Travels with a tiger
(called Doug)
Meet Doug the tiger. He’s not a real tiger, you’ll notice. Doug is actually a well-travelled WWF cuddly toy belonging to teenage sisters Ella (13) and Corrina (15). The sisters and their WWF-supporting parents (and Doug) were lucky enough to go on a recent holiday to Nepal, and while there were asked to visit some WWF projects on the ground and to write up their experiences. And hopefully see some real tigers, among other adventures..
Ella and Corrina wrote fascinating diaries during their two-week trip, which took them from their home in Scotland, via London and Delhi, to Kathmandu and across Nepal.
As Ella points out herself, it’s not an opportunity many young teenagers get – and they learned a lot along the way. So we thought you’d like to read their insights, and see some photos of the exciting places, wildlife and experiences they shared with Doug...
Ella: Hey! We’re off to Nepal tomorrow, and to be honest I’m slightly looking forward to it. When my parents first told me about this trip I wasn’t exactly thrilled, because I’d probably rather have gone to some beach somewhere… But how many people my age can say they’ve been trekking in Nepal? The answer (I’m guessing) is “not very many”!
So I’ve got my notebook and I’ve got a new pen and I’m ready to blog! My sister Corrina will be writing too as we go along.
Day 1 – the journey to Nepal
10.38am (Indian time)
Ella: Wow. We’re at the airport in Delhi, waiting on our flight to Kathmandu. Everyone is in a bad mood. My sister’s trying to sleep, with her hat over her eyes. My dad’s drinking wine, which can’t be good for him at this time (it’s 10 past 6ish in the UK!).
My stomach is really hurting because I’m so hungry – I didn’t eat on the flight last night, but right now I’m eating crisps so I’m starting to feel a bit better. Right now all I want to do is sleep – I’ll write some more later.
4.35pm (Nepali time)
Ella: We’ve just arrived at the very traditional-looking Dwarika's Hotel in Kathmandu. It’s seriously amazing here! The roads in Kathmandu are crazy, though. The driving cannot be safe and everyone is just honking their horn the whole time! And there are cows and chickens casually walking along the streets.
Corrina: We were met at the airport by Rajiv, who took us to our hotel. It’s only a kilometre away from the airport, but it took us quite a long while due to the rush hour. The road was full of cars, bikes, buses, people and cows. Cows are sacred in the Hindu religion, which is one of the major religions here, so they are never killed for food, and are allowed to wander where they please.
The Dwarika Hotel is spacious and quiet, very unlike the bustling streets around it. When you enter the lobby it feels like you’ve left the city behind.
10pm(ish)
Ella: We’ve just come back from a lovely meal at Rum Doodle – traditionally a walkers’ pub, with these big, paper footprint-like things that people sign if they’ve climbed Mount Everest or are going to Everest Base Camp.
We’re having an early night because tomorrow we’re going on a flight that lets you see the Himalayas, really early in the morning. We’re leaving at 5.50am!
Day 2 – Kathmandu
7.40pm
Ella: Really busy today! We got up at 5am, went straight to the airport for a trip in a small plane to look at Mount Everest and other mountains. Got some amazing photos! Then, after breakfast, went to visit temples around Kathmandu.
Corrina: We had to walk through a village to get to the first temple, and this gave an insight into the way to life in Nepal. We saw the house layout, with a barn on the bottom floor for the cattle and the upstairs for the family.
Ella: We went to a lovely little town called Bhaktapur, which had been restored so it looks like Kathmandu did hundreds of years ago. Very beautiful! Women were making tiny pots and candles for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.
We stopped there for lunch. My sister and I both had chips – everyone around was eating Nepali food so we felt a bit out of place.
Next we went to the ‘Monkey Temple’ – the first thing we noticed was lots of people trying to sell you things, so we knew this was obviously a tourist attraction as well as being a temple for locals.
We had to walk up quite a lot of steps to get to the actual temple. Halfway up we stopped at a bench and our guide pointed out the prayer flags, hundreds of them just above our heads.
The whole concept of a prayer flag is that when they wear down to nothing the prayer has come true, and then they get replaced by another flag. You can get flags that have already got the prayer written on them or you can write your own personal prayer.
When we were sitting on the bench having a sip of water, a sound like an old man grunting made both me and my sister jump – and we turned around to see about 20 monkeys behind us. Then they jumped into the trees and disappeared from sight!
We soon stopped at the 'centre of Kathmandu', which isn’t really the centre any more because the city has grown so much, but it used to be.
Corrina: It was mayhem! There were no pavements, so pedestrians had to risk the roads, which were crammed with cars, buses, trucks, bikes, motorcycles and more people. I’m surprised nobody got hurt!
We all got our pictures taken with a Sadhu, a holy man. But we suspected he might not have been a real holy man, as many are fakes – dressing up to get money from tourists who want their photo taken with them.
Ella: Right now my sister and I are in our hotel room having a bit of relaxation before we go down to the hotel restaurant.
