First of all I’m alive, and no crocodiles were close to me at the time of falling.  Oh and I now have travel insurance, so I’m covered in so far as I understand it.  If crocodiles devour my corpse they will rebuild me.  They have the technology.

 

It has been an eventful week after two and a half weeks in my Nepali second home of Pokhara.  I finally did it.  I finally forced myself to leave.  Since then I have actually been to 4 cities in the past few days and accomplished a lot.

 

Alright, the week still began in Pokhara,  Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday passed easily.  I wrote, I read, I relaxed and I continued healing.  I also had two notable meals, one on Monday night to bid adieu to my Belgian friend who was on his way to Kathmandu  He was a rather large fan of steak and spending the past few months in Nepal and India he’d not had a lot of it, so we headed out to a well rated and expensive steakhouse (Expensive by Nepali standards so the whole meal was 9 dollars each) .  The place made me think of my Dad, as they served baseball thick steaks, and no matter how you ordered it, you got it bleeding.  Still it was delicious and also made me miss all the delicious grilled meat of the Balkans.  Luckily I think I’ll be back in that region of the world during my third year of travel, albeit briefly.

 

The next meal was Tuesday night with the lovely German couple and served as the farewell meal to Pokhara for all of us.  It was a delicious but frustrating meal.  We went to the Lemon tree and I discovered their yogurt shakes, which were essentially a huge portion of fresh frozen yogurt and just so entirely delicious.  It served as the drink and another as the dessert to the meal but I couldn’t help but feel the last 17 days without these things had been a shame.  Oh and the Indian food I consumed wasn’t half bad either.

 

On Wednesday morning, bright and early at 6 am, I left Pokhara.  I was sad to leave but eager to discover more of Nepal and so, the tears remained unshed in my eyes, for the promise of a new wonder around the corner, and the strong feeling that I would make it back to Pokhara one day.  I really do hope to make it back to Nepal on a longer term basis, this country is full of wonders and immense variety. I would love to spend a few months or even a year volunteering at a school here.

 

The bus ride to Katmandu passed uneventfully and quickly, thanks to Chandra the entirely awesome proprietor of Karma Guesthouse who arranged for me to have the front row (extra leg room) seat.   I also had a flash of a new book idea as I glanced out the window at the idyllic valley filled with lush jungle and a rushing river.  The bus rides in Nepal have stunning views, and with the roads as they are, they are anything but boring. I got to Kathmandu and found out that the bus dropped us off somewhere very different from where it left from and so decided to take a taxi to my hostel, as my stomach was feeling a little queasy by now and I had no idea where I was.  But 2 dollars and half an hour later through the crowded craziness of Thamel streets I was outside my hostel, ready to check in.

 

After a few hours relaxing in the chilled out rooftop common room of Alobar1000 I headed out into the streets to meet up with my friends from Pokhara.  We found the place easily and I had my first Dal Baat, the national dish of Nepal.  It was an flavourful combination of rice, dal, chicken, various sauces, potatoes, and greens.  A great meal with great company, followed by an unfortunately painful walk home.  Nothing beat being offered drugs and prostitutes by every man you walk by on the streets when all you really want is a place to go to the bathroom.  The night was not pleasant, especially since the bathroom was upstairs, then outside, then downstairs from my dorm.  Oh well, travelling and sickness go hand in hand, especially this part of the world, and I refused to let this beginning of a sickness ruin the rest of my week.  I proudly pushed through.

 

The next day started early as I headed out to the Indian embassy at 7 am on what was an eventful walk.  I’d read online that the line started at 630 even though the doors didn’t open until 930.  Well I was second in line and only by an instant, as a Scottish couple climbed out of a cab just before me.  The process went smoothly enough, and I find out on the 4th if my application was successful.  If not, I’m not too worried, though I have booked my flight to Mumbai already, but I could happily spend the next 5 weeks in Nepal before moving onto Thailand.

 

One funny thing that did occur at the embassy, my visa cost 49 dollars, but the Scottish couple had to pay 140 each. The Scottish man claimed, “It’s only fair, you’ve gotta pay for all the raping and pillaging of colonization somehow.”  Obviously it’s actually a reciprocal visa pricing issue, but I preferred his analysis.

 

The visa done I headed back to the hostel around 10 am and spent the majority of the day developing my bus ride idea into the half formed outline of a novel.  I have the characters, many of the key events, and the emotional story arc for the main characters, I just need to do a little world building to be ready to start writing.  Sadly it joins a list of more than half a dozen novels I need to write, though I think this one may jump to the top of the list as it seems like a stand alone novel at least so far.  So that’s exciting.

