I was taken accosted on the interior road to the park by 2 guys on motorbike who led me to their homestay. I usually avoid homestays- too tired to do the socializing- but this turned out to be a great place. Bardia homestay. Sandar and his family run this place. He has had a few very successful years in Japan and has become an expert chef in all the intricate aspects of Japanese cuisine. He is leaving Japan though to get married with his Nepalese girlfriend who lives in Australia. He will get a visa after about 6 months and will have no difficulty getting a good job in a Japanese restaurant in Australia.
How nice that they arrange a walk in the park, guide, lunch all included. Thus my rest day wasn’t really a rest day. We did a lot of walking in the jungle. We saw 2 rhinos, a huge crocodile, a tree snake, but despite waiting patiently for several hours did not see a tiger in the wild. We did though see an enormous male tiger in an enclosure at feeding time. This tiger had been hit by a car and was limping in its front leg. I couldn’t get a photo of it but here is an older blind rhino that they keep
At the prime tower there was a bevy of foreigners and their guides waiting patiently for animals, especially tigers to appear. Everybody was very quiet, speaking only in whispers- except for a German who was with Sandar, our excellent guide Prakash, and me who talks a lot, very loudly and seemed incapable of whispering. He annoyed everyone.
In the evening I wanted to try Tharu food. This was arranged and I arrived at the Tharu house where there was already a beautiful Italian couple drinking, eating and smoking. The italian guy had extravagent tatoos and related to the tharu women’s tatoos. I couldn’t really get a sense of the tharu food except that they served a kind of doughy sort of roti and no rice. Here again my Hindi was very useful and the ice was broken especially with a young beautiful girl. I can’t remember too much of what we talked about. I guess i had drunk too much by then. I would like to learn more about this fascinating community. Damn, I didn’t take any photos here!
