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Published: March 18th 2008
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We get to the bus station at 7am. A whole bunch of backpackers are already there and we strike up a conversation with Sophie, a German girl. She's been travelling all over Asia and thoroughly recommends we visit the Andaman islands next time we're in the area. We eat our egg sandwiches which are our inclusive breakfast (Maya, not an egg fan, gets an extra chai instead).
On the bus we thread through Varanasi's rush hour traffic. The enormous, gaudily-painted vehicle carves through the congested streets with an ease that belies its bulk, like a fat ballet dancer. Once out in the countryside, we stop for breakfast and I get a chai. There's a dead fly in it. Mmm. Moving again, the towns become smaller and more raggedy as we head north. Brick-built gives way to mud hut, mud hut to corrugated iron and plastic shack, and that gives way to small tents. As far as we can see is farmland, dotted with small, rustic villages. People shit by the roadside, squatting on their haunches, and one man reads a newspaper.
The bus is old and breaks down with monotonous regularity. We have to keep stopping for spares. At
Pickup truck ride...
... to Park Side in Chitwan one stop, our driver has a row with a pedestrian. The pedestrian is hoarded away and beaten by a policeman. Two Indian transvestites (yes, really) watch the proceedings, and look at us like we're the weird ones! Erm, you're the one with a beard and a dress on!
The road is never-ending and the surface deteriorates as we head north. By the time it is dark we are bouncing along mud tracks, and we're in agony, badly needing a stretch. Every town we come to we hope is the border town, but in fact it is still miles away. A coach just like ours looms out of the dusty darkness like a ghost - the front had been completely stoved in, and it had been burnt out.
Eventually, at something like 10pm, we arrive at the border. We walk backwards out of India, away from the beaurecratic, rude border control guards and into Nepal, where two young Nepalese stoners take our packs, get our entry forms (we already had visas) and eventually show us to the hotel at Sonauli, the town we were in. I think they were border control staff, but they might as well have been
Sampling Gorkha beer...
... with a cigarette and a Paul Theroux book. Probably the first time I relaxed in over a fortnight... students. I am presented with a bottle of San Miguel and the waiter, with all politeness, enquired if I might like a little hash to send me to sleep. "Very good," he says, "Nepali hash best in world," and he flashes me a smile. Already I much prefer Nepal to India, and I'm only 100 yards into it. In just walking across the border, the attitude and vibe has changed. Here people smile quickly, and it isn't followed by a request for baksheesh. We get the distinct feeling that the Nepalese really do want us to be here and aren't only interested in our bank balance. We like it.
13/3/08 - Royal Chitwan National Park
I go across the road at first light to buy some Nepalese rupees. I pay for our three day package tour around Chitwan park, a huge reserve in the south of the country, and we jump on a local bus. Nepal immediately seems different. For one thing, there are way less people around, and those we do see are friendly. After leaving the border town, our road takes us into the mountains and we climb the Himalayan foothills. We look down into the
Traditional Tharu tribal residence...
... made with a timber skeleton, elephant grass and mud/dung to seal it. rainforest and a mist hangs over the trees. Everything is so much cleaner here, there is less rubbish and poverty, and it appears that the Nepalese actually use toilets instead of the public highway for their morning ablutions. Part of the mountain road has fallen away down the precipice, and I look down to see an enormous gully. Arriving at Bharatpur, near Chitwan, we are dropped off by the bus and meet a ranger in his green uniform. I leg it across the road to buy some cigarettes as we wait for our jeep, and notice a film shoot going on. It appears to be for a music video, with female dancers surrounding a singer, and I can't help noticing (much to Maya's disgust) how stunning Nepalese women generally are.
After a 20 minute jeep ride through small mud hut villages (the locals are extremely friendly) we get to our hotel, Park Side, and it's beautiful. A large two storey hotel building with a lodge thing outside for meals and drinks etc. The hot taps work, the room is beautifully clean and the food good. We are in subtropical rainforest and the atmosphere is warm, but humid. Parrots and
Nepali Tharu children...
... some of the loveliest, and most mischievous, kids ever. orioles sing in the trees and enormous tropical butterflies flutter past. It's like the hot house at Kew Gardens. A banana tree grows just by the door. It's like a tranquil paradise next to the dry, smelly, churning humanity of India.
We are staying in Sauraha, a Tharu community village right on the Chitwan park border. In Tharu, the local dialect, Chit means heart and Wan means jungle. Heart of the jungle. The ranger takes us for a walk around the village and everyone says hello. These people are so different, no begging, rudeness or aggression at all. Everybody smiles. Weed grows abundantly in the hedgerows, maybe that's why? We look round the Tharu tribal museum for a bit (and notice the similarity between my tattoos and the traditional Tharu tattoos) and then went to watch the sun set over the river. If there is such a place as paradise, then this place is it. The sun dips as fireflies swirl in the dusk and a wild elephant blows dust over herself, half a mile away. Cicadas sing and frogs call. This is just fantastic. I thought places like this only existed in storybooks these days.
A bit
Typical Tharu residence...
... and sensi-packed ditch... later we go to watch a traditional Tharu dance display. It is strikingly similar to the dances and songs of native American Indians, and one particular firestaff display (these guys invented it) makes our jaws drop. We go to bed, for the first time really chilled out and happy, and tomorrow morning we have to be up early for our elephant safari! The best way to see wild animals in the forested depths of the park is from the back of an elephant. Apparently the really dangerous animals in the park - rhino, sloth bear, tiger or leopard - are less likely to attack an elephant than humans on foot. Oh good!
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Kate
non-member comment
OMG! JEALOUS ATTACK!
Wow wow and WOW! Nepal sounds like our kind of place! ;o) Beautiful tropical environment. Si says "wait til u see Thailand!" Missing you and so glad you enjoying yourselves, stay safe, lots of hugs to you both xxx