Liberia and Elephants

 Okay, I can't remember when the last post ended, but let's begin with the descent from Pokhara to the flat lands of the Terai region of Nepal, specifically Chitwan, and more specifically Sauraha. We made the unfortunate mistake of trying to book a bus ticket to Chitwan only three days before we wanted to leave. that would have been fine if we wanted to take a really questionable bus that costs only 500 rupees. We wanted to take the Greenline bus, which cost twenty dollars, had air conditioning, offered a free lunch, and was generally used by tourists only. No shot. You see, that bus had no seats left, so we had two options. Take a really questionable bus ride and save a few dollars but in the process risk falling off a cliff or running into another vehicle, or bargain for a private car, We chose the latter and ended up paying $85 for a car to Chitwan. This was clearly a mistake. It wasn't the comfort that we wanted to pay the extra amount for, it was the not dying part that intrigued us. Our driver showed up at the hotel about fifteen minutes early and proceeded to berate me for not being at any of the hotels he had just visited. The receipt I kept from two days prior clearly said Garden Hotel, but there is NEVER any point in explaining minutia like this, so I got into the front seat and Nick jumped into the back.....This guy was the biggest ASSHOLE driver I have ever seen. I have been here for four months now, and have seen some pretty crazy driving. Nothing has prepared me for this guys Modus Operandi. It went something like this - drive like Bo 'Bandit' Darville as long there are cars, people or buses around us, then- when there's a tiny incline, slam on the brakes and try to promote whiplash as much as possible. This guy would rather have killed all of us than damaged the undercoating on a Kia. From India. We made it there in three hours, which is an hour faster than the gentleman at the Greenline station predicted via private car. Then, the hotel that we booked, just in case none were available, was a complete disaster. We were greeted with " No rooms."
I said, "Well, we booked online and this is our confirmation number." 
He said, "Oh yeah, we have room for you."
We were led to what looked like a dungeon on the second floor. It had blue and moldy walls, the bathroom hadn't been used in months, if ever, and the beds were like rock. I'm not even talking about by western standards. I'm pretty sure Liberians would be disgusted with this place.  We dropped our bags, locked the putrid door behind us and started walking into town. About 500 yards into the walk, we spotted a hotel and decided to go see what the rates were and what the rooms looked like. A very nice man led us to a room that featured laminate floors and hot water for about 50% less than the other hotel, which featured concrete and a smell of defeat. We grabbed our bags from the other room, I left my yak wool blanket on accident, and we relocated to a room that was at least liveable for a couple days. We then went to the river bank and had a beer while watching the sun go down over Nepal.
Next Day......We arranged an elephant ride and were to be at the ticket place before 8:30. Well, we made it to a ticket place around 8 am. Although it wasn't the right spot, our guy showed up around 8:30 on a motorcycle, instructing us to both get on. Have you ever ridden three kilometers on the back of a motorcycle with two other full grown males on board? Well I have now, and it sucked, but we made it to the elephant boarding area and were promptly escorted to the tallest, most agro elephant of the herd. Questionable start.... but I am done typing for now and will fill in the blanks later. We are currently back in KTM, and enjoying some wine and decent food.....stay tuned, Bat Fans!

Sunset over the Rapti River, first night in Sauhara

I found out the reason these aren't in chronological order - laziness!

Main Street

After we blew by a truck carrying what looked liked caged up people

We had a hotel in front of where the elephants bath after safaris.

Beginning of the jungle, there are a bunch of crocs, at least

Tree of life? What is that anyway?

Jungle

Me and Becks on the top of an elephant.

Our extremely tall elephant for the day

Pretty safari looking, huh?

Taxi, anyone?

Diseased croc that was in the breeding ground. Next post - It's all BS!

Stupas, Joss Stone, and Pro Scootering

Okay, let's begin with discussing the trip out of Kathmandu. It was amazing to finally get out of the city, it can get on top of you pretty quickly and it's nice to get out of the valley to get a better perspective. While we were discussing which type of music best went with the Kathmandu vibe Nick offered up classic rock and it definitely fits. I mean, that is if you are not into Hindi or Nepali music. I can take both in limited doses, but I think I'll be sticking to Hendrix and some Rolling Stones for a while. I had been on a Joss Stone kick, but it really doesn't fit in with what's happening over here. Anyway, we woke up at around 6am to catch a cab to the bus park and I managed to secure us some tea while we waited for them to load the bus. Soon enough we were on the way out of one valley and into another. The bus ride was mainly uneventful, save for one bus in a ditch on the side of the road that cause a number of delays. It looked like the bus hit pretty hard judging by the broken out windows and damaged tires. For a moment it made me question the decision to keep going everywhere by bus, but I really have no choice. We arrived in Pokhara around 3 o'clock and made our way to the garden hotel, deposited our dirty laundry, unpacked our bags and set out to lakeside where we ate some snacks and had a couple of beers while watching the sun go down over Lake Phewa.

