I was picked up around 9 to be at the airport by 10 for my 10:45 flight to Bhaktapur (Chitwan). Chandra couldn't make it so he sent me off at the terminal with my ticket. I had to wait about 1/2 hout before I could even check in. After that I went through security to the large waiting room.
There is only one gate. The monitors were slow or inaccurate. The P.A. was to echoy to be clear, and there was one guy yelling flight numbers in a thick accent. It was difficult to follow. By looking at the monitors I saw the 6 or 7 destinations possible. I also knew the name of th 4 or 5 airlines. With that it was at least a bit easier to tell if they were calling a different flight.
I got worried though as my time came and went. It seemed many flights were delayed though. So I bought some Pringles and a Sprite and parked myself very close to the announcer. About an hour late, we boarded.
This time I was on Cosmic Air, which although smaller, was a much newer and nicer plan. There was even a stewardess for the 18 of us on board. We landed 30 mins later on a strip of dirt. It was even hotter here than in KTM. I got my bag and looked for someone who looked like they were looking for me. It took a while, but I found him and we took a rickshaw to the hotel.
Even though there were rooms and a pool, this was just a waiting place. Our rooms were actually about an hour away inside the park by bus, then boat, then walk. There was a large party coming, and then we would go. I waited in a shady area by the pool. I talked to an Italian on his way back to KTM and got a small lunch--a veggy burger w/ chips and a salad! The burger was a half cooked thing about the size of a silver dollar on two pieces of white bread with the corners cut off. There were no fries, and the salad was worse than Tommy's. But I ate it and took a nap at the table.
After a while I was ushered inside where the rest of the group had show up. They were loud and seemed to be upset. I couldn't tell where they were from. At first I thought Italy, but then Russia. I later found out they were Greek.
We got on the bus, then the boat, and then walked to the resort. It's not bad, although I was warned about the spiders by the Italian. On a chalkboard was our activity and dinner time. We were instructed to check often to see what our next programmer was. It was 4 now, so we had lunch. At 4:30 we were already on our first programmer.
My first item was an elephant ride. It was bumpy, but cool. It didn't take long before we met a rhino in the river. There were 3 other elephants and some people walking with a guide. After watching the rhino, I noticed one of the walkers was Eddy. And Emelie was next to him. I said hello from on top of the elephant. We saw 3 more rhinos and some spotted deer and a peacock.
We got back and I had a beer at the bar. Two guys approached me and asked if I've been to Everest. I hadn't noticed them, but I guess they saw me at some of the stops. Then the Kiwi's came by.
It turns out, the day after I left them, they were flown out. Eddy was having chest pains. Everything turned out fine, but their trip was cut short. So they decided to go to Chitwan and arrived yesterday. They had taken a bus which they now regretted. (The Greeks had also taken a bus, which is why they had been complaining. However even when not complaining, they are loud and all talk at the same time.) After catching up, it was 8 and dinner time.
It was bed time after that as there was a 5:30 wake up call. Then 6:00 tea, and 6:15 activity, then another activity. It's all a bit too militaristic in its regimen.
My first activity was a walk and then boat back. It was okay, but we didn't see anything. We had breakfast where I said goodbye to the Kiwi's and was off on another elephant ride.
I was more prepared this time with the camera, but we didn't see anything. We were in a much more forested area, so we had to keep ducking branches. There was a French couple next to me, the woman looked a bit like Karen. At one point in a Sophie French accent she told me "It's not funny" as I kept laughing about all the branches, which seemed to be more on her side. She was very good natured about it though.
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