After spending some time getting to know Kathmandu, I hopped on a bus and went down south. Down some crazy sketchy windy roads back to the heat and sun. I was headed for a little eco-village pretty close to the border with India and to one of Nepals first national parks, Chitwan National Park. For the first week, I was staying with another WorkAway host.
His name is Bishnu. His family (wife and two teenage children) live in Kathmandu, but he moved down south to take care of his parents and start this eco-park to provide for the village he grew up in. The eco-park is slowly being built with WorkAway volunteers time and the fees they pay to stay there. He has started growing a large number of trees and veggies. In addition hes working on some buildings to provide the villagers with places to come to do yoga and meditate, and building a park for the kids to play in. It's pretty evident once you meet him that he's really committed to providing for his village.
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| While the kids gathered in the evening to play, the moms and some of the younger kids would gather to chat and try some yoga |
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| Watching the Spanish volunteers cooking paella |
While I was there we would get up and work for a couple of hours in the early morning, then have the day free until the late afternoon when we would work for a couple more hours. While I was there we did everything from painting rocks to decorate the garden to weeding and watering to laying concrete. We were laying concrete for a baby buffalo house on the back of his land. This was probably the most interesting thing that we did because it was all be hand. We mixed a big pile of sand with the concrete powder. Then we made a hole in the top and filled it with water (think a crater filled with water sort of). As it filled with water, Bishnu would scoop the dry sand from sides of the crater up, making the pool of water deeper and the crater taller. Eventually, it was a ball with the wettest sand in the middle. Then we cracked it on one side and would mix it around and carried it over to where there one of the Nepali men was laying it. It wasn't the flattest most beautiful cement floor I've ever seen, but it looked pretty great. I was talking about it to a couple of friends after I got back to the USA, and they were asking how it handled the earthquake. I can't say for sure, but I really hope the baby buffalo house survived. We were pretty proud of it.
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| Mixing the cement |
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| Flattening out the cement |
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| We got to paint some rocks for decoration |
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| Weeding the garden |
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| Of course I made a puppy friend |
I took one day off of work and spent it on a jungle walk in Chitwan National Park. This park is the home to about 500 one-horned rhinocerouses, some bengal tigers, bears and four kinds of dear. This is the only walk I have ever been on where it started off with a safety talk. We also had two guides, one to walk in front and one to walk in back. Do you know what you're supposed to do if you're chased by a rhino? Or challenged by a bear or tiger? Now I do! Fun fact, rhinos are only fast if they run in a straight line, agile in zig-zags not so much. Tigers are really shy, but if one is coming at you, stare it in the eyes and back away slowly. No running. (As the guide is saying this, I'm picturing myself staring into the eyes of a Bengal tiger. I'm pretty sure at that point you're just dead.)
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| Tiger paw |
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| A deer! We saw a ton of these. |
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| One of our guides looking for rhinos |
During our walk, we got to see some birds, lots of deer, and a lot of rhino poop. Awesomely, we got to see a tiger footprint, and honestly I am totally ok not getting any closer than that.
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| Rhino footprint |
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| RHINO POOP. They always poop in the same place to mark their territory. |
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| A huge field of these flowers |
At the ecopark, volunteers were coming and going every couple days, but I had the privilege of getting to spend most of my time with a couple awesome ladies. We were leaving the eco-park right about the same time, and heading to the same place, Sauraha. Because the jungle walk was a fail in terms of rhino sightings, I was determined to go there and camp out until I had a rhino sighting. The girl I was heading to Sauraha with had been there before she came to the eco park. She confirmed what I had read on the interwebs. You can walk down the main street of Sauraha to the river, walk about ten minutes along the river, and watch for rhinos. It's also a lovely place to watch the sunset.
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| Enjoying some afternoon sun. |
After a couple of gorgeous sunsets but no rhinos, my friend and I decided to brave the drizzle and walk down to the river for a final evening. We were accompanied by a cute, friendly street pup that we had seen around over the last couple days. As we walked up to the river, I realized that what I thought was a stuck log (out of the corner of my eye) actually had ears. And was actually a rhino. Oof.
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| Oh herro. |
We backed up pretty (not before snapping a couple pictures of course) as the rhino stood up. We backed up even more quickly as it began to walk to our side of the river. Once we were back up in the trees and a very reasonable distance from this fast and territorial animal, the pup with us finally got brave enough to bark. Good one kiddo. That rhino would squash you like a bug.
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| Guard dog! |
Throughout my trip I have actively avoided any activities that involved elephants or elephant tourism. No elephant rides. No elephant tours. The way they train these elephants is cruel. But it's been hard. Because elephants are really cool! I got to see a wild one in Thailand and I was super excited. I finally heard about an elephant breeding center that works with a
Chain Free Pain Free campaign by Elephant Aid International. No, this is not a refuge. Yes, these elephants will do work. But it is a limited number of hours, and its work in the neighboring villages. The families are kept together, and babies are given a reasonable amount of time to grow before they are put to work. So I was really excited to bike out to the center and see some happier elephants up close.
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| Play time! |
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| Nom nom. |
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| Look at those little feet!! |
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| Comin' back from the forest. |
When you arrive, you see a couple elephants still with their chains on. With signs around that say Chain Free Pain Free. Uh what? But actually, if you take an elephant that's been chained up its entire life and just let it go, it freaks out! And it's a huge danger to humans, other elephants and its self. So it's a gradual process to release the elephants from the chains to the electrical-fence enclosures they stay in. It was so much fun to wander around and stare at elephants. Asian elephants are really not as big as I pictured them. But their ears are super floppy and they spend a lot of time picking up dust and throwing it on themselves. Dust bath!!
After biking back in the rain, we went out to dinner for Nepali New Year! Its 2072 by their calendar. In the morning, I caught a bus back the next morning up to Kathmandu to start looking for trekking buddies.
