1/3/02
1/3/02
[Repost from my time in Varanassi, circa 12/14 ]
Greetings from the Holy city of Varanassi. Just rolled in this morning after a day of travel.
Spent a few days in Kathmandu and then left for Royal Chitwan National Park. Seems like I've been pretty busy lately
Spent a day white water rafting on the somethingorother river near the border with Tibet(China). Awesome time. Woke up early to make the three hour bus ride up there, with gorgeous views as the sun came up. We were on the ridge on top of the Kathmandu valley and got to see the mountains as they came into daylight, as well as the fog shrouded valley below and the little villages and their terrace farms hanging on the side of the cliff. Gorgeous. Had my head out the window taking pictures until my batteries died...
Well then we dropped below the fog into the valley and got to this beautiful resort on the banks of the river. The river didn't look too high, but my previous rafting trip was on the huge massive Nile so I guess anything would look small fry.
We spent an hour having lunch on the lawn in the sun, got our 45 minute safety lecture and orientation ("Get DOWN!" means hold on and get down in the raft, etc....). Since I had previous experience rafting, I got to be in front, which is the most wet-your-pants exciting place you can sit. You're the one who sees these huge rocks coming at you and the hole where there should be water and before he yells GET DOWN you've already GOT DOWN. Managed to get pretty wet up there. COOOLD water. But the views inside the river valley, with the mountains all around, were gorgeous, when I wasn't gettting soaked. I felt bad for our poor guide because our group was, um, not too good at this rafting thing. You're supposed to paddle in unison, listen to insructions, and they couldn't figure it out, and it was fully to look back at the guide and see the look of resignation on his face. So the group was pretty funny. I haven't seen before such a non-team'ish group in these rafting situations. Good for some laughs.
So that was a blast. Had a nice look around at Kathmandu but not too great since I am planning to fly out of there later, and will return. Then headed to Royal Chitwan National Park. Got in and signed up for a two day Jungle Hiking Safari. Walking through the jungle. Oh, and the jungle has tigers and elephants and 500 rhinos. Probably aren't 500 rhinos in all of Africa. So each group has two guides and so did we and off we went and take a cool canoe ride in the morning mist as elephants are crossing the river and get to the jungle on the other side. We get our lecture that says pretty much:
-Good chance we see rhinos
-Rhinos dangerous
-If we see Rhino do as we say.
-Climbing trees is the best way to escape rhinos.
Well, Karen, who I'm traveling with, doesn't think she can climb trees so she's a bit apprehensive. Me? I'm just apprehensive. Rhinos. And we're on foot. And they're fast. And very aggressive. Cool time, right?
So we're walking through the jungle and we come across the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen, and our guide says, "Fresh Rhino Toilet" so after laughing histerically, we're off into the bush tracking this Rhino. It occured to me a few times that perhaps trying to find a rhino isn't the greatest idea ever, since what happens if we find him....I wonder....
Well we run around in the bush for awhile and no rhino and then see some monkeys and have some lunch and we're walking down this path after lunch and the tall grass rustles and the guides freeze. "Rhino" and after a minute or two, sure enough you can kinda make out this rhino that really isn't far enough away from me to make me comfortable!
And then it gets closer and its camera shot time and the guides are telling us to get low and crouch and walk this way and that and we're behind some trees and then the rhino comes out of the grass and one guide says Run This Way and I run and then the rhino is looking at us and I'm scared pretty much and you know these things weigh 3 tons and are a lot faster than me in my running shoes and I'm wearing my boots and looking for a tree to climb. Then my one guide says Come Here and the other one says Come Here and I move towards the one farther away from the Rhino. Well, as I move, he makes a charge motion. Kinda like holding a gun in someone's face and saying BOO! So we've got this rhino 100 ft from us, staring at us and its no good to remember at this moment that Rhino's have good senses of smell but can't see worth a darn, because I was unable to think that. The other guide says PicturePicture. Me? Nah, I'll keep my eye on that Rhino. Karen, brave soul, pulls out her camera. Opens it up, looks through the zoom lens, while the Rhino is right in front of her, and then casually presses the zoom button, waits while it the motor slowly zooms in, then aims in the viewfinder, and I'm sitting here watching this ready to dart into a tree, and then she decides, I guess, the picture wasn't right, and flips the camera 90 degrees for a profile shot. AIE!
