Woke up early in the chilly Kathmandu air to wolf down my breakfast and meet up with my driver so we could get on the road to Chitwan National Park in south-central Nepal near the Indian border. It was about a 4 hour drive on mainly switchback mountain roads that descended about 1200 meters back to the warm sunny plains. Although the traffic didn’t seem quite as crazy as it was in Sri Lanka, there were some horrible looking accidents and many, many broken down trucks and buses left out in the middle of the narrow road for everyone to try and negotiate around. Also, the road conditions were atrocious at times due to landslides that must have hit during the summer monsoon season. Lots of dried muddy stretches with massive pot holes. As it turns out, the road is the main drag between Kathmandu and India.
I arrived at a compound behind a gate with staff members dressed like Gurkha military soldiers. Probably not just a coincidence because Gurkha is a town just up the road from here. The gate rolled open and about five guys descended on me with juice on a tray and help with my bags. I was escorted into the reception area where I was greeted by the manager. He proceeded to sit down with me and go over, point-by-point, my schedule (with military precision) for the two days that I’m there. I will be awoken early in the morning to go on safaris, canoe trips, elephant rides, etc. All meals will be furnished as part of my stay at precise moments in time.
Oddly, while it is a moderately sized compound, I didn’t see any other tourists staying here. I have all these staff members at my beck and call, but it looks like they have no one else to serve. They seem very eager to please! Perhaps its a new hotel and they are keen to establish their reputation.
The hotel room itself is like many I have come across in my travels through Sri Lanka and Nepal. It appears on the surface to be a modern, well presented premises, but then you start to notice lots of broken and unfinished things about. The TV doesn’t work, or the air conditioning doesn’t work, or you sit on the bed and a large slat fall to the floor beneath you, or there is hardly any water pressure, or the fixtures in the sink haven’t been secured to the counter, etc. You simply pretend not to notice and when asked say you think everything is great!
By the time my late afternoon tour rolled around, it became apparent that I was, in fact, their only guest. It is a little weird to have an army of staff constantly standing around watching me eat and asking individually whether everything was okay. One guy in particular appears to be the one who will be taking me around on tour every day. He is very nice and quite passionate about the local culture here in the flatlands and the wildlife in the area, which is always nice. He’s not from the area so he is looking at things as an outsider as well.
Among the interesting aspects of the neighborhood, patches of marijuana freely growing everywhere. The locals were harvesting bunches to sell on to India and Kathmandu – even though it is still illegal here. They didn’t even seem to mind me taking pictures of them working their crop, stopping to proudly smile next to their piles of freshly cut weed.
Chitwan National Park is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Evidentially, Nepal has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country in the world – so much so that it is not permitted to have any more. The park is supposed to have elephants, rhinos, tigers, deer, peacocks, and plenty of other exotic birds. I will see what I can find tomorrow.
In the evening I was taken to a town hall where the locals perform traditional dances for the tourists. Most of the dances appeared to require very tight coordination because sticks were flying around smacking into each other – each being held by a separate dancer. One wrong move and someone’s head was going to get split open. Fortunately that didn’t happen!
