Just arrived in Kolkata at 7am this morning after two nights and a day on a train from Mumbai. The journey was interesting and the train was an experience but more about that later. We're here for two nights before flying over to Bangkok on Wednesday the 6th.
The first thing I wanted to say was thank you so much to my lovely, lovely friends and family. A few days ago I received a stack of wonderful emails, some with gorgeous photos, and they brought a smile to my face and a shimmer to my eyes. All this just added to the 'magic' of India and the enjoyment of Mumbai, which I loved. I am thinking of you all and will reply to each in due course.
After leaving Kathmandu (photos to follow) at an eye-watering 7am, having been partaking of a tipple or two with my lovely hosts at the Courtyard Hotel, we drove for about 13 hours West towards, well, western Nepal where Royal Bardia National Park is located. Bardia is the less popular but more rustic between it and Chitwan because of its out-of-the-way location. The housing is traditional reed and mud with thatched roofs and the industry is farming and cottage. It's an exeptionally charming place and worth the arduous journey it took to get there. We spent 2 nights at Hotel Racy Shade and one full day, half of which I spent sleeping and the other half doing yoga, eating and chatting - photos to follow. Some people went on a gentle river cruise, birdwatching, and others went trekking in the steamy jungle.
On Saturday the 26th July we headed out in a monsoonal downpour towards the border for India. We were intending to bush camp for 3 nights, spending 2 nights at Ellora Cave Temples, and then reaching Mumbai on 1st August for 2 nights. Alas, it wasn't to be! Day 1 on the road was quite interesting. It was pretty slow going getting out of the park and Western Nepal in particular is badly affected by the monsoon with main thoroughfares being impassable or washed away. This wasn't something to deter Jacko and the 'Beast'! I have rock-solid faith in the man's judgement about what we can and can't get through with the truck. I reluctantly admit here that on two separate occasions on that day, I thought 'no way'. The truck is just too heavy and the river ahead too wide/muddy/unstable. I have some photos of these occasions which I'll upload. Naturally they don't show the full extent of the width/muddiness/instability of said impasses but they give a fair idea. The man is a Legend. And the truck did us proud.
En-route we met Odyssey overlanders (whom we had previously met in Goreme, Turkey) in a borrowed Dragoman truck heading in the opposite direction to Bardia. They were then going to Kathmandu to fly on to Bangkok from there. The news on the road is that Oasis (another overlanding company) had pulled the plug on their trip. We were able to share the goss about OzBus and their breakdown / driver fallout and apparently they've had a lot of bad press. So good luck to the Odyssey guys and South African drivers and crew.
After crossing the border at a remote and rural post called Banbassa/Bambasa (depending on whether you read the Lonely Planet or the sign post), we re-entered India. The first night we 'bush' camped. It was awful and I really didn't like it. I was on cook group which was not a problem at all and I had psyched myself up for just getting on with it as one must do. It was being the object of a freak-show that freaked me out. We pulled up at a disused garage forecourt at about 8pm after having been on the road a good 13 hours and started setting up camp. We busied ourselves chopping vegetables as veg curry and rice was on the menu. I manned the cooking pot. I looked up from my sweaty, unpleasantly hot, insect-attacked task to see a swarm (aarghh....what's the collective for a large group of native Indians - I should probably Google this bit) of...er...native Indians. Gaggling excitedly, taking photos with mobile phones and pressing disconcertedly closer to our busy little group, hemming us in behind the table between the table and the side of the truck. This bit is what freaked me out. There were about 50 or 60 of these guys, pressing closer and closer. I was getting more and more agitated with a combination of the hot cooking pot, the hot lights behind my head, the running between-the-shoulderblades and down-the-sternum sweat, the constant bombardment of flying insects down the back of my shirt and this encroaching crowd of excited people, trapping me. It makes me feel uncomfortable to recall the situation.
Nevertheless, food was (semi) cooked - I had an altercation with John about the potatoes as no one could grasp that fact that they need a LOT more cooking than a few fresh veggies with curry sauce in-a-jar, hey ho - and served up. Tents were pitched and I decided that the safest place to sleep was on the truck. Our audience was swelling and mutating as more people arrived and different vehicles kept turning up and shining their lights at us. I had a brief and extremely welcome respite in the shower tent over a bucket of water with a cup before retiring to the sweltering truck to try and get some sleep. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night. The borrowed Therma-rest (I'd sent mine on to Oz from Kathmandu) deflated, leaving my hips pressing painfully into the beer-crate in the aisle across which I was lying, under the tables near the back. The mosquitoes arrived in force - biting and buzzing - and it was incredibly hot and airless.
I'll end temporarily here as we're all meeting at The Blue Sky Cafe shortly for dinner and I want to catch up with everyone to make some plans for tomorrow. I intend to have a restful day tomorrow (I'm fending off and impending cold) and catch up with my blogging and some admin so, unforseen events notwithstanding, watch out for the next exciting tomorrow. Or the day after. And I'll try to get some photos up too. TTFN.
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