My Soggy Safari

My luck with the weather finally ran out. I had been skirting around Asia’s monsoon season all through Southeast Asia but the rains finally caught up with me here in Nepal and most forcefully while visiting Royal Chitwan National Park where I was on a 3-day safari.Our canoe ride down the Rapti river was a complete washout. Buckets of rain poured down on me and four Chinese tourists who were wiggling around so much in our already unsteady vessel I thought our dugout canoe was definitely going to go bottoms up- And although I decided to take a little dip into the Nile last year in Uganda, we had seen a crocodile in this river on the previous day and I was not interested in another close encounter.

Our “jungle walk” was more like a jungle swim sloshing through shin deep water in elephant grass that stood 6 feet tall and was swarming with leeches. The highlight of the walk was seeing some Rhino poo-which was extremely exciting as you can imagine. Did you know Rhino’s relieve themselves in the same exact spot and that they drop about 20 kilos every time they have to go! Anyway, we then trudged over to an elephant-breeding center and used cookies to entice a sweet baby elephant to join us cuckoo tourists out in the pouring rain so we could feed him.

My favorite part of the safari was definitely the afternoon elephant ride through the actual national park. The rains eased up enough to make it an enjoyable ride through some pretty intense jungle. It was really amazing watching our elephant “work” as it cleared small trees from the path with ease. We found a sleeping rhino under the brush and our guide steered the elephant directly towards it in order to flush it out into the field for a better view. Being at a safe vantage point from on top of the elephant we were able to get very close to the big male rhino who seemed kind of annoyed we woke him up and soon stormed off, in a full sprint, in the opposite direction. I was really hoping we would spot a tiger on the safari but alas the illusive Bengal remained hidden- we did see some deer, birds and wild boar- but I’m pretty sure the tiger would have been a little more exciting.

Although my safari ended up being sort of a bust the little town of Chitwan was an exceptional place and I really enjoyed just hanging out with the local Tharu’s. I spent some time taking photos of the young boys who were fishing and swimming in the crocodile infested river and befriended some of the teenage girls who proudly showed me their homes made of dirt and cow dung. It’s hard to explain but the town had a very special feeling to it. Women would sift through dried corn on the street as men would ride by in horse drawn wooden carts and at the same time an elephant would come walking down the small dirt street without anyone batting an eyelash. The rains might have kept the animals hidden but discovering the people who live among them was well worth the trip.

Nepal

The journey from Vietnam to Katmandu, Nepal was quite a whirlwind. I spent three days traveling through four countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal)- was up and down in airplanes 5 times and went through 8 different custom checkpoints! But I arrived safe and sound in an environment completely different than Southeast Asia. Walking the streets of Katmandu is a sensory overload- the new sights, smells and sounds was as overwhelming as it was exciting.

The streets of Thamel, the section of the city where I was staying, are tiny, muddy mazes overflowing with people, miniature taxis and men try to pedal their 3-wheeled rickshaws through the chaos. There are tiny wooden storefronts painted with Coca-cola or Pepsi logos, spice sellers guarding their colorful mounds of powder and shops filled with trekking equipment and scarves made of cashmere or yak wool.

Women shop and mingle through the streets dressed in lavish sari’s all the colors of the rainbow- standing out like rays of sunshine- against the brown dirty streets. Teenage boys in Brittney Spears tee shirts- from back when she was still beautiful- try to look tough flirting with girls walking by and bright-eyed schoolgirls, in pig tails tied up with ribbons and tiny studs in their noses, giggle excitedly at the chance to practice their English on a westerner.

Wandering through the city I would occasionally encounter a “Holy Man” dressed in a bright orange robe who would trap me, chanted something over my head while holding a yellow carnation then smudged a red dot on my forehead for good luck before proceeding to demand a hefty donation. I’m not one to shun somebody who wants to give me some good luck but I had to start refusing these men who for some reason only want to give their “good luck” to tourists with seemingly big pockets.

Walking through the many temples in Durbar Square was a great afternoon as I admired the intricate designs of the chiseled wooden facades and blushed at the explicit karma sutra depictions that were everywhere. There are also numerous Buddhist stupas to visit all over the city. The white temples are decorated with the all seeing blue eyes of Buddha looking out over Katmandu from all four corners of the temple and they are dripping in technicolor prayer flags that look like spider webs crisscrossing through the courtyards sky. The air is filled with chanting streaming through the open windows of nearby Tibetan Monasteries where little boy monks pray and clank away on instruments creating a wonderful spiritual ruckus.

I really enjoyed the Nepali people. They are warm, friendly and don’t try to rip you off too bad. But the best part of their culture was seeing the men just as busy as the women. While traveling through east Africa last year I was totally disgusted by the bulk of the men because of how idle they were and how it was the women who bore the burden of all the work. But here in Nepal there was no job too small or frivilous for the men. They sold fruit on the sides of the tiny streets, gave other men a clean shave on the sidewalk and the small sherpas, bowlegged and bulging with leg muscles, would carry anything from couches to refrigerators on their backs!

Before arriving in Nepal I only had one thing on my adgenda- to see Mt. Everest. I wasn’t into doing any kind off long trek to the base camp or anything, I just wanted to see the darn thing! The plan was to take a nice relaxing 1 hour mountain flight over the Himilayas. However, after talking to a bunch of other travelers and doing some research I became enthralled with the idea of reaching base camp and experiencing at least a tiny bit of what so many people have suffered through before me. Unfortunately my timing in Nepal couldn’t have been worse. I arrived at the height of their monsoon season and all flights to Lukla, the small mountain town where you begin the trek, were cancelled. I waited for over a week, went back and forth to the airport several times and finally had to give up my hopes for reaching base camp. Sadly, the miserable weather even grounded the mountain flights so I couldn’t go back to my original plan. It was a pretty big let down coming all the way to Nepal and not getting to at least see Everest. I’m a pretty stubborn person and if I say I’m going to do something there is very little that can stop me. The monsoon may have won this time but Nepal is a place I would have liked to come back to anyway- now I only have more of an incentive.