We crossed into Nepal at the Banbassa/Mahendranager crossing, this is the most westerly of the 5 border crossings between India and Nepal. As you can see it is pretty basic and was not well used in past years due to the troubles with attacks by the Maoists. This has settled down now and made for a pretty quick and easy crossing for us, we were carnet‘d, visa‘d and through within an hour and a half.
The Tenere waits patiently for that all important carnet stamp.
While waiting for our visas we chatted to a guy who had spent sometime at and Bardia National Park one of the smaller parks in Nepal with a population of both tigers and rhino. We hadn’t planned to visit here but it was in the right place at the end of our first day riding in Nepal. Unlike our previous experience at the Corbett Reserve we were able to find a nice, reasonably priced Lodge on the edge of the park, comfy little bungalows in lovely gardens.
One thing it was going to take us a while to get used to in Nepal were the number of power outages, these are not power cuts as such but actual shut downs of the system known as ‘load shedding’. Not sure we understand it fully but it seems that a percentage of the hydro electricity produced in Nepal is sold to India and this does not leave enough to supply all areas of the country 24hrs a day. Most places have generators to provide power when the mains supply is down but because of the noise the generator makes the resorts in the park use them sparingly. This plus some cable damage caused by a spectacular storm meant much of our time here was without power (oh how we love our trusty head torches).
Villagers who live around the park.
In Bardia you are able to go on walking safari’, yep that’s right you stroll around in countryside inhabited by tigers,rhino’s and wild elephants. It’s perfectly safe you know, what with the bamboo stick you are given to protect yourself with and the 30 seconds of instructions on how to run away from each species! John always had his doubts that this was a good idea, I suppose I didn’t give much thought to the danger I just so wanted to see a rhino!
A distinct lack of wildlife.
John, all in khaki hoping the tigers don’t spot him.
We found fresh prints but that was all, after 12 hours of walking, sitting and watching we gave up. Very hot and exhausted.
John with Mike and Caroline a NYC couple travelling in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka for a year. They were heading off to northern India on their recently acquired Royal Enfield Bullet. We had enjoyed getting to know them over the last few days and sharing our time at Bardia.
Our next stop was a relaxed little place called Lumbini famous as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the original Lord Buddha born in 563 BC. There were no pictures so we don’t know if he really looked slim, serene and seated in the lotus position as depicted in many statues or fat and jolly with his arms in the air like the tourist souvenirs!
The Monk Mafia as John has taken to calling them. He finds it hard to understand why Buddhists believe they have to give alms (sometimes food but often hard cash) to the monks who in the main have mobile phones, watches, cameras, video cameras, look well fed and don’t seem very needy. Why not give to those in genuine need, there are plenty all over Asia? After watching the situation for the last few months I think he has a point.
There are also many new Buddhist temples and monasteries in this area built by countries from around the world, unfortunately it kind of just looks a bit like a Buddhist theme park and many of them are half finished at the moment. This World Peace Pagoda which is finished and was quite a structure was built by the Japanese.
On our way to Pokhara we spent a night at Tansen, it sounded interesting in the Lonely Planet. It was one of those places that is a warren of small, steep streets (always fun with the bike fully loaded) and although not very big it took forever to find the only hotel that we liked the sound of, we must have given the locals a laugh we’d ask directions then pass them several times more, obviously with no idea where we were going!
Once we had checked into what turned out to be a rather crummy overpriced hotel we had a wander around the old town, it’s a pretty place with some lovely 16th century buildings.
This was to be our first experience of a bandh (general strike) these are pretty regular in Nepalese towns at the moment as the people are protesting about the g overnment not completing (in fact it would seem not even beginning) the new constitution that has been promised. Most businesses were taking part so it was hard to even find something to eat, the business owners feel very strongly that the government are letting them down to the point they are willing to close their businesses and lose revenue. The situation here has some similarities to the Northern Ireland/IRA situation, the Maoists were a terrorist organisation fighting the government and army but are now part of a coalition government (although they still have their own army and arms supplies).
The next day when the strike was over we spotted a small demonstration in the street, there were around 20 demonstrators and nearly as many armed police!
On our way to Pokhara.
Pokhara is a buzzing, growing but still quite small town on the edge of a lake it's a tourist hangout and the place where many people get ready to trek in the Annapurna mountain range. So as well as all the usual tourist shops there are loads selling fake outdoor clothing and trekking gear. We weren’t planning any trekking (but we did a few km’s round the shops). It’s the end of the season so the town was pretty quiet, hard for the business owners but nice for us in the sense that the locals all had time for a chat.
At the right time of year the Annapurna peaks are visibly from the town and reflected in the lake, we had to take the word of others on this as this is was not the right time of year! We were a couple of months too late and the pre monsoon clouds were hanging pretty low.
It seemed like a good plan to pay money to be strapped to some fit young Russian men (this bit was more of a thrill for me than John!) and run off the side of a hill. Great fun, we can highly recommend it! We were at 2000ft flying around with the birds of prey, 30 minutes went way too quickly.
That’s me!
And that’s John.
Above Pokhara.
We spent a few hours wandering around the lake, you don’t have to go far from the WIFI, western food and fake North Face to find the locals still using the lake and shore for fishing and farming.
Crampons and oxygen, no need for that. Here I am about to make my final ascent aided only by sandals and an umbrella. Those who have been to the area may recognise the mighty peak I conquered!
Bye for now
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Is the sun getting to you both ? to bloody scary that flying about.Enjoyed our lovely chat on Skype.Kiss and a hug from us all.xx
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