On this keyboard I have to press every key with ultimate force to get it to register.
We arrived safely in Sauraha, which is the village to be in if you cant afford to stay in Chitwan park itself. We stepped off the bus and to our horrors....in Sauraha they celebrate Holi a day later then Pokhara!!!!!! It had followed us, and the joy of having your face and clothes smeared by multicoloured stuff is significantly less after a five hour bus journey in an average heat of 28 degrees (I am exceptionally pleased with my thermometer/compas keyring and like to get it out every few hours). Our Jeep driver came towards us, hands covered in yellow 'Happy Holi!'
'No, we did this yesterday!' Alicia muttered under her breath whilst stepping away.
I agreed to be covered in yellow once I had removed my pashmina as it is a replacement for the one that got destroyed yesterday.
Next we clamber into our MASSIVE open top Jeep...I bumped my head a millisecond before the driver turned to say 'mind your head', it hurt. I am making sure to grumbled about the lump it caused at least once every couple of hours for the next few days just to get my pained point accross that I too am suffering (Alicia's skin does not seem to like India one bit). As we pulled away Alicia and I glanced back and saw another group of tourists packed into a tiny jeep like sardines, sometimes life is especially nice.
On arrival, the hotel hotel staff were a bit sparse, Holi's fualt again. Our welcome drink was provided, some sort of lemon soda, and then we were taken to our room. For the first time we had to pick our food in advance. Choosing food before you are ready to eat it has to be one of the most unnecessarily difficult decisions ever. I was never psychic enough to know how I'd be feeling in a few hours and so my enjoyment of food here was significantly decreased.
The next displeasure was that we were given a guide who looked about Alicia's age and spoke very poor English. I was annoyed but he seemed ok. We were ushered outside and offered bikes, I didnt think twice...I love cycling, Alicia on the other hand has comical co-ordination and lacks bicycle skill. She wobbled immensely all the way and we had to keep stopping, I think the guide was a bit worried but I got a good giggle from the journey.
We went to the elephant breeding centre. Nice, but in all honesty there is not much to see other than a few 'little' Elephants. The coolest thing here was when two of the youngsters had a play about five meters in front of us.
Our guide was what some people may call useless "Look Elephant"
"Yes, I see" was the extent of guided conversation.
He then lead us a different way home. I occasionally suffer from serious paranoia and thought he was going to lead us somewhere to kill us all the way. I also thought this hotel was scary when we arrived and thought they might have some conspiracy set up to capture tourists. Alicia didn't get any of this feeling and believes I need to get a grip. It turns out he was taking us through a traditional Tharu Village, which was a bit like walking back in time a few hundred years. It was wonderful to see, but I can't help feeling intrusive when I am being shown around people's homes as if they were part of a museum. Our guide insisted we had a photo though.
At the elephan breeing centre we had been asked for money, I was cross about this because we had already paid as far as I was concerned, then we got back to the hotel and handed our bikes in "you need to pay" says the guide. I was fuming 'NO, we have already paid!' and walked away. In the hotel Alicia and I had a chat and although we had only paid an extra 100rs for the elephant breeding centre I felt it was unjust and wanted to make sure there were no more extre little charges we were going to have to pay, i marched went to see the manager. Apparently there had been some confusion (I dont think we would have found out about 'the confusion' if I hadnt made the effort) and we got our 100rs back! Nobody tried to cheat us in Chitwan again!
At the end of the day we were eating our pre-ordered dinner, amidst a magnificent thunderstorm outside, when another strange man came up and spoke to us. It turned out this was our guide for the rest of our stay here, Ishaw (probably spelt wrong). He took us to see the Tharu traditionl culture dance this evening and it was brilliant...we danced badly again...and went home in good spirits.
The most awesome part of today was riding past an elephant on a bicycle! Elephants are awesome.
xxxx
The bus to Chitwan set of bright and early, much like all our transport, at 7am. After overpaying the taxi driver by 50nrs more than Khem told us to accept, who wants to haggle at 6.30am? We sat on our bus ready for a 7.30 departure. We even sat in the correct seats!
It became clear, all too quickly, that the driver could not count. For once in my life I was early and glad of it. We watch for approximately 1 hour as the mayhem of double the amount of passengers unfolded in front of us; shouting, pointing and many an angry faced person got on and of the bus. I am not sure what happened to the poor souls who were shuffled onto a different bus, I hope they are ok and not lost in the Nepalese wilderness.
On our bus was a friendly lady called Nia, whom we met the other day on our return from Sarangkot point, it is nice to re-meet people! There was also spoke to a man who came to India a few years ago and has not gone home, would anyone notice if I didn't return? He is designing some trousers, unfortunately we never saw the design but heard that they are for men; and with underwear they are just normal really useful, many pocketed trousers, without...they are tantric.
