#Nepal #travelogue part 3, #Chitwan #elephant safari at #tigertops jungle lodge

This is the third of several posts about our recent totally awesome family vacation to Nepal. We worked with the fabulous folks at Geographic Expeditions to plan and book the trip.


I once heard someone describe US airport screenings as "security theater." That is, it is designed to trick us into feeling safer, not necessarily to make us safer. I'm happy to say that Nepalese domestic terminals do not engage in such chicanery. Security appears to be more of an afterthought than a customer service nightmare.


I found the domestic terminal in Kathmandu baffling and chaotic, much in the way I imagine my first time at a cattle auction might feel. We had to pass through two security screenings, both with metal detectors, but neither of which was actually monitored by security personnel. They stood by, but we ran our bags through the scanner and then picked them up on the other side, and walked right through.


In any case, we found that flight departure times are merely hopeful guesses, but we were thrilled that our flight boarded only 15 minutes past our departure time. We were further thrilled when we found we were on a charter bound for Meghouli airport instead of the larger but more removed Bharatpur. And that the total passenger count would be eight: Two pilots, one flight attendant, the four of us, and Katy from Oregon. In this plane:

I think it seats 24, but we had room to spread out.

The flight was just 25 minutes to Meghouli, which is on the border of Chitwan National Park. The boys were thrilled to be in such a small plane, with no cockpit door... thus, they could monitor the instruments. In case the pilots weren't. And the crowning moment: on approach, when we realized we were landing on a grass airstrip. So cool.

It's about now that we realized we were entering the jungle. In Nepal. For real.

Chitwan National Park is a preserve in southwestern Nepal, designated the country's first national park in 1973. Most Americans, when they think of Nepal, conjure images of the Himalayan peaks at 25,000+ feet. We stupid Americans all assume the whole country starts at 20,000 feet and goes up from there. But Chitwan lies at a very hot and humid 400 feet in the lowlands, with hills rising to about 2,500 feet. The highest part of Chitwan is still 1,300 feet below the highest point within five miles of our home. Not what we expected from Nepal.


But boy, what a treat.


Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge, Chitwan National Park


It's really a jungle. With real wildlife. Wildlife that can kill you. And, we found out at the Tented Camp, spiders.


Chitwan was established as a refuge for protection of the dwindling rhinoceros population, with armed patrols and military bases (encampments surrounded by barbed wire, essentially). Throughout our 48 hours in the park, we encountered no fewer than six armed patrols walking the paths and jeep tracks. I'm happy to say their efforts are working. We saw many rhinos, including a mama with her baby.

As a bonus, Ethan got to see various assault rifles, mostly of Chinese or Russian make. He kept us well apprised of the details.

Surprisingly, roads in the jungle are somewhat better than Kathmandu's.

We were to stay one night at the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge deep within the park, and another at the Tented Camp a few miles away. To get there, we got into a "jeep" (although they drove Land Rovers, all the guides called them jeeps) and bumped and jostled along a gravel road, then a dirt track, through jungle and savannah until we got to a river. Where they had us get out of the jeep and into a boat. Then, on the other side, back into a jeep to bump and bounce to the lodge.

Do they serve drinks on this cruise?

There was a second river, after the boat crossing, which we could drive through. Our guide pointed out to us an elephant platform--a place where you walk up a flight of steps and out onto a jetway so you can board your elephant--which would be used if the river got too high for passage by jeep. "Too high" appears to mean "water pouring over the hood and into the cabin at a rate sufficient to make baling futile." We drove right on through.

The lodge comprises a small bundle of buildings in the jungle. An office, a big common dining area with well stocked bar, two motel-like buildings, and a family bungalow a short walk from the main building. We were given the family bungalow, with big living room and three small apartments and our own 60 year old houseboy.

The lounge and bar; the porch to the right has a gorgeous view of the savannah. Straight ahead you can see how well stocked the bar is. Surprisingly, the bar did not have the NFL Network. Or, for that matter, television. Or perhaps even electricity.

Our three-bedroom bungalow away from the madding crowd.

The main living room. Fire pit? Does it ever get less than 75 degrees here?

 

They boys' bedroom, with their own full bath. And, yes, electric lights and flush toilets.

Hey, kid, get your feet of the coffee table!

There was to be no relaxing in the living room, however, as we were scheduled for an elephant safari almost immediately upon arrival.

