Wagah Border Crossing

Society Travel & Tourism
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Wagah Border Crossing

Around 4 years ago I went to Pakistan after my childhood, it was my first time going without my parents. While in Lahore I decided to visit the Wagah Border to watch the closing ceremony. During and after watching the electric ceremony, I decided that one day I will cross the border myself.

Pictures of the ceremony in 08.

Fast Forward to May 2012, at the ripe old age of 25, I decided to apply for an indian visa, after much deliberation and many paperwork requests, it was stamped in November :D. I duly asked my friends and brother if they wanted to come and after receiving “LOL” in response, I decided to do it solo. I arranged my flights to Pakistan and commenced my journey.

This is approaching the border from the Pakistan side. The actual Pakistani terminal for departures is on the left hand side, you get stamped out and then emerge back on GT road just before the gate.

After emerging you walk through the “VIP” area of the border ceremony seating and actually get to the India/Pakistan border.

Upon leaving Pakistan, the last Ranger to check my passport (who was about 6ft5 I might add) told me Allah Hafiz and to have a safe journey. The porters also waved me good-bye from Pakistan.

I then stepped foot over this white line

and duly had my passport checked by an Indian soldier, who upon confirming I actually held a visa, greeted me by saying “Welcome to India” and invited me to take a seat and await for the next bus that will then take me to the next terminal. Me being me, I was unable to contain my excitement at this point so I stood around taking pictures of the border and talking to the guards (who I might add were shocked at my level of proficiency of urdu (they called it hindi :P)) after learning I was actually English and not Pakistani.
This is a picture from India, looking back at Pakistan.

Picture Looking into India


Sardar Jee drinking tea :smiley:

This bus will take me to customs and immigration.

Namaste!

The bus took me to immigration and customs, my hand baggage was checked throughly by a security guard, and my person was also scanned. I then duly had to fill a landing card and I proceeded to immigration. I was only asked where I was going to go right now, to which the answer was Amritsar, again I was welcomed to India and proceeded to customs.
At customs I had filled the declaration in honestly, this involved writing down the fact that I was carrying in 1800 Indian Rupees. The junior customs officer who was at the desk looked through my form and spotted this, he told me it was illegal to import and export indian currency and told me to cross it out throughly and instead write how many dollars I was carrying otherwise his supervisor will ask questions. After modifying the form :wink: ahem, he had a quick look in my duffle bag and took my form to his supervisor for approval.
I then exited the terminal, into a Taxi and onward to Amritsar, I was electric with excitement as I had dreamed of this moment for four years!

This was my first sightseeing attraction I saw.. Golden Temple in Amritsar. I would describe it as serene, a place worth visiting. I didn’t eat from the Langar as I was paranoid about getting ill, however I think that paranoia was ill founded as I ended up eating in all sorts of places throughout my trip and never got ill.

I asked this troupe to take my picture, however they then insisted that I took their picture with my camera, I obliged even though I thought it was bizarre.

I just thought I would share this experience on here as some of you may wonder what it’s like to cross the wagah border :slight_smile: I’ve crossed many land borders, but this was the most exciting by far. Patience and a smile goes a long way I find. From applying for the visa (I had to make three 160 mile round trips to their office) to getting out the other end, I remained patient and polite and eventually I got what I wanted.

I throughly enjoyed my trip throughout India and would heartily recommend it to anyone who is fortunate to have the chance to go! There certainly is an air of Romance around the historical cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, Taj Mahal especially.

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Seems like an awesome trip.

India is definitely I place I want to visit. So, much to see an do with a lot of culture. etc..

Where else did you go?

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nice tavelogue about crossing Wagah border. as i understand, very few people take the land route. how many do you think crossed the border at the time you crossed it?

i’ve visited Pakistan by air but would love to take the land route either by bus or by train.

what other places did you visit in India?

i just watched this video:

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On my bus there was one other person, he was a Pakistani Consulate staff member. I crossed at around 2pm. However there were plenty of people coming into Pakistan from India, not sure why that was though. The pakistani terminal had plenty of people in it.

I visited Amritsar, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Hyderabad (I just had to try authentic biryani) I then went onto Sri Lanka then returned home.

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That looks like the Lahore Delhi bus, I crossed it by foot as I wanted a stop in Amritsar on the way :slight_smile:

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thank you for your reply.

i dunno...may be the smaller number of people are given visa to India. most travelers from Indian side are Muslims and it's probably easier to get a Pakistani visa....

wow! looks like you had a wonderful time. was Biryani as good as you thought it would be! :) Biryani near Jama Masjid, Delhi is also great! try it on your next visit.

would please make another post about your crossing into Sri Lanka? thank you.

i would appreciate if you write your experiences while traveling within India.

thank you for sharing!

Khush aamded! :)

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oh i see...yeah, i saw people walking across the border in another video.

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The biryani is Hyderabad was everything it's cracked up to be :) I did go to Karims restaurant, but I didn't really think it was amazing, I wasn't bowled over like I was in Hyderabad?

I will update some pictures etc tomorrow of my actual time spent in India.

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oh i see...will look forward to your next post. :)

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Awesome account of your visit. Thank you for sharing.

I went to see the border ceremony at Ganda Singh, but would love to cross over one day and visit India.

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I have also visited wagha border two years ago and it was fun to watch the ceremony.

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ahh wow great to hear ur experiance:) id love to go india one day it wud be fab, i went to lahore for the first last year i kept requesting every1 to take me to the wagda border , well we finally got there the guy issued us all our tickets walking up to the gates such a massive crowd the gates were closed so many ppl waiting outside the gates, was alll told we couldnt go in because it was already jam packed :bummer: sooooooooooo gutted i was

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You have to get there early after 4 or 5pm hey close the gates.

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yep we found that out after :frowning: ticket wala was behmaan sold us the tickets there was about 20 of us paise bhi le liye and didnt get to see anything :naraz:

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lol for beyman ticket wala us ki to eid ho gaye, I hope you get that magnificent experience soon:)

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aap Pakistani, maiN Indian…let’s have our own parade/closing ceremony! :smiley: ready? :cb:

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:nono:

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kiuN jii? man’a kiuN kiyaa? ham tamaashaaiyoN par ticket lagaa kar Khoob kamaayeNge! :slight_smile:

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or paisy ly kar gate band kar dian gy?:mad: