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KJ and Nige got back from their trek on April 2, both considerably skinner and hairier! They too had been afflicted by the dreaded gastro. KJ was very excited to see and use the shower after not having one for two weeks. I was also glad about this. Sadly, Boykie left the following day. We then headed to Chitwan the next day. Malin and Chi, friends from the yoga retreat, came down with us. After having to take that petrifying bus journey again, we arrived to the lodge to find a mother and baby elephant living at the back of the lodge. The baby elephant was always happy to have visitors and would come over and nudge you. Over the next 3 days we did various safaris, canoe trips and got to wash an elephant in the river. Sadly, the elephants were not cared for and loved as much as we thought they would be. We found this very upsetting and confronting. We are not sure what the answer is to the situation and felt conflicted being a tourist as part of the problem.
We had a wonderful time with Malin and Chi who used their Shanghai bartering skills to secure deals, instructing 'now you two don't say a word, we know how terrible you Aussies are at bartering, just sit there and watch. We will do the talking!' Kevin and I were very grateful for these dollar saving tactics! Both of them are extremely funny so we all had a great laugh. We were sad to see them go.
We returned to Kathamndu and hired a taxi and checked out Bodhnath stupa and the monkey temple (the photos are in Kevin's trekking album as he went with the tour company as well). Our taxi caught on fire during the trip which was a little frightening but the driver was able to sort it out pretty quickly.
We left the following day bound for London, via Abu Dhabi and Dublin, hoping for a gastro free rest of the journey!
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