Safe in Loma Linda

Posted by Kevin Smith | | Posted On Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 6:16 AM

We just arrived in Loma Linda.  Fairly uneventful trip but we had some fun in Hong Kong on our way home.  We have lots of blog posts that we still want to add, especially our trekking adventure.

Pokhara: lake, mountains, paradise

Posted by Kevin Smith | Labels: , , , , , | Posted On Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 10:06 AM


Pokhara, Phewa Lake and cloud covered mountains

Lonely Planet sums it up:
"Imagine a perfect triangular mountain, capped by snow and buffeted by the icy winds of the Himalaya. Imagine a millpond calm lake, perfectly reflecting the snowy peaks. Now imagine a village on the lakeshore, thronged by travellers and reverberating to the sound of ‘om mani padme hum’ from a hundred shops selling prayer flags, carpets, masks, singing bowls and CDs of Buddhist mantras. That’s Pokhara."


Jessica included drum lessons in her shopping

After enduring a bus ride from hell, Lakeside in Pokhara is truly paradise. We left Chitwan on a "tourist" bus. Unlike most tourist buses here in Nepal there was no air conditioning. So we endured a hot humid six hour trip in a bus packed with people with chairs that squeaked as we drove over washed out, bumpy roads. We survived and after a few hours of shopping around found a hotel we liked. Little did we know that we had perhaps the best room in Pokhara. The "penthouse" room, #612, all by itself on the top floor of the Landmark Hotel, for $40 a night. The views were amazing. From our balcony we saw the lake surrounded by green hills placed perfectly to highlight the Annapurna snow-capped mountains rising in the background.


The scene was even more beautiful in person

Our first night we were treated to an fantastic lightning storm that lasted for a couple hours. Being the unofficial photographer on the trip I had a lot of fun. I've always wanted to learn how to take night photographs so I dragged the hotel cabinet do the balcony door and started experimenting with the exposure times. I was using fixed exposure times of 20-30 seconds so a lot of them didn't turn out. The most impressive lightning was WAY overexposed and many shots didn't have any lightning. The worst part was waiting the remainder of the exposure time to see if the shot turned out alright. In the end a couple did.


The only "land strike" that didn't overexpose


The lightning was fun to watch


This one highlights the ominous rain clouds moving in across the lake

We relaxed the next day and then hiked from Devi's Falls up to the World Peace Pagoda. We took the wrong path but we had a great time anyway. Note to self, always take the bigger path. We came within about 6 feet of a family of monkeys before they scampered away. We also had the path all to ourselves until the very end. The pagoda itself wasn't worth the hike but the views of the lake and the clouds mingling with the mountains made it worth it.


Storm clouds highlighting the sunlit pagoda


Hiking through rice fields and headed for the hills ahead


Panorama near the junction where we met up with the right path again


The World Peace Pagoda framed by clouds


Self portrait time


Compare the loads and footwear to see how tough Nepali women are

After hiking down to the lake we enjoyed a relaxing boat ride back to Lakeside and our hotel. We spent a lot of time exploring all the shops along the lake. If felt like we had gone into every one before we left. We also highly recommend the Moondance Restaurant next to the Landmark Hotel and also the Tea Time Bamboostan restaurant toward the north end of Lakeside, both of which have free wireless internet for customers. We also had a great time renting a boat or kayak and heading out on the lake on our own. We had a beautiful sunset boat ride watching a big group of monkeys swing down one by one to drink from the lake about 20 feet from our boat. They were hard to spot in the fading light but you could tell where they were by the wild swaying branches.


Lakes and mountains combine very nicely


Jessica watching monkeys swing down to drink out of the lake


The sal forest came right to the water's edge

Pokhara is a travelers paradise because you have everything you need and most of the luxuries you would want all within walking distance along a lake front framed by a breathtaking mountain range. The setting is impossible to put into words. Pokhara is filled with restaurants, German bakeries, massage boutiques, laundry services, hand-made Tibetan jewelery stands, miniature REI shops selling "genuine" trekking gear, clothing stores, travel agents, and more. The shop keepers clamorer for attention and say things like "Come inside and just look, no need to buy." Once you get over the feeling of being accosted and loose the "I'm lost" look the salesman aren't a bother but add to the atmosphere of Pokhara. While Jessica was invited into every jewelry and clothing shop, I got offered marijuana at least twice and the barber shops all wanted to shave my "trekking beard" whenever they saw me. Thankfully I don't think I offended any of them when I laughed at them.


Lake front restaurants are so common in Pokhara they're typical


Jessica with her favorite Tibetan refugee


The island temple in the background was crowded day and night so we skipped it

Chitwan National Park

Posted by Jessica | | Posted On Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 7:52 PM


Sunset outside our hotel in Chitwan

Nepal, a tourist destination for a safari? Why not? We now know why not but that hasn't stopped Nepal. Actually, I applaud the salesmanship of the local tour guides. You see, Nepal has a Royal Chitwan National Park but after 3 days of the package deal of safari activities we still hadn't really entered the park. We did however experience the "Buffer Zone" and a Community Forest from all different angles.


Chitwan could use some rehabilitation


There were some jeeps like this one that were still on the roads

The tour guides did a great job of parroting their rehearsed scripts for the tour but when Kevin's questions and observations deviated from the typical tourist, they repeated answers to questions we weren't asking, had already covered, or just said yes when it was obvious they didn't understand.  I cringed on multiple occasions when the conversations got tense with Kevin asking if it was possible under any circumstances to enter the National Park and our guide repeating the three activity options in our package that were not actually inside the park.  One of the activities was visiting the elephant breeding grounds where we got some really cute photos of the tame elephants.


Rare twin baby elephants at the Elephant Breeding Center


Happy family


Training starts at the young age of 4 years old

After asking at the park information center in town we found out that to most hotel packages don't actually enter the National Park and it would only marginally increase your chances of seeing more animals. As it was we rode tame elephants and saw human acclimated one-horned rhinoceros, a couple types of deer, two types of crocodiles, miscellaneous birds, and a huge bee hive outside our hotel window.


Notice the huge black beehive outside our window

Our elephant safari ride was a herd of about 20 elephants each carrying five humans all walking through the community forest together at regularly scheduled intervals through out the day. This pack of trained elephants would essentially herd the semi-tame rhinoceros for our viewing pleasure.


Rhino surrounded by elephants carrying tourists


Elephants carrying tourists across the river

Ignoring the phenomenon of profusely sweating even when standing still, the jungle walk was pleasant.  The canoe rides were relaxing and added two different types of crocodiles to our list of animal sitings.


Jungle Walk


Our dugout canoes with removable little chairs


Riding in a long canoe


The long snout means it's a fish eating crocodile


Crocodiles with short snouts will eat mammals including humans

One morning we rented bikes from the hotel kitchen staff and ventured around the nearby village of Sauraha. Cars are extremely expensive in Nepal because they are subjected to a 180% car tax so bikes and elephants were the main mode of transportation in the flat Chitwan area.


Self portrait during our bicycle ride


Watch out the elephant is backing up!


Better transportation than a car especially with an umbrella for a sun shade


Notice the empty tourist cage on the elephant's back

The evening cultural show is worth mentioning because we were struck by the similarities between Nepal's ancient dancing and other ancient culture's dancing. It seemed like how David would have danced in the Bible.


Traditional Nepali dancing

The entire trip was worth it because of a glorious hour of elephant bathing. Just riding on the elephant bareback was thrilling but when he lowered his massive body into the river it could have been the most exciting roller-coaster from our shouts and expressions. Then being sprayed by water from his trunk and being effortlessly tossed from his back into the rushing river inspired such childish delight I will never forget it. By the end of the hour I was exhausted from repeating the process of hurling myself up on the kneeling elephant, holding on for dear life while he climbed down the river bank, dodging spays of water from the elephant's trunk, being effortlessly tossed into the river, and finally swimming against a rushing current to dry land.


Climbing up on the elephant was harder than it looks


Into the river we go


A shower from the elephant trunk


Laughing as we are about to be spayed again


Don't forget to keep your mouth closed


Here comes more water


A flick of his muscular body and we were in the water


Somehow the driver in the front always remained dry


Climbing up the flooded river bank

This was a rare opportunity I almost passed up because I was fully clothed, knew there were crocodiles in this particular river, the water was disgusting, and the river was unusually high from the heavy rains the previous night. In the end half of our group chose to jump in and the other half remained dry on the shore laughing and taking pictures. Kevin thoughtfully signaled to me from shore to keep my mouth closed while I was laughing as the elephant sprayed water over its shoulder and onto the faces of those riding. I don't think either group regretted their decision. The large clumps of floating elephant poo didn't bother me and the land lovers were happy to avoid such a close encounter.


Connecting with an elephant

Chitwan for all of its experiences is memorable and in the end has added to my life experiences even if I wouldn't exactly categorize it as a great destination for a safari.


Still happy at the end of a hot and sweaty day of adventures