Well, after that the rhino kinda heads back into the tall grass and wanders off and was seen by the other folk on safari. But that was pretty damn cool and i won't soon forget how freaked out I was by these monster animals.
The next day wasn't so eventful, although as we were rounding a corner, I was in the back deep in thought or something and all of a sudden the guides are running right at me, saying Rhino! Apparently it was just standing there on the other side of the bend but I never saw it. Seeing the guides scared and running was pretty funny tho.
THEN, to top it off, the town at the end of the trek was hosting the World Elephant Polo Championships. So we got to see all manner of rich Brits and a token (although quite good) Nepali team play polo on top of elephants. It was like taking a step back in time - to the hayday of the British Empire and "The Sun Doesn't Set" and "God Save The Queen" and "Queen's Jubilee" and all that jazz that was almost enough to make you puke although they did have bloody mary's and I thought I'd go for one until they cost over $5 which is outrageous. But watching elephant polo was a treat. Unfortunately, it took all day and we weren't able to take an elephant safari the following day, which I'd wanted to do. Park permit fees too high. Alas.
So spent the next day relaxing on the "beach" of the river and got a treat watching 20 of the elephants (domesticated) getting bathed by their keepers and loads of tourists climbing all over them in the river and falling in and the elephants spraying everyone. Great fun! Should've hopped on myself but the sight of floating elephant shit in the river by them turned me off a bit.
I'm off in a few minutes to wander up to the cremation sites and get a shave while I'm at it - as long as they use new blades. Wonderful thing, getting shaves in Nepal and I hope they're better here!
[Repost from my time in Varanassi, circa 12/14 ]
Greetings from the Holy city of Varanassi. Just rolled in this morning after a day of travel.
Spent a few days in Kathmandu and then left for Royal Chitwan National Park. Seems like I've been pretty busy lately
Spent a day white water rafting on the somethingorother river near the border with Tibet(China). Awesome time. Woke up early to make the three hour bus ride up there, with gorgeous views as the sun came up. We were on the ridge on top of the Kathmandu valley and got to see the mountains as they came into daylight, as well as the fog shrouded valley below and the little villages and their terrace farms hanging on the side of the cliff. Gorgeous. Had my head out the window taking pictures until my batteries died...
Well then we dropped below the fog into the valley and got to this beautiful resort on the banks of the river. The river didn't look too high, but my previous rafting trip was on the huge massive Nile so I guess anything would look small fry.
We spent an hour having lunch on the lawn in the sun, got our 45 minute safety lecture and orientation ("Get DOWN!" means hold on and get down in the raft, etc....). Since I had previous experience rafting, I got to be in front, which is the most wet-your-pants exciting place you can sit. You're the one who sees these huge rocks coming at you and the hole where there should be water and before he yells GET DOWN you've already GOT DOWN. Managed to get pretty wet up there. COOOLD water. But the views inside the river valley, with the mountains all around, were gorgeous, when I wasn't gettting soaked. I felt bad for our poor guide because our group was, um, not too good at this rafting thing. You're supposed to paddle in unison, listen to insructions, and they couldn't figure it out, and it was fully to look back at the guide and see the look of resignation on his face. So the group was pretty funny. I haven't seen before such a non-team'ish group in these rafting situations. Good for some laughs.
