Chitwan and Kathmandu

Photos are here:

Chitwan - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162463&id=771224918&l=886835e63f

Kathmandu - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162465&id=771224918&l=9db64ec28d

The Nepalese I found didn't really understand the concept of a lie in - usually it was a combination of throat clearing, vomiting and screaming child in the early hours that woke me up - the day I left Pokhara it started with roaring motorbikes, tooting horns escalating into yabbering French tourists under my window all before six in the morning. No silliness over the room bill this time - the bus to Chitwan was local bus billed as a tourist bus (ie tourist pays twice as much as the local) and I had the back seat which would have been great for a sleep if the road hadn't been so bumpy and the seats covered in nylon and built for the little people so I kept sliding off into the seat of the woman in front. The weather changed the further east we went with the mist descending - I realised I had been a bit ruined with good weather as it was the first cloudy day since Ladakh. Arriving in Chitwan the bus dropped me at a completely different place to what I expected so I ended up a bit at the mercy of the jeep drivers (knew I would) - fixed price to the village which would have been okay if they had taken me there, instead we ended up at some fancy hotel "Come sit down and have a drink" - the driver was obviously going no further. Ended up walking the rest of the way into the village after giving the driver a bit of mouthful and managed to find a fairly cheap hotel without being hassled by touts.

I didn't really like Chitwan - I shouldn't go to animal related stuff as this always happens, seems like a good idea at the time but then I end up hating the place as the animals are not really wild and running free - just there to make money. Opinions differ on this some people say the elephant bathing which happened every morning was the most beautiful experience they've ever had (quote from a Geordie girl) but I found it to be a circus. I know I live in cloud cuckoo land sometimes but I thought it would be soaping and cuddles instead it was a mahoot stood on the elephants back prodding it with a stick to make it soak the tourist - not much washing was going on at all apart from that of the tourist. I then couldn't decide between the other trips offered - I was put off the jeep safari by this American woman who said all she saw in five hours was grass, more grass, bit of rhino poo and a squirrel - the jungle walk and the elephant safari I was sure the few animals that were around must have got really hacked off with being invaded every morning by hoards of camera carrying tourists - so in the end I decided to do nothing.

I did meet up again with the Irish guy John who I had last seen in Lumbini who felt the same way as me about the place. He was a real interesting guy who had previously been a journalist in Bosnia and South Africa, had gone into magazine publishing and then written and starred in a comedy on Irish TV which hadn't gone down too well - the students liked it. He'd taken off travelling after that and had spent the last 11 months in India and Sri Lanka and had to now start writing his autobiography, which he wasn't too keen on doing. So I spent most of my time in Chitwan chatting to John, cycling round the countryside and getting really irritated with safari clad two weekers who were causing the prices to be hiked up. One night in the internet cafe an Israeli girl wafted in complaining bitterly about the charges, I sort of agreed with her (20 rupees non tourist place, five times that in Chitwan) then "safari man" in the corner butted in and told the owner that he thought it was tremendous value for money as when he was on the Annapurna Circuit it was really expensive and slow (never!) to which I said if I'd have been on Annapurna Circuit I wouldn't have been titting around looking for an internet cafe - he still maintained that it was "top hole" when he left and told the guy to "keep up the good work and ignore the pesky kids complaining". To me Chitwan was all about getting the most money out of the tourist - even when I went down to one of the local villages the kids just surrounded me demanding rupees so I just left taking no photos as the experience just wasn't the same - you weren't a person just a rupee dispenser.

Was going to go to Bandipur a small village between Kathmandu and Pokhara with John but he got a bit stressed about this book he had to write so once he had sorted out a laptop and had started to write I decided to head off to Kathmandu - was nice meeting him as I don't often meet people my age and we had a bit of laugh talking about everything from James Bond movies, to how Van Morrison should never have worn that cerise cat suit in the Last Waltz!

Arriving in Kathmandu I realised I had read far too many hippy trail books from the 1970's - I was imagining bars in little wooden houses with candles full of bearded climbers, drinking beer and talking about their exploits on Everest (I know over active imagination) - maybe 20 years ago now it was just a city with what I call plastic restaurants and where I stayed in Thamel loads of shops selling the same hippy dippy stuff that you see all over India and Nepal. I did try down Freak Street the happening place in the sixties but that was practically deserted - no Jimi and Janis blaring out of the cafes - so I ended up at the Hotel Nana just above the Tom and Jerry pub which was cheap and central and the staff were really nice.

Did a bit of sightseeing - Durbar Square which is the main tourist attraction I found really hassly. Firstly you had to pay to enter - the Nepalis do this quite a lot, there is one town that if you are a foreigner you actually have to pay 10 dollars just to enter the town - and then you couldn't sit for five minutes without someone coming up to you selling jewellery or offering their services as a guide. One guy got seriously mardy with me as I told him I didn't want a guide (I admit there might have been a tiny bit of tension in my voice (gets that way sometimes when you've repeated yourself 5 times) but I wasn't nasty) suddenly he started shouting at me "Nepal is my country you don't get angry in my country" - he wasn't really helping his case as he had the appearance of a shonky tigel balm/hash seller from Thamel so I just said "the only one who seems to be getting their knickers in a knot here mate is you" and left. This was in the house of the Kumari - a young girl who is worshipped as a god till she reaches puberty - I felt really sorry for her as I was expecting a palace but the house was really small and full of pidgeons flapping around.

The other place I went to was Pashupatinath - the most important Hindu temple in Nepal - followed the Lonely Planet map out there which wasn't the easiest to follow - they just put too much information on them. The price had doubled to nearly 5 pounds for foreigners to get in and for that hefty price you got to see bugger all - the temple was closed for non Hindus. The only other thing to do was to wander up the hillside looking at these strange temply things and watch the cremations on the Bagmati river - which was as full of rubbish. You were allowed to take photos but I was surprised just how insensitive tourists with cameras can be - one guy stood next me and took a photo of this old man on the funeral pyre after he had he just been lit - not nice I wouldn't like it if it was one of my relatives reduced to a holiday snap.

In the end I just started to feel claustro with the city - the rafting trip I had wanted to go on, the last one had left for the season and at nearly 250 pounds for 8 days it was a bit out of my budget and I thought at like price is it going to be people I would get on with. The other one I looked at the Bhote Khosi the guys in the travel agents said "oh that's for young people" - thanks a lot guys you've really made me feel a whole lot better about myself. So I decided to head back to Pokhara as there was a three day trip down the Kali Ghandaki which sounded really cool and despite it being touristy there was plenty of things to do - swimming, beauty parlour, cycling...

Okay that's it for the moment - I know I come across as a bit negative on this post about the places I visited but that's just me - animal stuff and cities I've realised are not my kind of places. For all my grumbles I still think the mountains and scenery of Nepal are stunning and amazingly I would go back but maybe just to do a one off trek (either Annapurna and Everest) - just feel at my happiest when I'm in the mountains.