Two other groups went on the same elephant safari. As it happens, they turned out to be wonderful, delightful traveling companions. Alisa (not sure if that's how she spells it) and two of her three children, and Simon, who is a colleague of our friend Kirk at Geographic Expeditions. We were with Simon only in Chitwan, but Alisa, like us, moved on to the Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge after her stay in the jungle. Lovely, delightful people, and it was truly a treat to share this experience with them (and also with the aforementioned Katy). I only hope they feel the same about us.

Our elephant was a young one (though how can you tell with all those wrinkles) named Chan Chun Kali-Jacks. She was pleasant if a bit tippy going up and down steep banks, but she didn't fall over and she didn't feed us to any rhinos.

Traffic is fierce in the jungle.

The safari starts at the elephant loading platform. Up to four people can sit in one elephant's "saddle." The saddle is a small platform on which you sit facing sideways, with a stout railing to give you something to grip so your knuckles turn white. Recommendations include wearing dull colors because rhinos will get less angry. I guess maybe it's a gang thing.

We hoped to see a tiger. Chitwan is home to both Bengal tigers and leopards, but the one is rare and the other more rare. Any hopes on elephant back are high hopes, however, so off we went. Within minutes, we met this fellow:

He huffed at us, and our elephants trumpeted at him. Eventually, he turned and waddled away, understanding that discretion is the better part of a good tourist safari experience.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife on our safari. Birds, including kingfishers and peacocks and vultures and several others. Plus monkeys. Plus a turtle.

I don't actually know what this is, but it was beautiful.

Monkey! (To be said in a Jack Sparrow pirate voice.)

But these are jungle monkeys, not holy monkeys.

Turtle!

But what we were really hoping to see was a tiger. We knew they were rare, but they'd been seen in the area before, and not that long ago.

The Chitwan area used to be a hunting ground where the royalty, the ruling class, and later rich travelers with big egos and little... um... sense of sense of their place in the universe... would come to hunt tigers and leopards and rhinos and even sloth. I don't imagine the sloth give a very exciting chase. I suspect the British accountants chose sloth for their big game expeditions.

Our safari, though, was for photos and wonder only. We wondered if we would get a good photo. SPOILER ALERT: We did not. But we did see a tiger paw print in the mud, which was nearly as exciting. In the same way, sort of, that sharing a city bus with Scott Baio is roughly as exciting as snogging with Valerie Bertinelli.

The paw print. He went that-a-way!
<---
--->

After two hours we called it quits and returned to a wonderful Nepali dinner with our new friends in the dining hall. Overnight, we were treated to a thunder and lightning display, with a brief but biblical downpour the like of which I'd never seen before. The lighting lit the sky almost nonstop for 20 minutes. No joke: the sky was "on" more than it was "off" during the lighting. The storm seemed far away, however; the constant thunder was like a distant fleet of B-52s rumbling through the night. What a show Nepal put on for us.

WAY better than Disneyworld.

The next installment will include our boat safari, our jeep safari, bathing the elephants, and the Tented Camp. Don't touch that dial!

Our #Nepal vacation #travelogue - #Kathmandu sightseeing

This is the second of several posts about our recent totally awesome family vacation to Nepal. We worked with the fabulous folks at Geographic Expeditions to plan and book the trip.


On Sunday, April 8, we visited four gorgeous and moving sites in and around Kathmandu. Our guide, a knowledgeable and friendly young woman whose name I am embarrassed to say I've already forgotten, was superb.

Durbar Square, Kathmandu

First up was Durbar Square in Kathmandu, where the living goddess, Kumari Devi, lives. She's like 8 years old and peeks out the window once per group that comes in. She only leaves her house for special events, and she lives there until she gets too old (usually 12 or 13) and can't touch the ground as long as she is Kumari Devi. This was a fascinating aspect of Nepali culture, that such a medieval tradition has persisted for 600 years or more and is still treasured (I presume) by the Nepali people.

Durbar Square also sports a huge pagoda, an old palace, and several other temple looking buildings that I wish I better remembered now. Below are images that give a sense of the place.

... but postcards with her image are available outside...

Everywhere you turn in Kathmandu, brilliant colors delight.

See? I told you cows roamed like stray dogs.

We didn't intentionally dress them in the same shirt.

The Nepali version of a courrier, I suppose. We saw a lot of people in this area carrying huge bundles like this, with a cloth braced on their head and the burden on their stooped backs.

A good look at typical Nepali wiring. You say the electricity is not 100% reliable? I'm shocked it works at all. Ever.

The other pictures of Durbar Square that are from height were snapped from the first level of that pagoda.

Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple

Next we drove up into the hills to the "monkey temple," Swayambhunath. This is one of the holiest places for Buddhism, we were told, with a large and recently renovated stupa as well as a monastery on the site and even a Hindu temple. The whole place is strewn with flying prayer flags, which gives a dramatic foreground to a sweeping background view of the whole Kathmandu valley.

This site, if I understand what our guide told us, memorializes the creation of the world, which happened right there in the Kathmandu valley. It's about 1,600 years old if you believe wikipedia, or 2,500 years old if you believe another source I'm reading here offline.

Swayambhunath is called the "monkey temple" because it is home to a number of holy monkeys that are sometimes fed by the people who come to worship or pray here.

Holy monkeys, Batman, your stupa is huge!

We spun a lot of prayer wheels, which may have helped bring us good luck later in the week when we got to Pokhara.

Flags flying from the stupa, praying for peace.

The flags are purchased by people who come to the temple, then hanged by the monks. (The flags are hanged, not the people.) As I understand it. We bought some strands of flags, but we kept them as souvenirs.

And check out the view of the Kathmandu valley!

This was one of my favorite sites on our whole trip. From the views to the flags to the dramatic stupa... even the monkeys. I'm not a monkey guy myself, but they were cool.

Bodhnath

Next we drove across town to what our guide called "Little Tibet" because so many Tibetan Buddhists have resettled there. It's also the site of Bodhnath, one of the largest stupas in the world. This thing is massive, surrounded by shops. It's a pretty little area.

The stupa's prayer wheels are in that wall to the right. The stupa is the centerpiece of this circular row of buildings. You can see the arc of the buildings and get a sense of the massive size.

We went inside one of the shops, a studio where they were teaching the art of mandala painting, a traditional Buddhist circle art. In the corner of this studio was a master with a Buddhist sand painting in a case in front of him. The sand paintings are intricate works of art, delicately crafted over weeks by placing each grain of sand individually. They're created for special ceremonies. Then, after the ceremony, they're wiped away.

Students painting. Intricate work.

Patan

Our last stop of the day was the city of Patan, one of the three ancient kingdoms that's been merged into the metropolis that is now Kathmandu. Patan has its own Durbar Square, along with a tremendous museum of Asian art and culture. Due to heavy traffic on the drive from Bodhnath, and a late lunch at the museum's restaurant, we had only a half hour or so to view the museum. It was too bad because the collection is stunning, and the museum itself is beautiful.

While in Patan, we also visited an out-of-the-way shop where Maria got two pashminas and Ethan looked at, but did not buy, some pretty serious khukuri knives. We also got a demonstration of singing bowls, metal bowls that hum and vibrate when stroked around the edge. They are also used for healing application, I guess. Sounds like snake oil to me, but they were still pretty cool. But way too expensive.

Sam had a near shopping experience here. He was desperate to buy a singing bowl, but they were like $80 to $110. No way that was happening. Both the boys then bought mini khukuri knives at a street vendor's for $5 each. Good value--cheap and cool little knives, just what Ethan had been looking for. Unfortunately for Sam, he forgot to pack his in our checked luggage and it was confiscated by Kathmandu airport security as we got on our flight home later in the week. Fortunately for Sam, the Pokhara airport gift shop had a small singing bowl for $10, so he did come home with a fun souvenir. Just not the one he'd originally bought.

More cows and pigeons? Seriously?

A view of the square from the 2nd story window of the museum.

After all this, we returned to our hotel in the early evening. We walked back to Thamel to shop a little and find a restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any of the restaurants we were interested in from the Lonely Planet, so we wandered into the Northfield Cafe. We were unimpressed, and I would not recommend this restaurant. The food was mediocre, and the service was dreadful. All the clientele were white and British or Australian. And it wasn't even very cheap compared to other restaurants.

So ended our first full day in Nepal. The next day we were back to the airport for a flight to Chitwan National Park. We had no idea what we were getting into.

#Nepal #Travelogue Part One - #Kathmandu arrival

This is the first of several posts about our recent totally awesome family vacation to Nepal. We worked with the fabulous folks at Geographic Expeditions to plan and book the trip.

Yes, we're insane. We went 7,500 miles for an 8-day trip. That's 15,000 miles there and back.

On April 5th, after school ended, we bustled off to San Francisco airport to begin our epic journey: SFO to LAX (1 hour), LAX to BKK (17+ hours), and BKK to KTM (3.5 hours). All told, from leaving our house to arriving at the Yak and Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu, we traveled 29 hours. Or so.

