Bahrain and Heathrow nightmare

So I left Kathmandu at 7.35pm Nepali time and arrived into Bahrain about 10ish, only to discover that my onward flight had been delayed from 01.55am to 10am the next morning so that was one long night in the airport.

Thankfully I have my laptop with me so I was able to simply sit and catch up on my blog in between wandering around and drinking tea. Oh and I did manage an early morning Yoga practice in a quiet area of the airport with nobody else watching, that is a first for me!

We did get to board the flight but then sat on the runway for 5 hours, having to get off to identify our bag (apparently the only reason our flight did not leave was due to the fact we had one extra bag on board, well done Gulf Airways!) before they finally told us we would not be getting a slot at Heathrow plus the crew would need to chnage before we left now in any event...

So we got to leave the terminal building and go through immigration and everything. Thanfully I befriended a British guy who lives in Oz and was on my flight from Kathmandu having just trekked up to Everest Base Camp so that lessened the tediousness of going through the whole "leaving the airport" situation.

Still on a positive this is the first time I have been to Bahrain, ort got out of the airport at any Middle Eastern country. On the bus on the way to the hotel (without our bags of course), this guy was going on about how he never in a million years had any intention of being here now in Bahrain and it dawned on me how funny this world that really you cannot predict anything and you simply have to go with the flow...we think we can somehow control nature but nature always wins.

Anyhow the hotel was a highlight, a large room all to myself with a television and hot water, luxury after the accommodation In Nepal the last few weeks. Plus we got to eat lovely food - fresh humous and salad, just what I needed after living on airline food the last day or so (yuck!). And finally after 27 hours of not sleeping, I got to lay down and snuggle up in bed.

Who would have thought it huh!

Last few days in Nepal

Returning to Lakeside from Pokhara I managed to squeeze in a Yoga practice on the roof before we went for dinner at Manu's house to spend time with her two sons and to meet her sister-in-law, Amrita, who thanfully speaks fluent English.

I must admit it puts us to shame the way children and teenagers can speak English so easily over here. Even Abhanaya, who is 5 years old, can recite A, B, C etc and count to 80 in English. In fact Sushant, 10, is so good at English that his Nepali is suffering - my aprents sponsor the boys to attend private schools (not unusual out here) and in such schools all lessons (except for Nepali) are conducted in English. It is different in the government schools where children are taught in Nepali.

Anyhow we enjoyed the evening as Amrita, who is only 16, was a fountain of knowledge and makes me realise how easy we have it in the West. Here she goes to college between 6-10am each morning to study commerce and then she has to look after the house, do washing, cooking and cleaning and help Sushant with his homework, and here they have a 6-day week so there is only ever one day off a week and that is the day when everyone catches up from the week and prepares for the next and there is this constant pressure to get good grades so you may stand a chance of getting out the country to study abroad.



This going abroad thing is a big deal in Nepal. As it happens about 500 men leave the country every day to go and work in the Middle East or in Korea or Malaysia, or wherever else manpower is needed. Bijay - despite having a new wife and a 6 month old baby - is in the process of trying to get a visa to go and work in Korea as he knows he can earn so much more money over there than he can earn here.

To be able to stand a chance of getting the visa, which is organised by the government, he has to learn Korean (he is 3 months in and is finding it hard work) as well as put up some initial chas. if he gets the visa he will be away for 2 years before he will get the chance to come home and visit family. Can you imagine? And this is so he stands a chance of earning up to $800 a month which he can then use to get him set up back in Nepal.

So we enjoyed another Dahl Bhat, in fact Manu was very generous and we both left feeling really full - so silly really as they have so little, but you feel obliged to eat more so as not to offend anybody. Again Manu would not eat until all the rest of us had eaten our meals.

The next day was our last day in Pokhara and so we got up early and headed to Yoga and stranegly there were other people there so we got to enjoy a final class with Devika. This was followed by the usual breakfast by the lake before meeting Devika to discuss various aspect of the Trust and to have a look at the website together. More shopping and more tea, more Namaste's and more smiles.




We decided to make the most of the afternoon sunshine and hired someone to paddle us across the lake so that we could climb up to the Peace Pagoda at the top of the hill, which provides yet another vista of the Annapurna range. This was another hard slog, all up hill for 30 minutes, thankfully shaded by the trees! Coming down was another matter as we managed to get lost in the forest and it was the strangest thing as we ended up at the edge of the lake where we would have had absolutely no chance of getting back to the mainland if it had not been for 2 guys waiting for us (like guardian angels) in a boat who very kindly paddled us back across the lake!




We met Devika for a final tea down by the lake and then enjoyed salad for dinner before watching yet another DVD and another early night!