Day became night and I met an eclectic group of people at the hostel, people from Australia, England, Ireland, America, and New Zealand.  Most of the corners of the English speaking world.  After dropping a rap song for them we headed out to the Irish pub full of Guinness signs with no Guinness.  We played pool most of the night, a game which I am awful at, before heading out into the darkened streets of Thamel where everyone has something to offer.  Hash, Coke, Girls, Boys.The prostitutes for me were the strangest thing of all, not because of the sheer number of them, and not because some of them were quite attractive, but because they proudly spouted catch phrases in a thoroughly faked American southern accent.  Whispering in low throaty purrs things like “Howdy big fella, how ya’ll doing”  and “My name’s Brittany, what’s yours playa?”Now while it was quite amusing I did find it a strange business tactic, as, presumable, people looking for prostitutes here want something exotic, not girls pretending their American.  Or maybe I’m just out of touch with the John’s of this world.  Anyway, it was a unique experience as they followed me and my Australian friend almost all the way to our hostel, insisting they would give us “best price”.After a brief conversation on the rooftop I headed to bed, knowing it would be another early morning and that my stomach needed rest.  My throat was starting to hurt to, so I popped some Echinacea and hoped I’d feel better.  Sadly that was not to be.

I woke up after another fitful sleep at 7 and headed out, deciding that fuck sickness, I was going to go to Bhaktapur with my friends from Pokhara as I’d planned.  It was a good decision, even if my body objected.  Bhaktupur is a living museum, and one of the 10 cleanest cities in Asia (not very clean at all)  you pay an entry fee to get in which goes to restoration work and keeping the city clean but at 11 dollars (ridiculously expensive for Nepal)  it was well worth it.  The city is a maze of alleyways letting out into massive temples and incredible views of the mountains.  It’s also famous for some of its Ghats  (cremation temples) and is also full of incredibly friendly locals.  I got my first taste of photographing locals here, as it was busy enough they did not notice, or, if they did, they seemed happy about it. The Nepali people are just incredibly photogenic as is this wondrous city.  Check it out.

 

 

I’m hoping to make it back to this incredible city and spend a night there too, I even had my passport number put on my ticket to let me back in free. We left Bhaktapur in the mid afternoon hopping on the local bus back to Kathmandu for a ridiculous 30 cents for the one hour drive.  The local buses here are quite the experience, packed to the bring, often with people riding on top, and they take you through villages you’ otherwise never see.  We were definitely the only white people on the bus both ways but it was well worth it, even if I was crammed into a tiny seat the entire ride with an assortment of children, mothers, and fathers brushing up against me in all kinds of weird places.  We returned to Kathmandu and I felt so drained I went back to the hostel and passed out to bad TV in my room around 6 or 7 knowing that another early morning awaited me.  It was yet another fitful sleep sadly leaving me exhausted when I rolled out of bed at 6 am on Saturday to catch my tourist bus to Chitwan National park.

scary to see

The ride was alright as I again managed to snag an extra leg room seat since this bus was almost empty.  It’s incredible how quickly the tourists disappear once high season is on its last legs here, especially considering how amazing this place is in December and I’m told January too.  Still, even with the simple-ish bus ride, I saw three accidents total and even managed to get this picture of one, which thankfully looked as if no one had been hurt.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Chitwan was booked as a package, something I dislike doing, but am grudgingly admitting can be useful when you don’t have time to waste and want to go places like this.  IT saves transfer time, bargaining time, and research time, and this package has been incredible.
Saturday around 2 p.m.  I got to the bus station and was picked up promptly by the Tiger Residency Resort staff and brought to the hotel in the converted back of an old pick up truck.  They checked me in to an awesome room with two beds just for me and a cool mosquito net (I’m a first timer and find them interesting).

Once I’d showered I was quickly taken out on a walk through the town and out the river boarder of the National Park to watch the sunset, along with my two travel companions here at the lodge, two very nice Swedish girls whose parents have both been to Nepal many times before.

 

Our guide led us through dirt roads and jungle until we suddenly came to the area where they keep the government elephants.  There’s elephants everywhere here.  It’s pretty incredible.  We watched a mother with her 4 month old baby, and old male with huge tusks, and I even got to feed a 60 year old female a grass ball.  (Grass stuffed with molasses and grains.)

Mum and her Baby.

Baby stares yearningly at the man it hopes to one day be.

Hungry, hungry…. elephants?

