March 24 Chitwan National Park

March 24, Pokhara.

This was a sort of pause - a day in Pokhara, the gateway to the Annapurna region and a major tourist mecca. When the air is clear you have marvelous views of the Annapurna range but it wasnt at all clear - visibility maybe 3 miles. Raj rented a motorbike because he said there was so much to see, and it was fun to ride clear out beyond the end of the lake, way beyond the city limits, and have the tiny fish they catch out of the lake fried, with a nice tomato garlic chili sauce. We visited Davis Falls, named for a woman who was bathing in a pool upstream and swept to her death by a flash flood. The creek falls about 40 feet into a limestone cavern, which we also visited; it is an interesting formation, a deep cleft in the limestone - but no stalactites or anything like that. Near the entry to the cave is a Hindu shrine ("photographing exceedingly prohibited"); there was also a rather tacky sculpture of a cow; if you put a coin in one place milk flows out, in another place, she pees.

The town itself is interesting, several miles of tourist hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops; not quite as jammed with tourists as I expected, but we did run into several people we met on the trek. I'd rather have walked than motorbiked, frankly - my butt got pretty tired of bouncing over the beat-up pavement, but it was a fun, laid-back day.

We passed a procession - Hare Rama, related to and similar to the Hare Krishna people familiar in the U.S. and elsewhere; very interesting; I got some neat photos I will upload. We also visited a very famous Hindu temple - it is one of the major festival days, day after the birthday of Rama, and the place was jammed with pilgrims from India as well as Nepal. A holy man was giving counsel in one place, people were entering the main temple (forbidden to non-Hindus) then making a sacrifice, and another holy man was reading from one of the holy books, then leading a song / chant in a nasal voice. Usually I find nasal voices very irritating, but his worked, and sounded overall very musical. The whole experience was beautiful and interesting.

We stopped downtown to try to get Raj's watch fixed, and bought me a cheap one for $2 that is hard to read in any but very strong light but will get me by for a couple or three more weeks. We popped into a momo shop - the dingy little hole-in-the-wall places seem to serve the best; this time the filling was a ground meat, buffalo I think; very good.

We rode the motorcycle Raj had rented up to a high viewpoint, but with visibility about 5 miles at best, we could barely see the lake and town much less the Himalayas. So Raj drove way out of town along and beyond the end of the lake, where we saw children catching small fish in the flooded fields as well as in the backwaters - we came to a village, where Raj stopped at a typical ramshackle hut / restaurant, cooking mostly in the open, and ordered some of the small fish, fried, with a piquant green sauce and a beer; it was very tasty.

Recipe: Nepali bar-nuts. Peanuts, a little finely chopped green chili (not too strong), cumin, salt, raw purple onion very finely minced, and lime juice. Very good with a cold beer at the end of a hot day. Can't remember where we had them.

Dinner in one of Pokhara's two authentic Indian restaurants (they don't serve pizza, tacos, etc. - just Indian food). The meal, for about $10 apiece, was about twice what we needed; with a little more rice we could have shared one. Chicken, curries, including a very interesting curried cheese dish, wonderful Indian bread. Raj told me about Dhana's unfortunate situation - both wife and mother recently hospitalized; kids needing money for a better school, etc. Don't know how much I can do, but I will try to do a little something for him.
March 25, Chitwan.

The road to Chitwan is mostly paved, in good shape, but with frequent stretches where the pavement totally gives way to deep pot-holes and huge rocks - 5 mph or slower. We left early, so the traffic wasn't too bad; stopped at a typical Nepali roadside eatery - a row of open-sided shacks, where people just stop on the pavement (our driver had the good sense to stop in front of a huge truck). I took a picture of the place and a slightly blurry picture of the kitchen. Food was great - vegetable balls rolled up and fried, something very like the fried potato cakes mom used to make, boiled eggs, a thin but tasty soup.

We arrived at the resort about 11, took a shower. Lunch was at 12:30, no activities scheduled until 4:00. ("four days and three nights." Hah!) Raj told me to just relax, take a nap - I threw a bit of a fit; after sitting in a car over rough roads all morning relax was the last thing I wanted to do. After a bit the hotel's guide, Govinda, showed up; a very nice young man, about 25. He said we could do a canoe ride and jungle walk if I wanted, asked me how my heart is. I told him to ask Raj about my heart. Govinda was waiting for another guest, due to arrive at about 1:30; said we would leave for the canoe ride about 2. The other guest came, a woman from China, and she did want to rest, so Govinda and I set out for the river.

