Day 1
The Weather section of Murphy's law, subsection 17d, clearly states that on any given day should you desire to partake in an outdoor activity, or activity requiring or prefering clear dry weather; desired weather will persist upto but NOT including the scheduled day of said activity.
And so, it was a typical Nepalese monsoon morning (I thought it was supposed to be over at this point) that I suited up with all my wet weather gear on and drove off into the great wet yonder on my rented 150cc Bajaj Pulsar. I was soaked through within an hour. The rain persisted for a good 5 hours until I got near the flatlands in the Himalayan foothills. But i got over that quickly and enjoyed the steep canyons, terraced rice paddys, rushing rivers and tiny hamlets that I was winding my way past. I stopped in a little hilltop town called Tansen for the night. A beautiful little place surrounded by amazing scenery and cheerful people eager to know where your from and what you think of their country so far. Surprisingly, I met a Canadian girl originally from Nelson, and her Swedish boyfriend in the guest house I was at. They had been there for a few days so showed me the way to some fantastic Dal Bhat, made by a little sub-five foot granny with help from the rest of the family. Dal Bhat is the typical Nepalese meal consisting of a lentil soup (Dal) and rice (Bhat) as well as some cooked veggies and whatever else happens to be lying around. Mix it all together, and start shovelling with your hand (right hand). This is what Nepalese eat everyday for every meal, but its very good, so into it.v With Dal Bhat you never leave hungry, and in this case granny made very sure of that. Everytime we accepted her offer for just a little more she would bustle into the back and come out smiling with another full serving. It doesn't help that it expands in your stomach; it was an early night after that...
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| View of Annapurna peaks from Tansen |
Day 2
I had a long drive ahead of me so I was up early and on the road by 8:30, in the sunshine I might add. One hour, and 5 major mudslides later I reached Butwal, and the official beginning of the flatlands. There's really nothing to say about Butwal, it's hot, it's dusty, and it's full of trucks and buses taking a break before tempting fate on their way into the mountains. From this point on, the road was flat and straight which was fantastic because I was finally able to get above 30km/h. The landscape changed significantly, into a more grassland plain, with heards of water buffalo and goats grazing in fields rather than single animals standing in the blind part of a blind corner like in the mountains, and butterflies everywhere. Beautiful big butterflies fluttering around the road just high enough to explode in a lovely poof of colour as I ran head on into them. I did my best to dodge them but the eratic fluttering made that tough at 80km/h. The last thing I would see is a glorious explosion of yellow, purple, orange or black dust as he exploded off my helmet or shoulder. I must have taken out at least 50 on my way up and another 50 on the way back. I felt bad, and found myself appologizing as I watched the next one flutter into the line of fire. It's a decent way to tie-dye your shirt though!
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| This was all that was left of this poor fellow, dunno how he got inside my helmet though... |
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| The 'road' |
Arriving at Bardia I was 'recruited' by a guy working for one of the lodges who led the way down the 13km path, slightly resembling a road, only to find that the river had seriously risen and was now a good 100m wide and a few feet deep, and rushing. According to buddy, you're not supposed to cut straight across the river just kinda go with it on an angle...ooook, makes sense I guess. I dropped my bag, took off my boots, reminded myself the bike was a rental and plunged into the water. Several close calls but I managed to keep the bike upright and moving forward and made it to the other side unscathed. Like I've said, the best way to learn is to jump in with both feet!
Major river crossing: check
Turns out I was one of only 5 people at the park, but that was great, more tigers for me.
Day 3
Up early again, which seems to be a common trend in Nepal...in bed by 9:00, up by 6:00, 6:30. This morning though we were leaving at 6:30 for an all day jungle walk (which was way out of the budget, but I didn't come all this way not to go for a tromp through the jungle). Apparently tigers and rhinos like reds, blues, and whites so they weren't too impressed with my light blue shirt, and asked me to change it. I mentioned that my backpack was bright red too but apparntly that was ok because tigers attack from behind...I'm still at a loss as to the logic there, if anyone can enlighten me I'm all ears.
