Chitwan

We begun our trek to chitwan via bus. Exiting the kathmandu valley took about an hour and a half because of road construction, which also causes immense pollution (in the form of particulates like dust). Once we left the valley driving through the mountains provided amazing views into canyons and the hillside was filled with terracing for farming. We soon started on the long stretch of road that was under construction towards Chitwan and Pokara; it was almost impossible to see more than 30 feet ahead because of all the dust from the passing cars. This also meant that roadside towns and homes were constantly dusty, which was something that was hard for me to imagine. There were many roadside towns, but nothing like what we have in the states. Instead, they were just a few connected shops and a home or two. These would often be connected to another community across the river that could be reached via bridge. Once we arrived in Chitwan we first drove through the city which was much smaller than Kathmandu, but still had a variety of homes, shops, businesses, and schools. We stayed the first night outside of Chitwan in a hotel called the adventure lodge, which was quaint, but also quite warm because of "load shedding." Load shedding is when the power is turned off at certain time increment to save power and help support the weak grids in the area. While this is a great idea, it created some discomfort in the heat and humidity which made it very difficult for me to sleep (but hey, at least that gave me plenty of time to write majority of this blog entry and the past one!).