With no bag or security check to speak of, we actually entered the country with no visa, and had to ask at the tourist office for the location of the visa office. Backtracking to the visa office, we paid our US$40 and had our passports stamped within 15 minutes. American border patrol it ain't.
Our first task in our new country was to swap our Indian rupees for Nepalese. We were delighted to learn that one Nepalese rupee is equivalent to one (Euro) cent, making converting prices to Euro a sinch. 100 Nepalese rupees equals €1. We weren't as pleased with the actual Nepalese notes. It's very difficult to differentiate between any note smaller than 1000 rupees, with many notes of the same value having their own variations. To make matters worse, the Nepalese government has introduced new plastic notes with references to the royal family removed, due to the removal of the monarchy from power in Nepal a couple of years ago.
Compared to India, the country seemed more geared for tourism from the start. Having a very helpful tourist office close by when we entered the country was the first sign of this (tourist offices were thin on the ground in India). While we were queuing for our currency exchange, a begging child was chased away by an employee with a pair of pliers! I'm not condoning this treatment of the child, just pointing out that it would never happen in India.
Making our way to a town called Bhairawa 4km from the border where we were to stay overnight, another main thing we noticed was: bars! Alcohol adverts were strewn across many buildings, which, coming from a country where we were often asked to hide our beer bottles under the table, was a comforting sight.
We no longer had to feel guilty about asking for a beer, and it showed.
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