Not All Border Posts Are Created Equal

I learnt a very important lesson recently. And that is that not all border crossing points actually function as crossing points for everyone who might want to cross that border. The particular border crossing in this story is the border between India and Nepal between Jaynagar (in India) and Janakpur (in Nepal). There is a train line. I think it is the only trainline in Nepal. And the train runs twice a day across the border. And it carries passengers in both directions.

However, it only carries Nepali and Indian passengers. Because the train crosses the border but there is no immigration office. So no one can do all the appropriate stamping of passports, and sticking of visas, and copying out of passport numbers into a big book, and requesting payments, and collecting arrival / departure cards, and asking all the difficult questions, etc that seem to be stock in trade of border posts.

I did already know that the Indian tourist eVisa can only be used if you arrive into an airport or some sea ports (so not if you enter India at one of the land borders that does function as a crossing point). I know that some land borders in different parts of the world are closed. I know that some land borders are in active war zones so crossing them would be foolhardy to say the least. At least now I know that if I’m planning to cross another land border at any point, that I will double and triple check whether it is a border that I’m allowed to cross with the passport I’m travelling on!