Saturday and we were up super early to pack before getting the Greenline bus back to Kathmandu. This was a particularly tedious journey as it took an hour longer than it was meant to and it suddenly dawned on me that we have spent quite lot of time on buses in the last week and generally on the same road too!

Anyhow not exactly great to be back in Kathmandu as it has a harder and angry energy in comparison to Pokhara but at least we were treating ourselves to a fancy hotel, which was actually a Rana Palace and all rather impressive. Mind you we didn't waste much time in taking a taxi 30 minutes up into the hills to Kopan Monastery, home for studying and retreating Tibetan Buddhists. This is such a lovely place, so calm and serene and such a contrast from the city below.




Back in town we did go into Thamel for dinner but we were both keen to get back to the hotel as soon as could, as it just didn't feel right somehow, people have an edge to them, they are not so friendly or open as they are in other parts of the country (not surprising perhaps, given the conditions of life in Kathmandu with its crazy traffic and noise).

Sunday and we got up early for breakfast beforre heading into Thamel so Ewan could find a guidebook for Cambodia. Snow causing chaos in Heathrow meant that his friend was not getting away to meet him upon arrival in Cambodia so now he needed to sort himself out. We then sat by the pool at the hotel for tea before it was time for Ewan to leave for his flight to Delhi, where he had a 9 hour wait, before his flight onto Bangkok and then Siam Riep in Cambodia (lucky thing!).

Of course this was not ideal, but then it has been so long in coming that it was almost a relief. So Ewan left me in tears at the hotel (poor guy) but I quickly pulled myself together and even managed a swim in the hotel pool with the water a mere 9 degrees celcius (the pool attendant thought I was mad, as did I, when I realised how cold it actually felt and I only lasted 10 lengths!). As it happens I only had a fw hours to kill before my own flight to Bahrain and onwards to London Heathrow. Well in theory!

Thank you Nepal and all my friends over here and all the people we met for making this such a wonderful trip. Neither Ewan nor I wanted to leave and I have every intention of trying to get back there again next year.

Namaste!

xx

Chitwan National Park finally!

The World Heritage-listed Chitwan National Park is one of the main tourist attractions in Nepal and completes the Nepal triangle with Kathmandu and Pokhara. We are rather excited about finally getting there and dream of seeing a tiger!

We get a taxi into the park, an hour drive from our overnight hotel in Bharatpur, along yet more pot-holed roads and then a dirk track leading to our resort, which happens to be one of the most popular places in the park set on a large island in the middle of the Narayani River at the western end of the park.

We are treating ourselves because it is rather expensive to stay in the park itself but this is one of the most atmospheric ways to visit Chitwan and it is hard to put a price on the experience of staying deep in the forest, surrounded by the sounds of the jungle. Plus this opportunity will not be there for much longer as the government are forcing lodges within the park to reolcate outside the park's perimeters when their leases expire.

You see Chitwan is one of a few wildlife parks that you can explore on foot when accompanied by a guide and it does not come without its risks - the only thing between you and an animal is a bamboo stick carried by the guide. Potentially scary stuff and you do hear of local villagers being killed by wild elephants and rhinos.

We have to take a wooden boat across the river and it is all rather lovely and atmospheric because for some reason it gets really misty here in the morning and evening and is really cold too! We are both really excited as we have never done anything like this before and it does feel rather special somehow.

At the resort itself all the staff are really friendly and we are led to our room, which is on stilts with views of the river. It is all rather basic, no electricity in the room as such and they are rather damp but there is lighting between 5.30-7.30am and 5.30-9.30am and hot water between 5.30-7.30pm. We also have to make sure to leave all food at the main bar to reduce the risk of attracting rats into our room (and we are warned that we may hear them scuttling over ou roof at night, which I don't notice, thankfully).

After a Yoga practice and some tea, we took lunch (yes you guessed it, more Dahl Bhat at the buffet counter) before we started our program with elephant bathing. Now I am not entirely sure about all this. One of my hosuemates at University has since gone on to become a doctor in some form of elephant research and now runs an elephant research programme and an elephant trust in Botswana so I am aware that perhaps elephants should be left in their natural environment and not exploited by us humans.



Still we felt we should join in and while the river was really cold, the sun was quite warm, so we both took turns to sit on an elephant and have him spray us with water from his trunk. Bless him, I can't help thinking that he probably doesn't enjoy doing this every day but what can we do, I don't know, it just does not rest easily somehow.

