Following a reasonably lazy morning we decided to walk to Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple) which is on the outskirts of the city. We had hoped it would be a pleasant stroll but should have known better since we were back in the noise, chaos and pollution. The temple was nice enough and does indeed have its fair share of cheeky monkeys, but also has way too many dogs and pigeons. It was all a bit too touristy for us and we really didn’t think there should be so many tacky tourist stalls around the main stupa.
Following a balcony lunch of pizza and bottle of wine (well it was Boxing Day), we wandered around Thamel doing a bit of shopping. Against the odds it started to rain but at least we weren’t still walking back from the temple. We tried to watch the football – found a pub that had the commentary on but wouldn’t turn the music down and decided it was better than nothing. The log fire in the corner of the room helped to persuade us to stay! We’d just got a beer in and were settling down to watch the Liverpool game when the satellite TV failed. The area of Thamel that we were in still had power, but the TV company’s area had just started their daily power cut and they didn’t have a generator. Hey ho! Another early bath!
Bhaktapur
Tried to have a lie in but it’s not possible once Kathmandu has started to wake up. Car horns, dogs barking, people hockling etc, etc all adds to the superfluous-ness of alarm clocks! Jumped in a taxi to take us to Bhaktapur, which is an ancient city just outside Kathmandu, but it could be a million miles away. You have to pay a hefty Rs750/= a head to enter the city, but since they keep it basically traffic free, it makes wandering around enjoyable, so we’ll forgive them. To be honest a lot of time and effort has been put into restoring the old streets and buildings and it is great to see the entrance fees being put to good use. The entrance fee is high by Asian standards, but the place is being well cared for and it would be a shame for it to fall into disrepair again. The narrow alleyways are great to wander around and you never know if you’ll; meet a dead end, stumble upon another temple or monument or emerge into yet another lovely little square.
There are of course lots of shops and we expected to be hassled quite a lot, but once again were left free to take it all in. Begging was much more prevalent than in Kathmandu, but the only annoying people were those who wanted you to hire them as a guide. We both enjoy wandering around these kind of places but we’re not interested enough to learn the history of each building and the significance of each brick. The good news is that all the cafes and restaurants are set up on roof tops so you can escape and while away an hour or so watching the world go by. A lovely peaceful, chilled day and our batteries are recharged ready for our early start to Chitwan National Park.
Kathmandu – Chitwan National Park
We had to set off well before the restaurant was open but International Guesthouse left out a packed breakfast and Thermos full of hot water so we wouldn’t miss out. You can’t beat extra little touches like that and we’d certainly recommend staying there.
The tourist buses are in marginally better working order than the local buses with none of them needing a jump start! The added bonus being that tickets are pre-sold so the bus basically sets off on time and doesn’t need to stop every 100m to pick up more customers. Travel may be slow in this part of the world but it is far from dull. On the road that we took there was a constant stream of wagons going up the valley while we were in a convoy of tourist buses going down. The trucks are mainly from India bringing in supplies and they are all brightly painted and heavily laden. Even the buffalos and crammed in and there is a double layer of the poor beasts. The road is only just wide enough for big vehicles to pass in places and for much of the way there is deep, open drain running down the side of the road. We saw a couple of wagons that had miscalculated a bend and ended up in the drain. Better than off the side of the mountain, but one truck had shed a very expensive load of marble slabs all over the road.
Our side trip to Chitwan was the only part of the holiday that we had pre-booked and paid for. We knew what we wanted to do once we were in the park and didn’t want to find out at the last minute that everything was booked up. Things did not start well when at the end of the bus journey there was no one there to meet us to transfer us to our hotel. It turned out we should have got down in some shabby little town a slow, torturous 20kms previously. It was good of the bus and tour companies to let us in on the secret don’t you think?! The locals tried their best to help us but this consisted of plonking us on the most packed and tediously slow bus of all time. We were not in the mood since we’d paid good money to avoid just such situations. We got off and tracked down a phone shop and called the company’s office back in town. They eventually agreed to send someone to pick us up – not that Steve was really giving them a choice!
Once at the office, they insisted that we have the included lunch before transferring to their Island Jungle Resort. To be fair we were hungry by this point and didn’t argue even though we just wanted to get to the resort. Wished we insisted on carrying on as the food is some of the worst we’ve had in a long time and I don’t think any of you will have seen anything like it since the 1970’s! Anyway we eventually got to the resort but of course by now we’d lost a lot of time so didn’t even check in until 5pm and we’d missed out on that afternoon’s activity. The rooms were okay and the resort is a lovely setting by the river, and we were glad to finally get in the room. The place was so busy that you had to go on the activity the guides had allocated you to and we couldn’t even see some of the things that we’d expected to be included. On the positive side we’d dropped so far down the valley that it was a lot warmer than Kathmandu through the day and the resort is set in a lovely location.
