Pokhara, Bardia National Park and Trisuli River

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I've spent the last few weeks traveling all over Nepal, heading from Kathmandu down to Pokhara, then even further south to Bardia National Park before heading back up to KTM and down the Trisuli river. Pokhara is basically the last stop on the overland trail for a lot of travelers so is full of hardcore hippies and travel bums. but it is a really nice chilled out place especially after being in Kathmandu which is always really busy and full of touts and people trying to sell you stuff. unfortunately i was a little unwell in Pokhara so didn't get to see as much as I'd have liked, but i did meet this awesome girl from Germany, Jo, on my first night there and we shared a room for the rest of the time. She was leaving to go trekking in the Annapurna a few days later and i was all geared up to go with her, and this other guy Stu, he was from NZ and a bit older around 45 or so. He'd been traveling with his sister and nephew and had met Jo on the bus from KTM, but in the end i had to pull out because i just wasn't well enough. totally lame. I did spend one really nice afternoon with Stu and his family climbing up to the World Peace Pagoda that overlooks Pokhara. It was funny they sort of adopted me for the afternoon, felt like i was crashing the family holiday.

I spent about 4 days in Pokhara all together then i booked a local bus down to the National Park, this trip ended up being a bit of a disaster actually. i booked the bus ticket through an agency in Pokhara and they arrange for a guest house to pick you up in a jeep from one of the villages along the main highway down to the border. somewhere along the line however the bus tickets got mixed up and the one i was issued with had me traveling about 4 hours further than i needed right down to the border with India. When i arrived at the border, after having been on the bus already for 21 hours i called the guesthouse where i was staying in the National Park and they told me that i would have to get another bus back along the exact same road to a place called Ambassa and they would pick me up from there. i am rather ashamed to admit that i didn't handle this news very well, i had already been on the previous bus for 21 hours with very little sleep and i just couldn't think of anything worse than having to get on another. So after i had found the bus i was supposed to be on and paid my fare i sat down on the side of the bus stop and burst into tears. this achieved nothing really aside from attracting a rather large crowd of Nepali men. though one of them did buy me an ice cream which was very sweet. things did improve from there, on the bus i met two guys from Manchester who had just crossed from India and they were heading to Bardia as well. We shared the jeep and ended up staying in the same guest house. They were a total laugh and we made some plans to potentially head into Bangladesh together as well.

The Jungle walking in the national park was however totally worth the arduous bus journeys to and from the park. within an hour of heading out we had spotted a young male Bengal tiger. Jack, Alan, myself and our guides were all crouched on a river bank watching as the tiger emerged from the adjacent scrub, it headed down into the river had a drink and proceeded to swim across to the other side! We had to be totally still and silent while it was in view because we were only around 200m away and if it saw us or felt threatened we would have been in serious shit. It was such an amazing thing to see and he would have been in view for a good five minutes. I've put some photos up on facebook but he was quite far away, you should still be able to make him out though. Later in the afternoon we got lucky again and spotted a family of Rhinos with a baby that had come down to drink and swim in the river, it is very hot in southern Nepal so the animals all cool down in the river. We were able to get up quite close to the Rhinos, we had to sneak up around the river bank commando style and then were able to get some pretty cool pictures. Bardia is such a cool place even if it is a pain in the ass to get there, it was totally worth it. If i did it again in future i would organise my Indian visa beforehand and then just continue straight across the border rather than having to come all the way back to KTM.

Back in KTM i started the process to get a visa, unfortunately it takes five days to process and after you've spent a day or two in Thamel and KTM there is really not a lot to do, so I spent two days rafting down the Trisuli river. So much fun! we camped the night by the river and a huge monsoon came through, lets just say the tents were less than waterproof. i woke up rather damp. then we had another few hours of rafting before Micha, really cool guy i met on the trip, caught the local bus back to KTM. we rode on the roof because the bus was packed to bursting inside and at first it was just the two of us but after an hour or so about 20 other Nepali guys climbed on top most of them were part of a band and all had instruments, they spent the next hour or so having a jam session on the roof. so rad.

Spent my last day in Nepal exploring the Kathmandu valley on the back of a motorbike with Micha. It was great to be on the bike, gives you so much freedom. Passing through Bhaktapur, one of the best kept medieval villages in Nepal which we didn't stop to explore because it was $15 entry (being cheap that day) we rode out into some of the tiny villages dotted all around. We stopped for chai in a village with gorgeous views over the valley before motoring back to Thamel so i could catch another lovely overnight bus to the Indian border Kakarabhitta.

I arrived in Darjeeling yesterday and it is a lovely place. it reminds me a lot of Namchee Bazaar from the Everest trek but it is obviously loads bigger. I'm currently rooming with Anbaaj a girl i met on the bus here and we spent today roaming through the backstreets of Darjeeling, got really lost on the way to the gompa but saw some lovely countryside along the way. I'm thinking of heading out on a short trek (probably five days) the day after tomorrow before heading a little further north to the slightly less touristy Sikkim.

Hope everyone is well, missing you all heaps!
lots of love xx

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Comments

[Davey]

That sounds very radcore Charlie. I hope you're having as much fun as it sounds!!! Miss you longtime xoxox <3