10.25pm
Ella: Wow! The buffet dinner here has a pasta bar – strange, though, that they fry pasta as well as boiling it here. I had a very nice dinner anyway. :)
We’re up at 7.30 in the morning, which we're told is a lie-in! So I’m off to sleep – adios!
Corrina: Tomorrow we’re flying to Chitwan National Park, where we’ll spend the next few days hopefully seeing some tigers!
Day 3 – Kathmandu to Chitwan National Park
10.45am
Ella: Right now we’re on a small plane, and I mean small – about 17 or 18 seats! I’m not actually going to write any more right now because I feel a bit plane sick... Sorry!
Corrina: We flew from Kathmandu to Chitwan, in the lowlands of Nepal. The flight was only about 20 minutes long, and when we got off it felt at least 3o warmer than in Kathmandu, due to the lower altitude.
Mark from WWF-UK and Anil, the head of WWF in Nepal, met us off the plane, and we drove to where we are now staying: the Rhino Residency Lodge. We were originally supposed to be staying in Chitwan National Park, but the Nepalese government has closed all the lodges in the park, while they decide whether to allow them in wildlife reserves in the future.
We had lunch and then we drove a short distance to the headquarters of the Terai Arc Landscape Project, one of the major programmes of WWF in Nepal.
Ella: We got given notebooks and pens to take notes on the presentations. The first one was about what has gone wrong so far and how they are trying to conserve what is left of the animal habitat.
The second talk was all about the animal numbers in Nepal and about poaching and how they are working to stop it. Halfway through the second talk, some of the staff brought through Pringles and lemonade!
Corrina: Many animals inside and outside of Chitwan National Park are hunted, especially tigers for their skin and bones, and rhinos for their horns. Poaching is a big problem for Nepal. Even when it looks like there are less poachers one year, the next year there is sometimes an increase, sometimes even by 200%.
Other problems include: forest fires, which could be natural or, increasingly, man-made; collecting too much wood and other resources from the forest; conflict between people and wildlife (for instance when tigers no longer have enough space or food and start raiding local farms and villages); and "encroachment", which is where people live illegally in the forest – basically squatting.
After presentations from two Terai Arc representatives, we left to see a project that WWF helps with – installing bio-gas in village communities.
Bio-gas is used in these villages for many reasons: particularly to stop the houses being full of smoke from wood fires, as they were before bio-gas, and to prevent trees being cut down for firewood, so the forest isn’t being degraded.
When we arrived at the village, we were met by a group of friendly citizens – they didn’t speak much English, but luckily our guides were there to translate for us. They gave us flowers and put some dyed red rice on our foreheads – a tradition here.
Ella: My blob of rice fell off after a while... They showed us one of their bio-gas stoves, which they were very proud of. They also showed us where the dung went in, and one lady even stuck her hand in it! (Ewwwww!)
They showed us their toilet unit, which comes with having bio-gas installed. Before they got bio-gas they would have to use a toilet shared by the community. About 80% of the houses in this village now have bio-gas.
Corrina: After our trip to the bio-gas village we went to an elephant breeding centre. There were elephants of all shapes and sizes, and even baby twins! The majority of the elephants in the centre were female, as the male elephants from outside will come and breed with the occupying females.
Ella: The centre was full of cute baby elephants. It was so adorable – I took a lot of photos, maybe even too many!
By now my legs were starting to get tired, but I had to stand through one last thing – a talk with the anti-poaching team. We found out a lot of stuff, so here is my very own summary of the anti-poaching team’s work…
• The anti-poaching team go around the buffer zones (the areas surrounding the protected parts) of Chitwan National Park.
• They cannot carry guns, as it’s illegal, but they can carry knives.
• They can arrest people, but they don’t usually because they are really there to inform the police/army.
• The army and police are better to arrest the poachers because they can carry guns, so they are more protected if the poachers decide to try and harm them.
• The anti-poachers travel around on bikes and have had some incidents with rhinos – one told us his bike was booted a fair distance by a rhino’s kick.
Corrina: The workers don’t get paid much for this difficult job, but they are dedicated to protecting the animals around their homes.
11pm
Corrina: After a long day, we headed back to another hotel, where Mark and Anil had stayed the night before, for drinks. They also ordered lots of plates of chips and snacks – so many, in fact, we weren’t able to eat our dinner later on!
Ella: They feed you so much here! Now we need to catch up on some well needed sleep! We’re getting up at 6.30am tomorrow. It’s all go go go for us!
Day 4 – Chitwan
11pm (ish)
Ella: Hello :) Today has been another busy day! We rose at 6.30am (well at least we were supposed to, but I fell back to sleep, so I was rushing around getting dressed!) and had breakfast at 7am. After we grabbed a few things, like our camera, we jumped into a WWF jeep and headed off to the elephants we were going to ride on!
Corrina: We’d booked an elephant safari. It’s not an exotic zoo trip, it’s an adventure where you sit on an elephant and travel through the jungle, looking for wild animals such as rhino and tigers. We didn’t see any of those this time, but we did see a lot of deer and exotic birds.
