Day 133 - Sauraha back to Kathmandu

It's been a while since I didn't have to wake up in the early wee hours to catch a bus! We had time for a comfortable breakfast before heading on a bus back to Kathmandu at 9:30am. The bus was rather comfortable for Nepalese standards, a notch above in quality compared to the other two buses I'd already taken.

The only problem was the accidents that caused traffic jams a couple times on our journey. What should have taken maybe 4 hours took 7 hours total. The drivers in Nepalese are pretty wreckless, even though most of the buses have slogans on their bumpers saying “drive safely.” Cars try to pass other vehicles on windy roads around mountains and end up crashing at blind spots when they don't anticipate another car coming along ahead. There was one head-on collision that I saw with a compact car and a bus. Hopefully nobody got hurt!

The entire day was almost completely spent on the bus. When we arrived in Kathmandu, we headed to a backpacker hostel about 30 minutes away from Thamel, the main tourist area. It was a good decision to get away from the noise and pollution in the area. It was also nice to get away from all the touts trying to sell us guesthouse rooms, taxi rides, trekking tours, hashish, and marijuana. The hostel, called the Sparkling Turtle, was Canadian owned, and just opened 2 months ago so the place was pretty spotless. The best thing about it was that one of the owners was a former master chef, and every night, cooks special Nepalese dinners. I had some of the best food in a while. A good meal really makes me smile afterwards, and I don't think I smiled as big as I did today in over a month! We had a buffalo stew with pasta and a cucumber salad. So delicious!

Rainbow over the Swayambhunath Temple 

Head-on Collision with a Bus

Day 132 - Chitwan National Park back to Sauraha

We woke up early in the morning to continue our jungle trek though the community forest. The entire walk was around 7km back to Sauraha where our lodge was located. Some of the trails back to our starting point were completely washed away by the rain that the guides had to recreate the trails by cutting trees, or adding tree trunks to the floor when it was covered by water. I fell and slipped numerous times, and I blame my Nikes for that. Wear good shoes when you go trekking, not old running shoes like mine...

Not too much activity today, but we saw some more herds of deer, owls, and a wild boar running through the forest. On the way back, we caught a ride on a tractor that was driven by the son of one of our tour guides. It was probably one of the most bumpy rides all trip, and I had a hard time staying put!

When we arrived back to Sauraha, we stopped by the river where elephants and their mahouts were taking baths. Again, like in Laos, I saw the Mahouts use sharp picks to prod at the elephants to get them to obey commands. Again, I don't know enough to know how necessary it is to do this, but it was certainly unpleasant to watch...

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at our lodge, playing cards, reading, and resting on the hammocks provided. We had lunch at a local Nepalese restaurant, where we had fried Buffalo Momos. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant where I had grilled fish which was quite good. Tomorrow we head back to Kathmandu, where I will have 12 days to figure out what else I can do in this wonderful country.

Day 131 – Royal Chitwan National Park Jungle Walk

We woke up early to start our jungle walk through the Chitwan National Park. We took an hour long canoe ride 10 km in to get deeper into the park. It was nice to ride in the morning through the mist while the weather was still cool. We saw various birds and some crocodiles along the ride.

The rest of the day was spent walking through the tall grasses in the jungle, looking for various animals. While not guaranteed, we could possibly see monkeys, deer, sloth bears, bengal tigers, rhinos, and elephants. We stopped numerous times to take rests atop towers overlooking the jungles and had a lunch break near a creek.

We ended up seeing some deer, birds, monkeys, elephants, and crocodiles. We also heard wild boar, but I didn't catch a glimpse of it. I'm not sure if jungle walks are that exciting for me. I don't think I have the patience to walk around all day, waiting to see if I'm lucky enough to come across different animals. I don't think I'm as interested in seeing animals compared to man-made monuments or natural formations in the earth.

Midway through our jungle walk, we also stopped by a crocodile and turtle breeding center, where we saw some gharial crocs being bred in hopes of saving the endangered species. They had crocs of various ages, and usually they release them by the age of 5 (although some of the older ones are kept for breeding purposes).

At night, we headed to our lodge where we met some younger Nepalese guys who we had some drinks and conversation with. They were drinking Johnny Walker Black Label, and getting drunk the whole time. It was funny because they were so adamant on getting us to stay for another night so that we would party with them the next night. They said that the Nepalese treat their guests “greater than God” and begged us to stay. We had to unfortunately decline since we had to head back to Sauraha the next day. One of the guys was said that I was “beautiful” because I had Mongoloid Nepalese features like him and his friends. It's interesting how some of his actions could be perceived as “homosexual” in our Western views of what is acceptable, but most of Southeast Asia shows more public displays of brotherly and sisterly affection than “couple-affection.” What might be perceived as “gay” in our hetero-normative society is just men showing their brotherly affection. It's so common to see men holding hands, or teens sitting in each other's laps, combing each others' hair, but all this would be less acceptable in the United States. Yet, people in Southeast Asia would also be shocked to see a man and woman hold hands or show any other PDA.

After dinner we headed back to the river to see if we could catch a glimpse of rhinos, but since it was a New Moon, the night was too dark to see anything. It was still special though because I saw fireflies for the first time and it created a magical atmosphere. The trees looked like they were Christmas trees, lit up by lights. Next morning wake up at 5:30am to begin the 2^nd day of our trek!

Day 130 – Pokhara to Sauraha (Chitwan National Park)

We caught a tourist bus from Pohkara to Sauraha, which is a city near the outer areas of the Royal Chitwan National Park, the first national park of Nepal. The park is located in southern Nepal, bordering India, and spans over 900 square kms. It's one of the very common touristic stops on any Nepalese tour where people book jungle walks, elephant rides, and other outdoorsy adventures.

The bus ride took about 4-5 hours, and I'm beginning to think it takes 4-5 hours to get anywhere in Nepal! 

There weren't too many tourists in Sauraha, and I think we were the only ones at the lodge we stayed at. It seemed the hotel workers were desperate to get us to book some sort of package with them, but we decided to head to the visitor center to get more objective information on what we should do. We met with a guy dressed as a park ranger who suggested different activities. In the end, he was just another guy trying to sell us a package, but we ended up booking a 1.5 day jungle walk with him, a canoe ride, and a night in a lodge, all starting tomorrow morning.

There is opportunity to see tigers, elephants, rhinos, sloth bears, and other animals. We'd be walking with two guides, who would make sure we didn't get lost. It's funny because there's a whole section in the Lonely Planet that explains the different ways to remain safe if you see any of these animals, from climbing a tree, to running in a zig zag, to gathering together in a group, to throwing your clothing somewhere and running the other way. It'll be interesting what we will come across tomorrow.

Tourist Bus Stop with the Annapurna Mountains in the back

I'm not sure that Camels are supposed to be in Nepal..

First Day in Sauraha and we Already saw a Rhinosaurus!