Day 7 February 22, 2024 Chitwan to Bandipur
We board the bus after breakfast for a journey day of about 3.5 hours. The village of Bandipur sits on a hilltop. Getting there was quite an experience. Most of the road is under construction which means it isn’t paved. The bumps are significant so the bus must go slowly. Lots of traffic of all kinds and both directions compete for the easiest part of the road. We now understand the sign advertising for a car with the most clearance. The sides of the mountain that have been cut away are amazing. Seems a lot will come down during the rainy season. Even though construction crews are working there are no flaggers or piolet cars. Drivers here are so much more polite then at home. Our guide says the ride is like having a free massage.
We follow along different rivers none of which have much water. Based on the riverbeds this is not always the case. This road goes to Tibet. We eventually turned off the highway and started uphill. More of the road is paved but it is much more narrow. There were at least 15 hairpin turns. We were amazed at each of those that the bus was able to make it up and around. Of course we continued to meet other vehicles and vehicles passed us. There are no guard rails so we can only hope the trees will stop us if we go over the side. Luckily we don’t. Eventually we turned into a parking lot. The rest of the way up will be on foot. Sure glad someone else does the luggage.
We arrive at The Old Inn which will be our lodging. The building is over 180 years old. Meals are served on an outdoor terrace looking out to the mountains. Our room is very unique as we understand they all are. The toilet and sink are in one room. The main bed is in another room, the shower is the next room and a smaller bed is in the last room. Doorways are small and you must step over the threshold which is about 12 inches tall while ducking your head. The main entrance is two doors with a chain on each door. The chains reach to a loop. A link of each chain is put over the loop and then a small padlock secures everything. We have a small terrace looking over the dining terrace below. The beds have electric blankets. We ate lunch on the terrace which was more food than we wanted.
Later in the afternoon everyone took a walk around the village. We stopped at a school which was just letting out for the day. It was founded by a couple of nuns and was called Norte Dame. Teaching is done in English. Connie talked with one of the primary school teachers. He has been there for 12 years. Our guide asks some of the kids their age and grade level. They are quite willing to talk to us. Dinner was on the terrace with fires going in the bottom of barrels. We were still cold by the time we went to our room. The electric blanket felt good.
Spoffords Travel 