So we leave our hotel for the border which required yet
another local guide taking our tally to 3 which seemed excessive but ‘rules are
rules’ in China so who are we to judge? The process was straight forward enough,
however any books with literature on Tibet were confiscated much to Warren’s
disgust as he lost his LP which he had written notes in on everywhere we had
been. We also had to wait for a special driver’s stamp that had to be brought
down from Zhangmou, this took the best part of an hour just for a different
colour stamp with slightly different writing on it. At this point we said goodbye
to Sophie who, despite our requests for her to continue into Nepal with us,
insisted on leaving us (well, she had to join our Istanbul to Beijing trip!)
Once across the bridge the Nepal side was a stark contrast to
the order and rules of China! Immigration was straight forward enough: fill in
a form and pay your money. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, there seems to be no
real system to queue, you hand over your form to a guy behind the desk and
jostle for position until your passport gets back to the top of the pile then
you hand over your cash and your visa is stuck in. Next it’s pop to another room
to get an entry stamp and Bob’s your uncle, you’re officially in Nepal.
The roads were unlike those in China being poorly maintained
and rough. As we worked our way down the mountain crossing landslides and
squeezing past oncoming lorries we eventually reached our destination, The Last
Resort, which would be home for 3 nights but first things first you have a 160m
high wobbly suspension bridge to cross in order to get there. However, once
across you are in a little jungle paradise with luxury tented accommodation,
well ok, they had proper beds in them! For the thrill seekers amongst us the Last
Resort had plenty to offer, several opted to throw themselves off the bridge
either on a massive rope swing which gave a 7 second free fall or with an
elastic band strapped to their ankles (bungy jump). On top of these there was a
canyoning trip which involved a lot of abseiling down waterfalls and a high
ropes course and after all that action you could go for a nice relaxing
massage.
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| Al |
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| Andy |
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| Home sweet home for Andy |
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| Jim |
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| Jo really going for it on her bungy |
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| Jules getting ready for swinging |
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| Phill & Jo |
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| 3...2...1... swing! Simon taking the leap |
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| Lou - what wobbly bridge? |
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| You can lead a cow to water... |
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| Andy, Dav, Jo & Phill riding high (on the roof seats) after their Last Resort adventures! |
Our time was up and we headed for Kathmandu but nothing had prepared
us for the chaos, bumper to bumper traffic and continual horn blowing. After getting
wrong directions form a police man who sent us up an incredibly narrow street
that meant someone had to get up on the roof to lift low hanging wires up. Luckily
Phil volunteered his services for this job! Despite the continual “you won’t
fit down here” we eventually popped out at the end onto a reasonable sized road
not far from the hotel.
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| Landslide |
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| Ah, the traffic... |
While in Kathmandu apart from getting our Indian visas time
was filled with shopping as there are countless small shops selling outdoor
clothing of varying quality and there are also a whole host of knick-knack
shops. A group of us went canyoning for
a day; now this may have been an oversight but we are in monsoon season so why
wouldn’t it be a good idea to go descend a waterfall? The day was action packed
and with the whole group having experience already the guides were fairly
relaxed plus the fact that there were more guides than us gave the day a feeling
of a bunch of friends out having fun rather than a guided day out. At the end
of the day’s activities we sat down to eat typical local food, dal, rice and
veggies at which point the heavens really opened so much so that the way we had
come in was blocked by a raging torrent and we had to take the long way round,
crossing a very rickety bridge.
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| Al |
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| Andy |
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| Is it cold?? |
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| Anyone for a shower? |
There were also visits to Durbar Square in Kathmandu and
various other surrounding towns to see temples and stupas. On our city tour,
the monkey temple (Swayambhunath) was a big hit with everyone and a lot of time
was spent watching the monkeys playing in their swimming pool. We also visited
a shop dedicated to the selling of the singing bowls, or healing bowls as they
are also known. To that extent, some of us had a large bowl placed on our head,
which was banged with a felt padded stick so that all of our fluids vibrated. I
found it a very strange experience leaving me very floaty light.
While in Kathmandu it was Simon’s birthday so a night of
food and drink was on the cards, however, as a hangover from previous civil
unrest everything starts to shut down at 10 and kicks out by 11. At this point
we had yet to find the Everest bar, which has almost nightly lock-ins, but a
good night was had all the same!
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| Andy getting ready for a bowl cut? |
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| Singing bowl |
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| Phil being healed |
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| Fi, Yvonne & Becs at a cooking course |
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| Mmmm, that sandwich looks tasty! |
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| Bath time for the temple monkeys |
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| Jules in Durbar Square |
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| Local boy collecting water |
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| Laundry day at the temple |
After finally getting our Indian visas it was time to leave
the busy city behind us and head for the peace and tranquillity of Chitwan
National Park. This is a beautiful area where we were able to go elephant trekking
and saw among other animals deer, crocodile and rhino, all from the back of an
elephant and after the nearly two hour trek we headed to the river to get a
hose down from our elephants.
Many of us went on a jungle walk and canoe trip in the
afternoon. The canoe ride was a rather unstable one and several times we took
on water, never a lot but enough to unsettle us. This was partly due to the
dugout design with a wide flat bottom and also the guys standing on the back
steering us found it funny to make the boats wobble. The walk was great and we
saw another male rhino swimming in the river and although we did not see any
tigers we came across a day old paw print clearly visible in the mud!
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| Dave & Jo's shower time |
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| Fi, Al & Warren |
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| Shower time for Jo |
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| Messing about on the river |
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| Tiger print! |
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| Rhino!! |
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| Pernille, Becs & Jules |
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| Phill & Jules |
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| Warren |
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| Yvonne |
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| Jo & Spike deep in the jungle |
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| Rhinos in the mud |
From Chitwan we made our way to Janakpur for more temple
action and to head towards the border with India. However, as is so often the
case in overlanding our plans were thwarted as we learnt that we could not go
to Darjeeling due to strikes and civil unrest. It would therefore be unwise to
push on through to Sikkim as we may get stuck there and the likelihood would be
nothing would be open so we stayed an extra day in Janakpur to create a plan
for our new and revised Indian adventure. On an expedition like ours, things can always change along the way, it's all part of the adventure!