So that was a blast. Had a nice look around at Kathmandu but not too great since I am planning to fly out of there later, and will return. Then headed to Royal Chitwan National Park. Got in and signed up for a two day Jungle Hiking Safari. Walking through the jungle. Oh, and the jungle has tigers and elephants and 500 rhinos. Probably aren't 500 rhinos in all of Africa. So each group has two guides and so did we and off we went and take a cool canoe ride in the morning mist as elephants are crossing the river and get to the jungle on the other side. We get our lecture that says pretty much:
-Good chance we see rhinos
-Rhinos dangerous
-If we see Rhino do as we say.
-Climbing trees is the best way to escape rhinos.
Well, Karen, who I'm traveling with, doesn't think she can climb trees so she's a bit apprehensive. Me? I'm just apprehensive. Rhinos. And we're on foot. And they're fast. And very aggressive. Cool time, right?
So we're walking through the jungle and we come across the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen, and our guide says, "Fresh Rhino Toilet" so after laughing histerically, we're off into the bush tracking this Rhino. It occured to me a few times that perhaps trying to find a rhino isn't the greatest idea ever, since what happens if we find him....I wonder....
Well we run around in the bush for awhile and no rhino and then see some monkeys and have some lunch and we're walking down this path after lunch and the tall grass rustles and the guides freeze. "Rhino" and after a minute or two, sure enough you can kinda make out this rhino that really isn't far enough away from me to make me comfortable!
And then it gets closer and its camera shot time and the guides are telling us to get low and crouch and walk this way and that and we're behind some trees and then the rhino comes out of the grass and one guide says Run This Way and I run and then the rhino is looking at us and I'm scared pretty much and you know these things weigh 3 tons and are a lot faster than me in my running shoes and I'm wearing my boots and looking for a tree to climb. Then my one guide says Come Here and the other one says Come Here and I move towards the one farther away from the Rhino. Well, as I move, he makes a charge motion. Kinda like holding a gun in someone's face and saying BOO! So we've got this rhino 100 ft from us, staring at us and its no good to remember at this moment that Rhino's have good senses of smell but can't see worth a darn, because I was unable to think that. The other guide says PicturePicture. Me? Nah, I'll keep my eye on that Rhino. Karen, brave soul, pulls out her camera. Opens it up, looks through the zoom lens, while the Rhino is right in front of her, and then casually presses the zoom button, waits while it the motor slowly zooms in, then aims in the viewfinder, and I'm sitting here watching this ready to dart into a tree, and then she decides, I guess, the picture wasn't right, and flips the camera 90 degrees for a profile shot. AIE!
Well, after that the rhino kinda heads back into the tall grass and wanders off and was seen by the other folk on safari. But that was pretty damn cool and i won't soon forget how freaked out I was by these monster animals.
The next day wasn't so eventful, although as we were rounding a corner, I was in the back deep in thought or something and all of a sudden the guides are running right at me, saying Rhino! Apparently it was just standing there on the other side of the bend but I never saw it. Seeing the guides scared and running was pretty funny tho.
THEN, to top it off, the town at the end of the trek was hosting the World Elephant Polo Championships. So we got to see all manner of rich Brits and a token (although quite good) Nepali team play polo on top of elephants. It was like taking a step back in time - to the hayday of the British Empire and "The Sun Doesn't Set" and "God Save The Queen" and "Queen's Jubilee" and all that jazz that was almost enough to make you puke although they did have bloody mary's and I thought I'd go for one until they cost over $5 which is outrageous. But watching elephant polo was a treat. Unfortunately, it took all day and we weren't able to take an elephant safari the following day, which I'd wanted to do. Park permit fees too high. Alas.
So spent the next day relaxing on the "beach" of the river and got a treat watching 20 of the elephants (domesticated) getting bathed by their keepers and loads of tourists climbing all over them in the river and falling in and the elephants spraying everyone. Great fun! Should've hopped on myself but the sight of floating elephant shit in the river by them turned me off a bit.
I'm off in a few minutes to wander up to the cremation sites and get a shave while I'm at it - as long as they use new blades. Wonderful thing, getting shaves in Nepal and I hope they're better here!
posted by SpicyBBQ at
8:42 PM
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