Enjoying a romantic rickshaw ride
THE BEAR!!!!
In the game reserve - surely the tigers were just behind the grass! :0
Our route around Nepal
Namiste!!!
Today is our last day in Nepal and it has been a bizarre place! At first we really were not big fans of Nepal - as you may have read from our blog. Dealing with lots of dodgyness and having to go to the root of everything you buy. We have actually cut Nepal short for this very reason. That being said, this past few days has been a good relaxing time and certainly the festival of Divali has been a main reason. We have also met some great Nepalis that have shown us that the people who approach you on the street or try to con you in shops are not the true representation of the country.
In reflection of our past two weeks, its certainly an experience.It just takes a good few days to start to understand how things work. I really do think Nepal at one time was possibly one of the coolest destinations on the planet as they geared up for tourism quite a long time ago. What I think has now happened, as they really reap the tourist fruit for every cent, regardless of how the tourist feels. We have seen dozens and dozens of people who have been cheated, tricked, etc into buying trips which were not as told. Nepal will learn this will not bode well for their future. I do think its now overhyped, but still a good place to go. Nepal, is not the place I expected, yet it still has been a fun time and the trekking is top class!
One great thing about Kathmandu is the sanctuary area called Tamil. This is a bit like the Koh San Road if you have been to Bangkok. As you probably know from reading these posts, Marina and I are not the hippy type that just sit around, that being said, in this region of the world, a bastion of bars, great restaurants, and organisation of activities is well appreciated.
So what have we been up to; Pokhara > Chitwan National Park > Kathmandu
Monday - Pokhara: Pokhara is the northern city near the Annapurna circuit. After having spent the week trekking, we enjoyed the choice of restaurants and actually having bars to go to - along with changing the clothes we have been dragging around.
Tuesday - The Bus Accident: They say travelling on the Nepalese roads is certainly an experience, so last week, we had a bus break down, surprisingly they fixed it with a well known male prophylactic! This day, we had a bus accident. I don't think its that we are unlucky, but this is just commonplace and if you ride the bus a few times, something is bound to happen. So our bus slammed into the side of a cargo truck (lorry) and smashed out our windows - lucky no one was injured, including a baby which was covered in glass. One now funny example of the dodgyness of Nepalis is this; we arrived at the Chitwan National Park on Tuesday afternoon and decided on a hotel which we negotiated a fair price. The owner wanted us to buy his tours and we said, we would if he gave us a fair deal. After having shopped around we found the true price was about half what he offered. We had decided to buy another and when we told him he was not happy. An hour later he told us we could not stay in his hotel for more than one night. Being who we are, we just grabbed our bags and told him to shove it and that we weren't staying that night either then - this surprised me then, but having been in Nepal for 2 weeks and hearing other peoples issues, its all normal. Luckily, we found a hotel next door which was twice as good for $1 more/night.
Wednesday - Bears and Bears oh my: We were expecting a true African safari as it had been described like that in guide books, but for some reason they were not running jeeps so we had reluctantly purchased a walking tour into the game reserve. Now there are tigers and rhinos and many dangerous animals in this place so I wondered why we were going on foot, but we were there and wanted to see the animals! The highlight of the day, well two highlights were coming face to face with two Black Bears!! On two different occassions. You will see on the picture (note my camera is a compact with only 5x zoom) that this thing was close! Probably about 10 meters (31 feet) from a wild bear - which was hunting! Luckily they weren't hungry for human that day. I told Marina, we don't have to outrun the bear, just the guides :D...
Thursday - Indian Visa: Today we returned to Kathmandu, and were very pleased to see our Indian visa was approved, so the trip continues as planned.
Friday through Sunday - The Divali celebrations: Kathmandu certainly has become a different place during this festival. Which has allowed us to really enjoy these past few days. Friday, most shops and houses, painted flowers outside their house and there were singing groups of children and adults. Its a very festive time and it seems a bit like Christmas. During these days, many shops close and the chaos becomes very mild. People are dressed nice, the streets are cleaned, there are any fireworks and people just seem in a good mood. We went to quite a few temples during this time. One of which was the Pashupatinath temple - the most famous hindu temple in Nepal. This place was a myriad of bizarreness. Firstly we entered to see bodies being cremated along the river. Also, this was our first upclose encounter with the sadus. A Sadu is a Hindu holy-man. I'm not really sure why. Firstly, they cover themselves in ash, barely wear clothes, sit around smoking marijuana all day and beg for money. In the middle of this temple, on sadu took off all his clothes and bathed in the river (in front of 50 people). The river, which may have been holy, was full of litter and one drop of its water could probably pollute a whole clean lake.
So whats next, well are eagerly looking forward to our flight to Dhaka, Bangladesh this afternoon. So I'll tell you more when we get there...
Till next time; Namaste!
Dan and Marina
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