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We left Pokhara after a much needed and very relaxing day recovering from our trek. The highlight of the busride was definitely just outside Pokhara, where the clouds had finally parted and we caught a glimpse of the amazing views of snow-capped Macchupuchre and Annaupurna. This made me a little sad as I all realised what we had missed on our trek! Next stop was Chitwan National Park, where, we hoped, we could see Rhinos, Sloth Bears, deer, birds and maybe even TIGERS!
We arrived at lunchtime, settling into a lovely lodge near Sauraha town on the outskirts of the park. The town is very geared towards tourists, with every other house a hotel/lodge, all named, of course, after animals in the park. We tagged along on a tour that afternoon visiting a Tharu village. This is supposedly cultural, but the sheer number of tourists preiously passing through takes the edge off that, and it was more enjoyable for the many baby animals wandering around, pretty much turning it into of a petting zoo! After the village we were taken to the elephant breeding centre, where the babies are trained for elephant rides through the park. Some of the conditions weren't so good, and we ended up feeling a bit sorry for the chained up elephants :(
The second day was our day in the park! We were pretty excited setting out with the thought of animal sitings in mind... First was a canoe ride down the river, where we spotted a couple of crocs on the opposite bank and the guide pointed out some bird species. We then set out on foot through the jungle (high grass, massive bugs everywhere, I was a little scared to be honest!). The grass was really high, and with a group of six people we sounded more like hippos trapsing through - all of us were pretty sure we wouldn't see a thing! A while later we reached the woods, where we spotted three types of deer, some monkeys and more birds. Nearer the end of the walk we spent a long time 'tracking' a sloth bear, as we could hear it nearby in the woods. Unfortunately we never found it, but it was fun sneaking around all the same! OTher highlights including TIGER footprints in the mud, but alas, the tigers were hiding too :(
That afternoon we had more luck. We, and Ross, boarded our elephant in a pretty small seat and tried to get comfy. Unfortunately, they decided to squeeze a (rather large) American man in with us to make up the numbers, which involved him actually sitting on top of me for a good few minutes before everybody had rearranged themselves to fit in! The elephants mask human smells in the jungle, and after only half an hour we found ourselves sitting only a metre away from a mummy and baby Rhino! It was pretty amazing - even though us and other tourists around were creating quite a racket they didn't even look at us. The next hour and a half was much the same, and we headed back incredibly uncomfortable, but very content.
Our expensive park entry ticket was valid for a second day in the surrounding forests outside the park boundaries and we decided to stay an extra day to explore. It tipped it down with rain all morning, making for a very wet and pretty adventurous bike ride! We spent a good 5 hours cycling to a place called '20,000 lakes'. the largest wetland in the area, and back again but, despite my fears, didn't see any animals at all (there are no real gates from the park, and i was terrified a wild rhino would try to charge us off our bikes!). Shattered in the afternoon we relaxed over a big lunch and watched the sunset over the river.
The next day we headed to Kathmandu on a very comfortable bus ride. The boys ate more large portions of Dal Bhat at a roadside cafe, and we reached town at around 4pm. Thamel is the tourist area of Kathmandu, just down the road from the street where the Hippies used to hang out back before tourists flocked for Mt Everest. It's VERY touristy, with streets lined with hostels, restaurants and souvenier shops but we like the convenience of it to be honest. Ross showed us a really cheap hotel (just a pound a night) and we've settled in for 6 nights! Ollie has found his heaven in a bakery next door, which reduces it's already-cheap prices bu 50% after 9pm (breakfast of chocolate croissants is becoming the norm, if he can muster the willpower not to eat them all for pudding!)
So far we've visited the famous Durbar Square and Palace, the Ghats down by the river and spent more time at the Indian Embassy! Super. The architecture around here is amazing, and we're actually enjoying seeing temples again, especially as they are so different from those in SE Asia. We went to Bhaktapur yesterday, which was even better than Kathmandu. Here they've preserved the whole town, so all the wooden buildings are intact and any renovations have to be in the same style. It was a really nice day out wandering the old streets, and even better that life continues as usual within the walls. We found samsosas for lunch, and tried a couple of the Nepali sweets too. One was a fried snack dipped in a carameley sauce, somewhere between savoury and sweet as it tasted more of oil than anything! The next was very strange, the only thing we can assume was it was sweeetened mashed potato, that or playdough flavoured with sugar! I don't think we'll be trying either again! We also had some famous Bhaktapur curd later in the afternoon, very similar to the lassies made in Indian.
Today we woke up to more rain, so scraped the plan to climb the 2000m peak called Phukchoki, south of Kathmandu (its supposed to be a lovely forest walk with a great view, today we would have been wet and miserable!). Instead we visited the tourist named 'Monkey temple' which has a real name I can't remember. It was very impressive on top of a big hill, surrounded with millions of the coloured flags found everywhere in Nepal. The buildings were impressive, but the monkeys were a big highlight again! The whole place was pretty much set out as a monkey playground, and we spent a long time watching them swing between the flags and jump between the temples. Hopefully tomorrow the rain will ease off a bit and we will get to see the views finally - fingers crossed!
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