Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Chewbacca Defense]

Im going to India/Nepal soon.

I have a flight to Kathmandu, but I want to know the best way to get from there to Varanasi and then to Agra and back to Delhi again. Any advice welcome.

Cheers

[Kurtz]

Did that trip a couple of years ago.

Best to fly from KTM to Varanasi, it's fairly cheap (flew Yeti from memory) and avoids a nasty long distance bus journey.

Use to train to Agra (stay near the Taj and get there first thing in the morning for fantastic light, just be prepared for many Koreans!) and also the train to Delhi.

Best book the train trips a few days in advance as that is a popular route with locals and tourists.

In case you've never been, if you don't want the hassle of booking the train yourself, someone will do it all for you for a small price as in a travel agent in your hotel or out of your guidebook.

[RufusW]

I went from Pokhara to Varanasi overground - it was good because I got to ride on the top of a bus, but yea, buses are probably not the nicest option. You do see so much more though. There will be 'executive buses' going from KTM to Varanasi, these'll be just for tourist, they'll be bigger and hopefully they won't use their horn as much. Make sure you don't stop at the border for a night... it's not nice.

Use the trains in India. If it's during the day third class is nice enough (overnight if you're a bloke/by yourself). Yea, use a travel agent, but only one in your guidebook or you'll probably get ripped off. Otherwise the stations have foreigner-only ticket offices.

[summer33ny]

The Kathmandu to India route is supposed to be dangerous. When some friends who did it informed us that the bus right before them had driven off a cliff due to the brakes failing and many people were killed--we decided flying would be the safest option. Once in India, I think train travel is generally safe.