We hired out a boat and a guide and went out onto the water where we were told how it’s a very spiritual place and funerals take place on the river bank where people are cremated and their ashes brushed into the water. Also, bodies are thrown into the water if they are babies or if they died from snake bites. It’s such a religious and spiritual place that people actually travel there to die. So after hearing all this you could probably imagine the look on our faces when we saw people bathing in the water and also drinking it.
We went back in the evening for the sunset. This time the roads were closed off because of the crowds gathering, so we had to hire out bike rickshaws to take us to the Ganges. I swear to God, on the journey some of us basically saw our lives flash before our eyes as the crazy pedal drivers were going ninety down the road, with us on the back holding on for dear life!!
This time on the boat we got to witness cremations take place and also saw from a distance a dead baby being placed into the water. The women are not allowed to take part in the funeral for fear that they might throw themselves into the fire while the body is being cremated. The following day we packed our bags and headed for Nepal.
Nepal, aka Never Ending Peace And Love, which it really was, and such a change nice change from India! A downside to it, however, is that they don’t have fast food outlets like Pizza Hut, which was a bit of a shock for some!
We visited Chitwan which is also known as heart of the jungle. We stayed in Parkside Resort where they greeted us with refreshment drinks and also an elephant!! The elephant was kind of cool as it had a big frock of hair on it! We fed the elephant bananas and one particular individual felt the need to peel the banana for the elephant and then let out a scream when the elephant went to take it off him. He threw it at the elephant then!
We went for a tour around the little village where the dude that runs the resort explained to us how 10 percent of the profits that they make goes towards the schooling of the children. He also showed us the scars on his legs from when a tiger wandered into the village!
We went down to the river where we were getting used to people using the elephants to make their way around! As we sat by the river sipping our cocktails we saw a big huge crocodile making its way across the river. It was the first of many that we got to see!
We went back to our resort for dinner and finally managed to have a glass of wine. For us wine lovers it has been over three weeks since we last saw wine, so we actually did get a little over excited!!
The following morning we left for a trek through the jungle. It started out with canoes to go up the river where we saw many crocodiles, and then kind of realised how close we were to them. But it was all good as they just ignored us, thank God! The trek through the jungle was fine. Unfortunately, or for some fortunately, we didn’t see too many animals, just a few birds and a deer or two!
We made our way to the Chitwan elephant safari park where we fed some of the baby elephants cookies. After returning back to the resort to change we headed off back to the river to go swimming with the elephants. It was an absolutely hilarious experience where some of us were bawling laughing, and others coming close to bawling crying with fear, while climbing onto the elephant's head to get on!
After we had enough some of us walked back and the extra lazy people got an elephant to take them back! In the evening we went on an elephant safari through the jungle where we actually saw a few rhinos this time!!
The next day we headed to Pokhora where we stayed for two nights at the Lakeside Hotel, which was so beautiful looking over the lake with the mountains behind it. It was a lovely little town, but unfortunately they also had a lot of really nice shops which we ended up spending a lot of money in!! Also while we were there some of us went kayaking along the lake.
As we left for Kathmandu some of us stopped off to do white water rafting, which was absolutely brilliant!! Word of advice if anyone hasn’t done it before, is to dose yourself in sun block and cover your legs, as some poor people ended up looking like lobsters afterwards, which was not cool!
We arrived in Kathmandu where we stayed at Hotel Tradition. For the night we headed to Sam’s Bar, which is just around the corner from the hotel. Here we met up with another overland group that were also on their way to Australia. It was a good night and some romances blossomed from it!!
That all for now. Bye!
Emily, Sara and Jacinta.
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