sure. One guy told him maybe 15 days and he knew that he would stay 3 weeks… he got only 15 days visa and he has trouble now to extend his visa.
Once all administrative parts are done, rickshaw brought us few meters ahead where all nepalese buses leave. For us, it was Kathmandu. 17h bus. Night bus !
It is already a different atmosphere in Nepal. It was an easy border.
We are Ela & David, 2 citizens of the world. In quest of a new way of living, more respectful from the environment and the Humans, we travel slowly to discover new cultures, to look for inspirations and with a wish of sharing. Wants to know more?
