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Kathmandu and beyond: Bob Seger was crazy!

July 1, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »

After leaving China (click here), Holly, the Albino Bowler, and I headed over the Himalayan mountains to the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. It is fairly safe to say that I’ve been to and stayed in some pretty dirty places… but I’m pretty sure that Kathmandu takes the cake. Bob Seger was apparently crazy… Kathmandu, while it sounds neat, is not really a place you want to go. I am glad I can say that I’ve been there, but I don’t know that it is real high on my list of places to go back to! We did make the most of our time there however. We stopped by two durbar squares as well as several temples and monasteries, including the Swayamhunath temple complex… yeah… good luck pronouncing that one right. The tourists have nicknamed it the “monkey temple” because it is easier to pronounce and because there are monkeys running around everywhere. This particular place was the most interesting to me because it was set up on top of a mountain overlooking the Kathmandu valley, and it had a giant stuppa with the ‘all seeing eyes’ of Buddha on it (don’t ask… I just thought it looked neat).

Lucky for us, Kathmandu was not the reason we wanted to go to Nepal. We actually came to Nepal to go on a safari and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Mount Everest; both of which we were able to accomplish. Safaris in Nepal, specifically in the Royal Chitwan National Park, are a bit unique from your typical safari… if there is such a thing. Safaris are done here, not in a jeep (although you can do that if you want), but on the ultimate offroad vehicle… an elephant. Yes… we rode on the back of an elephant through the jungles of Nepal. I still laugh every time I say that because it seems so preposterous.

Chitwan National Park is known for its diverse wildlife; including several types of deer, monkeys, crocodiles, elephants, one horned black rhinos, and the ever elusive Bengal tiger. The two national parks in Nepal are actually supposed to be your best chance at seeing a Bengal tiger in the wild, however according to our guide, they have become very scarce in the past couple of years in Chitwan… we didn’t see any. We did however get to see all the other animals I mentioned with the exception of the wild elephants, and from what the guides were saying, a wild elephant is not something you really want to run into while you’re riding another elephant. I’m kind of glad we didn’t see one. The rhinos on the other hand, were quite the spectacle; and one of the nice things about being on the back of an elephant when you encounter one, is that they’re not scare of you. We literally rode right up to them! THAT was an amazing experience. Also while in the park, we had the opportunity to ride in a handmade canoe down a river as well as a few walks through the jungle looking for wildlife… one such outing had us within 50 yards of a rhino. While I was in a tree snapping pictures of the rhino, a mongoose unknowingly walked right up to Holly and our guide Brahma! Once it realized what it had done it quickly changed course, but it was a neat thing to see.

While not out on safari, Holly and I had the opportunity to do a couple of really neat things. In the mid morning to early afternoon hours, it is extremely hot and muggy there. By this time, all the wildlife has found a nice cool place to hide, which makes viewing them very difficult. Since there isn’t anything else to do, the owners of the elephants take them to the river to splash around… and yes, you can go join them. This is something else that makes me laugh when I tell people; you can go swimming with the elephants. Definitely the experience of a life time. The handlers will bring the elephants over to a mud bank so you can climb up… bareback.. onto the elephant. They then walk the elephant down to the river and let them splash themselves off, while you’re on their backs… so of course you get drenched. They also will lay over sideways into the river, tossing you in, unless of course you’re fast enough to move around on him… I of course was not. I could go on for hours, this was absolutely amazing.

We also stopped by the elephant breeding center; this is where it all starts for the working animals. The elephants are bread here and trained here. It was quite the entertaining thing to watch the baby elephants play around, they are quite mischievous! One actually smacked Holly with its trunk! I guess he wanted some more grass from us. Funny stuff (well, funny because it didn’t hurt).

Till next time, happy travels!

– Dan Thompson