A few weeks ago, soon after checking into my hotel in Varanasi, I got a knock at my door. It was the manager, asking if I’d noticed that my visa was about to run out in precisely twenty-four hours.  

‘Oh gosh,’ I said. ‘I guess I can extend it online?’ 

The manager shook his head. It took seven to ten days to extend an Indian visa online. In the meantime it would be illegal for me to stay at his hotel, or at any other hotel in India.  

‘What do I do?’ I asked. 

‘You must get across the border by tomorrow.’ 

We left before dawn for the airport, where I boarded a flight with Buddha Air, the only airline which runs entirely on positive thinking. Soon I was higher than the world’s highest mountains, and soon after that, I was checking into a lovely little hotel in Kathmandu. 

Tales of derring-do like that don’t need morals, but this is an Insights column and I’m under pressure to squeeze out some insights.  

So, the first moral is to always check the dates of your visa. But we don’t need to dwell on that. 

The second moral we can dwell on for a little longer, since it allows me to point blame at others rather than myself.  

What were the main effects of my little detour to Nepal? Well, I fell in love with Kathmandu, discovered Bhaktapur, one of the nicest historic towns I’ve ever been to, and I met some lovely people.  

I also spent about a week in Nepal, spending money in its hotels and restaurants that I had been planning on spending in hotels and restaurants in India.  

I got an e-visa to re-enter India within a few days, but not being able to easily extend my visa effectively expelled me from a country I wanted to be in.  

I’m just one person, but if India’s arcane visa system is turning other tourists away (or kicking them out), that might add up to a non-negligible tax on the country’s tourist industry. 

That’s something Nepal seems to appreciate. When I got to Kathmandu, I paid US$30 for an ‘on arrival’ visa. And then I got to reap the benefits of my seven days in Nepal – as did an undisclosed number of Kathmandu bars.