After a pretty flat day – with no kids in school, there was not a lot for me to do, with Dhangadhi not having a great deal to offer – I did make an attempt to push my self into some action. The internet did say there was an aircraft museum nearby, housed in an actual plane (so presumably pretty limited in scope) but apparently it has now moved, so that shot that idea down in flames (ha!)
I was feeling pretty downbeat all round, and inactivity was not helping. Val is arriving in a couple of days, but has been unable to book a flight from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi. The Dashain holiday means loads of people are on the move, trying to get home, but the dreadful recent floods in Nepal have wiped out many of the highways, so lots have taken to the air. Eventually, she was able to get a seat on a flight to Nepalganj, a town five or six hours drive away, but this left us coming up with a variety of solutions to get her from there to here.
So Aparna and I decided to pay a visit to the Immigration Office, not far from her home. It was a pretty run-down, shabby building, but the lady inside was both helpful and knowledgeable. We discovered (or rather I discovered, as Aparna told me she already knew this) that it was possible to obtain a visa on arrival. This opened up the possibility of Val coming direct from Delhi, cutting out Kathmandu altogether; there was a night bus travelling direct. And then an even better idea occurred, that Val could be picked up at the airport by taxi and brought straight here; no waiting around all day, and much, much more convenient. The only real issue was why this had not been thought of before, but better late than never, I suppose.
We were also able to clarify my own situation regarding extending my visa. As I had been led to believe online, this was both possible and easy; I was allowed a maximu of 150 days in any one year, and had only yet applied for 90.
Aparna wanted to check out the Indian immigration office too. It seemed a bit odd to me, since I’d never encountered any problem leaving a country… except Thailand, now I come to think of it, when we overstayed our visa by two hours. But actually, it turned out to be both interesting and most useful.
We approached an Indian immigration official, a lady passing the time sitting on a plastic chair on the side of the road. She had neither the knowledge or Authority to answer our (Aparna’s) questions, so escorted us into India, walking along the side of a busy road, with huge lorries belching smoke crawling along beside us. She took us to the most unlikely-looking customs building I had ever seen, looking like a hut in the middle of Africa: mud floor, wooden posts holding up a roughly thatched roof. Three men sitting inside, though two of them got up so Aparna and I could sit down.
A long, detailed discussion followed, including asking what sort of visa Val had; tourist double-entry. He did appear to argue that this would be used up by Val entering and exiting India (rather misunderstanding the meaning of the word “entry”) but this was soon cleared up. And shortly thereafter, it appeared all was well; it helped that the main man and Aparna bonded a little when they discovered they both came from Lucknow.
But our visit had been most necessary, it seemed. Because virtually no foreigners came through (Indians and Nepalis had no need of visas, so went back and forth regularly), a special officer would need to be summoned. And since the office here did not have the specialist equipment required to process her visa (whatever that might have been), it would be necessary for her details to be sent to the nearest office, in Lucknow. But it could all be done by WhatsApp (who’d have thought?) As soon as Val had her e-visa converted to an actual one, at the airport on Delhi, she would send a photo to Aparna, who would forward it to the man here, who would forward it to Lucknow. Easy-peasy!
I asked, and was denied, permission to photograph the building we were in (understandable really, national pride being at stake) and we were escorted back in to Nepal; it was lucky the lady officer was still with us, for there was much shouting and waving at y appearance. But it was done! Instead of a nightmare journey which did not even get Val to where she needed to be, all she had to do (in theory, at any rate) was emerge from Delhi airport and climb knot a taxi. Result!