Elephants are everywhere!

Sunset at the river.

Fire dancers at the local culture night.

We headed to bed early and woke up for a 6:30 start enjoying a delicious breakfast before heading out in the morning jungle mists for a canoe ride and jungle walk.  I’m pretty good with Canoes, but this was a narrow long boat made from a Silk Cotton tree, and was incredibly unstable with 10 people in it.  Two groups.  Still it was pretty amazing and we even made it down some rapids as the mists cleared and we saw some monkeys before climbing out and into the jungle.  Right away we knew one thing, these forests were teeming with life, in a way I’ve not seen since Costa Rica.  We saw countless monkeys, 2 types of deer, peacocks, wild boar and more crocodiles as we followed our guide hopping nimbly through the undergrowth even climbing some trees for better views.  It was an incredible walk, though by this point my sickness left me sapped of all energy and constantly fighting the need to cough.  Still it was incredible and was finished off by a quick visit to an elephant-breeding center full of mother elephants and their babies, a pretty incredible place.  These gentle giants are wondrous creatures and seeing the government here working to help them survive is inspiring, even if they are bound in servitude they all seemed to be treated quite well and loved by their trainers, and in return they seemed to love them back.  Something I’m told isn’t the same everywhere in the world.

We returned from the jungle walk to a delicious lunch at our hotel alongside a pair of Canadian teachers from Toronto who were staying in the same place but on a different schedule than me and the Swedes.  After lunch we again crossed the river into Chitwan proper and embarked on a four-hour jeep safari including a visit to a crocodile-breeding center with thousands of crocs all at different stages of life.  Pretty terrifying stuff really.  The safari itself was a little disappointing, as we didn’t catch sight of the big three (Rhino, tiger, wild elephant) but we still saw deer, boar and two kinds of monkeys.  It was also neat to go so deep into the jungle and see the military encampments that have been set up all around the park to stop poaching which remains a huge problem here.  Last year there were 1000 one horned rhino’s here, this year it’s apparently down to 500.  It’s odd now that I think about it, but as a child poacher’s were the height of all evil to me and even served as the villain in a recurring nightmare I had around the age of ten.  Their bastards, for sure, but somehow I feel like murderers should have been somewhere on the list.  Meh, the innocence of youth.

the eerie pre-dawn mists, reminded me of the fog in Nova Scotia

A differen mother and child pair heading out for 5 hours of free grazing.

Close up of the baby, because babies are cute.

The Monkeys were everywhere

Terrifying Crocs

We returned to the small resort (5 of us only)  and I managed to catch some of the Man United game before drifting off to sleep, my first good one in days, and I think this is when the sickness started to turn a corner, and my body started producing mucus.  A lot of mucus.  That was Sunday.

Today I woke up bright and early to another incredible breakfast before climbing aboard the truck en route to our elephant safari.  I was separated from my friends the swedes and crammed into an uncomfortable wooden saddle along side three Chinese tourists.  Then the elephant started moving and stuff got very uncomfortable, as I was roughly pushed against the wooden pillars of the saddle in all sorts of delicate places.  Then we entered the jungle, found a rhino, and all that stopped mattering.  It was incredible.

The wild rhino, a young one, seemed un-phased by our presence and only saw the elephants.  From their we carried on and while my dream of seeing a tiger did not come true we found countless more monkeys and deer and had an incredible time with our friendly guide and trustworthy elephant.  (I totally understand Bart Simpson’s choice after spending time with an elephant.)

Wild Young Rhino

Just kept on grazing, ignoring us.

There’s only 500 left, the poachers must be stopped

Fellow riders after crossing the river

More monkeys

Our guide showing his trick mounts

Elephants love bananas

The Elephant’s all tuckered out, can’t blame her, she had to carry me for 2 hours.

Next came the elephant bathing.  We (myself and one of the Swedish girls) climbed into the river, joined our elephant, and rubbed her down a bit before climbing up on to her back as she rode out of the river.  This is where stuff got complicated.  The Swedish girl had the front seat and some rope to hold on to, I had no such thing and the Elephant was not moving smoothly, swaying side to side.  The picture below is before I went tumbling into the river, that time; I managed to recover my seat.  The next turn the elephant made, I crashed into the river and probably became the star of dozen’s of blogs and photo’s.  I’m bruised but nothing more and the elephant seemed to find it very amusing, as it seemed to smile at me before spraying more water in my face.  It was amazing,  I felt connected to this wondrous animal and thankfully no crocs appeared and it was a mostly sandy bottom.