Ella: When I first got on the elephant I was pretty frightened, but in the end I really enjoyed the trip, even though it became a bit uncomfortable!
After a while we needed to cross a river, which had a small island in the middle, and it had a crocodile on it. Our elephant driver (if that’s what you call them) thought it would be funny to get closer to the crocodile, so he moved the elephant towards it, and the crocodile started snapping at the elephant’s feet.
Corrina: Even though these crocodiles – called gharials – are only fish-eaters, they look big and frightening. We were very un-nerved when it disappeared under the water. The elephant was nervous too, and let out a loud trumpeting distress call.
Ella: It “tooted” really loudly – the kind of sound a stereotypical elephant would make!
Corrina: A few seconds later we saw the croc floating downstream, looking mischievous!
Ella: After the elephant trip we jumped back into the WWF vehicles and had a short drive to our “canoeing.”
When we got there it turned out we just had to sit in a long boat (like a hollowed-out tree, used as a raft) and we got rowed down the river. That’s my type of canoeing!
We just sat, relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. We saw many, many crocodiles on this trip, but it wasn’t scary because they were just basking on the banks of the river.
Corrina: Even though we saw lots of them, gharial crocodiles are an endangered species. They’re huge too, bathing on the sunny banks with their long snouts open.
We then went to the main park quarters, where we met the park warden and various other workers. The compound holds about 33 staff and some orphaned animals – one of which was a nine-month-old sloth bear cub.
Ella: A sloth bear is a bear that eats termites and ants. The cub was so cute! It started licking my leg! It then followed us for the rest of the time we were there. It was adorable.
Corrina: The baby had been found when it was only one month old, without its mother. What happened to its mother is unclear, it could’ve been killed, or died, or simply just been separated from its baby somehow.
The cub was about the size of a large dog, but they can grow much larger. When they’re adults, sloth bears can often be taller than a man, when standing on their hind legs. The cub looked harmless and cute, but we were warned not to play with it as it has long sharp claws, which it uses to dig holes in the ground looking for termites and ants.
Ella: Then we saw a large iron box and were told there was a “man-eating” tiger inside it.
Corrina: The warden had recently caught it. Although tigers are often portrayed as vicious and fearsome, they rarely attack humans, unless to protect their young.
This one had become a man-eater, and a very dangerous animal – there were no cages strong enough to contain it, so the tiger was being kept in a metal box. It seemed cruel, but it had already killed 11 people, and if it was allowed out it would have definitely killed more.
Ella: When we got near the iron box we heard a loud growl and the box shook! The little sloth bear ran and hid behind us!
Corrina: The hinges of the box rattled – it seemed like they were going to break. Most of the bars on the box were covered, but we still got a flash of an angry face and the fearsome teeth of the tiger.
We didn’t stay looking at this tiger for very long, as it made us upset as well as terrified. Even though it was a dangerous animal, it was horrible to see it in such an enclosed space.
Ella: When we were walking back towards the cars, we could see a man getting led out of a building – we were told this was a poacher who had been caught. In the headquarters there was a prison where poachers could be kept for up to 24 days before sending them to court. At the moment they are building a new prison which is bigger, because they don’t always have enough room for all of the prisoners.
Corrina: We then drove down the road to see some other animals. The sloth bear cub wanted to come with us – it ran after our car for ages!
At the animal sanctuary they are breeding gharial crocodiles – the endangered ones we’d seen earlier. They keep the baby crocodiles until they are about six years old (when they’re already 1.5 metres long!) and then they’re released into the river.
They have two adult male crocs and more adult females for breeding purposes. Although these crocodiles only eat fish, they are still quite aggressive. An adult gharial can be up to seven metres long! One of the males once jumped over a fence six times its height to attack the other males.
Ella: The way the older crocodiles looked at us kind of freaked me out! We also saw little baby turtles, which were adorable.
Then we then went to see the vultures – I’m not as interested in birds as my parents are, so that wasn’t so exciting for me…
Corrina: In 2006 there was a tragic helicopter crash in Nepal that killed over 20 people, including some workers from WWF. One of them left a legacy in their will to open a big new vulture breeding centre here. That’s where we went to see the vultures.
We had to be very careful, we were told, because if the vultures were disturbed they would throw up their previous meal. They were currently being kept in quite small cages, but a huge new enclosure was being made for them, which will hold up to 24 breeding pairs of vultures.
Ella: After that we went to see a leopard. This leopard was also orphaned, but it hadn’t been in the centre for very long. I was trying to look inside its enclosure, and was warned not to go too close – but I did, and the leopard leaped at the mesh fence, making me jump!
The leopard was hiding in the corner when everyone was surrounding it, but when everyone was walking away it stuck its head up and you could see his beautiful face, with its majestic eyes staring at you. It really looked lost. It was such a shame.