The next morning we were up early for our promised elephant ride it was still very dark and misty and extremely cold. All the birds and animals were still very sensibly snoozing! Rocking through the jungle on the back of an elephant was very pleasant but we didn’t hold out much hope of seeing any animals. All the pictures we’d seen of Chitwan and from Steve’s previous experience, we expected to be going through very tall grasses not crashing through trees. Eventually we spotted a rhino and got some great views of it up close, but unfortunately all the elephants were in the same area so the mahouts basically formed an elephant circle around the poor rhino. At one point it looked very scared as it couldn’t see a way through all those huge legs and trunks.
Following breakfast we set off on a jungle walk and boat ride with the main focus being looking for crocodiles. At least by this point the sun was up and the birds had started to twitter. The track meandered along the river and we did indeed get to see our first ever gharial crocodile, and the walk and boat ride were very pleasant.
On getting back to the resort we decided to try to pin someone down to find out what was actually going to be included in our package - we expected to be doing a full day’s walking safari and a jeep safari. We’d not seen these 2 things mentioned on the activity board and began to suspect we were going to be short changed. We were told we’d be going on a jeep safari that evening but it turned out to be a compromise measure as we didn’t actually go within the park’s boundaries. Now we all know that animals don’t know where lines are drawn on a map but seeing the animals isn’t the whole point – we wanted to see the park too. The jeep was no great shakes but at least we were going through some lovely scenery and had the chance of spotting some animals. We’d almost given up hope when the ‘jeep’ drove down a lovely stretch of river and we found a mother rhino with her 2 year old calf. Unfortunately, the young one was a little wary and quickly hid in the bushes but luckily Mum was braver and we got to watch her for some time – fantastic.
The following early morning’s activity of a nature walk was cold, dark and animal free. The staff kept trying to tell us that the island is in the park and that all the animals including rhino (agreed), along with, bear and tiger (highly unlikely) live on the island. We were very sceptical since we’d never had to stop at a check-point to sort out permits to enter the park. In fact when we eventually talked the guides into providing the package advertised on their website, we had to delay the start of the walk while they sorted out permits. It turns out that they don’t offer the full day walking safaris any more, as basically most people don’t want to do them. We suggested that they update their webpage, and we were not impressed to find out that they hadn’t done the walks for at least 2 years!
Anyway, we eventually got to set off on a walking safari and for once set off in the opposite direction on the island. Didn’t see any animals but the guides pointed out tiger and bear activity that they reckon had been from the previous night. We knew we had to cross the river to get into the park and walked along the river bank for some time. It was still very misty and the guides couldn’t see the other side of the bank to be able to spot the boatman’s house. Some yelling across the river eventually elicited a response and not one but two boats started emerging through the mist. Our permits were checked and a great discussion ensued. It turns out they had to bring 2 boats as 1 wouldn’t have been strong enough and we soon understood why, when we realised we would be in a hollowed out log without seats. More discussion followed and rocks were placed in to act as seats for Steve and me with the boats being roped together for extra stability. All in all it was great fun and against the odds we got to the other side dry – any fool can use a tourist boat!
Finally we got to set foot in Chitwan National Park - not only could we see the stereotypical tall grass but we were walking down a jeep track through it. We didn’t expect to see animals at every turn like in Africa but wanted to enjoy the park with the added bonus of being able to do so on foot. The route followed the tall grass by the river for a while and then continued on through forest before returning to the river. From there we were to catch another boat to take us back to our side of the water and a jeep to take us back to the resort. Throughout the day we saw macaques, langurs, barking deer, loads of birds including hornbills and kingfishers and mugger and gharial crocodiles. All in all much more than we saw on the island around the resort and a great day’s walking too. Our picnic was the highlight of the day, as we were sat in the middle of the jeep track, tucking into by far and away the best food the resort had rustled up yet, being entertained by langurs and hornbills.
On getting back to the river it transpired we were at the wrong bank. Instead of retracing our steps the guides decided to invent a path! We now know what it feels liked to be a rhino pushing through the huge grass. We might not have seen the mighty beasts but we know how to do a cunning impersonation of one! Fortunately we met some locals and they pointed our guides in the right direction. An hour and a half later we reached the correct river bank and there was a boat ready to take us over. In actual fact we hitched a lift on a rival resort’s boat so it was much more substantial than the plank we’d used that morning!
The jeep turned out to be one of the micro Suzuki cars which there are many of in Nepal. They really are not designed for the appalling conditions of Nepal’s main roads never mind dirt tracks. No one seems to care about that and they rattle along as if they’re driving brand new Landrovers! On the return journey we went through some lovely rural villages but the animals and children have a scary lack of road sense. All in all a fantastic day and at last I got to experience Chitwan National Park.
