India/Nepal Trip - Part 4

Jan 12 - Yet another early morning today because we got up early to ride elephants in the park. While riding elephants can be exceedingly uncomfortable (as I discovered in Thailand), it was a very cool experience, especially because we got to see a mother rhino with her baby only a few feet away. Chitwan is known for its rhinos, but obviously we were not guaranteed to see any, so we were lucky. After the ride, we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a few hours (read: slept) before walking into town to explore the small town on foot. After exhausting the town, we rented bikes and biked out to some nearby communities, which allowed us to see a little more of what daily life is like here. We finished up the day with a bonfire again to keep warm.

Jan 13 - Slept in a bit then drove to Pokhara today. The drive was rather scary because we kept seeing overloaded trunks that had either tipped on a curve or gone off cliffs. That said, it was one of the most stunningly beautiful drives I've ever done. After settling into our hotel in Pokhara (which is again lacking in the heat department), we spent the remainder of the afternoon/evening exploring the town and trying to stay warm. It's a very nice town - clean, organized and full of cafes and cute shops. It's probably a bit touristy during tourist season, but we're still at least a few weeks ahead of that, so it's really quite nice.

Jan 14 - Got to sleep in for the second day in a row, then did some shopping and catching up on internet stuff then got ready for paragliding (an adventure sport that involves riding the air currents like a bird while being held up in the air by a parachute). I'm not exactly sure how I got talked into it, but I, along with most of the rest of our group, ended up running off a cliff and paragliding over the lake for half an hour with the Annapurna mountains in the background. It was nearly as scary as I expected and basically was just incredibly awesome. I loved it! Tomorrow we're back to getting up early to see the sunrise over the Annapurnas before driving to Kathmandu. I can't believe the trip is almost finished. What an amazing couple of weeks!