Chitwan National Park Safari

We arrived at Chitwan late at night, so we went right to bed in order to get up early for a full day safari. Chitwan National Park is 932 square kilometers of jungle in the south of Nepal, so we were really in the middle of nowhere. I didn't even ask if they had wifi... The next morning, we got up at 5 am to have breakfast before making the muddy trek down to the riverbank. We got in wooden canoes that were hollowed out tree trunks (and very wobbly--I don't even want to know what was lurking in the water had I fallen in) and set off downstream for some wildlife sighting.
The canoe we used for the morning safari

We saw some kingfishers, herons, peacocks, and then something moved to my left. Something BIG. I look over (we had to be silent or else we'd scare the wildlife away) and there is a MASSIVE crocodile lying on the riverbank, maybe 10 feet away from the canoe. Had to be at least twenty feet long. You know that feeling of terror you get when you watch scary movies? (No? Just me? alrighty then) Well. I held my breath until we had passed the danger zone...those things are notorious for being deadly still until they strike, and then you have no chance. Seeing as it could've easily bit the canoe in half, I am very glad it prioritized suntanning over eating small Canadians.
<Croczilla on the riverbank

After that hair-raising experience, we stopped by the elephant breeding centre in the park. It was kind of a let-down, as there wasn't much explanation given, and the elephants were all chained to posts in a row. Not sure what they're trying to accomplish here, but happy elephants is certainly not the priority.
I did get some cool photos of the elephants, though...

My elephant bathing experience On our way home, we stopped by another part of the river and took an elephant bath. Now. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it quite literally means you sit on the elephant's back, and an elephant bathes you, by drawing water into his trunk and then soaking you. Or spontaneously dunking underwater and you hang on for dear life. Great fun, although I don't want to think about what was in the water I was being sprayed with...
Getting dunked by my elephant.

We had some down-time for lunch before we headed back into the jungle that afternoon for an elephant safari. They set four of us on each elephant--let me tell you, boarding one of these things is not like getting on a plane. There is some serious maneuvering involved. Once it started walking, we quickly realized this would not be a tranquil activity. The lurching is so bad I had bruises on my arms from hitting the bars holding us in. Not sure what the maharajas were thinking when they decided to use pachyderms as their preferred method of transport...
My attempt to board the plane...

Once you get over the motion of the ocean, so to speak, it's actually a really cool experience, because the elephants can just walk right through dense jungle that would take ages to cover on foot. we were really in the thick of it, but had been walking for a while, and there was no guarantee we'd see anything on this trip--the park ranger said the last time he saw a tiger was in February, and he lives here.

All of a sudden, there was movement in the bushes. We amble over and come face to face with the rare one-horned rhino, a mother and her baby. It was amazing--we came so close I had to lift my legs out of the way for them to walk by. Luckily, Ace Ventura did not make any appearances, so I'm 99% sure they were real rhinos. That made the entire trip worth it, and it's completely different seeing one of those in the wild versus at the zoo; it was such a spontaneous moment, we had no idea it was going to happen. No tiger sightings, but considering there's only eight of them in the whole park, I didn't get my hopes up anyway. Seeing the rhinoceros that close was enough for me.

A close encounter with a one-horned rhino We capped the evening off by watching the sun set over the river, thinking about how lucky we were to have seen what we saw today.

Paragliding in Pokhara

See that dirt behind me? That's the runway. Pokhara - Aug 29

I definitely did not realize when I signed up for paragliding that in order to paraglide, one must run at full-speed off the side of a mountain. Or that the only thing keeping you from falling to your death are nylon strings about two millimeters in diameter. What seemed like a leisurely activity in the guidebook suddenly seemed more like a death wish. But I came to Nepal to try stuff like this, so I'd be damned if I chickened out.
Me and my pilot, mid-flight

So, that led me to the top of a mountain with a very steep incline and a lot of wind. Nevertheless, when my pilot said to start running, I ran. Miraculously, it worked, and we were airborne. We drifted over the valley and through the mountains for about half an hour, catching thermals and enjoying the bird's eye view--literally. It was a ton of fun; kind of relaxing actually! Once I realized I wasn't going to crash, that is. I think I would've felt a little differently if I had been the one steering.