After the elephant bathing we went out on a 4-wheel drive with a few of the other guests to get deeper into the jungle. We were out for a few hours and initially we didn't really see anything other than a peacock, which both Ewan and I struggle to get excited about, but then we saw two rhinos from afar and we borrowed someone's binoculars to get a better view, quite incredible really. Then we saw a vulture in a tree, and then a stork, and then some spotted deer (Ewan refused to get excited about seeing deer!) and then on the way back to the river we saw another rhino, closer up this time.




Back at the resort it was getting dark by the time we had been rowed across the river and the temperatures were dropping fast and already we realised that we should have brought our coats with us for these cold evenings. We enjoyed a lovely hot shower back in the room before sharing a drink at the outside bar and then dinner inside and an early night, like 9pm because there was nothing else to do, it was simply too cold and dark!

The next morning we received our wake up call at 5.45am, which felt as early as it sounds and it was cold and dark and damp and we probably should have put on more layers because we spent the next few hours so cold that it took a few hours for me to feel my toes again, but it was still good fun.



This time we were going out into the jungle on an elephant, 3 of us at a time. This was quite some experience, not the most comfortable of rides and we didn't see a single thing. Well actually that is not strictly true. One of the guys at the resort has said the best he saw was a chicken...we didn't even get the chicken, the main distraction was a child's pink rucksack and our elephant driver actually dismounted the elephant to check whether there was anything in the bag (which there wasn't) before flinging it back into the undergrowth. We laughed about that for a few days.

Back at the resort and we had breakfast before heading out for a jungle walk on foot. Now this was slightly more exciting as we happened to walk upon two sloth bears in the undergrowth off to the side of the path. It was quite funny really as we had listened to the guide explain to us what to do if we did come across wild animals - rhinos; climb a tree or run zigzagged, tigers; stare it in the eye and back away slowly; sloth bears (the most-feared animal in the jungle due to its unpredictable nature) make lots of noise; elephants, run for your life!!

So here we were, the guide banging his bamboo pole on the floor and making noise and I instinctively did the one thing I was not meant to do - turn to run away. So much for looking out for others, if that sloth bear was going to kick off I wanted to be as far away from it as possible!! Anyhow thankfully the sloth bears went away and with my heart beating slightly quicker than it has done for some time, we carried on our way.



We came across more kingfishers and crocodiles too, quite incredible atually, to see them there in the wild.

Back at the resort we had a break before lunch, time for Yoga in the sun and an opportunity to simply chill out - it had been quite a hardcore morning!



After lunch there was more elephnt bathing but we gave it a miss this time, before another jungle walk, going to the same place we had been on the 4-wheel drive the day before. This got really quite exciting because we came across an angry rhino. Apparently the rhino has lost its one month old baby and killed a villager 4 days ago.

We didn't know this at the time however and I must admit I was rather alarmed when we all stopped to look at this rhino on the other side of a small waterway, before the guide suddenly started getting really excited and almost running us along the path as he was worried that the rhino had heard our voices and would come looking for its baby where we were - basically she wasn't taking any prisoners at the moment. The deer seemed rather tame after all that and as for the peacock, well wasted on us I am afraid.



Back at the resort we enjoyed another warm shower and dinner before our earliest night ever - 8.30am, quite unbelievable considering we can both be night owls.

The next morning and we had another 5.45am alarm call. This time I wore as many layers as I could for our nature walk, only 45 minutes and we didn't manage to see anything other than the resort's elephants but that doesn't really count!

We ate breakfast by the river before getting a minibus back to Bharatpur and a Greenline bus (we were taking no chnaces this time) back to Pokhara.

The Chitwan is great, we truly enjoyed the experience, it was so relaxing in its simplicity and incredibly grounding and uplifting for the spirit. I can highly recommend - just remember to bring contact lenses with you!

White water rafting on the way to Chitwan

How exciting, in all my visits to Nepal I have never managed to make it to Chitwan so I am really pleased that this is one of the main places Ewan wnats to visit on this trip.

Narayan has organised it all for us and we wake up super early to get ourselves sorted before our 7am taxi to the tourist bus park. It is only when we make it to the bus park that I realise I have forgotten to put in my contact lenses, and even worse than that I have actually forgotten to bring them with me, nor my glasses either.

It is not that I have particularly bad eye sight (and they have improved since I have been practising Yoga)but I can't see distances with total clarity. Which is not ideal when you are going to a national park to look for animals in the wild - and from a distance. In hindsight I would have had time to return to the hotel and pick up my contact lenses but the bus was due to leave at 7.30am and I was in need of a cup of tea (always tea huh, what a pitiful excuse!).

