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November
6, 1999
Good
Afternoon, this is Doug with Around the World 1999. Today is November
6th. Today's journal entry is from Butwal, Nepal to Banbasa, India.
We were
greeted by the sunrise and the urgency to close the gap between our
current location and the Indian border. Todd was the first one up and
took care of the bugle call. He banged on the door to find Jeff asleep
and me in the bathroom producing another rousing fanfare. The Baggarly
honeymoon suite was peacefully sleeping until the bang on the door. Todd
gave them a heads up and I later came by and did the morning threatening.
Hey, sometimes a little tough love is needed to get everyone moving.
We left our
hotel in Butwal about 6:30 a.m. in hopes of reaching Naini Tal, India
before nightfall. Our cars had been locked up all night in the hotel
parking lot and the first thing I saw when the guard opened the security
gate was a cow and two small pigs searching for food on a smoldering
garbage pile. Pigs are one of my favorite animals so I snapped a couple
of pictures. It's just kind of funny. Imagine a fully-grown cow with two
tiny little piglets running around at its feet, all just grubbing down on
garbage.
It was nice
to be on the road again, but we realized that we hadn't missed doing the
daily packing and gear checks. We were in the middle of the morning
routine as the Baggarlys strolled down the stairs from their heavenly
slumber. There was no breakfast and no coffee, but without much stalling
we made it out on the road -- in the wrong direction.
In the
mayhem of packing up, ``Mr. "Snack’’ Okuba was ready with some
rations. He had snuck out during the packing and vehicle checks to secure
us water, bananas, and a variety of indigenous biscuits (or cookies in
America). I believe the assortment consisted of Negros, Glucose bars, and
some kind of wafer. This was all very appreciated as we began our push
for the border.
It took us
a while to find our way out of town, but eventually we got headed in the
right direction. The drive was pretty amazing at first, with its scenic
deep canyons and rushing rivers. The roads are in fairly good shape,
though you invariably find the occasional pothole section. After we got
out of the hills, the road was amazingly flat and rice paddies flanked us
on wither side.
The morning
was peaceful and the idyllic landscape only heightened this feeling of
tranquility. People were in motion everywhere, but not with the urgency
you might see people in cities. Carts pulled by water buffalo slowly
lumbered, just barely keeping up with the plumes of gentle smoke rising
from the cooking of this morning’s breakfast.
We were in
the flatlands now protected on two sides by mountain ranges. As it became
mid-morning, we filled up on the fresh supply of water and pulled over to
unload fill up the Rovers with the remaining petrol in the gerry cans. We
had been seeing many people on foot and on bicycles slowly making their
way to their fields, so we attempted to find a somewhat secluded site.
We were
admiring the plants and butterflies when Doug spied an enormous spider.
We were all curious, yet a little apprehensive as to what kind of
defenses this creature had. We were armed with only cameras and a healthy
curiosity. A local man, seeing our curiosity, rode up on his bike and
pulled the bugger from her web, as you can see from the pictures. These
are some of the amazing moments of traveling, experiencing the unique
things that make up a particular environment. This fellow was probably
amused with our fright and curiosity, as might be just the case if we had
the opportunity to present him with a unique specimen from our own
environment, such as a lizard or a horny toad.
We were all
happy with what we had seen and the people we met, yet we needed to make
tracks. We all loaded back into the Rovers and continued our drive toward
the border.
As the day
passed, so did we, through several protected Nepalese wildlife preserves.
I surmise that they have a real problem with poaching here because the
roads that cross through the parks have frequent guard posts that keep
track of passersby. There are Bengal tigers and many other species of
rare fauna throughout the Terai region of Nepal and I suppose the rangers
have some interesting stories to tell. Of course, we had no idea what was
going on when we were flagged down on a desolate stretch of road. The
Nepalese equivalent of a park ranger asked the drivers of both Rovers to
come inside the guard shack. We were instructed to give them down license
plate and passport information and deliver this information to... what
else? A man behind a desk commanding another one of those huge ledger
books we've grown to love (not). We watched as the man started a new line
to record our visit and I'm sure I wasn't the only one in our group who
was curious how this primitive but effective system worked. This is
supposed to be the information age, but some places in the world still do
it the old fashioned way. In addition to vehicle and personal
information, the man also wrote down the time and closed the book. He
scribbled something illegibly on a couple slips of paper, made an attempt
to explain some rules and handed the slips Doug and Nick and walked away.
