Thursday,
26 December 2013
An
early start this morning. Well, I couldn’t sleep well anyway, no thanks to the
Indian guests who just checked in the evening before. They were early risers
too. After shower and morning prayers, I gathered my bags and left my room. Had
requested for an early breakfast as I had a bus to catch, departing at 0730.
After a hurried breakfast, one of the guesthouse staff drove me to the bus
station. It took us less than five minutes to get there.
I
boarded the bus and it quickly filled up. Despite this, we only departed at
0805. Pretty soon, we were rolling through the suburbs of Pokhara and then the
neighbouring small towns and villages with the occasional fields and farms. The
road was not good and pretty soon we were bumping in our seats. I looked out
and saw mud- and dirt-coated trees. Actually, there wasn’t much the locals
could do I suppose. No matter how hard they try, the mud and dust would still
settle on their houses, their fields, their trees... it was dry season in Nepal
anyway.
We
stopped by The Original Highway Restaurant at Gunadi at 0930, merely an hour
and 15 minutes after starting out, for a thirty-minute mid-morning break. I
went down to use the bathroom and checked out the food offered in the
restaurant. Nothing particularly appealed to me and besides, I had my own food.
We continued our way after thirty minutes and drove on before stopping at Motel
du Mugling at 1115 for an early lunch break. We had to change buses after the
break as the bus we boarded from Pokhara was actually bound for Kathmandu. We
continued our journey at noon and reached Sauraha bus station at 2. It wasn’t
much of a station and I was glad when I saw a representative from my guesthouse
there (actually, I didn’t arrange for it so they probably either send out
someone to wait every day or the other two guests who later arrived had earlier
arranged for the pick-up. I got lucky either way).
We
arrived at the guesthouse and I checked in. After performing prayers, I walked
out to check out the area. Well, it’s really more of a village than a small
cowboy town. I dropped by a hut to enquire the activities offered. See, Sauraha
is located right next to Chitwan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After a while, I came upon a row of shops and a bloke came over to talk to me.
I was apprehensive as I didn’t like strange men coming up to me but of course
and I didn’t want to feel obliged towards him for anything. But he very kindly
explained to me about the area and brought me to the basic National History
Museum nearby. He also asked what activities I prefer and I told him I didn’t
want any elephant ride or visit to the elephant centre as I’d read they were
not treated right. I also told him I didn’t want to do any jungle walk as I had
been bitten enough by leeches back in Malaysia. Nor do I care to go canoeing.
The only thing that interested me was the jeep safari. He patiently probed and
at one point, I blurted, ‘I’m a city girl,’ as if that explained everything.
No, I won’t apologise for this because that’s who I am. I am a city girl and I
won’t change that fact. He must have been wondering what on earth I was doing
there and I was also starting to wonder the same too. Finally I told him that I
would need to think about it and that I would let him know once I’d made up my
mind.
I
then went to see the river before continuing on the dusty road – actually, it
wasn’t even a road. More like a sandy path. You come across the occasional cow
and elephant dung and I walked up and down the path before I saw more shops.
Oh, so this is the village centre then, I thought. I came upon more
restaurants, shops, moneychangers and guesthouses while pondering. Finally, I
decided, what the heck. I was already there, I might as well try out some
activities. So I turned back and went back to tell the bloke that OK, I’d join
some activities. In the end, I signed up for canoeing followed by a half-day
jungle walk the next morning and jeep safari in the afternoon. I paid Bishnu $47
in total. Yes, it’s handy to have USD with you. After paying Bishnu and
agreeing on the time to meet the next morning, I walked back to the village
centre to have dinner. Then I walked back in the dark back to my guesthouse
(no, there was no street light). WiFi was a hit and miss and I couldn’t switch
the TV on because the power point didn’t work (and even if it did, I wasn’t
sure if the TV worked). It was so cold in the room and I was shivering even
under the thick blanket.
Friday,
27 December 2013
Woke
up for morning prayers and shower. I went into the bathroom shivering and
turned on the left-hand shower tap. Cold water came gushing out. I waited a
while but still no joy. I turned off the left-hand tap and turned on the
right-hand tap. Icy water came out. Goodness me, there was no hot water at all!
So the two shower taps were for cold and much colder water! I had a very quick
bath and performed ablutions.
