Jungle Wildlife

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19/10/08

Today was a day of rest. Said goodbye to Raj and checked out a cover band, Nepalese style!!!! Very funny.

20/10/08

After breakfast at a Student Cafe we headed off on a walk to the World Peace Pagoda with Jo.
Some kids started to follow us and show us the way, eventually they said it would cost us Rs.100 so we left them and went into the jungle on our own.

We eventually found a nice walking path and could see the lake on our right so we knew we were headed in the correct direction. Suddenly the path stopped and we had to fight our way through the jungle and it got thicker and thicker. Lots of spider webs ensued and unfortunately for our sandaled feet, leeches!! After some trekking we finally hit the path again and made our way up to the Pagoda. After a quick stop at a cafe for salt we checked out the views over Pokhara, the Phew Tal (lake) and the mountains we had previously been hiking in.

The walk down we stuck to the path and headed to the lake shore to find a boatman to take us back over to Pokhara. Jo and Drew decided to swim so Adam and I took the bags and made our way to a resort and hired a boat. I decided to swim also, I dove off the bank into the warm water and started the 1-2km journey. The swim took about 30 hr in total as I was in no hurry.

After lunch we tried some shopping but got bored pretty quick as most the stuff was tacky shite. We had our final dinner at our fav restaurant, D.B Momos, then went to check the nightlife again but it was dead.
On the way home we saw a bunch of kids molesting and kicking a dog but no one seemed to care, very strange indeed.

21/10/08

Bus to Chitwan National Park. Said goodbye to Jo as she was busing to Kathmandu. We all got a bit sunburnt sitting on the bus roof, Adam's legs were pretty funny as he only burnt above the knee to mid thigh.

Arrived in Sauraha around lunch so went for food. It took 2 hours to get it but it was really nice so wasn't to annoyed. We then hired bikes and headed to the elephant breeding center. It was a little different than expected as the elephants were chained up under big tin roofs, all except to babies which wandered around freely. One decided to sit on me and head but my shin then run through Adam. We watched them for a while as they played and tried to mount each other.

The ride back was fun as Drew and my chains decided to keep falling off. Had dinner and a few beers on the river bank.

22/10/08


This morning we took a canoe ride down the Rapati River and saw countless types of birds and 3 crocodiles, thankfully they didn't come near the boats. We disembarked further down and went on a jungle walk back up to our hotel. On the jungle walk we saw one little white monkey, but no rhinos, bears or tigers. When we got back we headed down to the river and bathed with the elephants. Drew and I got thrown off our elephant a lot and Drew split his shorts.

In the arvo we went on an elephant safari. We sat in a chair type thing on the back of the elephant and he trundled through the jungle and across rivers. It's amazing how quiet their footfall is for such a big beast.
This time we were lucky enough to see 3 rhinos grazing. They weren't to fazed by our being there. We also saw some peacocks and a lot of wild deer.

We had to stop for a while as one of the basket/chair things started to slide off the side of the young elephant on our trip. Eventually we headed off again but no tigers again. Once back in Sauraha we went back to the river for sunset and after dinner played guitar with 3 Nepalese guys around our age. After a while it got a bit weird so we went back to our hotel.

23/10/08

We left Chitwan for Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha, today. The bus rides (yes 2 buses) were long and boring. Upon arrival Adam and I hired bikes and rode to the birth place of Buddha which is marked by a small rock and to the buddhist monasteries in the Lumbinbi Development Site. There are a lot still being built. We also went past the eternal flame and a giant bell of some importance.

That night we had our final dinner in Nepal and organised our train tickets to Kolkata.

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