Thanks to the terrific equipment, outstanding food, and unparalleled service of Thai Airways, 21 of those hours were actually quite pleasant. The rest were spent bored in the sterile confines of LAX or astonished by the grand scale of Bangkok airport, or stuffed into a United Airlines seat.

Our eight-day itinerary comprised three mini-vacations:

• April 7-8: Kathmandu
• April 9-10: Chitwan National Park
  (April 11: Drive from Chitwan to Pokhara)
• April 12-13: Pokhara
  (April 14: Head home)

We arrived in Kathmandu a little after midday on April 7th. Immigration took about an hour to get through, then we collected our luggage and were met by our super friendly guide, Kiran. He swept us into a van, and we were on our way to the Yak and Yeti Hotel.

I've never been to a third world country, which Nepal certainly is. Less than half of its nearly 30 million citizens are literate, and on average Nepalis that go to school complete nine years. The Gross Domestic Product of the country is about $1,300 per capita, and the 2008 estimated unemployment rate was a staggering 48%. Three in four Nepalis are in agriculture, and from what I saw that basically means subsistence farming.

The country was a monarchy, closed to the outside world, until the 1950s. It wasn't until 1990 that a multiparty democracy took hold in the country. Following a period of civil war/rebellion, 2008 saw the first nation-wide election that led to the abolishment of the monarchy for good. The country considers itself a federal democratic republic, but all the elected parties have "Communist" in their names. Interesting. I didn't know any of this before our flight touched down in Kathmandu. (I just now read it all in the CIA's World Factbook online.)

There are lots of things you notice right away about Kathmandu. First, it's not Beverly Hills. Poverty is ubiquitous. The roads are crumbling at the best spots and nearly impassable everywhere else. Bright, cheerful colors shine everywhere--advertisements, shopfronts, homes, outfits, and even the buses. The whole place teems with people and their activities. I was told by our guide that the Kathmandu metro area (really three merged cities) is home to 3.9 million people.

Approximately 80% of the country is Hindu, and another 10% is Buddhist. Our guide told us that red is "the most auspicious color" in these religions, and most women dress in red when possible. Cows roamed the streets like stray dogs, often lying down and sleeping right in the middle of traffic. While small cars and vans fill the roads, the vehicle of choice is clearly the motorcycle. Although people mostly drive on the left side of the road, that seems just a friendly suggestion, and in crowded areas the only traffic rule appears to be "whoever gets there first has the right to that spot." Fortunately, traffic moves slowly in the city (the roads and tight space make speed impossible), so if there is ever a crash (we never saw one), it's unlikely to cause major injuries.

A view from the van window near Kathmandu airport, as we drove to the hotel.

The whole city is dry and dusty. The river is choked with litter and garbage, and the water level is extremely low. Most buildings are two or three stories tall, which is good because earthquakes do happen here, and building codes are only slightly more rigorous than traffic laws.

Sam stands at the corner of Tridevi Marg and Kantipath, at the beginning of the Thamel district.

This city has a few motorbikes. If we saw this many together in the US, we'd think there was some event or convention. After eight days in Nepal, however, I realized the caption for this photo should be, "Traffic is really light right now!" BTW, there are no traffic lights or stop signs, and pedestrians become just another thing to beep at if you're a driver. So crossing an intersection like this is an adventure. Ribbit!

The front of the Yak and Yeti hotel in Kathmandu.

The hotel is probably six miles from the airport, and it took about 20 minutes to drive there. This is a very nice hotel. If you compare it to, say, the Willard Washington hotel, you'll find the Yak and Yeti lacking in elegance and splendor. It is a little dated, but it's clean, comfortable, and utterly sufficient. The grounds are beautiful, and the hotel itself has a lovely look to it. Wifi is $12 a night and spotty (but then, so is the electricity citywide, as we learned from a letter from the hotel manager). But the amenities are solid, and the service is extremely friendly and attentive. The breakfast buffet offered an interesting diversity of foods, and the hotel was centrally located, just a short walk from the ultimate tourist shopping district, Thamel.

The view out our window, of the hotel's grounds and other wings.

In the back, this elegant and imposing shrine of some kind rises between the pool and the pond. I wish I knew its significance. It was, however, very pretty.

A footprint of a yeti, I suppose. How the footprint was so well etched into this granite boulder, I'm not sure. I guess it was a heavy yeti.

