Days 21 and 22... Tourist trappings

Day 21

So for the first time since I arrived in Nepal, I had a day to be a tourist. Pokhara is a bustling city with lots of shops and things to see. So I was determined to do a little of the tourist thing. 

It seems a more of a cosmopolitan place than Kathmandu, or at least the bits I have seen. Here restaurants declare themselves organic and the shops label themselves plastic free.. 

My hotel is just a short walk from the lakeside and when I got up this morning and asked about breakfast, the hotel staff looked as though I had asked them to provide a full 3 course meal in 2 minutes. It seemed like break fast would be too much trouble for the hotel, at least that was the impression I got, so I said never mind and wandered down the street to a nice little cafe which provided a banana pancake and smoothie with no fuss or trouble. Then I decided, that seeing as I was here, it might be an idea to see at least one of the tourist attractions. Devi’s falls seemed like the best option. And it would entail a nice walk around the lakeside. So off I set, but kept getting ‘dragged’ into the shops and souvenirs kept finding themselves in my rucksack. I had to remind myself that it all needed to fit into my bike bags for the trip to chitwan but still more stuff found its way into my bag. 

The lake was nice and it was a nice walk until tge way took me away from the lake and onto the main road... it was hot, it was sticky and it wasn’t that interesting a walk. Eventually I came across a sign for the falls, which led me through a touristy market. It cost 100 Nepalese rupees to enter (bargain). The falls weren’t bad... I mean I had seen waay more impressive on my cycle ride to get here but they weren’t bad. Named apparently after some Swiss woman whose body was found in it, they seemed pretty popular with the Nepali tourists. 

As I was here, it would have been rude not to pop literally over the road and see the cave. So, through another tourist market and then a queue to get a ticket, followed by a very long queue down lots of steps with a temple like building around. This was waay more popular than the falls... 

Kept going down and then ducking under the entranceway into the actual cave. There were a lot of people squished in the small tunnel, which was not made for someone my height... I had to duck. down most of the way. Good job I didn't get that claustrophobic.. it was narrow and if there had been an issue, I can't imagine the chaos and the panic as everyone tried to get out of there.!  But there was no issue, and everyone just filed down and down.... 

then out into a big cave, with stalagtites dripping down from the top of the rock walls. Down a rickety ladder... and then look. to the right.... 

There through a hole in the rock, you could see a massive waterfall. and it swirled into the cave round and round below us. It was fairly cool, but perhaps did not warrant all tgose steps down, which now my poor tired legs had to get back up!  That hurt! 

Not willing to make my poor legs suffer anymore, I hopped into a taxi back to the hotel. I almost tried to go back to the bbus station to calm my anxieties about getting my bike on a bus tomorrow but decided against it... trust in the process... it will be fine. 

The remainder of the day was spent catching up with the F1 as I discovered that because I am abroad my F1TV subscription works for this season... bonus! I needed to avoid going back out and spending more money anyway... this was the perfect excuse. 

Day 22

Started very early... 

Given I needed to be at the bus stop, which was a good 15 to 20 mins cycle away, by 0630, I needed to leave at 0600. That meant getting up 0530, packing stuff quickly and being ready to leave asap. 

All good, but when I took my stuff down to reception, there was no one there to check me out. I got my bike out of where it had been stored and put my bike bags on, by which time a member of staff had emerged.

Payment was easier and quicker with cash... when I asked about card payment (which they were supposed to be able to do) I got a very blank look, and I needed to go. So cash it was.... hopped on my bike and headed out into the lightening sky. I peddled up an incline and then flat along straight to the bus station. As the taxi driver had taken me there 2 days ago, it was easy to find.

When I got there, is all I did was look around a bit and someone came up to me asking where I wanted to go... Sauraha (Chitwan) please.... I was led to a bus, took my bags off my bike and watched as the bike was hauled up the side of the bus to the roof. I was then ushered onto the bus and shown a seat.... how much? I asked.... 800 was the reply...

less than £6 for what I expected to be a 4 to 5 hour ride. Not bad at all.

I was on the local buses because the tourist buses, which are more expensive, do not have anywhere to put my bike. I don't think it made any difference to my journey to be honest. The roads were awful (you may remember my tale of woe of the highway road and the roadworks) and whether you were in a slightly older version of a bus or the newer tourist one, you were still going to be bashed about a bit on this journey.

I mean, I wasn't sure whether my bike  or me for that matter, would be in one piece when we got to Sauraha... it was that bone jarringly bumpy.... and even if my bus sounded like it was going to literally rattle to pieces at times... it didn't! The brakes didn't fail, despite the squealing and there were no moments that I felt unsafe.

Trust in the driver... ignore the no seatbelts... they do this everyday. It wasn't actually too bad a journey, similar to those I have undertaken in costa rica and equador.

Somehow it works and you get to your destination... even if it looked most unlikely to begin with!

Or at least close to your destination. I was beckoned off the bus at Bharatpur, after some confusion, I worked out it was to change buses. In fact I could have easily cycled from there but before I knew it, my onward journey had been arranged and my poor bike was bring strapped into the back of yet another tuk tuk. 

Somewhat surprisingly it seemed to be roughly in one piece still and as we bumped along in the tuk tuk I marvelled at this. 

It would deffo have been quicker to cycle this bit as it seemed there was a festival on and all the roads leading to Sauraha were closed so we had to take a very long way round. However eventually we pulled into the place I was staying for the next 5 nights and I was immediately ushered to a map of the park. I had forgotten, but when I had booked this place, I had booked a 2 day walking tour of the park and I was bombarded with details of where we would go and what we could see. 

Frankly I just wanted to sort my stuff and settle in. When I had done so, I went for a wander along the riverbank. You couldn't get super close but you could see the river well. In the distance I saw some deer crossing the river and I searched the banks for crocodiles, particularly the Garial crocodile with their long snouts.... Not yet, so I had a wander through the main street, looking at all the tour offices and what they had to offer. 

Then I went back to the river as the sun was setting and watched the banks carefully. Almost immediately I saw the tell tale v shaped trail in the water. and ahead fish were jumping up in the water... Where the v shape was, suddenly you could see the water part as the crocodile surfaced slightly, the scales on his back and tail now prominent in the water. I watched him as he slid slowly through the water and then disappear under again. I got a couple more sightings before it got too dark to see the river. 

It was a good start in the wildlife spotting for the next few days. Fingers crossed all the reptiles are out 😁🤞