Village life in Sauraha
Back in Sauraha (our base village at Chitwan) we got ourselves a hotel with a beautiful garden and a room with a bath tub - to Janine's delight. Again for half price. Washing went to the laundry and we went to eat out! The next day was for internet (the previous 3 nights in Sauraha left us disconnected because some bus had damaged a power pole and repair work had rendered the little town powerless for at least 3 days...) because we had a lot of mailing to catch up on.
Janine also finally managed to convince Johan (she had tried every day when we were previously in Sauraha) to hire a bicycle and go cycling with her. It was the beginning of the annual grass-cutting season in that area of the park and people cross the river into the park to cut grass used for building walls, roofs, making bedding and much more. We cruised around the village for an hour watching this activity amidst all the usual country life - chickens, ducks, goats, elephants, children, ploughing, etc. We had such a good time - Johan was very glad he went.
The next day Mayaram, our guide who took us into the park, invited us over for supper. We were thrilled. His family is amazing and the evening was one of the most special times we had during our travels. We chatted over all the humorous occurrences of the previous few days and Mayaram insisted that in his 27 years of guiding he had only ever once before seen a rhino as angry as the rhinos that stormed us. He was very sad that we did not see a tiger or a bear as he sees them on almost all his longer walking safaris.
We were quite emotional to leave the next morning. Mayaram's wife, Vicky accompanied us by horse cart to catch our bus to Kathmandu the next morning. This will not be the last time we see Sauraha.
Culture shocks: Nepal uses a differed calender than we in the West - 15/11/2006 in our calender is 1/8/2063 in theirs; elephants carrying people are a very common sight in the main road and part of everyday life.
Janine also finally managed to convince Johan (she had tried every day when we were previously in Sauraha) to hire a bicycle and go cycling with her. It was the beginning of the annual grass-cutting season in that area of the park and people cross the river into the park to cut grass used for building walls, roofs, making bedding and much more. We cruised around the village for an hour watching this activity amidst all the usual country life - chickens, ducks, goats, elephants, children, ploughing, etc. We had such a good time - Johan was very glad he went.
The next day Mayaram, our guide who took us into the park, invited us over for supper. We were thrilled. His family is amazing and the evening was one of the most special times we had during our travels. We chatted over all the humorous occurrences of the previous few days and Mayaram insisted that in his 27 years of guiding he had only ever once before seen a rhino as angry as the rhinos that stormed us. He was very sad that we did not see a tiger or a bear as he sees them on almost all his longer walking safaris.
We were quite emotional to leave the next morning. Mayaram's wife, Vicky accompanied us by horse cart to catch our bus to Kathmandu the next morning. This will not be the last time we see Sauraha.
Culture shocks: Nepal uses a differed calender than we in the West - 15/11/2006 in our calender is 1/8/2063 in theirs; elephants carrying people are a very common sight in the main road and part of everyday life.
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