Jungle and Volunteering

The Terai and Nepalese be-jungled lowlands were the new destination. We hopped on our first bus in a long while and were whisked away to cover 148 km in a simple 6 hours. We went out to the 'bus station in Kathmandu outside of the district where we had been staying to find less of a bus depot and more of the city street with about 400 yards of buses parked alongside. As we sped down the line looking for our bus, we passed station after mobile station of masala tea ladies. This turned out to be the finest masala tea I have had. Very well spiced and piping hot which makes up for the lack of sanitation. A shot of that and three hard boiled eggs to go and we hit the road Jack.

After about 3 hours it was apparent that we were most definitely being transported from one very distinct region to another. Kathmandu is at the base of the Himalaya around 1400m and can frequently enjoy mild weather while the Chitwan is in the Terai area and is around 150m. This would be the first hot weather of Nepal for us but it wasn't too bad. So much of the heat in Southeast Asia had been balmy and moist while here it was just plain dry. You really do notice the difference and I vote dry. When the monsoons come in June and July it would probably be miserable.

Our first stop was to be Sauraha, a small town bordering the Chitwan National Park. Here you are just a small river crossing away from the park and its animals. We chose a spot close to the river to get first billing in the morning for the elephant bathing which was to one of the highlights of our stay. Thanks to some good advice from many travelers we have met along the way and certainly a nod to Emily Ghan we had a difficult decision to make as to how best observe the park the following day. Our options were on foot, by jeep safari, or elephant-back. The most economical and thorough it was decided would be the jeep safari. We had ridden jumbos in Thailand and the elephants just don't seem to be treated well. When a mahout is beating on their heads with a spiked metal bar to get them from one spot to another it seems more than coaxing them by a bit. Not necessary again to see that. I'm sure it isn't in the best interest of the mahouts nor the owners of the elephants to harm them but it isn't in our best interest to see them getting wailed on either. Jeep it would be.

Elephants are cars here.

It turned out to be a wise choice. A group we had spoken to later saw no large animals on their walk through parts of the park. We had 5 hours in the jeep scheduled for the afternoon so it freed up our morning for the fore mentioned elephant bath. This is one part I am sure the grey giants enjoy. The usual lumbering pace becomes more of a hearty jog when it comes time for them to hit the water. We got to ride them out to the middle of the river and then give them a bit of a scrub. When you're on their backs they fill their trunk with water and then squirt you with it. It probably points to too much time watching the Flintstones as a child but it has always been a dream of mine to get squirted with water from an elephant's trunk. So cool.

Our safari came next and after the morning's elephant play time the only big desire was to see the other famous wild inhabitants of the Chitwan National Park; Rhinoceros!

Nepal as you may or may not be aware is a country in recovery. In '96 there was a Maoist revolt causing a civil war that lasted until 2006. It is estimated that over 15,000 people were killed and 150,000 people internally displaced.  During this time there was mass poaching in the park and this resulted in a serious loss in tigers, leopards, and rhinos. While the former are already quite elusive and rarely spotted the rhinos are the true mascot for the area and the major tourist draw.

We were lucky and spotted three giants during the ride. The locals can't say rhinoceros well and it always sounded like we were going to try and find rhinosaurs. I like the sound of that better.

I know this is out of place but here is a history side note...also during this conflict in 2001 there was what has become known simply as the royal massacre. The heir to the throne Prince Dipendra killed 9 members of the royal family before turning the gun on himself. The dead included his father, the King and his mother the queen. Prince Dipendra survived his wounds for three days albeit in a coma and was actually declared king for that time due to the lines of succession. 

Along with the rhinos we saw wild peacocks, jungle chickens, giant storks, tons of deer, and gharials (a type of crocodile species with a long narrow snout).

Giant stork

Gharial. Type of croc.

Another bizarre thing about this region is all the weed growing wild on the sides of the streets and in empty lots. It acts as its name describes and just pops up anywhere.

Wild weed.

Mountains of the stuff.

Our visit a success we were heading next to the other side of the park for volunteering on an eco-farm for about a week.

We found this place on a website called www.helpx.net. This is a place where hosts and volunteers can meet up and discuss projects. It is a pretty cool system that can really get you in touch with some cool people. While WWOOFing (willing workers on organic farms) was attractive Help X provides more opportunities for volunteering outside of just farming. There are orphanage positions, boat building, renewable energy projects and tons more if you look hard enough.

Bishnu's house from the road.

The home where the buffalo roam...

 

This is a clip from the first night in town with the eco-farm. Bishnu took all of the volunteers to the Ganesh temple. This was new year's day according to the Nepali calendar. For every day of the first month of the year people will congregate at the temples for singing and dancing. 

The guy who was putting this farm together was named Bishnu. He's a 41 year old Nepali guy who has recently moved back to the countryside from Kathmandu to help develop his parent's farm. He has some pretty good ideas to provide learning space for the community and especially the local youth but there is just some kind of disconnect here. He's not a good communicator and you always get the idea that he doesn't really give a shit about you or the project as long as he gets some scratch out of it. That being said there are some cool things being done here and we decided to hang out for a week and help where we could. His family is of the Brahmin caste (scholar class) and both his parents are Brahmin priests. This means they can never accept any food item that we non-Brahmins have handled. There was also a special area of the kitchen we could not use or even pass into. His mother Ama (mother) and his father Baba (father) were married at 9 and 20 respectively. She is now 59 but a hard life doesn't allow for gentle aging. She still works all day around the house and the farm. She can’t be more than 4ft 7in but can still be found leading the 1000lb water buffalo around the fields. Neither of them could speak a word of English but still don't mind coming up to you and having a one sided Nepali conversation. They both seemed very sweet and were usually smiling. 

Namaste Ama

Building a greenhouse.

Corn ready to plant.

There were four other volunteers staying at the house when we arrived. Two only worked in the local clinic but along with Kelly and I, the others were in the farm. We helped with maintenance, painting, construction, cooking, watering, animals, bio-gas, and planting. The gang was all fun to hang around and we ate tons and tons of traditional dahl baht.

Making Chapati

After a week in semi-squalor it was time to move on to Pokhara to prep for another big trek around the Annapurna circuit and Sanctuary.  If the scheduling works out we hope to get involved with a coffee plantation for some work before we head home.