The following day was simply a long travel day back to Kathmandu and, following a decent meal, straight up to Dhulikel for New Year and our last fix of mountains. Once again the journey took much longer than anticipated and we didn’t reach our pre-booked hotel (High View Resort) until well past dark. In fact they’d locked the gate and we ended up having to climb over the barbed wire fence to get in. Not an auspicious start to the final leg of our trip!
Dhulikel
Happy New Year! Although we’d up early and had an exhausting travel day we actually made it past Malaysian New Year (9.45pm local time) and lasted until 12 bells Nepal time. It seemed daft not to see in the New Year properly since we’d had such a good holiday, and besides which, we’d carried a bottle of fizz up from Kathmandu. We were still up at 8 o’clock for breakfast the following morning and ready to do the walk we’d planned. The aim was to stroll through the valleys with the focal point being to visit Namobuddha stupa which is believed to be the oldest in Nepal.
The walk didn’t start off according to plan as we couldn’t find the correct exit road from town! Anyway we got our bearings and some local help and were soon on our way. The guy in the hotel bar had said that we needed to set off at 8am to have time to complete the walk, but in actual fact we didn’t find the beginning of the path until gone 10am! Still we weren’t going to let a couple of hours stop us and the walk was lovely, but unfortunately, it wasn’t clear enough to be able to see the mountains. The stroll turned into more of a reasonably fast paced trek as we were worried we were going to run out of time. Turned out we needn’t have worried too much and that we were an hour ahead of ourselves due to Steve’s new-found inability to read the time!
We got to the stupa and it was quiet enough for us to be able to enjoy it before finding the next section of the track to take us to the town of Panauti. This is another nice little town nestled in the bottom of a valley where oranges and rice are the main crops. It was the women doing the back breaking work in the terraced fields, getting the land ready for planting. The blokes just seem to sit around watching the world go by - pah! Panauti has an old section to it but to be honest we didn’t bother hanging around. The walk down the other side took much longer than anticipated and by the time we reached town we’d had enough and jumped on a local bus to get us back to our hotel. More precisely we had to jump on one bus to Banepa and then another back up to Dhulikel.
Another fantastic day and we reckon our wee stroll was actually a 20km hike! It’s great that you can cover distances so quickly and be rewarded with views virtually all the way. Very different from what we’re used to in the rainforests of South East Asia and it’s an area we’d love to explore further. In fact we had such a good trip that we’re thinking of going back sometime in the future to do a much longer and more challenging trek.
Back to Kathmandu and Back to Kuala Lumpur
The last day is always a bit sad, but to be honest, by this point we were both fed up of feeling so cold all of the time. We never want holidays to end but for once we were looking forward to not wearing layer upon layer and feeling warm! We jumped on a local bus to take us back to Kathmandu as the taxi ride up hadn’t saved us any time, and besides we’re all for spending Rs80/= instead of Rs1500/=! At one point a goat was on board but we still haven’t seen how they manage to persuade the poor animals to get on. Although judging from the direction of the pitiful bleating this little fella was in the boot and therefore directly under our bottoms!
We returned to International Guesthouse one last time to retrieve a bag we’d put in storage and even though we weren’t checking in again they didn’t charge us. Great service once again. We finished off our last bits of shopping, got a taxi to the airport and flew home. Since Nepal has ousted their royal family the national airline has now changed to simply Nepal Airlines. The sad thing is they can’t afford to change the insignia so someone has gone around with a roll of masking tape blanking out the Royal part! We won’t be rushing to use them again since they failed to properly reserve our seats on both legs of the journey. Just to add to the confusion they also managed to spell my surname wrong on the inbound flight and my first name wrong on the return flight. Considering how old the planes are we’re just glad we got there and back in one piece and that none of the luggage went walkabout.
2009’s New Year resolution? Must travel more!
Travel Information and Tips
We stayed at International GuestHouse in Kathmandu and can highly reccommned it. Friendly, helpful staff, decent but basic rooms with hot water, a lovely garden to chill in and only 2 mins walk to the chaos of Thamel so quite quiet but convenient.
We booked our trek through the guy at international guesthouse and our guide Hari was great and we paid about 7 dollars a day per person i think.
http://www.intguesthouse.com/
In Chitwan we stayed at Jungle Island Resort which is in a lovely setting but be aware that you are not actually in the park, although the animals are in the jungle around the resort. Check what is actually included in your package and get of the bus in Bharatpur not Sauraha unlike us!
http://www.islandjungleresort.com.np/index.php
We booked Chitwan and our hotel in Dulikhel through Rhino travel and they were pretty helpful apart from not telling us where to get off the bus for Chitwan. So would reccommend them but there are 100s in Thamel.
http://www.adventuresnepal.com/index.php
