Hanging with the locals

Any time you're invited to someone's home for breakfast, you take it, right? Well, I jumped at the chance, especially when I didn't have to be at Bimla's place until 9am. 

Bimla (a teacher at the school I work at), her husband Krishna, their daughter Krishbina and niece Danmaya live in a lovely home, towards the end of a quiet road that backs onto the nearby hills. I rocked on up to their place, and in true Nepalese style, was told to sit down, did I want a cup of tea and no, I couldn't help with anything! 

Bimla set about creating a feast of epic proportions. Dhal, baht (rice), potato and egg curry, vegetable curry, fried potatoes (she knows I like the potatoes here!) and hot milky tea. I got to try everything as she made it too, so by the time breakfast was actually ready, I was already pretty full! 

Bimla and Krishna are from the Newari cast and there are 3 days of celebrations on at the moment for them. Bimla dressed up in a fuscia pink kutha and we headed off to town to watch the celebrations. 

One of the streets in Pokhara town had been closed off. Shiny, sparkly paper tied onto string crisscrossed the street forming a canopy over the street and homes. Kids screamed with excitement on a tiny ferris wheel, candy floss and angry bird balloons were for sale in abundance and crowds of people surrounded a large stage. It had a real carnival atmosphere and I was swept along in the excitement.

A dance competition was in its final day of shows. Groups from all over Pokhara performed traditional dances. The boys were dressed to the hilt in bright, full length costumes complete with headdresses and wings. The girls much more subdued in their red, white and black blouses, trousers, scarves, headdresses and ankle bracelets. 

Musicians played live as the kids twirled, spun, jumped and stomped their way around the stage. It was stinking hot in the shade and I wondered how the makeup didn't slip off the kids faces as they danced flat out for about 30 minutes.

We wandered just up the road to Bimla's parents home where I got to meet 3 of her 5 sisters and her mum. Bimla is one of these bight, bubbly people who is always smiling and seems to know everyone. So although we only had to walk about 50 metres to her parents home, it took about 10 minutes as we stopped and talked to various nieces, nephews, her brother and half a dozen friends along the way! 

Her mum and sisters are all a splitting likeness with big smiles, shining eyes and relaxed natures. We sat under the eave of the home and watched the world go by. I loved it! I was made to practice my Nepali...and I had to laugh to myself when I realised that most of what I know relates to food... I was invited into the home for tea and it also meant a chance to cool off under the fan for a while - such a relief!

 

As we were starting to walk home, another man Bimla knows stopped us and invited us backstage to where the performers were waiting. It was such a great opportunity to see the elaborate costumes and makeup up close and again I felt immediately accepted into the community group there.

I was amazed when I realised that 9 hours had disappeared...however it did explain why I was ready for a nana nap!!!

Chitwan safari!

It was meant to be a white water rafting adventure, but it was really a brown water rafting experience! Mostly, I was just happy to get out of the stinky hot bus and traffic jam, don a sexy yellow helmet and puffy life jacket and get wet!

The river was pretty tame and meant I could sit back and enjoy cruising down the river. We came across groups of young boys jumping off rocks and playing in the river, clusters of people sitting back and resting in the shade and even a soccer pitch on a small sandy bank!

The guide made sure we all got wet at some point, angling the raft sideways so waves broke over us in the middle of the larger rapids.

Where we stayed...Jumanji!

Our next day was fully booked up and started with an early 6am wake up call! First up was a leisurely ride down the river in a dugout canoe. This time a guide was doing all the hard work paddling so we were free to relax, listen to the quiet jungle sounds and keep a sharp eye out for crocodiles. We came across 3...and they weren't small! Thankfully, they stayed asleep on the banks and ignored us. 

A trek through the bush was next up. Right at the start, a rather large leech latched onto one of the girls hands and reminded us to keep checking our legs and arms for the hungry critters.

We zig-zagged through the forest, around swamps, over fallen trees, across ditches and past anthills. Our guide had warned us what to do in case we came across came across tigers, rhinos or elephants. Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately - we missed seeing any of these creatures and only saw a few deer.

 

Next up was the elephant breeding centre. There were about 8 adult elephants there, each with a young elephant or two by their side. They were so cute to see although I did wonder what the rest of their life held.

Elephants are used here for work and tourism purposes. The tourism side was most obvious at the elephant bathing area. It was a busy Saturday. Hoards of tourists clambered for the opportunity to jump on the back of one of these enormous creatures and lumber into the murky brown river. Four of us decided to take the plunge and join in.

Watching the melee of tourists, elephants and trainers from so close was a little disturbing. It felt like the animals were on a continual cycle of getting out of the water, picking up more people, back in the water, tip them off and repeat. I think we all nearly pulled out as the whole situation just felt weird and unnatural. 

When our turn arrived, we went through with it, more out of curiosity than anything. I have to admit, being that high up, feeling the elephants super rough, leathery skin beneath my hands and experiencing its immense power had me speechless (for a few seconds!) As per the schedule, we lumbered into the water, got thrown off the elephants back a couple of times and got to give him a bit of a wash down. It was an incredible experience but not one I would be keen to repeat again.

After an afternoon nap, we headed out again, this time for an elephant back ride through the jungle. Four people were crammed into a cage that was strapped to the elephants back. I wouldn't say it was comfortable, but it did provide us with some cool views across the plains and over the elephant-height grasses. We bumped into a few more deer...and a rhino lounging in a pond. She had a tiny young rhino by her side and both were quite content to relax in the water and ignore us. 

We were treated to a cultural song and dance performance in the evening. Like many other cultures, drums featured prominently, the rhythms changing frequently and dancers still managing to keep in time.

I had a fab weekend but was so glad to get away from the inescapable humidity in Chitwan and return to the relative coolness of Pokhara. (It's still hot and humid here but at least I can still function semi-normally!) 

Getting to Chitwan

A picture tells a thousand words. So a picture montage seemed a fitting way to best describe our trip to Chitwan National Park last weekend. 

The first leg was spent riding in the front compartment with the driver. Apart from the fact that seat belts are non-existent here, it was a fab view of all the animals, trucks, bikes, corners and cliffs coming towards us.

The second leg was on top of the bus...probably safer as we were crammed together like sardines and even better views than before...and the air was fresher :) 

Strikes are commonplace here and when one happens, an entire province will shut down. Traffic comes to a halt as people are not allowed to enter the province to work. Unfortunately for us, Chitwan went on strike the day we were travelling so we ended up I another traffic jam! For some reason, tourist buses are still allowed to operate and we began the slow process of squeezing a full size bus through tiny gaps in the traffic to cross a bridge. At one stage, the driver got out to inspect the route ahead. When he came back, he found me offering to give it a go...