Jaipur to Nepal

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Two hours after leaving Jaipur we arrived in the isolated village of Sawarda, which is still in the Rajasthan Provence. The dusty streets of this town were so narrow that the assistant driver had to guide the bus through into the courtyard of Fort Sawarda, an old fort recently renovated into a ... “traveller’s experience”. After the low key arrival we got in the populated city of Jaipur we were greeted like movie stars at Sawarda. Swarming around the bus the noisy children jockeyed for position to take our hands and have their photo taken.

The fort itself is the pride of the village and employment and training in and around the complex for local young people is something which they should be proud. Peregrine is the only tour company visiting this area and it’s good to see their development investment at work as well.

Here we visited the local school and in the evening were invited into one of their temples to witness their prayers. It was a nice clean little village which is determined to maintain their traditions while at the same time realising the commercial reality that echo tourism can provide.

The reason I seem to get more photos of girls is because the boys are either not interested or muck around so much that it’s hard to get them in focus, while most of the girls are very keen to pose for the cameras. The teenage girl in red is 13 years old and desperately wanted to practice her English. Her name is Sumbarde and wants to come to Australia, as does every second person in India.

The grandmother with the infant boy (pic) proudly told us that he wasn’t very happy as he was only circumcised a few days earlier. Otherwise the village is a happy mix of Hindi and Muslim religions.

From Sawarda it was on to Mandawa and another village walk. The next day we boarded the bus at 08:30 and arrived back in Delhi at 18:15. Including a short stop for lunch and two even shorter loo stops it took us ten hours to travel 270kms on some of the worst main roads I’ve ever seen. Most of the road would have been better taken back to dirt as the effects of the monsoon rains had eroded under the bitumen surface, leaving potholes that would swallow a small vehicle. One lady in the group suffered a trauma to her back and had to complete the journey lying prone on seat cushions pumped full of pain killers.

After the rural small villages we had visited over the last few days Delhi was feral and we couldn’t wait to get out of there again.

Leaving Delhi on a flight to Nepal was a relief as we cleared the smog layer and headed east. An hour and a half later we landed at Kathmandu to a crowded airport, mostly because people didn’t realise that they needed a visa to enter the country. So far Kathmandu is much cleaner than India and the people smile a lot more, despite the number of heavily armed soldiers at intersections and patrolling the streets. I hadn’t realised that there was still a problem with Maoist rebels in the north with several clashes reported only days before we arrived.

From Kathmandu we flew to Pokhara and several days camping in the Chitwan National Park where we had safaris on elephants and jeeps. Saw all sorts of wild animals including a rhino and rare birds.

From Chitwan it was another long and bumpy bus ride back to Kathmandu for a few days before flights out to Singapore. And what a difference it was to step into such a beautifully clean envioronment at Changi Airport. It was funny to see people from the Katmandu flight literally run to use the clean toilets.

Nepal, while being cleaner than India still has a sad problem with rubbish, particularly when it mostly seems to be disposed of in the rivers, only to be washed into the ocean next monsoon. And the pollution almost excluded a clear view of the mountains at any time.

Would I go back to India, probably not but I think I would like to give Nepal another chance.

Until next time ... ciao for now.

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Photos

Grandmother and grandson
Not a happie little chappie having recently been circumcised.

Swamped by children
The Sawarda reception by the village children

Boys showing off
While the girls jostle to pose for photos the boys show off swimming

Young teenage Sawarda girl
She just wanted to practice her English, which is essential for employment outside the village.