My visa for India was denied, no reason given (goodbye USD$250...)

Moving on to the eVisa option.

Sorry to hear it. Good luck - I suggest you prepare a "plan B".

India EVisa applied for (5 year, multi-entry) & received in 12 hours.
Booked flight from Lahore to Dubai, then Dubai to Amritsar, stamped in to India. Taxi to the border, stamp out of India & into Pakistan, taxi to Lahore.
So far, so good. When I get the vehicle permit extension from Islamabad, I'll be able to enter India with my moto. Will report back with results.

Crossed the border, Pakistan->India at Wagah, with eVisa, no issues at all.

Good to hear this.

If I understand correctly, this was your second entry into India on the e-visa, the first having been by air?

Enjoy India! What are you plans? We plan to be in Mumbai in January, then head south, later to Nepal/Bhutan/Tibet, then Pakistan, then back to India for the Northwest, Northwest, and Centre with a break in Bangladesh (to comply with the 90 day maximum requirement) and ending up in Sri Lanka early 2026.

That's excellent news!

If anyone is interested, the "e-visa activation" mentioned at certain entry points only is where Indian immigration has cameras and fingerprint scanners to capture your biometric details.

Fwiw, earlier this year I flew to India with a (multiple entry) e-visa, borrowed a bike, rode to Nepal and then re-entered India on the bike.

PS. If entering or leaving India at an airport, or transiting for an internal flight, put your regular GPS, even if it's only an mid-noughties steam driven Garmin 60csx, in your hold/ check-in luggage, not hand/ carry on. Unless you want it confiscated!

Indian airport security are singularly unique in their "outlook", euphemistically speaking (not talking about satellite comms devices like a Garmin inReach, that are specifically banned in India).

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Thanks for the advice - it's going to be tough with hand luggage only : )

Can anyone share the rules on this? I've been unable to find anything useful on what's actually allowed. You can buy GPS units in India so apparently they're legal, however there seem to be restrictions on flying with them.

Countries, according to Garmin, where their inReach satellite communications devices are restricted:
https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...fRAhtToGD4Yrz9

I had the Garmin 60csx GPS situation I describe above at security at Delhi when connecting to an internal flight to Bangalore (From Europe to Delhi was of course no problem. Why would it be? Nowhere else is. Only India) and checking into an international flight Delhi to Istanbul.

In the Bangalore flight situation I explained and explained, showed them the specs from the Garmin website and that every cell phone had navigation capabilities. They relented and let me travel with it (actually 2, I use one and the other is a spare). Took an hour of explaining everything multiple times to the multiple idiots.

On the Istanbul flight there was no way the boss man was budging. My carry on buggage was way over what I was allowed. They called an airline employee who came to the other side of security from check-in and took the MX boots I was wearing, a bag that was in my bike jacket sleeve and the 2 GPSs and checked them in for me. Security didn't care about the volume of hand luggage I was carrying/ wearing. The GPSs were the problem. The GPSs went in the boots and the boots into the bag.

They did arrive at Istanbul along with my main check-in bag. Had that stunt not been possible, they'd have been confiscated at Delhi.

Whatever the Indian rules are is kind of irrelevant. It depends on the inbred knuckle draggers who work at airport security... In the hold bag on plane ok. In cabin on plane not ok.

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