We then went to see an orphaned tiger that had been living there for five years…
Corrina: This one was the opposite of the tiger we’d seen earlier – it was quiet and even seemed quite sad. Although her enclosure was quite large, she kept pacing back and forth. Her man-eating mother was shot when her cub was only a month old. The warden had a choice: he could leave the beautiful cub to die, or they could keep it and raise her with a bottle. They decided the latter, but this condemned the tiger cub to a life in captivity.
Ella: You could climb up this ladder to see over the top of her enclosure. I’m not a great fan of ladders, but I climbed it anyway. The tiger was seriously beautiful, but it looked very sad, which could just break your heart.
Tigers are very gorgeous animals and I’m so glad that at least some people are trying to save them. After watching the tiger for a while we got back into the jeeps and headed to the information centre.
The information centre was set up by WWF in memory of those who died in that horrific helicopter crash. I’m not really into museums and information centres (as I’m a teenager), but this one was actually quite interesting.
Corrina: It told us all about the endangered species in Nepal, and why they’re endangered. The museum also had lots of illegal “trophies” that had been confiscated from poachers.
What I saw shocked me. There were two rooms full of tiger and leopard skins, elephant tusks, golden monitor [lizard] skins, elephant and rhino hides, musk pouches from musk deer, gall bladders from bears, and many other items.
They had fake rhino horns, because real ones were too valuable to have on show (their total stock is currently worth about 1.5 million dollars). Seeing this made me appreciate WWF’s fight against poaching even more.
Ella: There was pretty much something there poached from every animal in Nepal! It was shocking. And the smell was really, really bad in there, so we didn’t stay for too long.
We were running late now, so we jumped into the cars because we needed to get back to meet people for dinner. On the way we stopped to look at the beautiful sunset – absolutely gorgeous! My sister and I then got to ride in the back, on the outside part, of the WWF pickup truck. It was seriously fun.
We were embarrassed to arrive so late for dinner, but we soon got chatting to everyone. We again got fooled into thinking the chips and other food they were serving with drinks was our meal, so we munched on them. A few hours later we got asked what we wanted to eat, but we had to say nothing because we’d already eaten so much!
Well, you have absolutely no idea how tired I am, so goodnight! It’s amazing that we’ve done so much already and we haven’t even been here very long!
Day 5 – Chitwan and Tharu Lodge
11pm (ish)
Ella: Yet another busy day! We got up pretty early to go on another elephant ride – because some people were shocked we hadn’t seen a rhino yet! This one was much more comfortable, as there was a cushion to sit on, but by the end my backside was still a bit sore.
This time we went into stuff called “elephant grass” – it was about the same height as us when we sat on the elephant and the elephant would use its trunk to crush the grass so it could get through. Unfortunately on this trip my face got scratched by some branches.
Corrina: But we had success – after about an hour into the safari we saw a female rhino and her baby! It was an amazing sight, and the rhino continued eating un-phased as we watched in awe.
Ella: We were overjoyed! Then after the lovely elephant trip we went back to the hotel to have breakfast and finish packing, before heading off in the jeeps to Tiger Mountain Tharu Lodge.
I fell asleep on the way there, again! When we arrived we had a great lunch and then sunbathed, yes sunbathed, for a while! Then we went on yet another elephant ride – this one even more successful!
We’d just been going about five minutes when we saw a pair of rhinos. They soon walked off so we went to see if we could find some more, which we did!
Corrina: We saw eight rhino on this trip, two of them babies. One mother started to charge at us, but when it saw the size of the tusks on one of our elephants, she quickly changed her mind.
We all felt extremely lucky to have seen so many of these amazing creatures, even though at the time I felt quite scared at their aggressive grunts and incredibly sharp-looking horns!
Ella: So far this was my favourite elephant trip – it lasted about two hours but it didn’t even get uncomfortable.
After the elephant ride we got ready for dinner. Tonight was our last dinner with Mark and Anil, so we are all a bit upset about that.
We were given a huge bowl of popcorn and then Nepali dancers came in and danced for about 45 minutes, and we even got up and danced with them! When they left we had a lovely dinner, and had many laughs.
After dinner Corrina and I decided to go straight to bed. When we were getting ready in our room my sister said, “WHAT IS THAT ON THE WALL?!” I went to look and saw it was a scorpion! We were pretty scared, so I went back to the dining room to tell my parents, while Corrina stayed to make sure it didn’t move.
Corrina: It was small, but the sting didn’t look very inviting, and we didn’t want to risk having it in the room overnight, even though we had mosquito nets around our beds.
Ella: The hotel staff went to move it, and Mark went to see as well because he had studied bugs at university and he is fascinated whenever he has the chance to pick one up.
A few minutes later Mark came back holding the scorpion in-between two fingers – he started showing us bits of it! We were pretty scared!
Corrina: Mark was thrilled to show everyone the angry creature before letting it go. Anil told us they rarely come out of the jungle, but that didn’t stop me from checking my bed three times for any more unwanted visitors!