I
was getting ready when the lights went out. Uh oh, power outage again. I
continued getting ready in the dark, groping around. I had a quick hurried
breakfast and after breakfast, rushed off to the meeting point. Well, I needn’t
have worried. We ended up waiting and waiting for others (we ended up joining
another group for the canoe ride).
We
finally set off at a quarter to 8. The boatman slowly paddled the boat and I
could see steam rising off from the surface of the river. Bishnu explained that
the river is warm during the night but cool during the day and I later tested
the water and I can assure you he was right. Why, the river water was wayyy
warmer than the water in my bathroom. Compared to the icy water supply in my
bathroom, the river water was like a semi-boiling water!
Both
of my guides are keen bird-watchers and they kept pointing out the birds that
we saw along our ride. The migrating birds, the local birds, their nests, their
hiding place. In fact, it was a good thing I didn’t sign up for the
bird-watching activity because I was doing two activities at the same time –
canoe ride and bird-watching! Oh, I also saw a jackal on the bank before it
disappeared.
The
canoe ride lasted 50 minutes and we got down on the other side of the bank and
climbed up a cliff. My guide was explaining something to me when he suddenly
stopped, looked to his right, listened hard and then urgently whispered loudly
for us to run away. He said there were rhinos coming. I protested and said I
didn’t want to go down the cliff (the cliff was steep to begin with) but he
hurried me on so I had no choice but to practically stumble down the cliff. We
stood hidden behind some long grass and listened hard. We waited about 15
minutes before Bishnu deemed it was safe for us to continue.
We
walked in the jungle, at first along the river before venturing deeper in.
Bishnu showed me some marks on the ground and told me those were the footprints
of the earlier rhinoceroses. There were two, he said, and the male was trying
to mate the female. The male rhino had mounted on the female but the female
rhino was reluctant and it showed from the marks that the female rhino was
trying to walk away with the male still mounted on her. We also saw rhino
droppings, deer droppings, tiger droppings (Bishnu poked and showed me the deer
bones discharged), tiger scratch marks and urine mark on a tree, a sloth bear
dropping (with the heads of black ants and termites in the dropping). Really,
you can learn a lot of the animals’ diets from their droppings!
Bishnu
then spotted a bird rarely seen in those parts and Thagu (the other guide and
keen bird-watcher) and he then took some time trying to take pictures of the
bird. Apparently, there were two: one male and one female but the female had
flown away. I squinted and looked hard but even with Bishnu’s binoculars, I
couldn’t locate the bird at all. It was that tiny.
After
a while, we moved on and spotting some grass land, Bishnu went to check it out
and then excitedly told us that the male rhino was there. We spent some Kodak
moments and then shortly after continuing our walk, saw some stags. Wow! Was I
in luck or what. I had earlier seen some deer earlier but they hopping away too
quickly for me to take any pictures. We also stopped at one of the observation
towers in the park. There was an Italian woman there peering out over the
jungle and Bishnu attempted to converse with her. There were some tiger
droppings at the tower. Whoa, they went up there too! We rested there for a
brief while before bidding goodbye to the woman and continuing on.
We
boarded the boat back around 1140 and I rushed back to my guesthouse to perform
prayers and have a light lunch. I was due at the meeting place at 1245 for the
jeep safari.
We
set off across the river after paying Rs20 each for a return boat trip and
followed our guide to our designated jeep. I wanted to sit in front so the
guide guided me to sit next to the driver in the cab. I enjoyed the safari.
Along the way, we saw monkeys, some deer, a wild boar (I missed it though),
crocodiles, river turtles, a big monitor lizard high up on a tree, two peacocks
and the best of all, a tiger crossing the road about 50 m ahead of us! It
passed by too quickly for me to take any picture though. We stopped the jeep where
the tiger crossed but couldn’t see it. Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was
already 100 metres away by the time we arrived at the spot. In between, we also
stopped at a gharial crocodile farm but I refused to enter. Crocodiles are not
my favourite animals.
We
finished the safari four hours later and walked down to the river and boarded
the boat back across. Bishnu met me as I climbed up and asked about my
experience. After watching the sunset or what little of it, I went off in
search of dinner and eventually had it at the guesthouse restaurant. I spent
the evening reading or trying to (in between the power outage) before retiring.
To be
continued
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