I'm back! Even if only ephemerally. I've let school and exams and tutoring get in the way of writing anything non-academicr recently. I'm still unsure what I want to do with this blog but for now I'm going to write about whatever I feel like.

I went to Nepal recently for a short vacation and I had some interesting experiences there! This is not going to be a blow by blow account of what I did( because I have no patience for such things) just some interesting things that happened.

Nepal is beautiful for what it is. I don't know if it was because of the fog, but the scenery had a painting-like quality that made me feel like I was in a dream. It just looked too pretty to be real.





Aunty Sumathi and Rishika trying to get a picture with the pretty tree in the middle of the mustard plantation.

A jungly experience

We stayed at a jungle safari at Chituwan, which is about a 5-hour drive from Kathmandu the capital. Now we had to drive on what must be the worst roads in the world. I suppose it comes as no surprise that our car driver, Dhana looked perpetually stressed. I think it's madness to drive on those hilly roads on a regular basis. What we did get to see along the way were the villages, what our guide called the 'real Nepal'. We stopped to take pictures on a suspension bridge, that linked a village and the highway.



At the safari we did a couple of cool things like going on an elephant safari and also jungle trekking where we really came up close to animals. It's so sad that living in the city means you have to travel thousands of kilometres to see nature( beyong the Botanic Gardens, I mean). Our elephant was having really bad tummy trouble and passing gas throughout the two-hour long elephant safari ride. Luckily I was sitting near the elephant's head and remained relatively unaffected.:D One of the crocs we passed by on our canoe ride raised it's head in acknowelegement when we passed by... I was just hoping we weren't dinner.:P



One of the many crocs we saw on our canoe ride

Mother feeding her child

At one point though I think we were a little too close to nature.

Yes, that is a giant beeehive on the oustide of the stairwell window of the resort we stayed in. The first time we saw it, we were walking down the stairs to the resort's lobby from our rooms. I think we all literally stopped in our tracks for 10 seconds. What would happen if the glass window broke somehow?! The manager of the resort however informed us that the bees don't disturb them and they harvest the honey from the hive. I was stunned. And at that point I decided I am not suited for roughing it out in the countryside.

Here's a shot I took on our jungle trek. I didn't zoom in to take this shot, this is literally how close I was to the cattle.

Unfortunately, they run away if you go any closer than this.

We left the safari for a more city-like region after 2 days, but more on that next time! I hope everyone has a good weekend!

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