Day 6 – Tharu Lodge
11.15am
Corrina: After a night of vivid dreams (from the spicy food, I think), I got up with the others at 7ish to have a farewell breakfast with Mark and Anil. I’m very glad they joined us – they’ve made the last few days good fun.
Ella: Our last morning with Mark and Anil :(. We had a lovely breakfast (they gave me chips!) and then we said our goodbyes. It was a sad moment because we had kind of become close to them in the few days we have spent with them. I hope we see them again someday!
Once they left, we suncreamed-up and headed on our “village trip”, which is when you get taken around the nearby village on an ox-drawn cart. BC, the assistant manager at the lodge, told us what everything was. It was very interesting and we learnt a lot.
Corrina: What we saw was a very different way of life to ours back at home – such a contrast to what we see every day in Scotland.
Nobody has cars and lots of people ride around on bicycles. Their houses are simple, and made of cow dung and mud on top of elephant grass foundations. Chickens, cows and dogs wander the un-tarmacked roads freely, along with children on their way to school.
Ella: It turns out most kids in the village go to primary school but most don’t go to secondary school because they are needed to help out on the farm or in the house.
There aren’t many jobs in the villages, so a lot of the men work away from home – some even go to Dubai, so it means they don’t see their families very much. Women stay in the villages to maintain their home, look after the kids and to work on the rice fields.
We went past a place where a museum is going to be built, and many people from the village were helping clear the grass and plants on the land where the museum was going to go. People were also making bricks out of the clay in the soil.
We just got back to the hotel in time for elephant bathing – going down to the river to help wash the elephants!
Corrina: We helped by splashing water on their backs and rubbing their thick hides. They bathe twice a day and they love water, spraying it over their backs even after they’ve been cleaned.
Ella: After 20 minutes of washing we got out of the water and fed the elephants “sandwiches”, which was really bundles of rice crops! The elephant would reach out with its trunk and take it out of your hand – it was kind of scary but amazing at the same time.
I love these elephants. The one we rode yesterday was named after a Nepali princess who introduced Buddhism to Tibet by marrying a Tibetan prince.
We’re just relaxing for a bit now and soon we’re going to have lunch. I’m starving and I can’t wait!
6.15pm
Corrina: After lunch, and an hour lapping up the sun, we went on a river safari. We first had to travel by ox-cart again and we saw many different species of bird on the way.
Ella: We had to cross a dried-up river bed and by chance we saw a rhino bathing in the little water left in the twisted river. My dad also found a deer skull, which he found very amusing to wear as a mask.
Corrina: When we were on the actual boat we saw different types of deer, such as the barking deer and the hog deer. We asked our guide about tigers, and he told us a man-eating tiger had killed his brother-in-law, and one other person, only 15 days beforehand.
Ella: I found that really terrible, but for some reason he didn’t seem so bothered…!
We’re getting up at 6am tomorrow. Lucky us!
Day 7 – Tharu Lodge
8am
Ella: This morning was a disappointment! We went on an elephant ride at 6.15am and it was just very foggy and the forest was too wet to even go into. We saw a few monkeys and birds, but no rhinos!
Corrina: We were going to help with bathing the elephants again, but the busy days have caught up with me and Ella...
Ella: We’re doing so much on this holiday it just drains you! Me and my sister are soooooo tired, so we’re going to catch up on some sleep now… :) x
11pm
Ella: We got out of bed for lunch – pasta and chips again, but I’m not complaining! Then we went to a “vulture restaurant” – though it isn’t really a restaurant at all…
Corrina: Many species of vulture are endangered here, so the manager of Tharu Lodge, DB, decided to set up a “restaurant” for them.
They buy elderly cattle from the villagers and then treat them humanely until they die. The carcass is then taken up to a feeding area where vultures are free to feed off it.
This is seen as a safe food for vultures, because many many vultures have died after eating carcasses of cattle that had the painkilling drug diclofenac in their system (it is very poisonous to the vultures.). This “vulture restaurant” has been very successful, and there are many more vultures in the area now.
Ella: DB has a love of birds and he got some money donated by the RSPB, as well as other companies and charities, to get the whole idea running.
Unfortunately there was no carcass available when we were there, so instead we went to the nesting area and saw lots of vultures on their nests! DB was very very happy because there were more nests than he’d counted the week before...
Corrina: He said it was a lot of nests for so early in the season.
When we arrived back at the lodge, preparations were being made for a small party for villagers, staff and guests to celebrate Diwali, the festival that’s happening here at the moment.
There was a lot of dancing and traditional Nepalese music. It was also a bit whacky – offerings of gin were being made to the gods…
Ella: …and one of the guys had a melon on his head! We danced with some of the local people and then had a lovely dinner, and now we’re off to bed. Goodnight!
Day 8 – Tharu Lodge to Pokhara
10.45am
Ella: We’re leaving Tharu Lodge today :( and heading to Pokhara! This morning we went elephant bathing for the last time. It was fun but only lasted half the time because another group was going to do it after us.
Right now we’re packing to go to Pokhara… this might take a while because me and my sister made a bit of a mess while searching through our clothes last night!
11pm
Ella: The drive to Pokhara took about four hours. We stopped to have a picnic lunch. I fell asleep most of the way there – which is lucky because I often feel car sick.
Our hotel here is called the Shangri-La – it’s amazing! It has a lovely pool which reflects the image of the fantastic unclimbed, sacred mountain, Fish Tail. From the hotel you can see Annapurna South and Fish Tail so clearly.
We relaxed for a while but then our trek guide Tham (pronounced Tom) came to give us a talk about what we will be doing for the next few days. Tham gave us backpacks, a scarf each, a hat each and two bags which the porters would be carrying.
This photograph shows our guide, Tham, with Annapurna South in the background. The view looks like something off a postcard, doesn’t it? The mountains are massive, with Annapurna over 7,000 metres high, and covered in snow for the whole year, despite the high temperatures in summer.
Corrina: We then went by the lake to a very nice restaurant called Moondance. After a lovely meal, we walked along the street. What was a bustling tourist street in the day was very quiet and dark. The shops selling gear to trekkers and Nepalese souvenirs to tourists were closed by 10pm.
We thought it would be easy enough to get a taxi back to the hotel, but it took longer than we thought. When we finally got one, it was a young boy in his tiny Suzuki, and we crammed into the back. He had to ask for directions twice, so it was obvious he wasn’t a trained taxi driver – more a young boy looking for a small amount of money. We got there eventually, though, after an eventful taxi drive!
Day 9 – trekking from Nayapul to Ghandruk
Corrina: Today we got up early, as it was the first day of our trek. We arrived in Nayapul about 10.30am and soon set off on the walk.
Ella: To start off the trek wasn’t too bad – it was quite flat for a while, with the occasional step every now and then, and then it became slightly uphill, but not much.
We went over a suspension bridge, and my mum is really scared of them so it was funny to see her face when she crossed it!
By noon we reached Sanctuary Lodge where we had lunch. Most people stay there on the first night, but as we are squashing our trek into three days we have to do a harder walk, so we set off again after lunch.
Corrina: Because the first hour or so had been not too difficult, we believed the next bit would be okay too. People had told us how hard it was going to be, but we thought we’d manage fine, and we didn’t let it dampen our spirits.
That was until we saw the steps. They rose above us, steep and intimidating. We started up them and they seemed to go on for forever.
Ella: The rest of the walk was mostly up the monstrous steps. A few hours later, and more than a few hundred steps up, me and my sister were so exhausted we were thinking of giving up. But Tham kept us going by tricking us into thinking that “there’s not many more steps” or the traditional one, “we’re almost there.”
So me and my sister dragged ourselves up that hill for a few more hours, then eventually we arrived at Ghandruk, the village where our lodge is. But it still wasn’t over yet – our lodge just happened to be another hundred steps up, at the top of the village!
When we finally reached the lodge we were so relieved, but also so tired we could hardly speak.
We had some very nice warm showers and then went to a room with a big fireplace in it for “happy hour”, which is when you get all local drinks, as well as Sprite and Coke, free from 6 till 7pm. They also gave us popcorn and chips to munch on before dinner.
At 7pm we got called into the dining room for dinner. I didn’t really eat much because of all the popcorn I’d eaten by the fire. Once dinner was over me and my sister were so tired that we headed back to the room, and we’re about to go to sleep, even though it’s only 8.15. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this exhausted. Today was a killer! Gooooodnight!
Corrina: Finding it very hard to sleep, with the sound of traditional songs and dancing happening outside for Diwali…
Day 10 - Ghandruk to Tadopani – and back
10.15pm (ish)
Corrina: We were woken up at 6am today so we could see the view… Apparently the mountains normally get covered over by clouds quite early in the day. But even after our 10-hour sleep, we didn’t want to get out of bed.
Ella: We then decided (when I say we decided, I mean my mum and dad decided) we should go on a walk to Tadopani, a village at the top of the mountain/hill, to have lunch at a restaurant and then head back down again. So it was kind of pointless, really!
Corrina: After an energy-filled breakfast of porridge and eggs, we set off to Tadopani. Despite Tham telling us it was going to be a much easier trek than the day before, a large portion of it was uphill and up steps…
Ella: More steps... Oh the joy! After three-and-a-half hours of hearing Tham saying “water break”, “30 more minutes,” and “are you okay?”, we finally reached Tadopani.
There were some nice stalls there, where ladies were trying to sell some lovely little items. I bought an ankle bracelet, my sister bought some Nepalese socks and my mum bought a turquoise necklace.
Corrina: We also saw lots of big monkeys, with black faces and white hair, swinging in the trees.
Then we had lunch in a nice guest house, with our table looking out over the magnificent view. Unfortunately Annapurna South and the “Fish Tail” mountain were shrouded in cloud by then.
