Day 15: Chitwan, Nepal

Chinese Version / 中文版本

Today's plan was to take the bus to the rafting trip where took place between Pokhara and Chitwan. The bus ride was around 3 hours. Since it wasn't at the final stop, the bus crew would call us to get off the bus once we arrived at the starting point. 

Once we got off, we were taken by a group of staff to some bungalows. Then we had to change our clothes for the rafting trip and put all our belongings in to a huge cotton bag. That huge bag contained all luggage of the people who would go rafting. It might sound so insecure, but we could not bring our stuff with us to raft, the luggage must have to be given to the staff. 

Another friendly reminder/common sense: Please prepare swimming suits for rafting. Because I had never thought I would go swimming, had not even planned to go to Nepal. I just had the normal summer clothes with me, and it turned out to be extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable when they all got wet. 

When we stored our luggage in the huge bag, the staff took it to the ending point of the rafting trip. And we were each given one paddle and one life-saving jacket. After we wore the life-saving jacket, we were led by the staff to go down to the river bank. It was quite high from where we started, luckily we had a paddle to balance ourselves, otherwise I would have rolled straight down to the river center with only my flip-flops on. Then we saw 2 rafting boats by the river bank. Each had a capacity of 10 people, so we three were arranged to sit with 7 other foreign travelers. Before we started, the staff taught us several basic skills and postures, then we were led by him to the boat. When the rope was off the boat, we then floated to the downstream of the river automatically.

The speed of the rafting boat was faster than expected, when the staff constantly made his order to ask us paddle faster. At times when we passed by some swirl-pools, he did not let us stop, it felt like we were totally going to be swallowed by the swirl-pools. 

Unfortunately, I was arranged to sit in front of him. Every time when I stopped paddling and caught the rope of the boat so that I wouldn't fall into the water, he just hit me with his paddle. Though it did not hurt, it was humiliating enough! I wasn't paid to get beaten voluntarily. 

After 30 minutes, we all got used to the paddling and the posture of rafting. At the same time, the boat was parked on the right side of the river bank. We were actually having lunch here in the middle of the river (no where). And we needed to climb all the way to the top to have our lunch. As always, I was a very clumsy climber. Lucky that I grabbed the hand of the staff and let him pull me all the way to the top, or else I would still be at the foot of the river bank. 

It was a tiny shelter, seemingly built of some shabby iron sheets. There was a tap for people to wash off their bodies. In the middle, the food was put on the table and it was actually a buffet lunch. Nevertheless, standing in the dirty shelter with my soaking wet body, I did not have any appetite at all. Though the curry chicken was truly a surprise!

The local bus filled with passengers and luggage

After lunch at the horrible shelter place, we continued our rafting journey. Despite sometimes it became exciting when we passed the river bends and swirl-pools, it was actually quite dull most of the time. When the trip almost came to the end, the staff let us swim in the river. The color of the river looked extremely turbid which repelled me so much that we finally forced Eason to jump into the river instead, which of course, under our undemocratic system.

The end point of the rafting trip had no sign, we just stopped in the middle of the river, again. In fact, I did not want to get myself wet at all since I did not have any spare clothes to change. However, the boat was not parked on the river bank. We all got completely wet after we got off from the boat. My foot was even hurt by the grains at the bottom. How could I never be disgusted by this rafting trip?

When we got back to the top of the river banks, we saw our luggage was scattered disorderly at the corner of another shelter. We washed our legs and hands and then were ready to head off to Chitwan. Whereas, there was no travel bus to Chitwan, the only transport was the local bus. We merely got on the bus with a bunch of other foreign travelers. And all of the backpacks/suitcases were stuffed on the aisle of the bus. In addition to our soaking wet body, it was very uncomfortable to sit around this packed area. 

We finally arrived at Chitwan around 5 in the evening. Once we got off the bus, there was already a guy waiting to pick us up. We were led to a Tuk Tuk kind of car, and were driven into the national park. 10 minutes later, we arrived at the hotel we are going to stay – Eden Jungle Resort. The owner of the resort is a Nepali, who was born in Chitwan, but later went to college in Beijing. Thus he can speak Mandarin fluently. To make sure we felt welcome, he arranged the rooms and introduced the journey of tomorrow for us attentively. At night, we spent our time having dinner in the common area/restaurant before going to bed. 

P.S.

Chitwan is located in the rain forest area. Therefore, besides the hot weather, it is also very humid, especially during rainy season. There are a lot of mosquitoes and bugs flying around the resort. Fortunately, there is mosquito net on top of every bed. Sleeping in harmony for the night will not be a problem. But preparing a mosquito repellent is a must! Furthermore, another disgusting thing is that there are many geckos crawling on the wall/ceiling/everywhere you can think of. And they are not alone; it’s driving me nuts!!!