I have a nice vacation lasting about ten days behind. Like I said earlier I was going to go to Chitwan first and after that to Pokhara. Actually we had bought our bus tickets to Chitwan (huge 350 Rs) in advance at the day before and on Sunday morning we headed to the bus station to find our bus. Surprise surprise, when we asked about our bus to Chitwan we were told that there isn't any busses going to Chitwan at that day due to strike of docktor's kidnapping case (That can happen only in NEPAL!). The first thought was that we were duped and because of that we asked more about situation in Chitwan. All the answers were the same: there wasn't any busses going to Chitwan on Sunday. Okay, we were standing at the bus "station" (there are busses on line beside the road and you have to pick the right one by asking) with fully packed rugsacks and tried to think about another options. We didn't feel too good with thinking about going back to Patan and wait till another day IF we had been able to go to Chitwan then. After a while we decided to change the direction and head to Pokhara. So we lost 350 Rs for bus meant-to-go-to-Chitwan, paid another 350 Rs for bus to Pokhara and were very happy that we hadn't plan or booked anything else beforehand!
The journey to Pokhara took a long long time, there were some road blocks on the way and the journey which normally takes about 5 to 7 hours took about 10 or more hours. About four hours of that time the bus was basically just standing between another vehicles on the line. When we finally started to move it started to rain as well… And the roof of the bus started to leak :D Due to road blocks we arrived to Pokhara, which is guarded by Annapurna mountain range, in the evening. The taxi drivers gathered quickly around us, it was annoying but anyway it was easy to get a lift to the one hotel (Peace eye guest house) which we picked up from Lonely Planet. The hotel was nice and it was funny coincidence that when we were thinking out loud in finnish whether we should take the offered room or not, the owner asked if we're from Finland. He had some finnish friends and he recognized our language while we're talking only a couple of sentences in finnish…
Pokhara is the area of opportunities, it's a little town surrounded by Annapurna mountain range including three of the world's biggest mountains which means that in clear weather the views are awesome and you're able to see the mountains reflecting off the lake next to the "main tourist"street of the Pokhara. But of course this time of the year it's very rare that you can see even a glimpse of the snowcapped mountains and we had that moment only in some early mornings because of clouds. Never mind. Because of the environment of Pokhara there are a lot of activities you can do. On the next morning after our arrival I went to do what I've been wanting to do before I came to Nepal, I went to PARAGLIDING! I flied above some hills and the whole city of Pokhara and landed by the lake with the pilot of course. It was fun especially when I got a chance to fly "by myself". There was only a one thing I had forgotten; I don't like swinging too much, or actually my tummy doesn't like and paragliding is basically swinging in the sky but anyway I survived although the pilot wanted to show me a "nice" twists and swings at the end of the flight :D The paragliding was interesting but I still want to do parachuting someday, I want my adrenalin flowing and paragliding was too "easy" for that ;)
Overall we stayed in Pokhara a couple of days and I was meant also to go for a horseback riding. I was very exited about it but when I saw the horse (which could have been even worse but not smaller for my size of rider) and the way how the riding would have been organised I got disappointed and cancelled my ride. After more than ten years of riding I DON'T need a leader to walk beside my horse, neither I wouldn't pay double price to get another horse for the leader/guide! If I had known that to happen I'd have gone to do some rafting on that day but I missed that because I hadn't booked the rafting the day before. Anyway instead of those activities I did some shopping (bought skirt, trousers, other clothes and some jewellery) and ate well :) During that day I just enjoyed the spirit of the little touristy street full of cafes, restaurants, travel agents and shops, I also wrote some post cards while sitting by the lake where I walked earlier and got some water buffalos to pose for me during their daily bath on the mudhole. So the day ended up nicely and everybody was happy.
The next day we finally headed by the bus filled up with nepali songs to the Chitwan national park and the journey was surprisingly quick. After Pokhara Chitwan felt like a totally dead place, it's end of the season, and there was only few people, not to mention the tourists, in the town. Of course it's nice to be with locals but in a strange place it's also a relief to see some tourists as well. There was few but anyway there wasn't too many locals either. Maybe the one reason was that it was afternoon when we arrived and the temperature was nearly + 40 degrees Celsius! Amazing, you didn't have to do nothing but just sit and you were sweating, que bueno! I could say in Spanish :D Because of the heath all the activities started in the early morning and lasted till not over about 11 am. After morning activities there wasn't too much to do. I would have liked to do some canoeing but I skipped that due to lack of time and days (and I didn't want to spend too many afternoons without doing anything). At the first morning in Chitwan we had an ELEPHANT RIDE inside the jungle, it was fun and exiting! We saw a barking and spotted deer, wild boars, peacock and wild CHICKEN! :D But unfortunately we didn't see the animals we were looking for, no rhinos, no tigers although many people saw them in the same jungle almost at the same time we were there :/ But anyway life is life and wildlife have their own tricks, that's also the thing why it's so exiting. Anyway the elephant ride itself was interesting, a little painful, there was four of us on the little riding platform and the gait of elephant isn't the most comfortable gait ;) but with the elephant we were able to get very close to wildlife and they weren't scared of us. And every time when somebody of us (the other two, rich, grumbling, unsatisfied couple) drop something the mahout (the rider) "asked" the elephant to pick that thing up with its trunk and he did, kindly :). I think those two had quite a nice relationship, the mahout didn't use a metal hook, instead of that he had only wooden stick and he used quite much his voice. Normally the mahout rides the same elephant through its whole life.
