I am currently staying at the Chitwan Rest House in Sauraha, Chitwan, Nepal, and will be here tonight and tomorrow; then on to Lumbini.
Went on a ride down the Ripti River in a Tharu dugout canoe, where we saw lots of birds and crocodiles.
Then we went for a stroll through the jungle, where we saw spotted deer, sloth bear markings, and tiger pug marks. There was also a "runaway elephant" that was browsing with the local tamed ones.
It was great fun to watch the elephants bathing in the river, and later I went for an elephant ride in the Community Forest buffer zone.
I saw a one horned rhino and many deer....both spotted and Sambhar.
Two days later whilst on our way to Lumbini, our bus ran into a roadblock of some political persuasion. Apparently, it's quite common, and all traffic came to a standstill.
We were stuck for seven hours, but many of the locals seemed to disappear, after awhile. So here we were, a small group of five white people, waiting out the blockade..not knowing when it would end. SIGH!
Around 5 pm the blockaders decided to give it a rest for the night, and were letting vehicles through. We all rushed to get on various modes of transportation...whatever could be commandeered. As a result there was a huge traffic jam over the bridge, and we arrived in Bairawa around eleven that night. It was much to late to travel any further, so our little group sought out a hotel for the night.
The next morning, a Taiwanese woman and I left the hotel together and got hoodwinked into taking a cycle rickshaw the remaining 22 km to Lumbini.
We actually saw some buses along the way, but were told that they were not running due to the blockade. Our rickshaw driver (with the betel-stained teeth) was certainly out to make some money....but I think he earned it!
My new Taiwanese friend Liu Chiu Chaun and I ended up staying at the Korean Monastery for two days. It was quite a deal, even though the accommodations were dorms.
We took a tour of some historical Buddhist ruins, and cycled around the Peace and Monastic zones. We also did some walking and visited the Buddha's birthplace in the Maha Devi Temple.
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