Crossing over...

Still feeling seriously exhausted and with a sensitive stomach, I took a cycle rickshaw, over the very bumpy road for the 4km’s to the border post. During this time my rickshaw guy got a puncture in his front tyre, and his one flip flop broke... he was only too happy to dump me onto another rickshaw, who tried to convince me that they would take me the 6km’s into town. In protest i just sat down and said no. They took me the 300m to the Nepali checkpoint where i told them to just leave me and my bags – i was tired of people just wanting to make money from me. Maybe if i was feeling better I could have played their game just a little bit better – they me my grumpy side.
The Nepali checkpoint is totally missable, it is a tiny little office with a couple of desks and two officials. With them was sitting another Nepali local who was very chatty – though he didn’t quite get that I did not have the energy to chat – so I sat there for a while after they had done the formality of giving me a visa – a very expensive US100 for 3 months... ouch . They were happy for me to sit there as long as i needed and in the process they managed to tell me all the information I would need for banks, they even exchanged my Indian money into Nepali money for me. Manoz, my friendly Nepali guy, said that he could help me with my bags and take me to a hotel in town. This was like an angel being sent to help me, and so I accepted gladly and just followed, while he carried my big backpack and did the organising of taxis – which was loads cheaper than what the rickshaw guys were trying to get me to pay. Then the 10 minute walk to the hotel, in the heat, i was willing myself to just make it there, when what i really wanted to do was just curl up an die. I decided to take a room with aircon, as i needed to recover and a ceiling fan was just not going to be enough. I didn’t count on the electricity being off most of the time, so i was still overheating a lot, and having to continually jump into a cold shower, but the water on me dried quickly, so i would head back into the shower. I managed to stomach a place of old looking chips, and some buttered toast before heading back up to my room to go back to sleep. The aircon was on most of the night, and despite the noise of it, i slept well. Feeling much better this morning, I decided to head on out to Bardia National Park, which is about a 4 hour bus journey from the border. Manoz came to wake me up, saying that if i wanted to travel I should leave in the morning, otherwise it would be too hot, so i got up went to get some money and a sim card before finding a minibus taxi that would take me to Ambassa. The journey went well and I was met at the bus drop off by someone who had been told about me from Manoz. So word travels fast. I felt a loyalty to this guy as he had helped me, so I decided to go with Krishna on the back of his motor bike... with my two backpacks (one big, one small)... in the 40 degree heat... on the bumpy road... with no helmets.... In spite of all that, I arrived safely at a nice enough lodge, where I will be spending the next 3 nights.