Nepal-Kathmandu & Chitwan National Park
I'm running way behind on this blog, so this is a run down of what I've been doing (part 1)
13th Oct
3:30am
Up we get, packing our bags into a taxi to Goa airport. After 4 days in the same place, shoving it all back in a backpack is hard work. Everything needs re-rolling and re-zipping.
5:30am
Unfortunately, we arrive a half hour before check in opened, and we spend our time moving to get away from the horrendous sound of metal scraping on the floor. You know the poles they put out and connect with rope to keep us in line? Turns out someone is too lazy to pick them up; dragging them from behind the counter into place. I’m glad I have my ear plugs. After going to the wrong security line (the international bit was wrong, because our first flight was domestic) eventually we’re through security. After hauling my laptop out of my bag, we go practically straight to the gate and onto the plane.
7:05am
25-minute flight to Mumbai, the worlds number 1 airport – although I don’t count any airport that doesn’t serve sausage sandwiches a good airport. Can you tell what I’m craving?
8:00am
We get off the plane and seem to walk for miles, getting confused by domestic transfers, all transfers but no international transfer signs. Turns out it is super easy, although we have to go back through security, hauling my laptop once again out of my bag. I’m really starting to resent this thing; it’s not getting it out that’s such a problem, it’s putting it back in! We get KFC for lunch then go to the gate.
1pm
Off the plane and down the steps to the tarmac, we’re thrown into buses to take us to the terminal. It looks oddly like a school from the 60’s, inside and out. When we enter, without a visa, we soon realise this is going to take a while. At least 3 planes have come in about the same time as us, and people are everywhere, filling in forms, queuing to pay… They really should’ve given us these forms to fill in on the plane, it would have been much easier. 2 forms later, we queue to pay, only to realise we could’ve paid before the forms, because they don’t do so much as look at them. It is the next queue for immigration that need the 4 bits of paper and my passport that I’m juggling.
2pm
Checked into Hotel Silver Home in Kathmandu, just for one night. Staff super friendly, but we did have to sit through a sales talk when we first came in, even though we insisted we’d book everything!
3pm
We grab some food and go for a wander to the next hotel to check if we could leave bags there for when we return from Chitwan.
5pm
Back to Silver Home and we pack our essentials into our small bags and trudge the big ones to the next hotel to store for us.
14th Oct
7am
Up early and met by a guide who took us to the bus we’ll be taking to the National Park. We are shoved to the back of the bus, which initially we don’t mind, but we soon realise this isn’t the bus to college. These aren’t the good seats. The road is the worst built road I have ever felt (I’d say seen but the bus throws up so much dust on this road you’re lucky to be able to see the outlines of the hills and valleys we are driving by). In fact, the guy who had (unfortunately for him) been sat next to us said that when he experienced the earthquake in 2015, this is what it felt like. Good to know.
4pm
We arrive and are all shoved off the bus into a large amount of men yelling at everyone to find their pick ups. The bus driver yells at us to get back on the bus, because apparently he’s our hotel transfer. This is a full sized coach now only carrying me, Lucy, the driver and the conductor. 10 minutes down the road though, we encounter a problem; 3 huge piles of dirt/gravel were blocking the road. End of the line, or so we thought. After a lot of just staring at the piles, the bus driver starts yelling, I’m not sure who to, but a gate opens and a man hands him a shovel. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In England, that would be it. All off; you’re walking the rest of the way – and don’t even bother asking for your money back. But they stand there and they flatten the piles with just enough room for us the squeeze though.
4:30pm
We arrive at the lodges, the name of our room being Elephant 1. In our group for the next couple days are 3 Japanese guys, and 2 Nepali girls. The girls take far too many pictures. Long story short, we have huge issues with the booking of this tour through Bamba, due to elephant riding and false advertising but the hotel is really good about it, allowing us to forget the elephant safari and spend the night in the park one evening instead.
7pm
We head out on a night walk to the lake to hopefully see some rhinos, but we have no such luck. On the way back through town, we are told that they had been down the streets which is something they do reasonably frequently, in search of food.
15th Oct
7am
It seems Nepal insists on early mornings. We eat breakfast and get ready to walk through the park for the day. The others have also decided to not do the elephant safari so will be coming with us tonight to the tower in the park. Canoeing down the river through the park is peaceful and an incredible place to see wildlife, mainly birds and crocodiles, including the rare long snout crocodile.
9:30am
Before we start walking though through the dense jungle (which from here kind of just looks like any bit of the New Forest) we are given a safety talk about Rhinos, namely what to do if you see one.
Option 1: Climb a tree at least 6 feet into the air because they can’t climb.
Option 2: Hide behind a big tree because their turning circle is huge and it’ll have to turn around to attack again.
Option 3: Keep abandoning bags and items of clothing to throw it off, and run in zig zags.
We don’t see any rhinos.
1pm
Back to the hotel for lunch. We are given free time, and have to get ready for night in the jungle.
5pm
Since we’re the only people staying in the hotel this evening, all the staff come with us to the jungle. Loading up the jeep with food and water we head off into the park. We get out to walk parts of the way, and I’m glad we did as we see a rhino bathing in the river, close to the bank. It isn’t dangerous to us, because the bank we are stood on is too high for the huge animal to climb up, but it seems too comfortable to care about us taking pictures anyway.
7pm
We arrive at the tower and are cooked a traditional Nepali Dhal dish, and served a local whiskey… with Mountain Dew.
9.30pm
Following our guide, we quietly creep through the jungle to find rhinos at the waterhole. It’s pitch black and every noise makes me jump; especially as he had said that this was the time the tigers tend to be in this area! Thankfully, we see nothing and head back to the rooftop of the tower building to see if we can see anything from afar. It’s very misty, and we don’t.
16th Oct
7am
No surprise at the time, we’re up early again for the ride back to the hotel. We have breakfast then pack up our things, ready to get back on the bus to Kathmandu. Depsite our complaints, we are shoved at the back of the bus again.
5pm
After a long bumpy journey, we arrive back in Kathmandu. For an unknown reason, we assume because there were only tourists left, the bus driver chucks us off 30 minutes from Thamel, and we have to walk for 45 minutes to get to the hotel. Thank god for HERE WeGo, an app which allows you to download maps and use them offline; I think we would have still been wandering round now without it.
17th Oct
11pm
We finally manage a lay in and head for a wander through Thamel. We find a cool outdoor restaurant which claims to serve the BEST BURGER IN THAMEL. I can confirm it was a brill burger (although I haven’t had any beef in 3 weeks so I think any burger would’ve been amazing!)
8pm
I check out the restaurant at the hotel for chicken momos. They seem to be the only Nepali dish on most menus here, so I assume they are good. They’re incredible.
9pm
Lucy stays in but I head out to check out Purple Haze, a rock bar I had been told about. I got lost on the way because my map didn’t recognise it, but I knew it was near Mandela street so headed that way. A local hash dealer helped me with finding it. Even though I didn’t want his ware; something no one else in Thamel seems to do (mainly shopkeepers). All seemed quiet as I climbed the stairs, and I wondered if it was more of a late night thing. As soon as they open the door, the sounds of live rock music seeped out. It is amazing. The band only plays covers but they play some Nepali covers too which break things up. I learn two new phrases in Nepali:
Dan Nobad – Thank you
Yo Jindagani – This is Life
I meet some cool people, including a Nepalese group, an American, an Australian and a gangly British guy.
18th Oct
Didn’t do a lot today, got some rest before the trek starts tomorrow.