It became clear, all too quickly, that the driver could not count. For once in my life I was early and glad of it. We watch for approximately 1 hour as the mayhem of double the amount of passengers unfolded in front of us; shouting, pointing and many an angry faced person got on and of the bus. I am not sure what happened to the poor souls who were shuffled onto a different bus, I hope they are ok and not lost in the Nepalese wilderness.
On our bus was a friendly lady called Nia, whom we met the other day on our return from Sarangkot point, it is nice to re-meet people! There was also spoke to a man who came to India a few years ago and has not gone home, would anyone notice if I didn't return? He is designing some trousers, unfortunately we never saw the design but heard that they are for men; and with underwear they are just normal really useful, many pocketed trousers, without...they are tantric.
Once we had set off and everyone was settled into bumpy dozing, the journey was interrupted, on walked a group of 'buskers'. I secretly thought they were quite good and played in an almost bluegrass style. Sadly after a few hours of bus travel people were not in the mood to be woken up or have their mp3 player drowned out by youths looking for money and they garnered some irritated stares. Better luck next time guys! Obviously now I want an Indian violin for myself. The rest of the journey was spent dreaming about salad, I am missing having it in large quantities every day. I would give pretty much anything to have a tortilla wrap full of cold mayo, cheese, spinach, pepper, olives and courgette or just a massive bowl of salad. Yum.
We arrived safely in Sauraha, which is the village to be in if you cant afford to stay in Chitwan park itself. We stepped off the bus and to our horrors....in Sauraha they celebrate Holi a day later then Pokhara!!!!!! It had followed us, and the joy of having your face and clothes smeared by multicoloured stuff is significantly less after a five hour bus journey in an average heat of 28 degrees (I am exceptionally pleased with my thermometer/compas keyring and like to get it out every few hours). Our Jeep driver came towards us, hands covered in yellow 'Happy Holi!'
'No, we did this yesterday!' Alicia muttered under her breath whilst stepping away.
I agreed to be covered in yellow once I had removed my pashmina as it is a replacement for the one that got destroyed yesterday.
Next we clamber into our MASSIVE open top Jeep...I bumped my head a millisecond before the driver turned to say 'mind your head', it hurt. I am making sure to grumbled about the lump it caused at least once every couple of hours for the next few days just to get my pained point accross that I too am suffering (Alicia's skin does not seem to like India one bit). As we pulled away Alicia and I glanced back and saw another group of tourists packed into a tiny jeep like sardines, sometimes life is especially nice.
On arrival, the hotel hotel staff were a bit sparse, Holi's fualt again. Our welcome drink was provided, some sort of lemon soda, and then we were taken to our room. For the first time we had to pick our food in advance. Choosing food before you are ready to eat it has to be one of the most unnecessarily difficult decisions ever. I was never psychic enough to know how I'd be feeling in a few hours and so my enjoyment of food here was significantly decreased.
The next displeasure was that we were given a guide who looked about Alicia's age and spoke very poor English. I was annoyed but he seemed ok. We were ushered outside and offered bikes, I didnt think twice...I love cycling, Alicia on the other hand has comical co-ordination and lacks bicycle skill. She wobbled immensely all the way and we had to keep stopping, I think the guide was a bit worried but I got a good giggle from the journey.
We went to the elephant breeding centre. Nice, but in all honesty there is not much to see other than a few 'little' Elephants. The coolest thing here was when two of the youngsters had a play about five meters in front of us.
 |
| Elephant brothers |
Our guide was what some people may call useless "Look Elephant"
"Yes, I see" was the extent of guided conversation.
He then lead us a different way home. I occasionally suffer from serious paranoia and thought he was going to lead us somewhere to kill us all the way. I also thought this hotel was scary when we arrived and thought they might have some conspiracy set up to capture tourists. Alicia didn't get any of this feeling and believes I need to get a grip. It turns out he was taking us through a traditional Tharu Village, which was a bit like walking back in time a few hundred years. It was wonderful to see, but I can't help feeling intrusive when I am being shown around people's homes as if they were part of a museum. Our guide insisted we had a photo though.
 |
| The photo we did not want. |
At the end of the day we were eating our pre-ordered dinner, amidst a magnificent thunderstorm outside, when another strange man came up and spoke to us. It turned out this was our guide for the rest of our stay here, Ishaw (probably spelt wrong). He took us to see the Tharu traditionl culture dance this evening and it was brilliant...we danced badly again...and went home in good spirits.
The most awesome part of today was riding past an elephant on a bicycle! Elephants are awesome.
xxxx
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