Turns out Govinda had a very long walk in mind, so I picked up an extra bottle of water. We had the canoe - a dugout, made from the trunk of the ubiquitous cotton tree, poled by a man standing up in the rear. The river is shallow and slow this season; we drifted slowly along, listening to the burbling of the river, the splash of the pole, the many species of songbirds, some of which we could see, as Govinda pointed out particular specimens. It was a very relaxing trip, but also very exciting: We saw a total of about 5 crocodiles, including a tiny baby who backed into his hole before I could snap his picture. Some of the crocs were quite close to the shore. After about an hour, we left the canoe and began a long rambling walk through the woods, with Govinda pointing out a few monkeys, a few wild boar, several herds of spotted deer, and many birds. It was a very useful walk, both because of the opportunity to stretch my legs and because it gave me a chance to learn to see in these woods, learn what to look for and where.

We got back with only enough time before dinner for me to shower and clean up. After dinner, Govinda, Raj, and I walked through the village to a kind of community center for a cultural program. The community center is a long, narrow, low-ceiling concrete structure with horrid acoustics - to make things worse, the announcer had an extremely annoying voice. And, packed with human bodies and with only a handful of slow ceiling fans, it was intolerably hot. I sat through two dance numbers, stood up near the door through three more - all were very interesting, very nicely done, but sweat was running off me in sheets, I was far hotter than I was earlier in the afternoon in the full sun. Finally I gavve up and returned to he hotel, transferred my pictures to my camera, and went to bed.

A word about the resort (and I think most of them are like this, probably excepting the really high-end, expensive ones). Clean, reasonably padded bed, my room large enough for three people, two reasonable chairs, decent bathroom, and power off from 6 or 7 a.m. until 9 or 10. The staff, and Raj, worried about the heat, and apparently it bothers a lot of visitors, but I did not find it that oppressive. It was uncomfortable, even in the shade, from about 1 until 3:30 or so, otherwise downright balmy. As Raj told me when we first got there, the package included a "fixed program," much of it couch-potato stuff like elephant washing (they ask for volunteers, select a handsome young man and a pretty young woman, who get to try to balance on top of an elephant's back in the water while the elephant sprays himself and them with trunkful after trunkful of river water. Much falling off, clambering back on, screeches and giggles. 10 minutes was more than enough to watch. They also have a jeep ride into the jungle (jeep pickup with benches facing toward the center, filled with yakking tourists and belching half-digested hydrocarbons). After I was there a while, talking with one of the waiters, I began to get the story. He described the typical guests as a fat male, fat belly, fat legs, fat arms, with a slender over-dressed and sexually frustrated wife (he didn't say and I didn't ask how many of the implicit invitations he had accepted.) The program is not designed for people who want to engage actively with the park; it is designed for people who want pictures of themselves being near the park and doing wildlife-themed things. (Maybe 1/10th the visitors are from the U.S. and Canada, 1/4 from Europe, the rest from India and other parts of Asia.)

The restaurant was also a bit frustrating. Breakfast was an Austrailian / English style breakfast, including the hard, greasy sausages and pork and beans. Lunch was a veggie burger and fries - good fries, but not in the same league with the momos and other Nepali food I'd become accustomed to. Dinner the first night - fairly good American-style Cantonese food. They actually did serve a version of dal bhat the third night, the only semblance of actual Nepali food they ever served. A resort for people who want to travel without ever leaving home.

Fortunately for me, Govinda, finding himself with a tourist who was actually interested in the park, the wildlife, and the culture, was very willing to tailor a program to fit my needs and interests.

March 26

Early breakfast, all-day hike in the park planned, but Govinda said there was a line of about 100 people wanting permits, so we didn't actually get started until about 7:30. Saw rhino prints right in the village, in the dust near the outdoor tavern and sunset-viewing area. A boat poled us across the river, where we picked up a second (apprentice) guide - park rules call for two guides, both to help defend against possible large animal attacks and to provide a backup in case one guide is killed or injured, to make certain the tourists find their way back. The lesson was driven home when we saw fresh tiger and sloth-bear prints in the dust, as well as many more rhino prints. We walked a long route, following the river, then a smaller tributary where we saw a crocodile, about 3 meters long, sunning himself in the weeds above the river bank. I got some good pictures, but when we moved around behind him he slid into the water, then resurfaced just his nose on the far side. Lots of spotted deer - I got some beautiful pictures of them. Monkeys, most too far for pictures; eagles, other birds. About 1:30, we came to a marshy lake where Govinda thought we might see something, stopped in the shade to eat lunch (a very good olunch of fried rice, boiled egg, cold fried chicken from the night before), then the apprentice climbed a tree to keep a lookout.

