Travels in Nepal # 54 Kathmandu to Chitwan
On the day after arriving back in Kathmandu after the trek Rose and I went exploring this fascinating city. We did some shopping in Patan, went to visit an international school and had dinner with the trekking group in Thamel.
For more details read my travel journal here.
On the following morning we said farewell to most of the trekking group. My daughter Rose was heading off to Bangkok on her way home to South Australia. Kath was also heading to Bangkok for a short break in Thailand. James was going back to London for work as was Russell. Linda and Jenny headed off to India for an extension to their holiday.
Jade, Kane and myself left later in the morning for the domestic airport for the short flight to Royal Chitwan National Park.
Kathmandu Airport
I was pleased to have the company of Jade and Kane for the trip to Royal Chitwan National Park. The domestic airport was utter chaos, as it usually is I believe. The tickets said our flight was at 11:15am but we only took off at 1:30pm due to fog at our destination Bharatpur. Unknown to us we had to first touch down at Meghauli which is close to the Tiger Tops Lodge. About half of the passengers got off at this point. The airport there is just a small one with a grass runway, which doubled as a soccer field I think. We had ten minutes there to stretch our legs and use the toilet (which was western style and very clean!). We then flew for about another 6-7 minutes to Bharatpur. This has a sealed airstrip with a well kept looking building. We didn’t need to go inside the building and our Peregrine driver took our bags to his car.
Royal Park Hotel, Chitwan
Bharatpur to Chitwan NP
I was concerned that his car wasn’t going to make it out of the car park. It wheezed and rattled, the brakes seemed dodgy and the steering wheel shuddered. Little wonder it was in such a state when we drove the 40 minutes to Royal Park Hotel, Chitwan, near the town of Sauraha. Dodging pedestrians, bicycles, motor bikes, buses, tractors, trucks, goats, ducks, chickens, tempos and taxis is a remarkable skill shown by all drivers in Nepal. And all the time those incessant horns are blaring. No-one takes any notice of them so why do they use them? The buses in this part of Nepal are all decorated Indian style, though not quite as elaborate. Most of the road, except for the last five kilometres, is supposedly sealed. Our driver seemed to know every pot hole. There were quite a few of them!
Related articles:
- Kathmandu, Nepal – extracts from my travel journal written during my visit.
- Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal – also from my travel journal.
Royal Park Hotel, Chitwan