A more or less full day today, staring with a canoe trip down the river. Christina was joining us, along with two local tourists from yesterday; but it took a while for us all to assemble, and then to be driven down to the river. There was a pretty huge crowd assembled there, and we regretted (a little( that we had not managed to get here a little earlier. However, it was surprisingly well organised, with no mass scrum to get on the boats as they returned from up-river, and we were loaded in our turn.
We were loaded one by one, each person making their way down the length of the long canoe, and taking their seat – we were sat in one long column on small wooden seats. And then we were off, punted expertly, almost silently, along the river. Especially after the mild chaos of the loading process, it was remarkably quiet and peaceful, apparently drifting along, with the two or three guides who were with us pointing out various objects of interest: crocodiles (there are two sorts of crocodile in Nepal, one which eats only fish, the other which eats everything, including us), birds, etc.
The journey lasted about forty minutes, which was about right, and then we disembarked, and walked the short distance to the Elephant Breeding Centre. This was very good indeed; there was a small information room, which told us a lot about the breeding and training processes, via concise panels on the walls, and then we strolled around the pens where the mother and baby elephants are housed, with about twenty full-grown animals, most with calves of various ages. They are all taken out during the day to forage for themselves, then brought back for more targeted feeding (including lots of salt.) It was very interesting to see them all, for one could wander right up to the fence, and many elephants would come down to interact with the visitors in various ways, some of them a little cheap and exploitative (though undoubtedly entertaining), such as receiving money from the visitors, and passing the notes up to their handlers sitting on their necks.In other places, elephants were being covered in dust, and then brushed down, which they apparently enjoy. We chatted with Christina about the ethics of riding, using them in such ways, the conversation moving on to wider ethical and ecological matters, all tinged with a feeling of despair.
A walk from there over a long suspension bridge, some ice-cream, and then we were driven back for lunch.
The afternoon activity was a long – rather too long – jeep safari. Part of the trouble is that we were spoilt by Africa, and African safaris. There s nothing ike the volume of animals here, which means one is left clutching at metaphorical straws – we spent, for example, about fifteen minutes stopped on the trail because there was an (invisible to us) rhino there eating some grasses. Single sightings of rhino (a long way away, and doing very little) monkeys, even individual birds attracted great excitement from the guide, far less from the tourists (certainly us, but I suspect many of our fellow-passengers too.) And we were out for more than four hours; I found it very hard to stay awake.)
Dinner at the hotel, a late-night swim in their pool, and then while Val got on with some work, I ventured out to a Snooker club I had spotted. There were two full-sized tables, and two smaller ones, and I was invited to play against one of the guys there, called Sajiv. It turned out very well, for we were very evenly matched, and I only lost on the black (making two very stupid mis-shots to give away the game.) But it passed the time most sociably.
