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Nemaste! (Hello/welcome/goodbye/thank you in Nepali)
Apologies for the lack of updates. James and I have been having tons of fun. We will have to post the updates from El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru and Australia once we get caught up.
Currently we are in Nepal and will be until the 30th of November. Photos will follow once we have a better internet connection.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE:
"Maya, take a look at this!" James elbows me from the window seat of the airplane.
I look up from reading my Lonely Planet Nepal book and peer out the window. At first it appears to just be many clouds against the clear blue sky but after my eyes adjust and focus it is apparent that in the distance are the snow covered Himalayas with their peaks poking above the clouds. It was amazing to be cruising at 22,000 feet and almost at eye level with the top of the world, Mt. Everest.
The excitement builds inside me as we continue our descent into Kathmandu. In only a week we will begin our trek to the base camp of these incredible mountains, but first Kathmandu and then several days in the lowland jungle of Sauraha and Chitwan National Park.
I pull the hood of my rain jacket over my head and lean in a bit closer to James as we drive quickly through the cold misty air on the back of a small red open cab Suzuki jeep. I breath in deeply and slowly, relieved to no longer be amongst the smog and hustle and bustle of Kathmandu. We zip along dirt roads amidst rice paddies and barley fields, passing hunched over women carrying heavily laden "dokos", or large conical woven baskets on their backs and water buffalo drawn carts full of freshly cut rice bales.
The scenery abruptly changes as we cross the river and enter the National Park. We dismount and receive instruction on how to evade some wildlife we may encounter on our walk through the jungle. Tactics range from running in a zig zag pattern, climbing a tree or just a plain old stare down depending on whether we were faced with an elephant, rhino or Bengal tiger.
This reality seems so far removed from the elephant safari we had taken the day prior. Maybe it was the security of being 8 ft. off the ground atop a 4 ton gentle giant or the fact that we had heard stories from guides and lodge staff whose relatives had died or were injured from encounters with the native wildlife we were in search of.
Within minutes we see fresh rhino and wild elephant tracks. Our guides stop us every couple of minutes to explain a scent, noise or ground excavation which give us the distinct impression that these animals are closer than we want to know.
Throughout the day we encounter two species of monkeys playing in the trees and on the ground only feet away from us, several one horned rhinos (native only to India and Nepal), elephants, crocodiles, several different types of deer and many different birds. It is amazing to be able to see all these animals in their natural habitat.
However my greatest animal highlight was being able to swim, bathe, ride and play with an elephant in the river. Gently holding on to both ears she used her trunk to elevate us to step up over her head and onto her back. She hosed us with water, shook her head and then rolled in the deeper part of the river. It was important that the elephants get bathed everyday especially after trekking in the jungle and it was here that I was able to have more intimate moments with my elephant as she lay in the shallows of the river and I rubbed her down with a stone as she gently prodded me with her trunk. I said my goodbyes by rewarding her with many bananas and apples that she gratefully took with her trunk.
As our day was nearly finished, we jumped back in our little red jeep and zipped along the dirt roads as smiling Nepali children skipped by, waving and saying, "good-bye" in their best English.
We sipped our Everest Beer watching the sun set over the river painting a dark silhouette of the long dug out canoe ferrying people back from a day's work in the Park. The orange glow petered out and we returned to our hotel to consume our weight in dahl baaht (rice and lentils) eaten in traditional Nepali fashion (with our right hands and our thumb as the shovel). We crawled into our sleep sacks and I gave James a kiss goodnight knowing we would have sweet dreams of our time in the lowlands of Nepal we were leaving and the Himalayas we are about to embark upon.
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