(very) mini break to India... without a passport

This last week I have been down in the hot hot southern plains of Nepal... very close to the Indian boarder, which was how I ended up having a mini break in India... without my passport! So after work one evening we got a rickshaw and went a couple of miles down the road and across a bridge and into India. No one really said anything, but perhaps it was obvious we weren't going far in a rickshaw? Once in India I posed for a photo (see below)... smelt the lovely green smell of the Forrest we appeared to be in, and then went back into Nepal... where there was a short moment of panic as they demanded to know where I had come from (India?)... did I have a visa? umm... well yes in my passport hundreds of kilometers away in Kathmandu! Fortunately my colleague managed to persuade them I wasn't an illegal immigrant and no great tragedy occurred!

In the cycle rickshaw on the way to India

Under the barrier, out of Nepal, over the bridge...

...under the 'customs' barrier... and into India... Dudwa National Park to be precise

Me in India!

Other random interesting parts of the trip included the glorious and large alpine scene that adorned the guestroom I was staying in above the office (see photo below)... and the fact that the night guard appeared to be drying his Y-fronts on the banister outside my bedroom, so whenever I left the room I was greeted by the sight of them... such a thrill.


There were also frequent power cuts. On most annoyingly happened the moment they were announcing the winner of American Idol. Can you imagine the stress? who was going to win... would it be Jordin or Blake? Fortunately I was able to call my friend Joy and establish that Jordin did actually win. Otherwise I just don't know what I would have done... possibly had a minor nervous breakdown?

The district I was in (Kailali) is a bit of a Maoist hotspot... largely because in the past the majority of the land has been owned by a few landowners, and much of the population were landless slaves... this is ripe ground for Maoism! Even though the bonded labour set up has been outlawed, there are still many many landless people. We saw quite a few living in small huts, covered with blue plastic sheeting in hospital compounds... (see photo below).

others had been given very small pieces of land by the government and were eking out a living on these. As they are low caste, their prospects in life are hard. A very different type of poverty from that in the mountainous areas which are so isolated!

Small family hut in southern Nepal, the land is not really large enough for the family to grow many crops to eat

Water Buffalo grazing

Typical transport... from bricks, wood, to sick people...

Anyways, there was evidence of the Maoist action in the bombed out customs buildings that we passed... (see photo below)...


...and the high security level at the airport... ok so they were still crap in checking bags, and although the body frisking was slightly more rigorous (the girl certainly made sure I wasn't stashing any grenades in my bra), i still could have taken whatever onto the plane... however considering this airport receives 1 flight per day, and this flight has a maximum of 20 people on it (including pilot, co-pilot, stewardess) there were several heavily armed army blokes, 5 not so heavily armed army people and at least 6 police and security types... and that was excluding the security post outside the airport. I conclude airport security in Nepal is more about job creation than actual security...

Now I am off to a 5* spa resort for le weekend with my friend. £35 for 2 nights and all food included. Total bargain... I cant wait x o x