Ella: When we finally got back to our lodge we cleaned ourselves up and went and sat around the fire for happy hour! At dinner we started chatting to this other couple, Richard and Sue – they are very friendly and I think they will be doing the walk with us tomorrow.
Once dinner was finished, me, my mum and my sister played a game of Scrabble. Then Richard and Sue joined in. Unfortunately I lost – but I was the youngest!
Everyone else was in bed by 9.30, tired out by all the walking, so we were the last ones there. We soon decided it would be good to get to sleep, so here I am now, lying in this comfy bed. Sweet dreams!
Day 11 – trekking, Ghandruk to Gurung Lodge
10.30pm
Ella: I’m tired. Really tired. Today was another busy day full of walking and even more walking! We got up even earlier this morning as it was going to be a longer walk (lucky us), and soon headed off with Richard and Sue, the couple we were talking to the night before.
Corrina: We crossed the valley and up the other side to a different lodge in the Gurung village. We started down the steep steps that we had come up two days previously, but after a bit we went off on a different path. It was a lot nicer than the steps would’ve been – it went through the Nepalese crops. There was guava, lentils, rice, millet and soy bean.
Ella: We stopped at the home of a friend of Tham’s, and she gave us all guavas to try. This lady had the cutest puppy ever, which me and my sister were playing with.
Corrina: It wasn’t long before the path started going steeply downwards. When we got to the bottom of the valley, by the river, we walked along to where we had a “picnic” lunch – it was in a house, and we had soup and fried rice.
Ella: After our lunch we headed across another suspension bridge – me and my sister jumped across it to scare my mum. It was hilarious. Then we started heading up a hill.
The hill was very steep, and paired with the heat it became almost impossible to walk up! But with lots of stops for water, or as Tham likes to say, “waaaater breaks,” we made it.
Corrina: None of us was looking forward to that steep climb up the opposite valley wall, but it was okay when we got around to it. Yes it was steep, but the water breaks at the top of every long flight of steps made it better.
On the way we passed the home village of one of our porters, Suresh, and we met his mum and dad who were working in the rice fields.
Ella: When we were almost at the top we stopped so that me and my sister could go on this giant swing, which had been put up for Diwali. It was so much fun.
We then headed up the rest of the way. It took one more water break and one extra stop (because my mum lost her sunglasses) before we reached the village where our lodge was. Yet again, the lodge was at the very top of the village! And our rooms were up about 25 steps from the dining room!
We had showers then went down for happy hour, our legs aching as we walked down those steps! We had dinner and played our (probably) last game of Scrabble. I came second out of the three teams, so it has to be said, I suck at Scrabble!
Corrina: From our room here at Gurung Lodge you can see the side of the valley we were on only this morning. It looks like we’ve walked a very long way – it’s not surprising we’re all very tired.
Day 12 – Gurung Lodge to Pokhara
10.30pm (ish)
Corrina: We woke up this morning to a brilliant view of Annapurna South and Fish Tail.
It was to be our last day of trekking, and at breakfast we said goodbye to Richard “Switch It” and Sue, who we had befriended over Scrabble and trekking.
We left with Tom and the porters and an hour later we saw a road! We hadn’t seen a motor vehicle for the whole trek and the tiredness hit us as we piled into a minibus.
Ella: We only did one-and-a-half hours of walking today, but it was still too much for our tired bodies! We had our last two water breaks ever – I am going to miss those water breaks! :(
Corrina: When we got back to the hotel at Pokhara, we chilled for a couple of hours – we needed a break!
Me and Ella wanted to get henna decorations, like the ones in Hindu weddings. We asked around in the local market for two hours, with no luck, but eventually we found a beauty salon by the lakeside that did “mende”, as they call them.
We both got our hands painted – I got a flower and Ella got a sun pattern. We had to wait an hour before washing our hands, but my henna flaked off, leaving a flower-shaped pattern on my hands.
Ella: Later we all went to a really nice bar called Love Shack. My parents had some cocktails and I had a Sprite. I was being extra careful not to let my henna smudge! Then we went to a French restaurant called Bistro Carolina, which was very nice – I had fish goujons and chips!
Me and my sister felt a bit cold so we decided to look for a pashmina each. I chose a purple-blue one, it’s really pretty. Then we went back to the hotel and packed for going rafting tomorrow. I’m so, so, so tired – this holiday is draining me! Good night :)
Day 13 – River camp
10pm
Corrina: We got up early this morning to go on our overnight river rafting trip. After an hour’s drive, and another hour of waiting, we set off on our raft from a sandy bank and travelled down a river gorge. On the opposite bank, we could see a lorry collecting sand for the cement-making industry.
When we stopped for lunch we saw an amazing site of dozens of yellow butterflies resting on a rock near the river, as if they had just come out of their cocoons and were drying their wings.
Ella: One of the other boats had a group of American folk in it who wanted a laugh, so suddenly a water fight was taking place between our boats – in the parts of the river where there were no rapids. It was so much fun! I thought we were only going to get slightly wet but I ended up soaking!
