After cooling my heels in Kathmandu since Monday, I'm heading west tomorrow. I'll catch a 7:30am bus to Chitwan National Park, 6 hours south-west, on the border with India. It's at the lowest altitude in Nepal, so it will be hot and humid. I will spend two nights there, going on a safari and paddling in a canoe along the river, among other activities. I expect it to be touristy, as the wild animals attract lots of foreigners. From there I will travel a short way north to Manakamana, a small village with a special Hindu temple. It is back at altitude, and there should be few tourists.
After a night there I'll trek five hours to the small town of Gorkha, site of a famous fort and reputedly a beautiful place. It should also be free of tourists. I'll spend two nights there before returning by bus to Kathmandu on Thursday afternoon. I've accepted an invitation to attend the Anzac Day service at the Australian Embassy on Friday morning. Plan to stay 3 nights again at the Hotel Thamel.The weather in Kathmandu has been pleasant, with a usual daily range 12-31 degrees. On Wednesday night a spectacular electrial storm lit the sky with sheet lightning, but there was little rain.
I've enjoyed my few days here, at a slower pace than the hectic Everest trek. Prayas, the taxi driver who took me from the Shangri-La Hotel to the Hotel Thamel was a nice young bloke, with good English and a most careful driver (in contrast to most in Kathmandu).
Yesterday I engaged him to take me to Bhaktapur, another former royal capital about 25km east in the Kathmandu valley. It's superbly preserved, with the "55 window" palace, and many temples. Amazingly, the Nepali New Year festival, Bisket Batra, which is celebrated only in Bhaktapur, was in full swing. The schools were closed and the narrow streets filled with school children, women of all ages, and the men who were not working. The main attraction was an attempt to drag a huge, ponderous wooden chariot, maybe 8 metres high, along on its wooden wheels, with many young men pulling on large ropes. It was great entertainment, particularly when it rolled back down a small hill, nearly collecting a few people in its wake! The other entertainments were primarily games of dice played on a dusty rag on the ground (I lost my single bet!). Many people used the opportunity to make sacrifices to the gods at small Hindu shrines everywhere. Chickens were in great demand: after a brief warm-up ceremony with food offerings the participants would grab their chook, slit its throat and spray its blood over the other offerings. I was assured that the chooks would all be eaten for the evening meal.
It's pleasant escaping from the heavy air pollution of Kathmandu which was giving me quite a sore throat by the time I left. My hotel, Rhino Lodge, is in a small village across the river from Chitwan National Park, and is mercifully quiet, another contrast to Kathmandu.
My bus left Kathmandu at 7:30am yesterday, but after about 15 mins we were caught in terrible traffic jam that took an hour to penetrate. Once out of the city the countryside was striking as we wound along steep mountain sides between terraced farms growing rice and corn. The traffic was heavy - mainly trucks and buses, with much terrifying driving, but only one accident that I noticed.
[Have just been interrupted by the most horrendous noise outside: two elephants walking along the road appeared to have an argument. It took the handlers a couple of minutes to quieten them.] I changed buses after lunch and we drove south, away from the mountains into lowland tropical scenery. Arrived at Chitwan about 2pm. It's substantially hotter here, in the mid 30s with high humidity and quite a heavy smoke haze as we saw in Laos. The hotel is fairly basic but quite comfortable. My room is air conditioned, but the hotel doesn't have its own generator, so during the twice daily 4 hour power cuts, I just enjoy the heat! The only others staying there last night was a tour group from the Netherlands who left this morning.
My package deal at the hotel includes several activities in the National Park. For each I have my own guide. Yesterday in the late afternoon we visited the elephant breading centre several kilometres away. At my suggestion we cycled there, using old Indian, single-speed bikes along the rough, stony roads. The local people here are a different ethnic group from the majority Newari, being related to northern Indian groups. They speak Hindi rather than Nepali among themselves, though they are all fluent in Nepali. Their domestic architecture is different to that in the mountains and Kathmandu. Their homes are constructed of reeds bound with clay, and the rooves are thatched. The elephant breeding centre was fun, but not nearly as good as the one you & I visited north of Ayutthia in Thailand.
At 7am this morning my guide and I headed for a canoe ride down the river for several kilometres, then walked back though the rain forest for several hours. It was great fun. The guide pointed out numerous species of birds on the river, and he lent me his binoculars We also saw the two species of crocodile - freshwater and salt - that inhabit the river. The salt (why? there's no salt water here!) one we saw from the river bank, we were right above him.
The walk was even better, particularly when we saw an old rhino about 30m away. We had to be very quiet, as it is potentially deadly. The guide had advised me of escape plans if we were to come across a rhino, so I was prepared. As we moved away from it, the rhino started to move through the scrub in the same direction. We took off at full speed, stopping at a large tree that I started to climb. The rhino stopped moving, so we crept away, my heart beating at 100%. Later I found that several people a year are killed by rhinos here!We saw deer and monkeys, and lots of evidence of a small native cat, sloth bears and others. We saw even more birds, including eagles and woodpeckers, and a close encounter with with a wild rooster, a fine, brightly coloured fellow that appeared to be the ancestor of our domestic chooks.
When we crossed the river to return to the village, the working elephants were being taken for their twice daily bath in the river. It was wonderful to watch, and several tourists joined in. I was tempted, but I was suspicious of the quality of the river water. The elephants splashed themselves and everyone nearby, and rolled and soaked up the cooling water. The handlers scrubbed them, which the creatures seemed to relish.
This afternoon at 3pm I'm to go for an elephant ride. I'll leave by bus tomorrow at 9am.
Last night was the first night I'd eaten by myself, as the last of my fellow Everest trekkers flew out during the day. I ate at a simple Nepalese restaurant, in contrast to the rather fancier ones at which we'd been dining since returning from the trek.
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