We had eggs, toast, and potatoes again for breakfast. After dinner, the English man and I bicycled to the Elephant Breeding Center with the guide we had yesterday. We went through his village, and a few others, following the same road as I did on my bicycle ride yesterday. Today it was very foggy, and there were few people on the road this early. The guide said a rhino had been in the village last night. He pointed out the towers in the fields where men sometimes must keep watch for wildlife which would damage crops. Children liked to run behind the bicycles and push. A young girl jumped on the back of the English man's bicycle for a ride. About 3 km out of town, we came to the river where I turned back yesterday.
An large elephant, with long tusks, crossed the river carrying hay. The guide said that this was the biggest elephant at Chitwan. He recently went mad and broke his heavy chain, and had to be chased and tranquilized. He was then chained for two weeks with each leg to a tree, and not fed. Now he has shrunk, and was weaker. He was beaten a lot during retraining.
Today, we had to cross the knee-deep river to get to the Elephant Breeding Center. We removed our shoes and pushed the bicycles across. The guide admired my convertible pants again, and said that such inventiveness is what makes America a great country. The water was not cold, and the bottom had smooth round rocks. The other bank was muddy, and it was hard to put our shoes on cleanly, so the guide suggested leaving them off until we crossed back over. We rode the last kilometer barefoot, and arrived at the Elephant Breeding Center. There, we saw some baby elephants, including a six-week-old with its mother. It yanked at her chain with its trunk. We were told not to approach the babies, because they had long chains, and were already big enough to be dangerous. We should especially stay away from the one with its mother.
Behind the Breeding Center, in the distance near the woods, was the large elephant that had gone mad. We kept our distance from it. In front of the center, men were rolling grain and molasses into balls wrapped in leaves to make elephant food. We did not get too close to any elephants being ridden, since these were not yet fully trained, and they may charge. It takes two men to safely chain an elephant: one on its shoulders and one on the ground. The man on top can hit it with a hatchet if it tries to trample the man chaining it.
After seeing the Breeding Center, we rode back to the river. Our guide chased some cows around a field on his bicycle. We crossed, put on our shoes, and rode back through the villages, stopping outside the guide's house briefly. Some children asked us many questions in Nepali while we waited for him to return. The guide pointed out a large poinsettia tree to us, and asked what it was called in English. I told him, and wrote the name on the back of a park entrance ticket for him.
Back at the hotel, I had time to shower before leaving by Jeep at 10:00 for Tadi Bazaar. The English man was going to Pokhara, while the French couple and I would return to Kathmandu on the 11:00 tourist bus. Waiting to leave, I bought a half kilogram of oranges for 10 Rs, or 2 Rs per orange. I also bought a pack of Bourbon brand chocolate cream cookies and a Coke. An electronic music box somewhere played `Santa Clause is Coming to Town'.
The young lady next to me on the bus was from New York. She just received a masters degree in ecology, and was working for six months at the Chitwan Environmental Research Center before starting her Ph. D. work. The bus was the same one we rode down on, and it stopped at the same place for lunch, and I had Chow Mein. The lady from New York did not eat, perhaps because she didn't trust the roadside food. The bus made a lot of stops on the way back, and arrived in Kathmandu at 5:30 at a different bus stop in a part of town I did not recognize, although the monkey temple was visible on a hill nearby. I looked for Lal, wondering if he knew we would be stopping here, but he was not around. Several of us took a blue mini-bus waiting nearby back to Thamel for 20 Rs each. The lady from New York said this was a high price, but we went. A small child hung on the back. He smiled at me, and I gave him a cookie. The mini-bus stopped just outside the Hotel Garuda.
Lal expected me back around 3:00 at the Kantipath bus stop, and has called the hotel. After checking into my room, which was now on the fourth floor, directly above the last one and getting my luggage back, I hurried to Kantipath to see if he was still waiting there. On the way, he passed me on the unlighted street in front of the Royal Palace. I didn't see him in the darkness, but he saw me. I told him that we arrived at a different stop much later than he expected, and wondered why someone hadn't told him the correct information. He returned my plane ticket, which had been confirmed and stamped by the Indian Airline office. I had confirmations for the continuing flights as well. I was sorry he had to wait so long, and invited him to dinner, but he wanted to go home because his wife was expecting him. They do not have a phone. Lal invited me to his home for a final lunch before I left tomorrow afternoon. I said I would go over around 9 AM to see Bodhnath first, and he said he would meet me there.
I had a little time to do some shopping, and bought a T-shirt for my father, in a slightly larger size than mine, which said `Kathmandu' and had a picture of mountains and the Nepal flag. I also ordered a shirt for myself at the same shop, which had a large picture of a mountain that reminded me of Annapurna South, and said `Annapurna Base Camp'. I could pick the shirt up tomorrow around noon. I bought this one because I hadn't been thinking about how much weight I had lost when I bought my first Annapurna shirt, and I was afraid it might not fit after I get home. The scale at Hotel Garuda showed that I was now down to 155 pounds, the least I have weighed in ten years or more. I even found a store with a good selection of pretty T-shirts in small sizes. I bought one for my mother, guessing that she was one size smaller than the man in the store, who took a size 36.
I decided to go again to the Ghar-e-Kabab restaurant at the Hotel de l'Annapurna for my last dinner, since I had a wonderful meal there before. This time, I began with an appetizer consisting of lentil puffs and crispy rounds in three chutneys: tamarind, cilantro, and spiced yogurt, which was heavenly. For my main dish, I ordered barbecued chicken legs in a butter tomato masala, with Kashmiri pullau (rice containing dried fruits and nuts) and a garlic naan. I finished with milk balls in syrup and ginger tea. It was one of the best meals I have ever eaten in my life, and certainly the best Indian meal. It cost 605 Rs, or $12.10. For entertainment tonight, there was a vocalist accompanied by harmonium and tablas, singing Nepalese music. I recognized one of the songs, Resham Firiri, which is a favorite here.
On the way back to the hotel at 9:30 PM, I was passed by police running after a man. One threw a baton at him, but missed. The police here ordinarily carry no guns. I stopped at Pilgrim's Bookstore for a few tapes and a couple of posters, and arrived at the hotel just before they closed the security gate at 10:00.
Scott A. Yost, 1994. All rights reserved.