On our first day in the jungle, we made a jeep safari. The other passengers were 10 noisy university students from Kathmandou. It worked out fine. They told us that last rainy season during a period of high water, some of the park’s rhinos washed down the Narayani River to India, but that India was going to give the rhino’s back to Nepal.
On the second afternoon we rode on an elephant through the jungle. The mahoot (elephant driver) is lifted to his position on the elephant’s neck by the elephant. For us dudes he backs it up so its rear end is under the loading platform and we step into the howdah (the place you sit). When the howdah took a starboard list I was glad that no one made any wise cracks about me being over-weight (at least not in English). When Poojah & I switched places it returned to even keel. I am sure that the mahoot just failed to adequately tighten the girth strap.
We stayed in a “home-stay” ( like B & B). Our host family built a couple of stucco faced mud & bamboo huts for guests. We were in with the family for 3 days. They served us 3 meals a day that were different than anything I ever had before. Black mustard seed is used in most dishes. We walked with our host family to the community center for the traditional dances, so it did not feel like just something they did for the tourists.
The atmosphere was charming. The little boy said, “Happy birthday” every time he saw the candle illuminating our evening meal. In this area mattresses and pillows tend to be hard, but our home-stay mattresses & pillows were beyond hard. I will not name names, but one of us asked for two locally manufactured duvets to make a pillow top and then borrowed ours driver’s travel pillow. The other one toughed it out. This person, in a sensitive and caring way passed on the friendly reminder that in Gen 28:11 Jacob used a stone for a pillow.
Stay tuned for the next installment which features more jungle adventure content.
Adventures in Suburbia 