Sep 29th, 2007
Wel Come to Nepal
I love the way different cultures around the world choose to change the spelling of the English language and then it becomes the norm and accepted. Wel Come is just one little example, it’s lovely.
Our farewell from Varanasi was long overdue and we were both very happy to be heading for the train station that evening. It’s funny how the intensity of one place can get you felling so deflated. After a long wait at the train station, a long distance argument with a disgruntled local for lying on the ground (which about 300 other people were doing) and barging in line to confirm we were at the right station we got on board 2.5 hours late (2:30 am) and fell very quickly asleep.
We were heading for Nepal and could not wait. Rory, a friend of ours had just come back and raved about it. We’d arrange a trip to head for the Royal Chitwan National Park in the south of the country, just over the boarder and then afterwards off to trek up to the Annapurna Base Camp in the heart of the Himalayas. Things were looking up!
The train crawled along all night long and eventually we arrived at Gorakpur about 50km south of the boarder between Nepal and India. It was 8am and the last thing we felt like dealing with was the pain of a local bus so we took the easy option of a car and paid an extortionate price for it. The tout even tried to charge an extra fee for the police; I said I’d give it to them myself and motioned to follow him before he backed down – these people are relentless!
It was just a short drive to the boarder where there was a lively, hustle and bustle of people on rickshaws zipping back and forth, in and out of Nepal. Nepalese and Indians can freely travel across their boarders with no ID or check whatsoever. If you looked like you were from either Indian or China and just kept quiet no one would know any better! We got our passports stamped to leave and took a short walk to the other side.
I can’t begin to tell you how massive the contrast is between the Nepal and India. Over just a few yards suddenly the people greeted you with a smile, the auto rickshaws stopped, the air felt clean, the road appeared to be flatter, the houses more modern and I could have sworn the sun came out that very second.
Nepal is amazing, the Nepalese people are amazing. After a cheerful immigration officer stamped our passports the other side and getting some advise from the friendly tourist office (no one ripping us off), we took a little rickshaw about 4km through paddy fields with birds tweeting and smiley faces all around us to a town called Bhairawa where we stopped for a bite to eat.
Our destination was a small town on the edge of the Chitwan park called Sarahua, a very sweet little hideaway that we recommend everyone goes to if they head for Nepal one day. 11am is elephant bath time and you can go down and join in with no hassle. There’re just two or three restaurants and a handful of Guesthouses and more elephants just plodding past you in the street from time to time. Our little Guesthouse was lovely even if the owner, Chris was a little too pushy on the selling front for the “Jungle Walk” and “Elephant Safari”.
Breathing a big sigh of relief we spent our first day pottering around and generally relaxing. The following day we booked a trip into the Chitwan Park to stay at a resort called the Machan Wildlife Resort. Machan is tucked away down one end of the park and after taking a taxi, followed by the biggest 4X4 truck you could ever imagine to drive through rivers we arrived at this secluded retreat in the rain forest. There were a handful of others staying there, in particular a very entertaining Finnish group who argued about how far north you needed to go to see the Northern lights whilst knocking back limitless amounts of alcohol, very entertaining.
After 2 days of Elephant safaris, a canoeing trip and a “cultural program” (hysterical dancing) we saw little more than a few Deer and the odd butterfly which was disappointing. The monsoon has lasted a lot longer than expected here in Nepal this year so a few days of rain have made all the wildlife retreat back, deep into the jungle. That, and the fact the British Raj shot most of it in the early part of the 20th century. It’s sad to learn that there are now only four wild, male elephants and sixty Bengal Tigers, which you very rarely see even if you live there.
We briefly stopped over in Sarahua after emerging from the Jungle and headed for Kathmandu.
Katmandu is cool. A fun loving busy little city slap bang in the middle of Nepal, it’s an amalgamation of three ancient cities that have merged over the centuries into one. With Nepal’s populations having gone from 5 to 25 million in just 3 decades its not surprising that things are bit chaotic here but nothing like the trauma of India’s cities thank god.
We checked into a lovely little place just north of the backpacker area called Thamel and took a long hot shower after an arduous eight hour bus trip from the Chitwan Park up into the mountains and down again into the Kathmandu valley. Very excited about our trip to Annapurna Base Camp we ate and slept well that night. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz