Arriving in Bangalore, India

Wow, I didn't expect this.

This morning nepali time 8:30 I went from Bhaktapur to Kathmandu to the airport, flew from 12:00 to 13:30 to Delhi - first stop - and had quite a bad experience in Delhi. Everything looked very modern and made me think the people are organized there. Big mistake. First I had to check out my luggage and check it in again myself to Bangalore, my final destination. That was a little complicating, because everything took very long, queueing everywhere not even knowing for what and it wasn't clear where to go and what to do and every staff person said something else. Asking for the right direction ended in going one time all around a big Hall ending up where I started.
Then I couldn't even pay with nepali rupees or not even change them at the changing bureau!! Even though it's the neighbour country and the currency has almost the same name (nepali rupees - Indian rupees).
And according to the Internet the guy at the money changing desk (in the end I changed Euro) gave me a way too low rate.

Well, but then after this experience and the second flight (16:35-19:20), very easy luxury flight, I didn't expect the following:
I arrive in Bangalore at 19:40, first of all I'm again surprised how modern the airport is, luggage immediately there, no passport controle (probably because it's no international airport and I've only ever been to international ones before) and I'm out of the airport within a few minutes! Amazing. Then it goes on. The driver from the hotel is waiting actually with my name up in the air infront of the airport and picks me up with a car I can't even describe. So luxury! And then the motorway is so modern, so first-world-like. Looked like europe. I couldn't believe my eyes. I had expected it to be like in Ghana and Nepal, but no...
Well and now I'm lying on my hotel bed and waiting for my mother and brother, who are arriving in 4 hours.
The hotel is nice, but luckily a bit more 'normal'. Would have been too much, if that was super deluxe now as well. Haha

Nationalpark - Tiger spotted!

Yes, I saw a Tiger in free wilderness! Still can't believe that, but more about that later.

Luckily on monday at the Indian embassy I got to know Tahi from New Zealand, otherwise I would have missed this experience. His idea was to go to the Bardia Nationalpark - 17 hours bus drive from the capital city Kathmandu. There is a closer Nationalpark called Chitwan, but it's very touristy, so he wanted to go to Bardia. Me, not having any plans for the upcoming days, asked if I could join him and so on tuesday afternoon we met at the bus station in Kathmandu. After waiting for a few hours the bus finally started around 6:30 in the evening.
I decided we take the normal instead of the deluxe bus and I think it was a good decision. Obviously not too comfortable and unfortunately sitting right in the first row directly infront of the TV we had to watch lots of bollywood movies and looots of music videos you could already call soft porn. But well, any experience is an experience I guess.
When the first toilet stop was - no toilet obviously, just to pee at the side of the street - I noticed I'm basically the only girl, so I couldn't just pee there between all these men. 2 hours later - I couldn't hold it in anymore - I asked if we can stop again and explained my problem and luckily they stopped just for me and nobody else was allowed to get out - very nice!
At 2am Tahi and me were joking we expect now the real porn to start but luckily the TV got turned off and we could finally have some sleep.
In the early morning we arrived at our first stop and had to get another bus.
Around 11am we then arrived at our meeting point with Hemant, who's contact Tahi got through a friend. Hemant and another guy drove us then around 30 Minutes with the motorbike to the hostel.
We drove past beautiful landscape and I would have loved to take pictures on the way, but I was busy being afraid. I hate driving on a motorbike here. The back person never wears a helmet and the way people drive is simply frightening. Always driving past huge busses and other vehicles with just millimeters between you and them. Especially in Bhaktapur on the bigger streets I'm constantly thinking: If we have an acccident I'm the first one to die, 'cause I ain't got no helmet!
But I guess I'm exaggerating. Tahi actually enjoys these rides.

Anyway.. we arrived at the hostel and it was a pure Idyll! The sun was shining, fresh air, beautiful landscape and sweet little huts. I loved it straight away.

After having a nice Dal Bhat and relaxing a little, we went to the crocodiles and a rhino in cages and saw an elephant, manacled to a post. This was a little ironic in the middle of a Nationalpark... the elephant was there obviously for elephant safaris people can book, but it is still contradictive.

A viewing point on the way

Monkeys all over the place

Father bringing mother and child home

In the evening we had a nice campfire with lots of meat. We were three guys and me and apparently I ate the most meat....

On thursday morning we then decided to do an elephant Safari at 7:30am for one hour - still feeling weird to walk around sitting on a "not free" elephant to see other free animals in the wilderness - also elephants, crocodiles and rhinos. But we didn't really see a lot of animals from the top of the elephant anyway - despite some dears and monkeys. It was fun though.

Through the water with the elephant

Through the jungle

Can you see the Langure monkeys?

Continuously changing landscape

Tahi carrying a dragonfly on his hat

After the elephant ride we went at 9am with another guide, called Anu, to do the walking Safari.
Such amazing nature, the fog made it look even nicer. And we were very successfull. We saw monkeys as always, some beautiful birds, some dears and elephants and more...

My life saving socks I got here in Nepal 'cause of this cold weather

What's up, Bambi?

Very fertile shit 

One really big wish Tahi and I had was to see a Tiger. I wanted it so badly, but didn't really think it could possibly happen. At 10:45 we saw fresh food steps of a Tiger.

At 11:15 we then came to the last viewing point, which is good to spot some animals, right at the water. We had lunch and waited and waited and waited. We saw a crocodile (on the picture you can't really see, so I don't upload it) and around 1pm we saw a rhino.. but still no Tiger.

A spider web surrounding almost the whole tree

13:45
"When do we have to take the bus home?", I turn around to Tahi. Planned was to take the bus after the Safari straight to Kathmandu to be in time on friday morning at the Indian embassy for the second visa appointment. (You have three visa appointments: First one: Give application, pay and show passport. Second one: Give passport. Third one: Get passport back, collect visa.) "At 2pm Hemant said the busses start coming every ten to thirty minutes", Tahi answers. "Oh, that means we have to go soon." - "Yeah, I guess so."
"Psshhhh", Anu waves his hand in our direction to shut us up. "Did you hear that?" - "What?" - "That hummm" - "What??" - "Just listen!" I'm quite and wait, not knowing for what. Suddenly I hear a deep, not too loud, but very clear 'hummmm'. "That's the Tiger breathing." Woooooow! From one second to the other I get very excited, not saying one more word. I'm not scared, 'cause you can tell he isn't too close, but I'm excited like a 6 year old before christmas.
We look at the water. Nothing. Waiting. Another 'hummm'. Anu climbes on a tree to have a better view. Nothing. I climb after him. Waiting, waiting... it feels like hours.
"Tiger!!"
And there he is. Looking innocent like a 'normal' Tiger I know from the Zoo. But this isn't a Zoo. This is face to face, maybe 300meters between us, but no glass, wall or gutter. A beautiful orange Tiger with black stripes and you can see the muscles moving while he steps forward to lick some water with his red tongue.

Picture, picture, video, picture. Oh, I wish I could zoom closer. My camera has a nice 30x optical zoom, but it's not enough to get just the Tiger's face on my complete screen. Still it's close enough to have some great shots.
He moves slowly and takes his time drinking the amount of water he needs. Just perfect for us to enjoy and admire his beauty and grace.
Then he turns his head, looking exactly in our direction. He stops and looks. We look back. Banned by this fascinating animal. Just his head looking out of the water, the rest is now covered by water.

"I wanna get closer." I jump from the tree and go the closest I can to the water. "You won't see him anymore, you'll be too low", Anu tells me. He was almost right, my new view was very low and not really closer.

While im coming back to my old position, the Tiger has left and is out of sight.

Im smiling.
I saw what I wanted to see. My favourite animal in the free wilderness!

"I can't stop smiling", I tell Tahi on our way back to the bus. "I know, I can see", he smiles back at me.