So we get on the bus and Narayan comes to make sure the driver knows where to drop us off as we are initially headed along the highway towards Kathmandu but will stop after a few hours to white water raft down towards Chitwan. See all very exciting. but of course I can't see properly and I am irritated at my stupidity because I managed to pack everything else for both of us!

After a few hours of bumping our way along the road (we did get a short tea break, although it was really cold as this mist hangs in the air outside of Pokhara)we finally get dropped off at Fishling for our white water rafting. Only that this isn't realy the right season for white water rafting as the rivers have calmed down after the monsoon back in the summer. So it kind of turns more so into gentle rafting down the river.

Still it is rather pretty. And cold. There are 8 of us on the raft including the leader and Ewan is sitting in front of me. Narayan had told us to wear shorts and t-shirts which is exactly what Ewan is wearing although I am wearing leggings and a fleece so am slightly warmer. Because the thing is, while the rapids are really rather easy going, you still get wet, and the water is cold, super cold, and so we are cold, which is never ideal.

Ewan spots a kingfisher but it is a bit of a blur to me. I do manage to notice many butterflies, which flutter around the river banks, making for quite a pretty scene. We paddle a little, but it is not exactly taxing and we even stop for a pee break half way down towards our destination. In fact we reach our destination before we know it, I guess we were only actually on the water for about 2 hours and it actually passed really very quickly.

We end up at yet another one of those dusty juntion towns and got to stay here for lunch today...yet more Dahl Bhat in a very local eatery and I feel Ewan is being very brav when he pours water for everyone from a general jug and then proceeds to drink his glass...is he mad, you should never risk the water over here. He is quite surprised he forgot and worries he will get sick.

There are 4 of us going down to Chitwan and we stand at the side of the road with one of the rafting team who has the task of getting us on a local bus for the remainder of the journey. A bus stops and there ensues heated discussions between the rafting team and the bus touts over the price they will pay for us. Finally the rafting team sells us out (well that is who I consider it) because there is only actually one available seat on this very crowded local bus (there are always lots of bags in the thin aisle) and I am not particularly happy about the situation.

We let one of theother girls take the seat and he friend sits on a bag besde her at the bak of the bus. I am notin the best of moods, I am cold and tired and I can't see properly and I feel cheated by the guys for putting us on this bus in the first place. So I sit on the floor of the bus, which is really rather disgusting as the floor is filthy but it is actually really difficult to stand when the bus is bumping all over the place. Ewan stands however andtries to be cheery but I can feel msyelf about to burst into tears so just put my head in my lap and pretend that this whole situation is not happening.

Still I perk up and feel a bit of a drama queen as a few of the men on the bus seem a little concerned. Ewan stands behind me so I can lean into him and he can lean into me and I am totally disorienated as I can't see out of the window. However it is not a pleasant experience and just before we reach our destination one of the woman sitting in a seat to the side of me is falling asleep and almost has her head on my shoulder and coughs from time to time all over me. Delightful! Still I wanted the local experience so what can I expect really, this is just life over here.

It is with some relief that we arrive at our hotel for the night, just outside of the park at Bharatpur Heights. Needless to say this is not exactly what I had in mind (see expectation is a terrible thing!), the brochure made it sound a lovely and quiet place with a swimming pool and character. But we are here out of season and it is cold and the swimming pool is empty and the rooms are really basic (although there is a tv, but it doesn't always work), and we are the only people for dinner again and there are bugs and I still can't see properly (and how ridiculous that I can't just let it go...so much for my Yoga practice and that non-attachment thing!)and so I write my diary and give myself a really good talking to!

So all good fun really!!

Cloudy day and out on the bike again

I am exhausted today. All that trekking up steep hills (let alone down the hill) plus the walk to Dumre and yet another bumpy bus ride and my body is tired and aching.

So we got to early morning yoga - obviously - although only Devika is there today and no electricity so she is meditating so I lead a practise for Ewan and I.

Usual thing, breakfast in the sun to warm up, more shopping (almost all shopping done now!) before buying cakes for the women at the Project and spending some time sitting with them and trying on yet more products.

Devika lends us her motorbike again the afternoon and this time we head out along the Lake to Bijay's village before heading out past the airport and up to rush hour in the old town, which is madness but incredibly good fun. Ewan has got well into the whole biking thing now and I must admit that i quite enjoy it too.

We go for dinner and then met Monie for a drink in the Busy Bee (her local) where the usual loud Nepali band is playing and there is a fire burning for people to huddle around as a lot of the cafes and bars are open fronted or literally outdoor like this one. We meet two of the owners of the Last Resort which hosts Nepal's only bungee jump and this makes for interesting - do something different with your life - type chatter.

Another early night, quite a lovely routine wehave adopted here.