After the ride we went for the breakfast by the river and saw riders and elephants having a bath, tourists were also able to join with them, so did us, too. It was fun! The elephant I was bathing with was quite little but very tricky. All of those elephants were trained to fall their side when asked but "my" elephant also shook itself when asked… It's difficult to stand on the back of elephant when it's shaking :D Playing with and on the elephant reminded me the summers with my siblings playing together with the big inside tyre of tractor on the lake at our summer cottage (the last time was in last summer, looking forward the next time! And the ages are between 19-37 ;) :D Of course if we started our day with elephants we also had to end it with them, so later during that day we went to the elephant breeding centre to see some baby elephants with their moms. I arrived to the centre around 4 pm and it was just the perfect timing, I saw the stars of the centre arriving from their daily grassing trip back to "home" (moms and calves spend most of the time playing and eating in the woods and the grasslands). By stars I mean male twins at the age of 18 months, at the moment they're the youngest calves at the centre and they are cute although I tried to hide from them behind the fence when they arrived. They're about as tall as I am and little bit stronger, I guess ;) Sadly when they got to their shelter with their mom they were shackled from their front leg :/ At least they were together. At the age of two-three they'll be separated from their mom and shackled tight from the both of the front legs and maybe from the head also. During that period they may be slightly injured, I don't know what that means and I don't even want to know… Photos of that process reminded me of the common way of training horses years ago (they still do it in some places), hopefully there will be also an elephant whisperer in someday, WWF try their best…
The day after elephant day was meant to be a horse day. At this time I had seen the stables and the horses before so I knew what to expect at the Nirvana's horses resort and I WAS exited! I guess it's only place in the whole Nepal where you're able to do a real horse back riding-treks. The French-Spanish-Nepali-stables has only five horses yet, through breed Marwari and Kathiawari stallions and geldings. They are small horses so I got the biggest one of them :) It was interesting to sit on the stallion at the first time of my life, but it felt the same than with geldings and mares :) Although stallions are self-confident I think the treks might be easier to organize with geldings (and mares) because with stallions you have to be little bit more careful not to go too close to each other or to mares. Anyway I didn't have any problems with my handsome "twisted-ear" Samsara although at the one point he got pissed of flies, wailed and galloped a little. The views were beautiful, we mostly walked (the owner was worried about the possible mud and the legs of horses) by the river and open areas watching some birds and deer. When we headed back to the stables after a couple of hours we had to cross the river, it was fun, my legs got wet! :D The rest of the day I just walked, watched and enjoyed the silence of Chitwan. In the evening I sat a long time at the restaurant by the river and witnessed the beautiful sunset while some men were still having a bath with elephants. At the next morning I took a bus back to Kathmandu where I'm staying at the moment and waiting the next visit to Devichaur (which will be tomorrow). I enjoyed the trip and I still hope that I have an opportunity to go rafting somewhere and maybe attend to a yoga course as well :D
By the way, I'm starting to get pissed of 5 am awakening by some kind of bells near by this apartment and the continuously sound, flop flop flop… from the badminton bats while our landlords have their daily exercise starting around 5.30 am. If you wake up around eight in the morning it's late in Nepal, the morning starts around 5 am, everywhere! :D Another annoying thing is umbrellas. If it's raining you use them, if it's shining you use them, basically there isn't a time when you wouldn't use an umbrella. When you have one you can use it whenever and wherever you want. If you want to open it at rush it's not your problem if other people have difficulties trying to pass or walk beside you… :P
See you later alligator!
I almost forgot to mention that I travelled by the tempo/tuck tuck-whatever, yesterday at the first time of my life! Hihhih! And I visited at the so called monkey-temple, Swayambhunath, it was high on the hill, the place and the stubas looked nice and there were some monkeys around them :) I'm sorry there isn't any photos in this text, I had problems with uploading them, it's getting late and I have to wake up early tomorrow so if you want to see photos, be patient and check this out on sunday again :)
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