When we reached camp we got assigned our tents. Me and my sister decided to go “swimming” which really meant diving into some minor rapids, with your lifejacket on, and floating down pretty fast for about 30 seconds and then having to swim for your life to get out of the rapids!
I did it more than anyone else because I loved it so much! It really tires you out, though. Once we had finished, me and my sister had showers – there were frogs in the bathroom, and it kind of freaked me out!
By this time it was 5pm. We went to sit around the outdoor fireplace and have some cookies and popcorn. Time flew by while chatting to the Americans. Soon it was happy hour and we had a few drinks – and some chips as well!
Corrina: The river camp consists of permanent tents plus two fire pits and a separate tent “hall” for dinner and breakfast. Sitting around the campfire in the evening it’s very hot, but if you stray more than three metres away the cold hits you like a wave.
Ella: As it was getting dark I decided to go back to my tent and get my head-torch and hoody. I also went to the toilet but there was this massive spider on the wall – its legs were about the same length as my middle finger, it was white and its eyes glowed when you looked at it.
I couldn’t go to that toilet again – later on I had to get my dad to stand outside while I went to the other toilet, just in case some huge spider came out to attack me!
We had a nice dinner and then headed to bed. Me and my sister were so scared of the bugs that we wrapped the duvet around us really tight and kept our head-torches on!
Corrina: Tomorrow we’re continuing down the river and then travelling back to Kathmandu, where we will spend one more night before we go home again.
Day 14 – our last day in Nepal
10pm
Ella: Quite a chaotic day! We got up at 6.45am and packed up our stuff and had some breakfast. Then we put on our wet clothes from yesterday and got into the rafts and headed off again.
The rapids today were a lot worse, and unfortunately the Americans weren’t with us for water fights. The funniest moment was when a single rapid was coming up and the raft captain didn’t think it was necessary to mention it. Everyone on the raft noticed except for my mum…
Me and my sister could see a funny moment coming up, so when we were about to go over the rapid we shouted “Mum!” – and she screamed and a lot of water went in her mouth and soaked her. The face she made was unbelievably funny!
The rest of the rapids were huge! I almost fell out of the boat. When we reached our stopping point we got changed into some dry clothes and had to wait in the heat of the sun for our minibus, which was very late.
On the five-hour journey back to Kathmandu, I tried to sleep but the noise of the car horns kept me awake. We finally arrived at Hotel Dwarika, where we’d stayed when we first arrived in Kathmandu. It was only two weeks ago but it feels like a month!
We got changed and went out to Thamel, the most popular place for tourists in Kathmandu, and looked around the shops for a while. I bought some Tibetan-style socks and my sister bought a statue of Ganesh, a Hindu god. It was so funny because when my sister showed my dad he said, “Oh yeah, Garnish” – thinking that was what he was actually called!
We are leaving pretty early in the morning so I’m going to sleep – but I might have a bit of MTV first….
It’s a shame the holiday is over, but I’m also so tired and it’ll be nice not to have to get up at 6 or 7 every morning! Goodnight, for the last time.
Day 15 – going home
Ella: We’re on the plane from Delhi back to London. This holiday has been an experience of a lifetime for me. Seeing the way people live in a poorer part of the world has changed how I view things.
I’ve had a chance to see a little bit of everything – wildlife, communities, mountain life, the work WWF is putting in... I’m amazed we fitted it all into one holiday.
It was a pleasure to meet Tham, and spend time with Mark and Anil and to see what WWF is doing to help the communities here.
Corrina: Being exposed to the poorness of (the majority of) people in Nepal made me realise how lucky I am to have the lifestyle I do. It’s shown me different cultures, and majestic landscapes and amazing sites, animals and plants. I feel very privileged to have visited Nepal, and it has taught me a lot.
Ella: I did enjoy the holiday, even if some of my comments seemed to be negative. I would recommend it to anyone as long as they are mature enough to handle it. I found it hard to handle at times, because we did so much! I got moody sometimes because of the long days. I must say I’m proud that I did the trek, and that I did the early mornings.
I have learnt so much on this holiday and its impression will remain with me. I think it would be difficult to live in Nepal. When people think about people living under the poverty line they normally think of Africa, not Nepal, maybe because of the size, I don’t know.
But I do think it’s important that we try to do more to help here. I hope more people will have the opportunity to visit Nepal to see all the wonders it holds and begin to understand the difficulties it has.
Thank you for reading this blog – I know it’s different to look at things through a teenager’s eyes, but I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Ella and Corrina
xx
You can…
Adopt a real tiger – and get a cuddly toy like Doug
See how we are working to save the tiger
Find out more about our work in Nepal and the Himalayas
Additional photography by Simon de Trey-White/ Michel Gunther/ Hartmut Jungius/ David Lawson/ WWF-UK/WWF-Canon
Newsletter sign-up
Sign-up to get the latest WWF news delivered straight to your in-box.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter