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Namaste (hello in Napelese) everyone!!!
Here we go again with another one of your favorite travel updates….ready?
We last left off waiting for the transportation strike to end, so I could make my escape from Pokera, the scenic area right below the Annapurna mountains. While most people come to Nepal for the mountains, there’s actually more to see here out here. Well, the strike luckily ends in 2 days and off we go to the south. “going” is quite a scary experience here in Nepal, as these prehistoric buses not only drive on incredibly unsafe mountain trails, but also jam everyone into seats designed for much smaller asian bodies, preventing you from having at least some comfort while watching the driving in horror. Its not surprising that the english language paper has daily articles on mostly head on bus crashes, and its even less surprising that the American Embassy here advises Americans against any form of land travel. (ahhh, flying is for wimps, I’m sticking to the buses!)
Ok, made it to our first destination….Lumbini, birthplace of Budda. Doesn’t look or feel very holy, but here in this dusty, hot, almost abandoned mosquito infested area, Budda’s mom unknowingly started what would one day transform asia. They’ve tried to make this into a tourist site, and mostly failed….the garden where he was born is mostly just a empty field, with the main building under reconstruction, while in the sourounding area they’ve tried to create buddist version of Disneyworld, inviting every buddist country to build a replica of thier greatest buddist temples…seems like most countries took them up on the offer, but like all things in Asia, its moving very slowly…most of the building are under construction.
Before leaving, I ask Buddha to bring me good luck, and I’ll need it as I go searching for tigers at Royal Chitwan National Park. (some of you may know that I have a thing for tigers) We settle in at a hotel next to the river bordering the park and watch the sun go down at one of the many river bars, as we listen to the sounds of the various birds all around us. (yea, this is almost as tough as the mountain hiking!)
We’re warned not to stray far from the hotel late at night (seems that although its hard for people to find tigers, the opposite is not quite true).
Although they claim to have over 100 tigers, the park and forest are about the size of the S.F. bay area, so finding my little friends won’t be easy. First, we jump on a elephant…great view from 8 feet up!! One nice thing about going by elephant is that you don’t really need to follow a trail….with a few trunk movements to rip out little trees from its path, trails are created on the spot! We walk up to a pond where a female one horned Rhino (the specialty of this park) is sleeping with its baby….they grunt thier disapproval at us waking them and move off to get some more sleep. Then along come some Simba deer….they quickly run off….maybe thier favorite predator (tiger) is nearby? We ride around for a while longer, finding tiger footprints, then deer carcasses….so close, yet so far… “here kitty kitty, here kitty kitty….” (ok, maybe not) ok, after a few hours we abandon hope for the day, and return.
If you can’t play with tigers, at least you can play with baby elephants and Rhinos. They have both here, and both will kill for bananas (yes, literally!) feeding them bananas is fun….running out of bananas is not….this is where I learn how talented a pickpocket baby elephants are with their trunk.
Beyond loafing around at the river bars, another fun activity is bathing with the elephants. Trained elephants are all taken to the river by thier masters for thier daily morning bath (which a lot more frequent then the local people!) For a small tip, you can jump on while they play in the water, and then hold on for dear life as they try to throw you off (in the water, its lot less painful then being thrown off a bull!) And if you’ve made it past that, then there’s the water attack (its amazing how much water pressure the trunk of an elephant can generate when trying to splash you!) Its not quite Water World, but its the next best thing.
A day, and many beers and mosquito bites later, we make one more venture into the forest in search of my beloved tiger. This time our transport is a jeep, not the most envirmental way to go, but hey we’re getting impatient. During the late afternoon drive we spots lots of birds as they sing out to us, watch the sun starting to set, and then come the deer. More and more deer go scuring about, here and there…there must be tigers about…we’re hopeful, as we drive further (the jeep apparently can also create new paths in a less graceful manner)….another hour, the sun sets, and nope, no tigers. Oh well, we gave it our best shot. 🙁
Several river sunsets later, and its time to move on. Another hairy ride and its back to Katmandu. After a few sightseeing days, its time to leave this fascinating country. Time to reflect back on this land……
Daal Bat – This is the first country I’ve been to where they eat the same food every meal, every day! Its called Daal Bat and consists of rice, lental soup, pickles, and some other veggie stuff. It was nice the first few days…. 🙂
People – Some of the friendliest people I’ve met. Within minutes of meeting a local, they will almost always invite you to visit their home (saying goodbye takes much longer!). It was also quite the sight to see grown men walking in the streets all holding hands, as well as the women (I even once spotted the soldiers holding hands!) With all this, its especially sad to see the country plunging further into poverty as the King battles the populist movements to hold on to power.
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