Nepal - The First 10 Days

Fate tried to keep me out of Nepal – first with rumors that the border was closed – then a man surely on the Nepalese wrestling team trying to prevent me from getting on the bus and a fight breaking out between him and the bus attendant and several onlookers at the border that needed the entertainment – and finally student strikes that shut down the region around Chitwan National Park and brought the men to the street with small burning fires (which they neatly swept up when they had burned out – though they didn’t dispose of the burnt out van near as efficiently). But alas, I was free of India and in a quaint touristy village of the park where even the shopkeepers left their stores unattended and the daily traffic consisted of the elephants going to the river or off to safari.

The main draw is the one-horned Asian Rhinoceros which sounds much more exciting then they are – even when they do make steps to charge at you and you are on foot. Face it, a rhino is a cow in armor, and perhaps cows in this part of the world have more personality because they have learned to beg. So, Rhinos.

Nepal, after a ten-days at least, is not about what you see, but about what you do. You trek first and foremost. Ok, they trek – I have no shoes (damn Laos!). A 15 to 20 day trek is normal for normal people, though you have to remind yourself that some of these folks cruising the streets of Katmandu have, or are here to climb Everest and suddenly 15 days seems like a walk in the park – which it is if you mean national park. For those of us without footwear, there is kayaking down rivers for 3-days (I’m going tomorrow!), yoga, paragliding, or rafting. It’s an adventure Disneyland without the lines but edging on the costs.

But, unlike India, it is much colder, laid back, cleaner and peaceful. I didn’t realize how intense India was until I left, and to be honest, I am now dreading going back to catch my flight out of Delhi where in May the temperature will be way in the 40’s and the chaos will be such a contrast to this little Eden in the north.