While we were sitting there Govinda asked if I would like to spend the night in a platform hut in the jungle. Of course I said I would, so he said he would try to reserve it for us.

Abruptly the apprentice whistled, so we scrambled to put shoes back on, gathered our stuff into our packs, and hurried to him, then over a series of muddy trails to the lakeshore - where we were treated to the sight of several rhinos wallowing in the shallows on the far side of the lake. After we took a number of pictures, Govinda thought he heard another rhino coming, so we circled around to the end of the lake, and watced them some more. We saw two other small groups of tourists lounging in the shade nearby, but apparently they hadn't bothered to post a lookout and were unaware of the rhinos. I don't know whether Govinda told the guides or not - eventually the others showed up, just as the rhinos were leaving and the show was over.

We lingered a while longer, but nothing else showed up, so we headed back to the river, then along the river bank toward the village. Scanning the far short for crocs or other interesting wildlife I had the good fortune to pick up a large animal, which I soon realized had to be a cat. It was tawny in color, about the size of a cougar; it scrambled up a 15 foot high mud bank like a housecat going up a tree and disappeared in the woods. It was too small to be a tiger; I thought it was probably a leopard, a conclusion Govinda confirmed. It was easily 200 meters away, and the whole thing happened much too quickly for pictures.

We arrived back at the village with about 40 minutes to relax then shower before dinner. Sat down at the sunset spot and ordered a beer and popcorn, then Govinda asked if I'd be willing to do a bit more walking in the jungle. "Sure." So he told the waiter we'd be back, and we headed back into the park, walked probably 1 kilometer or a bit more to a spot where one of the smaller rivers winds through a large open meadow. There, as Govinda clearly expected, we saw a single rhino soaking itself in the river while women washed their clothes and kids swam in the river about 10 meters upstream. Watched it for at least a half hour. One of the other handful of tourists there had a dog, a mid-sized terrier, maybe about 45 lbs, that kept wading into the water toward the rhino; when the rhino would blast water from his nose in a loud snort, the dog would retreat to the shore, then turn and bark at the rhino. It was quite amusing. Eventually the rhino emerged and walked off into the meadow to graze; we returned to the last bit of sunset and my beer and popcorn, then returned to the hotel for dinner.

March 27.

Today we did another boat trip, on a different branch of the river. This time a French couple went with us with their own guide and two children, 2 and 5. The 2 year old girl obviously didn't understand what was happening, and more or less complained the whole time; I think her parents did a generally good job of keeping her silent - they seemed like very nice people. Their guide hummed under his breath most of the time - also distracting. But we did see one really large croc, curled up so he looked like a big rock - until I saw the scales; also several beautiful birds. After the boat ride we walked through the meadow, and back to the place in the river where the same rhino was taking a bath again.

After the walk, we rented a bike and bicycled to a Tharu village, which is set up to display their traditional as well as contemporary culture. I took a few pictures there - I was especially interested in their current use of biogas converters with both human and animal waste to generate gas for cooking - every house in the village has one.

After lunch and a short internet session, Govinda picked me up to go elephant riding. They put some sacks of padding on the elephant's back, then a platform with light padding and a wood frame around it; 4 tourists sit, one at each corner, one leg on each side of the upright - no good place to brace your feet. We were on a juvenile elephant; like all the others his gait was jerky and rough, so one bounced against both front and side braces with each step. After a while I learned to brace myself firmly against the front brace. I also learned quickly that I should have worn long pants - my bare legs were at exactly the right height for the shrubs, bushes, and broken tree branches to whip against. I learned how delinquent the elephant was quickly, when we crossed a mud hole and he siphoned up a bunch of muddy water to splash against my legs and thighs. He also tried to rear up to reach a tasty branch off a young tree, and kept ripping up shrubs to eat. The driver called him "Pizza Hut" and I kept wondering if that was a threat related to where the carcass would end up.

For all the discomfort, the ride was fun, and I wouldn't have missed it. We saw many animals up close - it is amazing how much closer the animals let you get when you're on an elephant. We were within 6 or 7 meters of two rhinos resting in the shade, and also of a herd of spotted deer - half as far as they keep you on foot.