Among the
rules we did understand was that we could drive no faster than 35
kilometers per hour. You don’t need to convert it to miles to know that
isn’t very fast! And since we didn't understand him, we had no idea how
long this would last. The road was a nice, straight, flat stretch of
relatively new blacktop and we loved it. Prior to hitting the guard post
we were doing 80kph (60mph)! It felt like a crime to restrict our speed
but later we realized this is to ensure drivers have enough reaction time
to prevent hitting endangered wildlife that creeps onto the road. We
weren't sure if the ranger was done with us so we waited around until he
passed by several minutes later, flashing a confused look and motioning
that we should get lost. We were logged in and free to go but the rules
behind this short detention would not be completely understood until
reaching our third checkpoint.
During the
course of the day we had a half-dozen or so rivers to cross. Each one was
a challenge, some bigger than others, and I was behind the wheel in
Hercules. At the largest one, Hercules got stuck and died right in the
center in the river. Nick had to pull me out with Alaska. I didn't feel
like wading through a river in lowland Nepal. I had no idea when my next
shower would be, and I'm sure the water was full of nasty little
parasites. So I climbed out onto the hood and tossed Todd the raft.
Meanwhile, Jeff had the video camera going from inside the car, so he
captured the whole debacle on video. I'm sure those of you in the Nor-Cal
Land Rover club will have a field day ripping me for our performance.
Prime example of how not to cross a river. But all the other ones, I did
just fine. So cut me some slack.
We pressed
on, dodging water buffalo and cows. We finally reached the border right
at dusk. We cleared Nepalese immigration as well as Indian customs, but
the Indian immigrations officer had gone home for the night. We were
informed that the border was closed. We went back to the customs officer
and he said that he would help us out. He gave the Indian immigration
officer a call and the guy said he would come back. He did come back, but
unfortunately, he was very drunk and he didn't feel like checking our
passports. It was the first day of Diwali, which is a big celebration for
Hindus, and he had been partying. He made it clear he wasn't going to do
any work that evening, but he would definitely see us first thing in the
morning. We had no other choice but to pop the top on the Dormobiles and
settle in for the night as best we could amid all the celebratory
explosions in Diwali.
At this
time I'm going to read verbatim out of the India Lonely Planet book about
Diwali. ``This is the happiest festival of the Hindu calendar celebrated
on the 15th day of Kartika. At night, countless oil lamps are lit to show
Rama the way home from his period of exile. Today the festival is also
dedicated to Lakshmi, particularly in Bombay, and to Kali, in Calcutta.
In all, the festival lasts 5 days. On the first day, houses are
thoroughly cleaned and doorsteps are decorated with intricate Rangoli,
chalk designs. Day two is dedicated to Kali's victory over Raktavija, a
legendary tyrant. In the South on this day, a pre-dawn oil bath is
followed by the dawning of new clothes. Day three is spent worshiping Lakshmi,
a goddess of fortune. Traditionally, this is the beginning of a new
financial year for companies. Day four commemorates a visit of the
friendly demon Bali, whom Vishnu put in his place. On the fifth day, men
visit their sisters to have a tilak put on their forehead. Diwali has
also become a festival of sweets. Giving sweets has become as much a part
of the tradition as the lighting of the oil lights and firecrackers.
Diwali is also celebrated by the Jains as their New Year's Day. ‘’
From
personal experience, we can add another detail to that description: As
far as we can tell, fireworks and massive explosions seem to be the order
of the day with Diwali. We're not talking firecrackers, we're talking
minimum M80 and larger explosions. You can buy these things on any street
corner. They look like rolled up balls of twine, which they are.
Somewhere in there is a little explosive charge. They are really loud.
You hear these all through the night. All through the night, and all
through the day. It sounds like a demilitarized zone. So, that gives you
a little idea of what Diwali is all about.
We ended up
buying a bunch of them and just let them off. I am happy to say that no
fingers were lost.
This is
Doug with around The World 1999 signing off. Goodbye.
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