For those of you too scared to try it, here's what you can see from up there

In the afternoon, I had signed up for a pony trek, which I thought would be a great way to see some mountains other than just by hiking. Turns out, a pony trek in Pokhora means a little boy brings you a horse, tells you to get on, then leads you--on foot--down the main road by the lake. No mountains. No trekking. Why didn't he have his own horse? I could've walked faster than the pace we went. Maybe it'd be fine for someone who's never ridden before, but I was excited to get into the mountains! Definitely didn't happen. Oh, and my horse was also the laziest creature I have ever seen. He was incapable of galloping, so it was either walk at the pace of a snail, or trot, which as some of you know, is not the most comfortable thing in the world, even if you know how to ride. Now picture three hours of trotting. Needless to say, my bum was in rough shape the next day (get your minds out of the gutter).

We were on a tight schedule so we packed up the car right after and made the drive to Chitwan National Park (no guerillas this time, LUCKILY.)

So, overall, the verdict: Paragliding? Thumbs up. Definitely worth it. Pony trekking? I want my 50 bucks back. Pokhora was gorgeous and I wish we had more time there.

The Taj in 24 Hours

Travel day: Jodhpur to Agra. We took a 12 HR train ride today so we could get to Agra at night, stay over, and be up to see the Taj at sunrise the next day. We literally sat there for the entire day, so not much to write about. When we got out of the train station, many drivers came up asking if we needed a ride (as usual) and one guy was particularly friendly, so James agreed to go with him. I try to stay out of these decisions since I think it'd compromise james' ability to bargain down the price. We asked how much, and the driver said "no problem. I take you first, then you pay as you like." Big mistake. He was super friendly, and told us about all these hotels he knew for a good price, but we knew they do this and have commission deals with the places they mention, so we told him had a reservation at the first place on our list and went there to check out a room. India 101: never book ahead until you've seen a room. There are no assumptions here, including standards of cleanliness.

Turns out the place we wanted was full, and we didn't really know many other places, so we agreed to go look at this place the driver suggested. James went inside to look, and I stayed in the car with the luggage and driver. It was fine for a while, but James was gone for a long time and the driver started getting creepy, telling me about his workout plan and flexing his muscles. Thankfully, James came back shortly after to say the room was fine-we were only here for one night- and I took my bags inside. The driver had been trying to convince us to hire him for the day tomorrow to take us to all the major sights, but we knew his price was obscenely expensive so I let James decline for the both of us. I headed inside at a good moment apparently, because the driver got extremely upset. It didn't help that James paid him 100 rupees for the ride from the station. Sorry buddy, but if you didn't quote a price ahead of time and say "as you like", sometimes you're gonna get tourists who actually know what things cost. Can't scam us, we've been in India too long!

James came inside and relayed this development to me, just as the driver walked in behind him, past the check in counter, and into the hotel restaurant, where he also works. SHIT. we spent half the night terrified our food was poisoned, and the other half waiting to hear the lock on the door turn. I definitely checked to make sure my limbs were still intact the next morning. Lesson learned: be very wary of drivers that seem too nice, because they probably are.

We woke up at 5:30 am to make it to the Taj Mahal for 6 am, when it opens for the day. 750 rupees for entrance is highway robbery, but I guess that's what a Wonder of the World costs nowadays. After dodging the annoyingly persistent guides trying to get our business, we headed to the entrance. Since this was the main attraction and the whole reason we came to Agra, we had packed snacks so we could stay for most of the day. Of course food isn't allowed, and there's no signs to indicate this. Thatd be too efficient. There were storage lockers a 5 minute walk away, and I was not about to waste perfectly good granola bars. I peeled a banana on the way over, only to come face to face with a particularly aggressive looking monkey who was staring me down. I attempted to deak him out, but he bared his teeth and growled, so i hurled said banana in the opposite direction and booked it. I arrived at the storage room only to find out it costs money. Of course. Out of principle, I refused to pay, and ate my granola bars sullenly as I made my way back to the entrance. Bureaucracy...

