Chitwan, Pokhara and Kathmandu

For our R&R, we somehow managed to find a lot to do without ever setting foot on a trek! Chitwan National Park used to be a darling to the tourist industry, home to Bengali tigers and numerous one-horned rhinos, but after the Maoists blew up a bus enroute to the park, tourist numbers are way down, and there has been a lack of development in the area in recent years. However, we still managed to have a fabulous if sweaty time there.

The main attraction was the number of bred working elephants in the park. There is a successful breeding centre, which housed the first ever recorded elephant twins. There were no hippos for me to get gooey about, but these nellies were wonderful, much smaller and cooter than their African cousins.

Amongst the activities available, I have to say the very juvenile 'elephant bathing' was probably the most fun:

Elephant safari was really quite uncomfortable:

And I was deeply suspicious of the rhinos we saw - surely they were just mechanical robots to fool us silly tourists? Especially as we saw them literally as we entered the park:

Back in Kathmandu, the main sights for me was to see how big city life was for most people. This was right next to our hotel, right in the centre of town about 3 minutes walk from Thamel, backpacker city. Large watering facilities were built throughout the city as places to wash back in the day, and they are still regularly used by the locals:

I also loved wandering around the back streets of Kathmandu, trying not to be too concerned about when the tangle of wires at each electricity pylon will catch fire:

The other overwhelming thing about Kathmandu, and the country in general, is how religious the whole place feels. In central Kathmandu, you are always (literally) tripping over shrines and mini temple. Joe even spotted one that looked simply like a rock in the ground! Here is the Buddhist temple Swayambhunath which wasn't quite as overrun with monkeys as advertised:

Joe and I also spent an afternoon gawping at the expansive temples in nearly Patan. The little blue building in the centre of the square was actually a blood donating centre - we debated whether we'd prefer to drink some tap water or give blood in that city!:

Finally, I also spent a few days in Pokhara, the 2nd largest city gorgeously located next to a lake. After the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu, it was just so chilled and just what I needed. I stayed right up in the mountains at the Sadhana Yoga Retreat, a sweaty 15-minute climb up a hill with your big backpack, but the views made up for it:

The yoga, on the other hand, was just way to mumbo-jumbo for me. I know, I know, the stuff I do in gyms and yoga centres in London isn't 'proper' yoga, but I do it for the exercise, not because I need to find my inner self. It gave me lots of time for reflection though, as well as learning the 5 commandments of being a tourist in Nepal:

1. Thou shalt shed your normal clothes in favour of ones that do not fit, preferably in combinations of orange and purple, and look ridiculous in the process.


2. Thou shalt only read books popular with other travellers, namely The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen, Sold by Patricia McCormick, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. If thou shalt insist on looking more individualist, autobiographies by Obama, Nelson Mandela or one of the Clintons may be allowed.


3. Thou shalt stop showering, because the sweat in the 90% humidity naturally cleanses thy clothes.


4. Thou shalt insist on going everywhere by bus, even when thou canst afford the plane, because being trapped on the bus for 16 hours after a landslide is way more 'real'


5. Thou shalt bad-mouth India, and insist that thou canst only find thouself in Bhutan nowadays, man.

Hee hee!