Beware of Swiss Travels in Pokhara

[Lars]

This is a bit emabarassing.

I needed to go from Pokhara to India, without passing Kathmandu. So I found
this Swiss Travels bureau near where I stayed, in the heart of Pokhara.
There I bought a trip that was supposed to take me by bus over two days
to Varanasi.

The first bit, to Bhairawa, was no problem. But, in Sonauli, when I was
supposed to exchange the receipt I had for a proper bus ticket (tourist bus),
to Varanasi I was simply ripped off. There was this guy, Bablu, who was
supposed to swap me the ticket, but instead he threatened me and after
hours of delay I had to pay the bus ticket to the t/c myself.

I have been here so many times that I should have known better. But I went
for it never the less. Not that I think the Swiss people or governement have
anything to do with Swiss Travels, but simply because I thought If someone
have a decent looking bureau, with a swanky sounding name, he would not
blow its reputation by a scam like this. But obviously I was wrong.

Don't spend any money there!

Lars
Calcutta

[yakshaver]

This is a bit emabarassing.

I needed to go from Pokhara to India, without passing Kathmandu. So I found
this Swiss Travels bureau near where I stayed, in the heart of Pokhara.
There I bought a trip that was supposed to take me by bus over two days
to Varanasi.

The first bit, to Bhairawa, was no problem. But, in Sonauli, when I was
supposed to exchange the receipt I had for a proper bus ticket (tourist bus),
to Varanasi I was simply ripped off. There was this guy, Bablu, who was
supposed to swap me the ticket, but instead he threatened me and after
hours of delay I had to pay the bus ticket to the t/c myself.

I have been here so many times that I should have known better. But I went
for it never the less. Not that I think the Swiss people or governement have
anything to do with Swiss Travels, but simply because I thought If someone
have a decent looking bureau, with a swanky sounding name, he would not
blow its reputation by a scam like this. But obviously I was wrong.

Don't spend any money there!

Lars
Calcutta

I vowed to keep my mouth shut about the Swiss. I had the most amazing Arrabiata at the Cantina Restaurant in Niderdorf Strasse in Zurich on Thursday night. Amazingly good, and hot, as usual.

I would suspect the Swiss government knows nothing about the operation in Pokhara. Thanks for the warning. I also warned people about Jungfrau... She is not. There is not any in the whole of Switzerland.

[Per]

We were ripped off going to Pokhara by buss. We bought tickets for what was supposed to be the "Swiss buss", a minibuss. It turned out there was no mini buss, instead we were put on a dreary old buss that spent all day from Kathmandu to Pokhara. So we had nothing for the surcharge.

In Pokhara we sent them a post card with a photo of Kal Bhairav, because it is said you vomit blood if you lie in front of Kal Bhairav.

http://www.hsdejong.nl/nepal/target_images/black_bhairav.jpg

And, told them we wanted a partial refunt on our return to Kathmandu.

When we got back we went to the office, a Thamel travel/trekking agent, and demanded to have some refund. At first they told us to get lost. We said very politely, fine, we will sit on your doorstep and tell everyone who wants to enter your shop about how you pulled a scam on us, until you give us a refund. Then, when they realised we were serious we got our refund.