Arriving in Nepal was such a pleasure after India. Approaching and crossing the border brought so many wonderful changes, the landscape turned green and luscious, trees were sprouting all around us, the number of people about immediately shrunk, the amount of litter along the road reduced significantly, the smell improved dramatically and the sound of horns also all but disappeared. It would appear that we had arrived in a country who don’t regard their surroundings as one enormous toilet! We headed straight for a bush camp in the woods and had a most pleasant, quiet and relaxed evening which would turn out to be our last bush camp with our beloved truck. Throughout the night our first monsoon shower ensured our campsite was a big muddy puddle in the morning but not many people seemed to mind as it was such a relief to break the heat and the humidity of the last few weeks. We drove a couple of hours into Nepal to reach Chitwan and our hotel nearby the National Park, what a calm country this is in comparison with manic India, I feel such affection for it already.
An early morning elephant ride through the nearby jungle was a great way to spend a morning here. Our lovely elephant was the same age as me and carried 4 of us and her driver through trees, bushes and rivers for about 2 hours. We pushed our way through branches which then scrape along our legs and feet, then slowly descend into the river and back up out the other side. Anyone who’s ridden upon a large animal will know only too well the feeling when they begin to descend a steep slope and you’re certain that the poor thing is about to buckle under your weight and catapult you head first into the river in front, of course no such thing ever happened but it all adds to the joy of the ride. We were lucky on our jungle walk to not only spot several deer and monkies but also a crocodile in the river and a rhino lying trying to sleep next to a small lake, he didn’t look too pleased to be woken up by several elephants surrounding him with bright eager-eyed tourists staring, it was only a very small rhino which had been de-horned for some reason but it was still very exciting to be in it’s presence. When the driver need to go to the toilet he gave me his stick and slimbed down the elephant’s leg, leaving me in charge!! Aaaargh!! The elephant started walking forward and I was a little scared, what do you do if your elephant decides it’s going to go and live the high life in the woods alone? Fortunately my elephant was just heading for some tastier grass to munch on while she waited for her master. The elephants use their trunk to pull a clump of grass out of the ground, they then batter it against their leg for a little while so as to get rid of any residual earth, then they fold it into their mouth. When they have an itch they pick up a small stick and use it to scratch, it’s really quite amazing to watch them. When our driver returned he stood at the trunk and the elephant scooped him up her head so he could scramble up on to the top of her head. He told us she’s a very nice elephant, to demonstrate this he threw his stick on the ground and she picked it up and handed it to him! All the elephants in the park work, and only the females take tourists out as the males are too unpredictable. Even in the street of Chitwan you can see the elephants being driven around, it’s very funny to see them stop at a shop and the elephant lifts a bag of goods up to the driver! It’s a nice little village though starting to get more touristy.
The other outing of significance was to a nearby jungle village where a charity has been working to improve the quality of life for many of the poor inhabitants. The founder of the charity is the manager of our hotel and he was showing us around the village for anyone interested in doing voluntary work here. Having worked on the community for about 19 years the charity has built a nursery and a school where all the local children have not only the chance of an education and a future but also atleast one stable meal a day. The charity is also working to try to educate the families with regard to hygeine, health and safety and also in trying to provide some training enabling them to earn money for themselves and keep the trade and the money within their own community. It was a most interesting afternoon and we met lots of lovely and interesting people, including a woman who was found living in squalor on the outskirts of the jungle, she had gone blind on the birth of her 2nd child and had since literally lost her children and her husband. They built her the shell of a house (this is only a one roomed house) and found her husband living nomadically in the mountains, he has alcohol issues and is not highly regarded in the community but the charity aims to try to keep families together and so the husband is now based in the village but still wanders off from time to time. In the mean time the woman has used the traditional mud and water methods to plaster her own walls and is very house proud, inviting us all in and trying to lay her bed out on the floor for us so we have somewhere to sit. Four of the group agreed to come back and work in the school, any help given would be greatly appreciated as they need to learn some real basics of life, otherwise it is expected that around half of the class of children we met would die before adulthood due to illness brought on by poor hygeine and lack of medical treatment.
Leaving Chitwan we headed to Pokhara, this being the popular tourist spot where the Annapurna region of mountains is accessed from, as its the monsoon season the days are generally overcast and so the mountains are not visible and you could be completely unaware of their existance. Pokhara is a nice place, lively enough to accomodate tourists with restaurants and bars and shops but also small enough that the surrounding hills and lake can provide all the tranquility or adventures that you might be looking for. Several of us hired a boat and a few kayaks and took to the lake for an afternoon of peaceful paddling. The far side of the lake has remote restaurants or bars as well as residents, one of the boats we passed had 3 school children paddling home from their lessons.
The drive to Kathmandu from Pokhara contained most of what you would expect from delicious Nepal. We mostly followed rivers which raged through the valleys carrying the fresh monsoon mud water down stream. Every now and again there is a wire across the river for residents or workers to access the other side, these generally have some form of metal cage and pulley system in place so that people and goods can be transported across the river, one such cage was full of school children pulling their way over to the other side, I think this might be the most unique form of school bus I have so far come across. Onwards and upwards we wound our way up the valley sides, marvelling at the gorgeous landscapes, the hillsides are invariably covered in some form of agricultural terracing as the locals grow rice or potatoes and other crops. In among the sea of greenery you can occasionally pick out the bright colours of the saris as the women are working away, but no matter how many times you photograph it the camera just doesn’t want to fully capture the stunning scenes presented. The final ascent up to Kathmandu takes us up a much higher valleyside climb, winding roads and queues of slow trucks making their way to the top, with road side signs considerately offering the services of life insurance companies! This being the final day of travel in our wonderful truck, I am delighted to literally go out on a high! Such a beautiful drive through such a beautiful country, I am quite enchanted by this country.
Why was this the final day on the truck? Sadly we were informed we could not be granted permits to enter Tibet, this obviously changes the trip a great deal as the truck can go no further on our overlanding adventure and will now remain in Kathmandu along with our driver Adam and his partner Helen, while we continue the rest of the journey on public transport. It’s a great loss to the group as the truck provides us with so much security, we only tend to travel by day, all our stuff is safely locked on board, we have a safe box for our valuables, we don’t have to carry all our luggage and it also means we can camp and be self sufficient with all the cooking aparatus on board. The trip is no longer the trip that we all signed up for. From here we fly to China where we now have an extra week which will be spent visiting Beijing and the Great Wall and Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors. We really can’t grumble at that as a fitting alternative to driving to Everest Base Camp and journeying the most dangerous road in the world out of Nepal to get there. After our Chinese bonus week we continue along our original itinerary on public transport, staying in hotels and hostels until we reach Darwin where Adam and Helen will meet us with a bus to take us through Australia, and here we can camp again, hoorah!
For now though, it’s 12 weeks in to the trip and time for our 2 week Kathmandu break.
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