Hello everyone...we have decided its time to head to Nepal so we book a seat on the Darjeeling Toy Train...running on two foot wide tracks and in operation since 1918 the coal fired train follows the existing road and literally runs down main-streets inches away from buildings etc. Today only two small carriages are attached to the smoking locomotive but the intricate wood work on the roof and velvet lined interior spells back to a time when British Royalty "owned" India. Unfortunately our ride only lasts for 35 km (but 3 plus hours...its a slow carbon filled ride!) as landslides have torn out pieces of the track. From the train we transfer to a jeep for a ride down the "hill of doom"...these drivers are amazing and know this 10 km hill like the back of their hand as there are only a few places that vehicles can pass each other...each hairpin is negotiated by constant blaring of horns and in a few hours we roll onto the flats and the BUDIC (big ugly dirty Indian City) of Silaguri. Come morning we are fortunate to grab a jeep ride to the border...only 30 kms but well over an hour as our 4X4 jeep dodges a seemingly endless morass of potholes.
Checking out of India was a pleasantly easy exercise and across a bridge in a pedal rickshaw (we always feel guilty when riding these rickshaws as they are inevitably powered by a 50lb Indian about 50 years old that has to jump out and push at the first hill!)
Kakarbhitta, Nepal is a typical border town (read: craphole!) and after the Nepalese visa's drained us of all our Indian Rupees and US dollars AND not one of the 3 ATM's in town were working we were more than a little worried as we piled onto a local bus for the ride to Janakpur. Take our word for it...you do NOT want to ride on a local Nepalese bus...as hard as it is to believe this thing is worse than any bus in India. First off the bus stops every 10 to 30 m in the cities (people do not congregate in any single spot and sometimes the bus literally stops every 10 m to pick up someone!) Thus the 8 hr bus ride ended up being well over 10 hrs and there is no way one can leave their seat or it is immediately taken...in which case you stand with well over 40 other people absolutely packed like rats in isles, seating spaces etc. As Dylan would say: "She's a shit show!"
Janakpur is well known for its gorgeous temples and they are indeed impressive...but none of their 4 ATM's worked...so we are down to our last coppers! The bus drivers have taken us under their wing and its a good thing that Mr. Kamikaze gets behind the wheel as the ride to Chitwan National Park is FAST!!
Chitwan is our first taste of the Nepal we came to visit...its changed a lot since our last visit with Terisa in 2003 and the winds of change are creating a "tourist trap" (for instance the lovely beaches along the Rapti River (sunset beer!) are being cut up by a dirty road!!!)...but it is still fantastic and the number of animals we saw is significantly more than in 2003...good job Nepal!!
We took a shortened Jungle walk (shortened because we got hit with an unusual 24 hour monsoon like rain shower that proved that our Indian "gortex" jacket is not only "not breathable" but also "not water resistant"!) None the less we saw Rhino's (the Indian one-horned rhino is my favorite Indian animal and is the fourth largest land mammal in the world) sambar deer, Chital (including 3 huge bucks) deer, Hog deer, Jackal, Mugger crocodiles and lots of new bird species...really nice! Next we spent a day riding pedal bikes into the 20,000 lakes area and again tons of wildlife as well as gorgeous old-growth Sal forest. Our elephant ride revealed 6 rhino's including one mother with a youngster and at least 20 mugger crocodiles, some of which are huge! (not to mention lots of deer and wild boar) The elephant breeding center is still a great place to visit and learn all about the Indian elephant of which only about 150 exist in thewild in Nepal. Again there have been some pretty significant changes since our 2003 visit...the biggest now being that one cannot play with the young elephants like we did "back in the day"! Lori checked out the elephant dung paper making "factory"...how about bear shit paper?...
Checking out of India was a pleasantly easy exercise and across a bridge in a pedal rickshaw (we always feel guilty when riding these rickshaws as they are inevitably powered by a 50lb Indian about 50 years old that has to jump out and push at the first hill!)
Kakarbhitta, Nepal is a typical border town (read: craphole!) and after the Nepalese visa's drained us of all our Indian Rupees and US dollars AND not one of the 3 ATM's in town were working we were more than a little worried as we piled onto a local bus for the ride to Janakpur. Take our word for it...you do NOT want to ride on a local Nepalese bus...as hard as it is to believe this thing is worse than any bus in India. First off the bus stops every 10 to 30 m in the cities (people do not congregate in any single spot and sometimes the bus literally stops every 10 m to pick up someone!) Thus the 8 hr bus ride ended up being well over 10 hrs and there is no way one can leave their seat or it is immediately taken...in which case you stand with well over 40 other people absolutely packed like rats in isles, seating spaces etc. As Dylan would say: "She's a shit show!"
Janakpur is well known for its gorgeous temples and they are indeed impressive...but none of their 4 ATM's worked...so we are down to our last coppers! The bus drivers have taken us under their wing and its a good thing that Mr. Kamikaze gets behind the wheel as the ride to Chitwan National Park is FAST!!
Chitwan is our first taste of the Nepal we came to visit...its changed a lot since our last visit with Terisa in 2003 and the winds of change are creating a "tourist trap" (for instance the lovely beaches along the Rapti River (sunset beer!) are being cut up by a dirty road!!!)...but it is still fantastic and the number of animals we saw is significantly more than in 2003...good job Nepal!!
We took a shortened Jungle walk (shortened because we got hit with an unusual 24 hour monsoon like rain shower that proved that our Indian "gortex" jacket is not only "not breathable" but also "not water resistant"!) None the less we saw Rhino's (the Indian one-horned rhino is my favorite Indian animal and is the fourth largest land mammal in the world) sambar deer, Chital (including 3 huge bucks) deer, Hog deer, Jackal, Mugger crocodiles and lots of new bird species...really nice! Next we spent a day riding pedal bikes into the 20,000 lakes area and again tons of wildlife as well as gorgeous old-growth Sal forest. Our elephant ride revealed 6 rhino's including one mother with a youngster and at least 20 mugger crocodiles, some of which are huge! (not to mention lots of deer and wild boar) The elephant breeding center is still a great place to visit and learn all about the Indian elephant of which only about 150 exist in thewild in Nepal. Again there have been some pretty significant changes since our 2003 visit...the biggest now being that one cannot play with the young elephants like we did "back in the day"! Lori checked out the elephant dung paper making "factory"...how about bear shit paper?...
