Since Julie and I have miscounted our days, and we do have 1 or 2 extra days in Nepal, our holiday clashes with the Darshain festival (21-24 Oct), it makes it a little challenging as there were shortage of transport during this period. As we were counting our days, we were advised to get into Kathmandu after the first day of Darshain, so rather than departing directly to Chitwan after our terkking trip, we extended our stay in Pokhara, just to strolled around the little town.
In the morning, we got up at 6am to take our taxi ride up World Peace Pagoda hoping to witness a good sunrise... following pictures are what we got:
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| Pool of heavy mist before sunrise |
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| Looking positive |
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| Sun's out! |
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| mist attacking the pagoda! |
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within minutes, pagoda's gone....
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| Since no mountain view, we therefore descended to the foot hill to get our taxi ride back to Pokhara town. |
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| There are plenty of Perdua cars imported here at Nepal, this is so familiar... |
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| The way vegetable are sold here, I did not see any wet market or supermarket here, this is probably the only way - the nepali way :) |
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| Darshain's wave, a festival full about family reunion, food and swing ! |
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| Himalaya Inn Pokhara, where we stayed for 3 nights |
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| Pet at the Inn, can see but cannot touch |
After hearing so much about the local Nepali eating dhal bhat as a their main meal, and to ease our curiosity on how special can this meal be, upon arrival to Pokhara after our 4-day trekking, our Nepali friend/guide brought us to Nepali kitchen behind Himalaya Inn; it was also to celebrate we successfully completed and an appreciation session for our 2 friends for their job well done. This meal basically changes how we remember the taste of the delicacy, it was so delicious compared to our first dhal bhat in Kathmandu.
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| The plate of dhal bhat that convince us about the awesomeness in them |
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| This restaurant is right behind Himalaya Inn |
After our second plate of dhal bhat in Pokhara, next in our agenda is to visit a water fall, a cave and the Tibetan carpet shopping. Our taxi ride was suppose to come fetch us at 2:30 but he was almost an hour late, say it was due to the bad traffic in town, I find it rather ironic to have traffic in a little town like Pokhara.
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| Davis' fall |
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| At the entrance of Davis' fall, there's this tree that has 4 legs |
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| Roads in Nepal are similarly like this, dusty and uneven |
Both Julie and I did some shopping after getting back to the town, I bought some ok quality pashmina as souvenir for colleagues and friends. And YES I manage to buy another 20 fridge magnets at a bargain prized! Thrilled :-)
After sorting out our buys in the room, is dinner again! On our way hunting for dinner, Julie bought 5 samosa like snack from a bicycle stall, when the uncle hand me the bag of samosa, I can't help but notice the dirty plastic bag he uses to pack our samosa. I therefore told Julie never to look at the bag and yes we finish all the 5 pcs of samosa without stomach discomfort - think our stomach are now neutralize with Nepali food :)
Dinner that night was at Lovely Restaurant where they serve some real awesome dosa, it's a pity that it is our last night in Pokhara, other wise we would have gone back again. We didn't even have time to drop by for breakfast.
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| The so so pot of coffee, it get cold too fast in this so called mug than pot and realize here they uses real cow milk as creamer for coffee! |
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| Lovely dosa wrap with much yummy goodies |
The next day, we were told that our bus is booked for 7:30am, however both Julie and I panic when we see no one told us which taxi we are following and everything seems a bit disorganize, I check with the Inn's staff for at least 3 times, to ensure they know they are suppose to send us to the bus station and of course pass us our bus ticket! Anyway we were relieved when one of the taxi driver finally asked us to go to their car, but have to squeezed in 4 person at the passenger seat, it was cramp!
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| the cinamon roll that I bought from a lady at Himalaya Inn, cost about RM1.50, nice! |
When reaches the bus stop someone somehow appear in front of us, handing us our bus ticket, brought us to our seat, fairly quickly. After seated for about 5 to 10 mins, a pair of Chinese girls approaches us, telling us that we are sitting on their spot, after a quick check on our ticket vs theirs, Julie and I confirms that's our seats and not theirs. Seeing them lost was really uncomfortable, somehow one of the girl figure she should go meet the bus ticket conductor and she did. After about 10 mins later the girl return and told that they have seats at the front compartment of the bus. At least the drama ended there.
When the bus finally moved, I told Julie that if the bus ride was going to stay bumpy all the way which she said she thing so. And really, Julie was right; the bumpiness stays all the way from Pokhara to Chitwan. Stop at the in between was really helpful.
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| Ramli burger the Napali way! |
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| One of the kitty that we saw during our bus ride pit stop, such a pretty baby |
After about 5.5 hours of battling with the drowsiness caused by the bumpy ride, we finally arrived Chitwan National Park!
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| A swing we saw on our way to the resort - I so wish that I could have a good swing on them! |
The first impression that Chitwan gave us was - hot and dusty! After our quick lunch and checking into our room at Eden Jungle Resort, I told Julie I wanted to listen to a sermon since we have missed church one Sunday. I therefore went on the resort hammock outside our room, goodness it was so comfortable that I actually fell asleep..
