India

So a little peruse (not to say hog-wrestle) of the Indian railways website throws up the following intriguing possibility.

Dhaka-Kolkata on the Maitree Express (after perhaps a little arsing around in Bangladesh - I for one would like to travel to the banks of the Jamuna a little to the south of Dhaka, which is pretty much the Tropic of Cancer). Cost $20 for a sleeper.

Kolkata I have heard is basically Dhaka with pubs. An experience to have but have quickly, perhaps.

Kolkata to Delhi (and you wanna try beating the difference between Delhi and New Delhi out of indianrailways.gov.in - Delhi alone has 7 different stations). Overnight, about 24 hours, cost £48 for an express in an AC1 seat (according to our friend in Seat 61).

Then train from Delhi to Gorakhpur, $55 says Seat 61, mixing his currencies. Takes about 13 or 14 hours.

Then a bus ('or jeep'!) from Gorakhpur to the Nepali frontier (and incidentally, we should no longer talk about borders on this trip but frontiers. Manifest destiny, bet your ass). $1, 3 hours, to a town which the Indians call Sunauli and the Nepalis call Bhairawa, except when they call it Sunauli.

Walk across the border. Bus or jeep from Bhairawa to Kathmandu 12 hours, $2.

That way we see the landscape change beneath our feet. Or beneath someone else's wheels.

Though Delhi isn't by any means mandatory - we could stop at Allahabad, or actually stop at Gorakhpur (probably need a branch line to do that, but no biggie).

So. Depending on whether we want to to Delhi, we're looking at £100 tops to get from Dhaka to Kathmandu via India.

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