Saturday afternoon and evening we went into Thamel for the first time. It's a tight, crowded labyrinth of shops so crammed with goods that their touristy merchandise spills out into the street. Blankets, pashminas, bronze Buddhas and singing bowls, paintings and tee shirts and everything else from handmade greeting cards to enormous khukuri knives. This is also a district where trekkers come, apparently, and it's stuffed with backpacks and outdoorsy clothing like North Face and Patagonia. Guest houses, inns, and little restaurants--a surprisingly large number of which have Irish names--are packed between the shops all up and down the tight little streets.

There's so much for sale, and most of it is pretty inexpensive, that I have no idea how these people make a living. We didn't buy anything that first day; we were simply too astonished, and frankly a little put off, by the sheer volume of things for sale. We had no idea whether we'd get a bargain or get ripped off. So we just window shopped, marveled at the people, and dodged wave after wave of autos, motorcycles, and rickshaws.

Although most writing is in Nepali, English is everywhere. Most of the people we interacted with in Kathmandu spoke reasonably good English. (This was not the case in the countryside, however.) Despite being a clear foreigner, I rarely felt out of place or uncomfortable. That said, even with the rampant Coke and Pepsi ads on every wall, Kathmandu is every bit as foreign a city as I found Tokyo--far different from European cities I've been to.

Maria had read our Lonely Planet book and had a few restaurant suggestions for dinner. I liked the one with "Beer Garden" in its name, so we went looking for it. Dechenling Beer Garden and Restaurant hides down an easily-missed alley off Tridevi Marg, right near the Garden of Dreams, which we didn't pay to enter because it looked like a tourist trap from the outside. The web site makes me think maybe we should have checked it out.

As we searched for Dechenling, we passed a tiny baby, maybe 8 months, sleeping naked on the sidewalk. No mother or siblings in sight. Just left there, under a sad, little tree. It was unclear whether the baby was sleeping or dead. We did not stop to investigate.

Later, we asked our sightseeing guide about social services available to the very poor. She looked befuddled. We tried to explain, thinking it was a translation issue, about what we meant by soup kitchens and shelters and other services. Our guide looked at us and asked, "Why would people do that? Sometimes religious groups might give free food to the very poor on holy days, but there's nothing like that here. In Nepal, if you have money you live. If you don't, you die." Doubly interesting now that I know the duly elected party in charge of the government has Communist in their name.

Anyway, we found the alley and walked down it. It's one of those alleys that lets you know right away you've stepped off the tourist path. Thirty yards down, it goes mostly deserted. Fifty yards down, you're sure you've wandered into a place you might not want to be. Seventy yards down, you find the beer garden.

Dechenling is a haven in the middle of Thamel's chaotic pace and visual cacophony. The menu offered diverse options from Nepal, Tibet, and India and was easy to understand. The beer was cold, and the food was outstanding. The atmosphere was so serene that Sam even fell asleep waiting for our dinners to arrive. (Serenity, plus the slow service.)

What's not to like about a beer garden, in any country?

Hey, remember I said we traveled 30 hours, followed by three hours of walking through Thamel. Give the kid a break, OK?

That concluded our first day. We went to bed at about 7:30 p.m. local time, which was 6 a.m. back home.

Our second day, Sunday the 8th of April, began with the breakfast buffet and then meeting our guide for the day at 9:30. We were to visit four sites and spend a shocking amount of time in the van during the day, but it was wonderful from beginning to end.

Yes, I'll tweet it all day. My #book is #free today.

Good news, everyone! I've just learned how to schedule tweets. This means I can save a gajillion tweets to be sent over the next 48 hours, while my book is free in the Kindle store! Actually, I won't do that to you (only 3 or 4 scheduled tweets, honest). But I will be tweeting from the Charities @Work conference in New York, where I'll be on a panel Wednesday morning. That is, I'll live-tweet if they have wifi for conference attendees. SEMPER had its first free run in mid February. Since then, with zero promotion, it's averaged about a sale a day. Even better, it's gotten 15 new reviews, nearly all of which are 5-star. I'm very pleased that since its release just over two months ago, it's sold about 50 print copies and been downloaded nearly 3,000 times (including the 2,800 free times during the free run). I'm quite sure I don't have that many mothers or people I owe money, so I think all those stats are pretty significant. If you haven't downloaded your copy, get it April 3 or 4 for free. Kindle readers are available on most platforms. Or buy a print copy. That's allowed, too. If you have downloaded it and haven't read it, give it a chance. Maybe over spring break. Maybe after you've reread The Hunger Games series and seen the movie, and you need another book to love. If you have read it, email me and let me know what you thought. I love to hear from people who've read one of my stories. Oh, and happy poetry month. Go read a poem. Thank you.