Home in the Himalayas

Are you worried about what’s going on? Would you want to move to a place that has all the tech you need to be a digital nomad? where over half the food is locally grown by small farmers, and eggs cost 80 cents a dozen? where the air is clean year-round? where no one has a gun, and violent crime is practically non-existent? where Tibetan and Ayurvedic doctors heal conditions that Western medicine cannot?

Then get your 5- or 10-year tourist e-visa (at indianvisaonline.gov.in only!) and book your ticket to Dharamsala (Kangra Airport) via New Delhi, India. Try to arrive in New Delhi by 5-9am local time, so that you can catch one of the four daily flights to Kangra, the last of which departs at 11am. The 11-hour overnight bus from Delhi’s Majnu-ka-tilla to Dharamsala costs $10-20, and can be booked on the spot, but the whole process of getting from the airport to Majnu-ka-tilla to Dharamsala can be an ordeal for newbies.

CAVEAT: Since 2023, tourist-visa rules allow Americans (& Japanese) 180 days continuous stay, after which they must be outside of India for 180 days. I have been going to Thailand, where Americans get 60-day visa-stamps on arrival (and 30-day extensions at any immigration office for B1900; then one can go overland to Laos, Vietnam or Cambodia, buy a transit visa on arrival, and return to Thailand, after 1-15 days, for another 60+30-day stay); then Nepal (where 90-day visas can be purchased on arrival at Kathmandu airport), then returning to India by air or bus.

So, one could stay in Thailand for the whole 180 (+5) days; or split the time between Thailand/Laos/Nam/Cambodia and Nepal; or fly to Nepal from India after 90 days, stay there for 90 days, then fly or bus back to India and repeat—but buy an extension/transit visa in Nepal on one of the visits, and stay an additional 5-15 days so as not to go over 180 days in India.

OR: try for another India visa, such as a student-, research-, employment-, missionary- or medical-visa. Student visas can be obtained (from one’s home country) via the Foreigners Registration Office (indianfrro.gov.in) after obtaining the required documents from Dharamsala’s Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (https://tibetanlibrary.org/ltwa-2021-course-brochure).