Unfortunately this is a pretty hard time to see animals because most of the land is flooded so it's difficult to walk in many areas and the animals don't have to come to the river for water, they can find it anywhere. Also, the grass is about 10feet tall so for all I know there could have been a family of tigers right beside me.
I clearly am not as karma positive as I thought because we really didn't see much, a couple of dear, some birds and some monkeys. I was a little dissapointed to be honest, I was really looking forward to seeing a tiger and I had pretty high hopes. Saw loads of tracks and paw prints though, so they are out there somewhere. Unfortunately that's the way it goes, but the walk was great, animals or not. 12 hours later we arrived back to the lodge for a Dal Bhat feast, then I past out.
Day 4
Woke up late (7:30) with a relaxing day ahead. I had some loose plans to explore the surrounding villages and visit the elephant breeding centre, that was about it. The town was a pretty standard rural Nepalese town; rice paddies, each family's water buffalo tied up at the front door, and tractors fighting their way through huge muddy ruts hauling the days load into the market.
The best way to eat, aside from Dalbatt, is street meat. And by street meat I mean veggie samosas and fried bread, soooo good and soooo cheap; generally 5 rupees per item (about 7cents). Now, for those of you who remember and miss festival bread from Victoria's Jamacian Jerk House as much as I do, you will be very happy to hear - or maybe I'm happier to tell you - that I have rediscovered it. And for just 5 rupees and a trip to Bardia National Park you can have some too! I was so stoked I bought a bag the next day for the road.
The elephant breeding centre was pretty average and a little sad as well. Elephants are such amazing animals and to see them chained up kinda pulls at the ol' heart strings a little. I've decided I wouldn't mind having a trunk though. They're so functional! You can sniff stuff, drink through it, pick stuff up, pull trees out of the ground with it, itch yourself, hit people...seriously, what can't you do with a trunk?? It's hard to believe that something can become so massive and you really can't appreciate the size until you stand next to one. I think I would place elephants up their with unicorns as quite a majestic creature.
Day 5 and 6
Bad day.
Another fairly long day ahead today but the sun was out and I had good tunes blasting all the way. On my way back now but heading to Lumbini, the birth place of the lord Buddha back in 623BC. Probably one of the most spiritual places on earth, countries from all over the buddist world as well as others have built temples in his honour. Unfortunately, like most things old, beautiful, and significant in Nepal, there is very little funding so the grounds surrounding all the temples are a pretty dismal sight. They are slowly building it up as donations trickle in but it is a slow process so by the time a section is completed, the beginning is starting to fall apart.
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The actual town of lumbini is awful. Dirty, tiny, and surrounded on all sides by dusty savannah. The accommodation is horrible, hands down the worst I've ever stayed and it's hot and infested with mosquitos. It was one of those places where the only place you want to be is in another town. Didn't want to be in the room, didn't want to be outside, and it was too late to head in to see the temples. I spent a sleepless itchy night with the mosquitoes, and at about 4am while lying there hating life I vowed to never go back if I could help it...it's amazing how when a few things are really bad EVERYTHING becomes really bad. I saw the temples and the exact rock that Mr. Buddha landed on after making his escape from the woom which was pretty cool, and then hightailed it out. I had most of the day so I made my way back up to Tansen slowly, doing some exploring and sampling the samosas along the way.
Day 7
With only the four hour drive back to Pokhara, I had a relaxing morning with a bakery breakfast on a ridge above the town. Mornings are generally when the weather is the best and this morning i had a spectacular view of the Annapurna range to the north.
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I arrived back in Pokhara at around 3 o'clock, filthy and tired but so stoked with how well the trip went. And it just so happened that I stumbled into the same restaraunt at the same time as the three Brits i had met the week before. They had just returned from their eight day trek to Annapurna Base Camp and looked equally as run down (actually I think a little worse) than me. The four of us were a sight to behold thats for sure!
It has now been solidified that the first thing I do when I get home...after getting out of the inevitable debt, and I guess I should move out if moms house...but after that, the first thing I'm doing is buying a motorbike.
But until then, trekking will have to be the preferred mode of transport, next stop basecamp!
Take care everyone and chat soon!
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