We finally got into the grounds and began walking when I caught my first glimpse of the domed roof sparkling in the distance. I'm rarely awestruck, but the Taj has to be up there with one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. It's so perfect, it doesn't look real. It looks cartoon-I felt like I had stepped into the world of Aladdin or something.

For those of you that don't know, the story goes something like this: after the Shah Jahan's wife Mehmtez Mahal died giving birth to their 14th child, he was heartbroken. He built the Taj Mahal as a memorial to her. It took twenty thousand workers over 33 years to build the structure. When his son grew up he overthrew the father and imprisoned him in Agra Fort across the river, where the Shah was forced to look at his creation every day until he died there.

After we exhausted our photographic options at the Taj, we got tired of the touristy atmosphere (if it was this crowded at sunrise, I shudder to think of what it must be like during peak hours), so we decided to check out the Agra Fort. My dashing good looks awarded me free admission for being 14 and under, so we wandered around there for a bit, but it wasn't very impressive, especially having seen the fort in Jodhpur and the Taj itself.

We saw signs for a golf course so we decided to check it out. How cool would it be to play 9 with the Taj in the background? Unfortunately, Indian logic proved too much for us to handle, and we decided a thousand rupees plus a mandatory caddie, and no left-handed clubs (I'm difficult, I know) was not worth it.

We pretty much exhausted our options for activities in Agra at that point--it really hasn't got much to offer other than the Taj, so I'm really glad we only spent one day there. I got some postcards and we hung out at a coffee shop, writing while it rained outside. We had dinner at Pizza Hut before catching our first overnight train to Varanasi, where we're spending the last three days before flying to Nepal.

Zip Lining Over Mehrangarh Fort

After a morning of sightseeing on a blistering hot day, we headed to lunch, and keeping my streak alive, ended up at McDonald's. After a quick dip in the pool at the hotel, James and I split up to do our own thing: he wanted to check out some gardens he read about, and I decided to do the zip line course at the fort.

I made it there just in time for the last group at 5 pm, the sunset course.After an encounter with a turtle and a practice run, I was ready to go.

There were six lines total, and it was just epic. The most amazing views of the fort as I flew through the air, high above the walls, watching the sun set on the Blue City. Fun fact: they shot scenes from the upcoming Batman movie at the Fort, so look for it when it comes out! Apparently they turned it into a vampire castle or something...spooky. It was a great way to end my time in Jodhpur, and it was one of the highlights of my trip so far. Now I can't wait for bungee jumping and white water rafting when I get to Nepal!

Jaipur: The Pink (and Boring) City

Today we headed out to see some sights in town, and find out why Jaipur is known as the Pink City. Turns out the entire old city was built using red sandstone--pretty simple explanation. You can really see it in the marketplace but that's about it. Underwhelming. We started off with Iswarat, basically a watchtower in the middle of the city. It had great views of Jaipur and our guide was particularly knowledgeable, so it was a good start.

Me and our guide at Iswarat

Then we went to the tourist trap that is City Palace--I don't think I took more than a few photos here, because aside from a textile museum, there isn't anything to see. LAME!

The coolest thing about City Palace

Next was the Hawa Mahal, which was slightly better but nowhere near the Amber Fort. After that, we hit the Bazaar in the Old City, and just walked around. Last, our driver took us to a place called Vishnu Gems because I mentioned I wanted to look at silver jewelry and he told me not to buy it in the market, cause you can't trust the quality there. I kind of went on a bit of a shopping spree, but I knew that was the main thing I wanted to buy on this trip--clothes take up too much space in my bag. And they kept feeding me chai tea, what could I do?

Tonight a girl came and gave me my first tattoo!--Henna, that is. Did you really think I would get something that visibly permanent on my arm? AS IF!

Tomorrow we're taking the train to Jodhpur. I'm sad to leave this hotel because it was so great, but excited for some, well, excitement. Blue City, bring it on.