The highlight of the day came at 5, when we picked up box dinners, a beer for me, some extra filtered water, and took a jeep to the edge of the community forest, then hiked in a kilometer or two to the sleeping platform. Along the way we came to a tree filled with monkeys, and sat and watched them for nearly an hour, then went on to the platform, a three story structure with a circular iron staircase. I was instructed to pee over the edge, and if I needed to use the toilet (ground level) during the night to wake Govinda to watch over me - never, under any circumstances, walk alone in the jungle.

A little before sunset a herd of spotted deer, maybe 30 or more, came out to graze, then they were joined by several wild boars. As the twilight deepened, too dark to take photos, two rhinos ambled out to graze, and stayed until nearly dark. The moon was full; we enjoyed just looking at the jungle in the moonlight, listening to the drumming and singing from the village (Saturday night, both tourists and natives partying) and to the many bird-calls, and eating dinner by moonlight. We opened up the windows to catch a breeze, so the sleeping quarters (two double rooms, one bed for tourist and one for guide) were cool. I went to bed in my clothes, but soon took most of them off to be more comfortable; there were very few mosquitoes but we slept under mosquito netting anyway. I awoke briefly several times, then about 1 got up to pee, and saw a big cat slink out from under the platform, then run in an easy loping gait across the meadow until I lost him in the dark. Too small for a tiger; almost certainly another leopard. A minute or so after I lost track of him I heard furious barking from the tree with all the monkeys in it. I gazed at the moonlight on the forest for a while, then went to bed and went back to sleep, listening to the various sounds, most prominently the peacocks. They have many calls, including one that sounds a great deal like a very unhappy cat's meow. The night in the tower was a very special night; I'm really glad I did it.

March 28, Leaving Chitwan; return to Kathmandu

This morning after we had returned from the platform, Govinda suggested another walk in the jungle. I agreed, so we had a light breakfast there at the entrance to the community forest, he resolved an issue with our permit, we picked up a second guide and set out. More monkeys, over a half hour watching another troop of them, then a couple of really large deer, and a couple of barking deer. They are larger than the spotted deer, and they really do bark - it sounded like a pack of hounds. Finally, Govinda and the other guy found a couple of rhinos soaking in a small, nearly dry pond. We settled down to watch, and a couple of tourist laden elephants came by, then a third rhino came up and stood uncertainly on the shore. One of the rhinos already in the water stood up, and Govinda said they were both males, the third one female, and he was afraid they might fight, which would be dangerous for us. So he made me stand next to an easily climbed tree, just in case. Eventually the newcomer waded in, made a gesture ofr submission and settled down into the water a ways from the first two, so they managed to work it out without a fight. However, about that time three tourist elephants in a group came up, Govinda decided that there was too much chance that the rhinos would get disturbed and unhappy about it, so we left. A great animal viewing trip.

Final thoughts on Chitwan. I was very glad Govinda was so accommodating - I think part of the reason is that I did my best to be easy to please and cooperative. The park is fun; more fun than the tourist village or the touristy entertainments like elephant bathing. There is an alternative I wish I'd known more about, that I will certainly do if I return to Nepal. You can take an extended trek - 5 or 7 days would take you to all the different habitats in the park, chance to see animals that don't hang out near the main village; stay in lodges along the way. That sounds like enormous fun, and I would heartily recommend it to others who are in good condition and enjoy hiking. Fall is bad - grass too high, visibility limited. March is good, but early February best because it is cooler and there is less dust and smoke in the air.

My guide was excellent - I don't know if he works independently or under contract with the hotel, but I would recommend him strongly:
Govind Parased Thanait
Auguli V3C Word No. 5 Shergungy
Nawal Parasi District Lumbini Zone Nepal
mobile 977 9845 347187

Flight back to Kathmandu was uneventful; very small plane but very short flight. 45 minutes to cross the city through the traffic. Thoughts about Kathmandu traffic. The busses are a major source of hold-up; they move slowly, stop frequently, and often fill most of the lane. Trucks are another big issue - they tend to just stop wherever, often block most or all the roadway. Motorbikes are another bit of grit in the wheels; they are quick, opportunistic, and often when there is a space barely big enough for a car to squeeze around the bus or truck. The lack of rules and "make it up as you go along" attitudes of most drivers is the biggest issue. People pass in whatever lane, turn from whatever lane, stop wherever.