Head Count:

The Skinny: Banbassa is the first town on the Indian side of the border. It is a classic Indian village (hot, dusty, and crowded) where we stayed only one night. The long drive across Nepal and the tedious border crossing tired us out, and so we stayed the night in Banbassa for lack of a better, or closer, option.

What Thar Be: Horse drawn carriages used as taxis clopped along the dirt streets of Banbassa as if it were still the 1800s.

Digs: JaiLaxmi Hotel: run by Mr. U.D. Josi, ex-army sergeant, is a small, bed-buggy hotel on the outskirts of Banbassa. We got 2 rooms for 175R, shared shower and little balcony.

Vittles: Mr. Josi kindly walked us into town and straight to a good thali place with local prices (20R for one plate). The food was tasty and just kept on coming and coming...

Hooch Factor: It was too hot to drink. Is it ever too hot to drink? Well, maybe we just didn't have time.

Navigability: Similar to Janakpur with many obstacles in the small, dusty roads. Lots of horn-blowing necessary.

Sliding In and Out: From Lamki in Nepal, the drive was varied, to say the least. It started out on Nepal's fantastic Mahendra Highway, and only gave us trouble at one washed out bridge where we pushed the bikes over piles of mud and rocks amidst tens of curious and amused Nepali faces. Then the border, ahhh, a story you can read about in the JOURNAL section of this fine website. Then Nepal roads end and Indian ones begin, with a switch from two-lane to one-lane, and a bit more serious defensive driving. A bridge over a river with a gate at the far side slowed us down a bit as we re-adjusted to Indian thinking and found the key at the beginning of the bridge, held by a man whose job it is to bicycle back and forth all day locking and unlocking said gate! Once past the gate, the sealed, one lane into Banbassa is beautifully lined with tall trees and fields of green grass.