safe in Kathmandu

We're here, safe and sound - the blockade ended yesterday. How can I quickly describe 5 days in Chitwan?

The region where the Park is located is in the far south of Nepal, about 15 miles from India. It reminds me more of images of India than of Nepal. It is flat, partly agricultyural and partly covered with rain forests. Cars are sparse, people travel in horse drawn buggies and bike pulled carts. Some ride elephants! They growlots of rice, lentils and mustard, among other crops.

We stayed at a lodge that uses part of its earnings to fund social projects. They want to start a school, a clinic, a
factory where women can produce and store handicrafts and a home for seniors. I think Kate included the URL in a recent message; I highly recommend it when you are around Chitwan. The staff is bery helpful, friendly
and fun. I interviewed the manager and hope to come up with an article about our stay.

On the first day we rode bikes through some villages. The Thuru people have lived in the area for many years, and they are farmers. They live in concrete houses with thatched roofs, and some villages have no electricity. Adults were busy, but kids waved at us calling "Hello! Namaste! Bye-bye!! One girl blew us a kiss! Goats, chickens, ducks and dogs were scurrying about everywhere.

Then we biked into a community forest; a monkey sat in a tree and watched us enter the forest. We saw more birds than I can describe here, but I do have a list. Some are familiar. There are bright orange, yellow and black orioles, and their kingfishers are iridescent blue and green. Herons, ibises and ospreys watched us; so did monkeys and a baby crocodile. Our lodge organized this activity as well as others we participated in.

On the next day we went to a remote Thuru village with no electricity. We met a family and helped them gather
spinach and leaves from coriander, garlic and radishes from their garden.We tore these up, chopped potatoes with a small scythe and ground massala into a paste using a grinding stone.Dinner was daal batt (lentils and rice)
cooked with our greens and the massala. We also had tomato pickles, and a glass of home brewed rice wine.
The latter tasted like strong sake, with an unusual but good fruity aftertaste. Quite an amazing experience! KIds and adults kept coming into the house to see who we were and what we were about, Our hostess liked it that
we enjoyed the meal!

Then we went to a wildlife observation tower for the night. After dark, two rhinos wandered into the clearing near the base of the tower. One was a male, intent on mating with the female. He bellowed a lot, and seemed to be following her about while she concentrated on grazing. We could hear them clearly, and sometimes they were close enouigh that we could see them - great moving forms without shapes is the way I described them in a poem.
They stayed for about 3 hours and then went on their way. At one point we shone our flashlights around the clearing and the light was reflected back from a tiger's eyes. It was across the clearing, and didn't come near us;
we were safe in the tower even if it had come close. Talk about awesome!!! Dawn overthe misty jungle was awesome.We discovered that a peacock had spent the night in a tree next to us. Oh yes - we also heard barking deer during the night. They are big, and they do indeed bark!

We got back to the lodge around 8 AM and relaxed until early afternoon.Then we canoed down a river into
the jungle. We passed many, many birds - the kingfishers here dig burrows in the riverbank for their homes. So do the crocodiles. We saw two species. The fish eating crocs are endangered, our guide told us we were really lucky to see them,. WE saw a whole lot of marsh muggers. These crocks are known to eat people at time, but they were busy sunning for warmth and ignored us.

Our naturalist suddenly spotted rhinos on land. We put ashore and got a good look at them; they were a mother and baby. The mom watched us closely but we kept a healthy distance. After this we walked for a few miles to a jungle lake that was home to many birds - lovely! We also stopped at an elephant breeding center on our way back to the lodge. These elephants are raised to work in the Chitwan National Park; rangers use them for various tasks. I achieved another goal of petting a baby elephant!

We tried to take the bus to Kathmandu yesterday; as I mentioned, we were stopped when landless people blocked the road. It was really pretty amazing; the line of trucks and busses went on for miles. People were making the most of things: talking by the road, buying fruit and peanuts from vendors, etc. After an hour our driver decided it was futile to wait and took us back to Chitwan. WE went back to our lodge where the staff
assured us we'd make it today. We also had some good laughs with them about the whole thing.

We made it to Kathmandu easily enough today. The afternoon and evening have been devoted to laundry and other last minute errands. WE leave for Japan tomorow morning. WE DON'T WANT TO LEAVE NEPAL!!!
DON'T MAKE US LEAVE!!!

We'll be at the Changi Airport in SIngapore tomorow evening; I'll try to send some more thoughts before we change planes for Japan. We'll send the following day with a friend of Kate's and may not be able to post until the
nex day. In other words we'll post again in about 72 hours if not before, depending on how things go.

Namaste, dear Nepal, we plan to come back.PG