After resting for about an hour, time to explore again, without an agenda we walked out from the resort and first thing we saw was this 2 little domestic goats that we couldn't resist but to hold them on our arms.. We both had fun taking pictures with the 2 fella, hope they had fun too :-)
Before heading out of the resort, I recall asking the someone if he can recommend us some place to go the evening we arrive at Chitwan, perhaps sunset and he told us none. So what is this?
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| Sunset by the river side |
After some time admiring the beautiful sunset by the river, we decided that we should continue to walk. On the way, we saw a group of local villager working in the field, we therefore walked near to them and the youngest girl were looking at us like an alien but very soon, she got quite familiar with us and was not afraid of us, even ok to take picture with us. I suggested to Julie we should get something for the girl so we walked to a near by groceries store and got her a pack of pringle and choco pie, unfortunately when we wanting to hand the goodies to the kid, she has already gone home so we hand the goodies to her mum.
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| villager public burning that causes the misty look - believe is to chase away mosquitoes |
Chitwan basically is a national park where you will get stuck once in, the forest is big and wild, and one is not allowed to enter the forest unless accompanied by the park's staff. See below map, where the resort is and were surrounded by a huge patch of green (forest).
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Our first dhal bhat at Eden - we declared this the best dhal bhat in Nepal and we even requested Eden restaurant staff to serve this every meal and they did, we had 3 dhal bhat all together :)
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| at the arrival night, there were some local dance performance outside the resort, nothing too impressive |
During dinner, we were told to be at the resort restaurant by 7am for breakfast then start our tour the next morning but guess what, we ended up waiting for the rest of the tour member for at least an hour, we weren't informed properly :-( I must said I was thrilled to know that we are finally departing, after the unknown long wait, not too good the experience.
First stop - canoeing, it was my first canoe, scary! I was constantly thinking we might fall since the long canoe seems so flimsy. But eventually I got use to the rhythm of the canoe moves. Here's the series of pictures along the way, we saw many birds and 3 crocs.
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| Everyone stays still on the boat, don't dare to make big movement |
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| Arrived at our destination, getting down for the jungle walk |
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| Crossing a wooden bridge in the forest, we were told not to chitchat and stay very close to each other during the walk |
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| We did not have any luck with wild animal that day, only saw another croc resting across the mangrove swamp |
The jungle walk only took us less than an hour, thereafter we went on to visit an elephant place where quite a number of giant jumbo are kept there. Both Julie and I were laughing out loud when we see this little baby jumbo that leap across the fence to where the visitor were standing, he was such a mischievous baby jumbo! wanting to run away from the fenced area...
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| That's the naughty jumbo! |
Our visit to Chitwan National Park wasn't really a well plan one, we were left uniform most of the time, after seeing the elephant, the walk behind our guide continue. After the bridge, we saw the jeep that fetches us this morning, then only we know we must be heading back to the resort.
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| There was this herd of buffalo that was shepherd by an elderly uncle, while few of us were busy taking pictures of these buffalo, we heard him mumbling loudly, little that we know he was actually trying to stop us from taking pictures of his buffalo... that is all so weird! |
Anyway, after the canoeing and jungle walk in the morning, we were sent back to the Eden by lunch time, there the owner of the resort finally told us what's next! What a relief to know what's coming our way. After resting for a bit for lunch, time to go out and see what we are here for - one horned rhino!
This is how it works - we walked from Eden to the river side for approximately 15mins to take the canoe to cross the river, prior to crossing the river, we were introduced our own safari guide.
Here's a series of pictures I snap along our safari jeep ride.
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| some species of bird on it's nest |
After being on the jeep for about an hour, our guide spotted the first one horned rhino! the big fella was resting and cooling down in the mud, apparently eating too!
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| rihno rihno, come nearer lah |
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| there weren't luck with wild animal, our tour apparently included an entry ticket to this crocodile farm in the middle of the forest, crocs - not again... sigh, of all animal. In the farm, they name this little thing - turtle |
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| the very very very bumpy and dusty safari jeep ride |
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| some very pretty view along the jeep ride |
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| God graciously brought this fella out for us to see - THANK YOU GOD! |
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| The family from Israel that has been on holiday for more than a monthp |
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| skies by the river before we head back to the resort |
After witnessing the rhino, Julie and I can leave Chitwan as a happy tourist, forget about all the unorganized tour, afterall we are on holiday, no rush no worry, just follow the flow! :) at least we will remember dhal bhat in Eden was the most delicious..
The next morning after our not so interesting breakfast, Eden send us to board our bus ride (which is a lorry where all of us squeeze in at the back) to the bus station.
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Boarding our bus back to Kathmandu at Chitwan National Park
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It somehow feel so familiar when we got back to Khangsar, Kathmandu again, I guess is we do prefer Kathmandu's weather than Chitwan...
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| our dhal bhat dinner at a Thakali kitchen somewhere inside Thamel, it was only ok |
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| There are 2 pastry shop in Thamal, bread will be on 50% discount after 8pm daily, but this shop's bread are bette than the other - we like their cinnamon roll :) |
