One morning in November I decided to talk a walk in the forest behind the army camp. I had been there before and my intention was to take the same path as before even if it wouldn't really take me in to the forest properly.
When I got to the open area just behind the army camp I met some of the soldiers and, as usual, they were interested in were I was going. They told me there was another path through the forest and said it was easy to find and would take me back to the airport. I decided to give it a try and set out on the path.
To start with it was quite easy to follow and there were lots of birds and I was happy. It was so peaceful in the forest and cool and fresh.
After awhile the path got smaller but it was still no problem to follow it. It got increasingly difficult to see the birds though as the bushes were growing denser and denser.
Then it started to become difficult. The path divided and it was becoming more and more narrow.
Suddenly I came to an open space in the forest. The only problem was that I couldn't find the path going out at the other side! I was trying a few possible options but they all disappeared and could not be followed. In the end I decided that my only option was to go right through and try to find the river that must be somewhere near.
I could have done with a machete or something but in the end I got through anyway- only to find that the bank of the river was very steep and that it was only possible to follow it south, which was not really the way I wanted to go.
I followed the river south and eventually I got a place were a road crossed the river. I followed a man who was walking up from the river and came back to the place were I had met the soldiers before.
It was now about 3,5 hours later but the soldiers were still there and they came up to me and asked why I was coming that way, I should have been at the airport by now? When I told them about my adventures in the forest their reply was: Didn't you bring a map?- I didn't even now that such things as orientation maps existed in Nepal but apparently the army had one for this particular area. I don't think it would have been of much help actually.
"You should have turned left, not right at that open space in the forest", they told me....
Some weeks later I decided to cycle to the new bridge across the Rapti River. I had been there once before but that time I had come from town on a motorcycle. This time I iwas going to go through the field and the small villages along the dirt roads I knew must be there. I checked it all out in Google Earth first and wrote down the turns and distances on a piece of paper. I soon found that the roads had changed a bit but I was able to ask people about the way and I had a great trip. It's so easy to cycle and even if the road was very rough in places I managed to get were I wanted.
I wasn't alone on the road and along the road I met a lot of nice people. I saw eight vultures as well which was a great sight. It turned out there was a dead cow in the village above which I had seen them.
When I got to the main road, that is the road going from Nepalganj to the river I was surprised to see so many people heading the same way I I was. There were horse drawn "tongas", motorcycles, cycles and tractors. Lots of people were walking as well. It turned out there was a "mela", a kind of fair, somewhere near the river!
In the small river before Rapti (the same one as the one I followed when I was out walking) I saw one of the rides you could have at the fair; the tractor was driving at high speed and the water was splashing all over the people in it. Lots of fun it looked like.
I never went to the mela. Considering the crowds I say going there I thought it would just be too much. Instead I had my lunch at the shores of the Rapti and as I was eating a boy came and talked to me. he told me about the bridge, about his exams, about the flu in Nepalganj and about the tractors loaded with rice from India that were standing there waiting for the strike, or "chakka jam" to be lifted. He was really nice.
I cycled back home through the fields and was glad to have had such a nice day.
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