Surkhet

It wasnt on our bucket list but we had a day more to spare and hence, Surkhet, three hours away from Kohalpur. We passed through Bardia National Park once again and therefore the check-points. Surkhet is in Bheri zone of Mid-western region. The valley includes Birendranagar, which spreads around 50 sq km and it is 600km from Kathmandu. It was pretty warm again compared to Nepalgunj/Kohalpur, foggy throughout.

The first thing we did after the meet ups at Surkhet was to climb Ghantaghar. The perfect timing allowed us to see the sun set. It was 360' view from the top. One could see the valley and further. Next, was panipuri and chaat, highly recommended by Pabrita (one of the ex-students of Rajya aunty). A brief walk to Birendranagar bazaar and it was getting dark already. We were dropped off to Shila (Rajya aunty's friend) aunty's place and the fun began. I have never seen Rajya aunty cook, never in my life and she did at Shila aunty's place (Shila aunty being a vegetarian). Amazing!

Sunset from Surkhet ghantaghar

I am this most of the time.  c: Rajya aunty

Surkhet Ghantaghar

Rajya fupu's cooking (finally)

Babai, on the way to Surkhet

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Nepalgunj

Nepalgunj, our final pit for the day. Nepalgunj is a municipality in Banke district and is a border with India. I didnt expect Nepalgunj to be so chaotic. It could be the construction work, but there were too many on the road and off too. Perhaps it will be a better place in future with better roads as one can see where it's heading to. One of my wish list was a tanga (horse cab) ride in Nepalgunj, popular mode of transportation in and around the city. It is fun to ride as to my past experience, but passing through the chaos now, I was more concerned about the haze of dust covering the city. Although chaotic, I absolutely loved the view of  the sun setting. I somehow managed to film it from inside.

I wouldn't recommend Nepaljung, perhaps in a couple of years the construction will be over and will be   ok to go around but Rupedia, a big No, never. 

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Harnawa-Bardia

After lunch at Chisapani, we headed to Harnawa, one of the five buffer zones, community forest of Bardia National Park. Buffer zone surrounds Bardia National park and is created to preserve the natural resources and for the conservation of wildlife. Buffer zone covers around 327 km of forests and private surrounding lands, Harwana is one of them. Harnawa is a beautiful small village surrounded by forest, 5km off the main highway. We were welcomed by Yamkala's (Rajya aunty's ex-student) mom dad, soda came first followed by fresh buffalo milk, they had two of them. Although mid-winter, the place was pretty warm and it was a sunny day. I absolutely loved the place, everything about it. 

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Karnali Bridge

Elephant ride at Bardia National Park and we headed to Karnali bridge as we didnt get a chance to walk past the bridge the day before, also for the lunch. 

Karnali bridge is over Karnali river and hence the name, the longest river between Kailali district and Bardiya district of western Nepal. It is the second of its kind in Asia. The nearest city of Karnali bridge is Chisapani which is the entry point of far-western region.  This single-pillar asymmetric suspension bridge is unique in design and is 500km from Kathmandu and lies in Mahendra highway, the longest highway of Nepal. 

Walking on the bridge was a blown away experience meaning it was terribly windy. We walked in a row holding hands. Rajya aunty and Muna aunty were more concerned about this five year old and I, my mobile. I didnt want it to be blown away as I managed to take few pictures. We walked past the bridge and to the same place we had our lunch yesterday at Chisapani. I guess those fish were freshly caught from the Karnali river. Glad we returned, as they say do not return without tasting the fish at Chisapani.

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Bardia National Park

A very good night sleep on a larger than a king size bed (could almost fit 10 people) and we woke up in the dark. One more time, it was local 'anda' egg (relatively smaller in size) and tea and we were ready to head off. Unfortunately, our vehicle wasn't. We had to push it back and forth for a while, even my five year brother was a helping hand. Our driver said it was his fault to turn off the vehicle with the lights on. Ah! well, we were on the highway in no time and off again about 12km on the gravel road to  Thakurdwara. We were ahead of time and we waited for GulabKali to appear. Elephant ride lasted about an hour. Not a quite ride like I had in Meghauli jungle, Chitwan for we had five year old brother on board but I expected to encounter more animals. Not luck our, the only different thing this time was reptiles including endangered long snouted gharial, marsh mugger crocodile and python. There were 7-8 pythons snuggled in the pit, apparently they were cold and would spread once the sun comes out as per our guide.

If I were to make it next time, I would do certainly do a jungle walk or a jeep safari and elephant ride in the evening as they say there is more possibility you will see a tiger hunt.

Chandni-Dodhara

So, our reserved vehicle picked us up seven in the morning. Our first turn was left, about 14km southwest along a dirt/gravel road from Mahendra highway to book an elephant/ride for tomorrow. We had to come back the same road, which killed about an hour time. Back to the highway, as we passed through Bardia National Park, we saw many wild animals from the park including white haired monkeys, dear, more monkeys and a group of crocodile sun bathing by the Babai river. Everytime we spotted one, I would ask the driver to stop. He wouldnt however, saying we are not allowed to, for they were many check points in between and he seemed scared. We continued our highway journey and stopped at Chisapani- Karnali bridge for lunch. Our driver knew where to stop by, meaning the food was amazing, very local yet delicious. We further continued to the west, Mahendranagar being our destination for the day. Mahendranagar is the most westerly border. Well, that was our aim, to reach the end. Mahendranagar is 5km east of the Indian border and 700km west of Kathmandu. We also passed through Shuklaphanta National Park.

Our driver recommended Chandani-Dodhara, also Rajya aunty, which is 12km away from Mahendranagar. We were a bit lost as there were too many roads and when we asked for direction,  we were told we were on the right track. We could have asked for a shorter route instead. Chandani Dodhara bridge, also known as Mahakali bridge is a suspension bridge over Mahakali river. It is in Kanchanpur district of Mahakali state, far western region of Nepal. It's a pedestrian suspension bridge over Mahakali river. However, we saw many motor bikes passed by and those horn blowing motorist (quite in hurry look like) were certainly annoying to pedestrians on the narrow bridge. The bridge is about 1496m in length, the longest suspension bridge of Nepal and links Nepalese living in Dodhara-Chandani of Kanchanpur district.

It was pretty windy and it started to rain as we escalated to the bridge. We went for samosa tea immediately after a short walk on the bridge. All fuelled up and we were ready to head back. We knew we had a long way to come back. Bahunpur, Bardia is where we had to come back to, Rajya aunty's ex-student Yamkala's place. It was almost 8pm in the rain and dark of course when we reached her place and we were very much welcomed with her local 'murghi ko jhol' (as she says) and dal bhat.

Kohalpur

Glad we covered 25 districts out of 75 on my last road trip with dad and Prakash uncle to the east, this time it was west we headed to. We made it to extreme east on my last tour and to the west this time. Kohalpur, our first pit, also became our junction to go back and forth. We didnt do much on the day we arrived, except that we went to mela and around. Despite the mela being agricultural, it was pretty loud and a crowded place for people to enjoy live concert. People were dancing loud. Well! the music was and so were audience. What I loved the most was this 'chaat' Basu uncle recommended. There came along his story of cycling long distance just for the sake of this 'chaat' during his time. I guess it was well deserved. It was yummy, quite different to what I've experienced so far. The road side was full on with food carts of savoury snacks like the one we tried, chaat and there were others.  Here's more-

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Kohalpur Mela

Kohalpur Kids

Local 'Chaat'