Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Terai

New Year's Day 1991. I was up around 9.00am and packed up my stuff and checked out. I caught a bus to Tadi Bazaar and then set off to the Chitwan National Park by Jeep. The notes suggest that I didn't arrive until about 5.00pm. The notes are so sparse that I had to check the length of the journey. It is 7 hours from Pokhara to Tadi Bazaar and quite a lot of it on the Siddhartha Highway.

That has a nice ring to it, don't you think? The Siddhartha Highway, so called because if you follow it to where it ends you arrive near Lumbini where the person, the Prince who was to become Buddha was born. My notes don't suggest otherwise than the journey was smooth allowing me to contemplate the Fourfold Noble Truth and the Eightfold Noble Path. On the other hand my notes just say "Bus → to Tadi Bazar". Either the arrow or the word "to" is redundant. I must be the world's worst note taker. I can't remember anything about the journey at all. It was probably bumpy and noisy and uncomfortable.

From Tadi Baazar it was a Jeep ride to the Tiger Wildlife Camp inside the Chitwan National Park. The ticket says I entered the Park at 19.20 which is very precise. I hadn't noticed before. The beauty of clicking on the images is that they are enlarged and you can examine them closely. I wonder why the exact time of entry in to the Park is noted?

The notes then just say "Arr. Bed. Met Canadians" in that order. This can't be right, can it? If it had been in that order I would remember it. As it is I can't remember the Canadians at all, I'm sorry for that. I must apologise to the Canadians too, it's so rude. I hope they forgot me too. It would serve me right.