We have done a bunch of riding scooters all over this valley, from Sarangkot to Fulbari, and have yet to meet with any real trouble, although Nick's scooter sucks going up hills, which is an issue when we are doing some off-road scootering. We're pretty much professional scooter riders at this point after dodging cows, buses, people, and tractors while on the "highway". I'll get into more detail about the contracts and tournaments I'm working on in another post, but things are progressing. No for the easy way out, picture time......

Becks getting a clean shave, within minutes there were a bunch of Japanese tourists taking pictures. Our barber told them it'd be $20 per picture.

View from halfway up to Sarangkot

Feeling good

Looking pretty awesome

Put a good swing on this one at a new hole on The Himalayan Course. Too much club though, and it ended up over the green

Smoked this drive down the right side of the fairway with a little draw.

Pretty sweet.

Ditto

One of the off road paths that we managed to navigate successfully

Check out the barbed wire around the green

View from the 16th at The Himalayan. If you get a strong gust of wind and are off balance, it may be your last golf shot.

Fulbari Hotel garden area

On our way to the World Peace Stupa

Before the Nazis ruined swastikas, they were a peaceful symbol.

Devils Fall, Pokhara. I tried to take some pictures of the cave, but being a cave, the pictures were too dark.

World Peace Stupa.

Mero Saathiko Naam Nick Becks Ho and A Pictorial Extravaganza

Okay, let's start with the pre-arrival of Nick Becks. While me and a couple of friends, who shall remain nameless for reasons forthcoming, were waiting for Mr. Becks at the Tribhuvan International Airport we experienced a power outage that consumed the entire airport and lasted nearly 20 minutes. Keep in mind, it was about 11:30 pm when the power went out so the entire place was pitch black. As I would find out later, Nick was luckily already on the ground and waiting in the customs line when the lights went out. A perfect beginning to any stay in Nepal should begin with a power outage followed by an intense thunderstorm. Once Nick made it out of the airport, it began raining heavily and the lightning wasn't far behind. PERFECT! I have never been so happy to see a friend as I was at that point. Anyways, it rained for most of the next day but we didn't allow that to stop us from going to Bhaktapur and Thamel. The following day we went to Patan, Swayambhunath Temple, and even fit in nine holes of golf, where Nick was only a few inches from a hole-in-one and I was a few seconds from quitting golf. During the round of golf we came upon a crowd of people on the course. There is a portion of the course next to these back to back par three's where the jungle and a dirt road converge and there is an opening in the fence, so people routinely use the path as a shortcut to wherever it is people go. (I'm not the Lonely Planet guide, people.) Apparently a couple of punks had thrown a brick at a young woman's head and hit it squarely. They promptly robbed her of everything that was in her purse as well as her brand new mobile phone. One of the golf pros broke his club while chasing them after them, and I'm not sure if he was able to do any damage to the criminal, but I'm assuming he did as the club was broken right at the base of the shaft. It's a smallish community near the golf course, not in terms of number of people, but in terms of actual community where everyone knows everyone else's business. At this point, one kid had been arrested, and the girl was taken to the hospital after passing out. Now onto the pictures.....

I believe this guy has something to do with good luck and healthy eating. Or it's a pig with dried rice stuck in it's mouth

Rainy day, but still some cool things

I HATE the rain and cold, can you tell?

It was so rainy that we had to use these rocks to get to the bus ticket office

I do love Patan Durbar Square. Favorite place in KTM

A thousand words?

Look at the thing on the thing. Like I said, I'm not a writer for Lonely Planet

Nick Becks at a Buddhist temple

Ring my bell

Sometimes you just have to look in the right places to see something cool

This was day two of a festival for women involving marriages or blessing of marriages

Sweet

This probably has some meaning

Women would get a bunch of stuff blessed and then torch it.

Large Stupa at the "monkey temple"

Nick Becks and some tourist next to her

Witko looks angry, but it's my natural look.

In case you think about hopping a wall, think again.

This woman carries rocks on her back for most of the day. How's your job?

Kathmandu looks so nice from afar. It's like a butter face.

 So next we go to Pokhara, then to Chitwan to ride elephants into the jungle looking for tigers. More to come, folks.....