Travelling by Bus and by Foot

After the jungle we headed west to Lumbini - the birthplace of the Buddha and a UNESCO world heritage site. It was really crowded because we were there on the night of a full moon and a Hindu holiday. The architecture was pretty cool, there were a lot of elaborate temples and monasteries. There is a long row of monasteries from different countries, each one more elaborate and larger than the last. The Chinese one was pretty impressive and right across the street the Koreans are building a huge concrete thing. When I went to visit the Korean one, several water buffalo followed me through the gate so the people at the monastery were busy trying to chase them out.

Next we headed north to Tansen on the top of a public bus. The top is definitely the way to go. Inside is very crowded and very hot. On top you get the sun but you also get a breeze, more room, and a view. You do however have to watch out for power lines and branches.

It was from Tansen that we started our trek, and we finally got a view of mountains. It was still hazy but we could see Dhaulagiri and the Annapurnas. It was very hot and dusty but nice to get into more remote areas that tourists do not frequent. When we came into a village, it seemed that all the town's children came to see what was going on. They really enjoyed getting their pictures taken and being able to see them on our digital cameras. At times it was hard to take pictures without children in them. In one spot the whole school came out to see us.

We spent the first night in Ramdi, a small highway town. We went for a really nice swim in a big river while much of town watched from the bridge. The lady who ran the guest house suggested that we not sleep there because the bugs were really bad, so we chose to sleep on the beach. At first it seemed like a great idea but around 2am I still hadn't gotten to sleep because there was truck traffic going across the bridge all night long. The moon was still close to full and lit up the entire town, also making it hard to sleep. In the morning when we woke up, more villagers were watching us from the bridge.

The following night we made it to Walling, the town where Chandra's parents live. We stayed with them for two nights, while we spent a day climbing. Rock climbing is a rare sport here so it again brings out a lot of spectators. One man came and showed us how he learned to climb ropes in the Indian army-hand over hand and wrapping the rope around his feet. It was rather impressive how quickly he scaled the rope.

At this point we decided to take a bus the rest of the way to Pokhara. Our group had had enough with the hiking and decided that our time would be better spent there. The 60km ride took us 4 hours. At one police checkpoint they made us get inside the bus-where there were no seats. So we got inside and drove around the corner; then climbed back on top. I'm not really clear what the regulations are, but a bus with an empty roof is a rarity.

In Pokhara they were still celebrating the Nepali New Year, two days after the fact. There was a large carnival looking celebration complete with cotton candy, balloons, a ferris wheel, and big concerts.

We spent our first day there rock climbing. Again, not a big sport in the area, but we ended up climbing on a wall with bolted routes. It was on property owned by a women's guide company. They had given us permission to check out the climbing but not to climb because of liability. We scouted it out by climbing up it, seems to me we would have a hard time holding them accountable anyway.

Joining us for the climbing was Santos-the top mountain biker in the country and an animal on rock. He had only been climbing once before but scrambled up it like a monkey. He got even better after receiving some tips on technique.

Afterwards we hung out on the porch of his bike shop which he shares with a paragliding company. Also hanging out on the porch was a guy with five screws holding his leg together as a result of a paragliding accident-probably bad PR for the company he was sitting in front of.

The following day we hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda. Apparently there are great views from there but it was too hazy to see them.

In the afternoon we went to the International Mountain Museum. It was a much bigger and more established place than I was expecting. It was interesting to see displays on many of the early Himalayan expeditions, including some of their gear. There were also exhibits on geology, plants, animals, culture, the yeti, and conservation efforts.

The next day it was time to fly home. Airport security is a little different here. "Do you have a knife?" "no" "OK, go ahead". I guess it isn't really a high target route. Despite being on the south side of the plane, we could see views of the Himalaya during the flight.

Now I am back in Kathmandu resting and trying to get rid of some parasite that I picked up along the way.

Chasing Rhinos Through The Jungle

Well I just got back from a great trip that took me to the jungle, Lumbini (the birthplace of the Buddha), trekking, climbing, touring the country by bus, and to Pokhara. Below is a map of where I have been so far. The green line is where we went rafting and then red line is this past trip. I was travelling with a volunteer teacher from Montana, her sister and her sister's boyfriend. Chandra joined us part way through for the trekking piece. We did so much on this past trip so this will be the first installment.

Our first stop was Chitwan National Park, this is the jungle in the south of the country. We stayed at a hotel right outside the park, and they organized all of the activities for us. In our two days there we went on a canoe ride (we weren't paddling and there were about 10 other boats with us each carrying about 10 people), a jeep safari, an elephant safari, and bathed elephants. Our guide wouldn't take us on a jungle hike because our first day there another guide got attacked by a rhino, and a week before a tourist had been attacked. It sounded like the guide was ok but bloody-they are big animals with big horns. A group of high school students staying at the same lodge was however sent on a jungle hike, as far as I could tell, all 40 of them made it back.

The highlight was probably the elephant bathing. The four of us climbing on the back of an elephant with the driver and walked into the river that forms the boundary of the park. The elephant then sprays us with his trunk, before rolling over and ditching us in the water. We then climbing back on and repeat a few more times. It was definitely a challenge to keeps one's mouth closed so as not to ingest the water, while laughing really hard.

On the safaris we saw a fair amount of wildlife. On the canoe trip we saw a crocodile and a bunch of birds. The jeep safari was a five hour excursion deeper into the jungle. We saw rhinos, monkeys, huge termite hills, many birds including peacocks, wild boar, crocodiles, several species of deer including a barking deer, and a tiger in captivity. We also visited a crocodile breading center for an endangered croc species. We also saw lots of prescribed burns. They burn the grasses once a year to keep the fuel loading low. So we drove through lots of smoke and dust.

The elephant safari started with a long and kinda painfully bumpy ride through town. I was about ready to get off when we finally got into the jungle. There we met up with many more tourists and my hopes of seeing anything dropped. Then the elephant drivers started shouting to each other and texting each other on cell phones. We took off through the jungle, leaving the trail. The elephant trampled trees and dragged us through all sorts of vegetation. Then I realized that we were chasing rhinos. It appeared to be a mother and child. The drivers were working together to round them up into a field so that we could all take pictures of them. It worked. We also saw a bunch of deer, peacocks, and wild boar.

We also went to the elephant breeding facility. There we got to see several baby elephants. The youngest two were twins-a really rare occurrence in elephants. I believe there are only two documented cases of elephant twins worldwide. These two are about 5 months old. One stayed with the mother but the other was really social. He came down to the fence and let us pet him, ate grass out of our hands and tried to put our hands in his mouth.

A couple of slightly older elephants also tried to visit us and there happened to be a hole in the fence in that spot. These elephants were about 500lbs though and our guides warned us to stay away because they are quite powerful animals. All of the adult elephants are chained to posts.

Parts of the trip reminded me of being on tour in China. We were pretty much ushered around. On the first night we were taken on a walk and then dropped off as a spot to watch the sunset, about an hour before the sunset. We sat there as people tried to get us to buy drinks, and entertained us with elephants and camels. The next day when we were coming back from a safari we saw the next batch of tourists watching the sunset-only it was cloudy and you couldn't see anything.

We were ushered around for legitimate reason though. People are not allowed to enter the jungle without a guide because of the danger of being attacked by rhinos, tigers, and crocodiles. It got tiring really quickly though not being able to go off on our own.

Overall, I am glad that I went. I saw a bunch of cool animals and a new part of the country, but three days in Chitwan was plenty and I feel no need to go back there again.