Kathmandu, Chitwan and Varanasi

Kathmandu has to be just about the funnest, coolest city I've ever been in.

Shopping: we went a little overboard here. There were too damn many places selling cheap DVDs (we're talking about $1-2) so I stocked up on music DVDs. We got a few little knick-knacky things, but of course our real treasures are the thongkas. We bought two more the other day--much smaller ones. I'm very excited to get them framed and put up in a room.

Entertainment: Kathmandu's Thamel area is just a labyrinth of shops and bars and clubs and restaurants. We saw plenty of live music. We had some amazing food and the other night we hung out with our American friends. There are some great hooka bars where you can get sheesha (flavoured tabacco) and have a social smoke, Arab-style. Kathmandu is also known for its leaf, which did not disappoint (although getting it was one of the more sketchier things I've ever done).

Sights: Although sight-seeing was much lower on our list of things to do than in other places, we went to Durbar square to see the old palace and temples. (Connected to this is "Freak St"--where the hippies first came--where we got the best samosas ever). We waited around until 4:00 to see the "Living Goddess" make an appearance on a patio in a palace. Nepal hindus revere this nine year old girl as a God, but when she came to the window all I saw was a bratty little girl who gave the crowd a brief, disinterested look, before disappearing. Then her little sister went to the patio, playing her game boy, and also disappeared. Weird.

We were really sad to leave Kathmandu. It's really a great place--extremely cheap, fun, and even safe. The Maoists have two seats in parliament now, so the political situation is much more stable than it used to be, to the great relief of Kathmandu's tourist industry.

Here is a picture of the Thamel region in Kathmandu (note the Thongka shop on the right):

We left on a bus to go to Chitwan National park. We shelled out the extra money for a place in a resort inside the park, and it was well worth it. My time here was among the best of my entire life.

First, we had to take a jeep through a little village, and then we got a boat across the river. We walked into the resort (really more of a camp) and within five minutes of getting there, it was time for elephant bathing. Four elephants made their way to the lagoon off the river and there, with the elephants and their trainers, you can swim/ride the elephants. This was the funnest thing I've ever done. You have to hold on tight because sometimes they try and wiggle you off, or shower you with their trunks, or submerge themselves. Nothing can adequately describe how amazing this was (and the leaf from Kathmandu didn't hurt the experience!). We got to do this three times over the course of our stay. THe first two days we had another couple with us, the last day we had the elphants all to ourselves.

Some pictures of the elephants:

Later that day, after we settled in our cottage by the river, we went for our first nature hike. The high-light was when we heard a rhino snort, and the guide took off into the thicket to investigate. A few minutes later he came walking quickly back, mouthing the word "tiger" and looking genuinely terrified. This was only 20 minutes after he gave us his intro speech about how to protect ourselves in the rare case of animal attack. Pan-Pan and the others (a dutch woman and an American couple) ran back but he told them to stop and not make any noise. He said that the tiger growled aggressively at him--"the bad kind" of growl. He had never had this in his 20+ years experience. Then he said he would call his friend--we were expecting a cell phone or something but instead he starting making this wild jungle noises. We waited until we heard a similar call through the woods, and then waited about 15 frightful minutes in the jungle for backup to arrive (an elephant). It led the way for us and presumably scared off the tiger, so we were free to continue. Pan-Pna was really scared though.

The elephant safaris were terrific. We went on three of them. They take you through the jungle looking for animals, and I mean literally THROUGH THE JUNGLE--no paths, just this elphant tearing down and bursting through trees with its trunk in front of you. We saw small deer and monkeys and weird birds, and the high-light was when we chased a black rhino through the jungle. It was like a real live safari. Then we finally encountered a giant black rhino and stood face to face with it for a couple minutes while it munched on some grass by the river.

Our Chitwan park experience was unforgettable. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance. We had to stay an extra day because the transportation in Nepal was on strike for a day, but we didn't mind at all--we just had another full day of elephants, just for ourselves.

When we left this little piece of paradise, our crazy trip to India began. I'll let Pan-Pan describe this because my fingers are getting tired.

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After leaving chitwan national park with heavy hearts and an intense desire to return sometime in the future, we left early yesterday morning for the Nepal-India bordertown of Sonauli. there really is nothing there...except scam artists. So far on this trip, J and I have been lucky not to have been really scammed, but our luck ran out in Sonauli. As we walked towards the bus station looking for the bus to take us to Varanasi, a man approached us and took us to the "ticket office" where we were sold an express bus ticket for a bus that only made "3 stops". We should have known something was wrong since real government employed transportation workers are never so eager to help lost tourists out. Anyway, we paid 335 rupees per person for what we thought would be a nice comfortable bus with only 11 people on it (as we were again told). When the bus finally pulled up, it was huge, dirty, and crammed to the brim with Indian people. we managed to find a seat, but there was about 6 inches of leg room, and poor James was miserable! There was one other western tourist couple there, and they told us that they too had bought the 335 rupees "express bus' ticket, but when they asked the bus driver, he had said this bus was a local bus, making all the stops, and that the price was only 196 rupees for everyone! We were so mad that we had been conned so easily! Anyway, this bus was literally hell for 11 hours. we drove only 325 km in that time, made about 40 stops, and were crammed into a seat so tiny only children should be able to fit in. I literally had to curl up into a fetal position and stay that way for many hours while god only knows the physical and emotional torture James endured! while on this bus, I got accidentally spit on by some Indian men, went over countless bumps that literally bounced us 3-4 inches into the air and jostled our internal organs, had babies grab my hair and punch James repeatedly, and drove through miles of dust storms in our non-airconditioned bus. The worse was that there were maybe 100 people on this bus that should have only seated 60. People were standing for many hours, I couldn't believe it!

Anyway, we finally got to Varanasi at 3:30 am this morning, and i'd never been that happy to get off a bus. We made some nice friends on the ride though and they helped orient us in the city. Its weird being in the holiest Indian city at that hour though, since there's no one awake but tons of people sleeping on the streets, dogs roaming everywhere, and of course holy cows blocking all the roads. It was a bit scary since we were entirely dependent on our rickshaw driver to get us where we wanted to, but we ended up staying at a pretty nice place. It is enervatingly hot here. we walked around for a bit but soon gave up and got rickshaws. We went for some music lessons at this music store and it was awesome! our teacher taught us drums for about 1.5 hours and then played the traditional Indian drum, the Tabla, while James played on his guitar. I think I have quite a knack for the jambli (that drum we were taught) since our teacher would praise me every now and then. We also went on a 2 hour dawn cruise of the ganges river as soon as we got settled in. We saw pilgrims bathing in the holy waters, sadhus (Hindu holy men) chanting or praying, and dead bodies burning at the crematoriums by the river. ironically the ganges is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, although Hindus here believe it to have magical cleansing powers. Hindus also believe that if you die in Varanasi, your soul will finally be allowed to enter Nirvana (and not be perpetually reincarnated into different forms on earth which is the ultimate suffering) so many old people come here to die.

so we're off to explore the rest of the city now, tomorrow we're off to Sarnath, the place where the Buddha first revealed his Eightfold Path to Enlightenment. We're leaving for Delhi the day after that, its going to be hectic!