It’s my third night in Nepal, and it’s all still a bit of a blur.  Actually the entire last week is quite a blur.  My last day in the office  was Friday.  I spent the next three days checking off to-do lists, packing, running errands and making phone calls.  Then it was a 5am trip to the airport for the first of three flights to get me to Kathmandu.

I can’t say too much about Kathmandu as I wasn’t there for long.  Long enough to grab some dumplings (mo mo) and an Everest beer and get a bit of sleep before an early, early bus to Chitwan National Park in the south of Nepal.

I’m staying in a town called Sauraha on the border of Chitwan.  Sauraha reminds me a lot of another jungle town I visited: Pucallpa.  While planning a trip to Peru, Lonely Planet Peru had me believing that Pucallpa a) had it going on, as far as jungle towns went and b) was the right place to catch a river boat through the jungle up to Iquitos, capital of the Amazon, ala Motorcycle Diaries.  Wrong on both counts.  But I liked it, quirky little small town that it was.  A big difference between Pucallpa and Sauraha is that in Sauraha, you’re guaranteed to see someone go by riding an elephant every few minutes.

Sauraha is a mixed bag.  It’s half full of regular villagers who go about their normal life not taking much notice of the tourists and half-full of those working to cater for tourists.  Activities offered daily include elephant rides, canoe trips, jungle walks, tiger treks, bird watching tours and lots more.  I arranged to stay in a lovely little lodge and told them my schedule and what I wanted to do.  They put together an excellent itinerary for me and have kept me very busy.  Almost too busy to notice that their wifi rarely works, but hey, it’s holidays right?  It’s good to unplug.

The first night we went to a cultural program showing the dance skills of the local Tharu men.  I’m always hesitant about these types of things.  It can sometimes be difficult to respectfully observe traditional displays without feeling like exploiting the culture somehow.  The dancers were excellent though, and they definitely seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The food here has been very tasty, and I’m falling in love with their masala tea which they serve after meals.  Although I’m getting better at getting up at 5am, I have to admit I’m still not a huge fan of it.  However when the sun sets at 6pm and most of the day is scorching hot, you have to make the most of the daylight hours you have.  So 6am elephant ride, here I come.