Day 150 - Kathmandu to Chitwan

We try to keep our bus rides under 12hours. Buses in South Asia are incredibly convenient, but comfort is generally not a priority. More than 8hours and one's butt is in danger of permanent damage.

For this reason, we decided to break our trip back into India into more manageable chunks...that, and we like Chitwan.

The bus from Kathmandu was scheduled to leave at 7:00. We rolled out at about 7:30. Luckily it was still festival time, so traffic was relatively light. We drove through impressive mountain scenery, only stopping once, briefly for a pee-break and snack purchasing. The combination of light traffic and only one stop meant that the anticipated 7hour bus ride only took five.

As a consequence, we arrived at the Chitwan bus park 2hours ahead of schedule. Sapana was going to send someone to collect us, but because we were so early, we decided to walk to the lodge. We just trekked about 200K in the mountains...we figured 2K on the flat wasn't going to kill us.

And it didn't. We actually crossed paths with the Sapana Jeep on its way to the bus park, and so were able to hitch a ride after all.

After settling in, we went down to the restaurant for lunch. The newest member of Sapana's staff, a grey kitten named Tukie, thought that Cz made a great jungle gym. Tiny kitten claws are not so condusive to good reading, but cute trumps claws, so Tukie got away with just about everything, including an attempted flying leap into our plate of buff momos.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry, reading, and generally relaxing.

In the evening, the sound of singing and clapping drew us to the window. A group of children were clustered below, performing. In Chitwan, as in Kathmandu, part of the festival activities include children going door to door singing and dancing for money and sweets. In any given night, several groups might come by, and the festival goes on for nearly a week. By the end of Diwali, the owner of Sapana had given out over 2000 rupees to these roving bands!

Also as a result of the festival, Sapana was running on limited staff...including no one in the kitchen. Luckily one of the other staff is an excellent cook, and made dhal bhat tarkari (rice, lentil soup, and vegetable curry) for everyone. While we were eating, one of the geckos (tiny lizzards that eat mosquitos) that live in the thatch over the dining area decided that he wanted to be a little festive too, and took a flying dive into another guest's beer mug. He eventually was nudged back onto the table where he staggered around for a bit licking his lips before scampering away.

I hate to think how his head felt in the morning.