Bardia National Park

There are some things very similar and some things very different between Northern India and Nepal. Most noticeable similarities are cows and many layers of rubbish on the streets. The street picture however is much more poorer and emptier in Nepal compared to India - no cars, only buses, houses are poorer. Also the atmosphere that people create is different than in India. This is possible to feel right after entering to Nepal. Very many faces passing are Chinese-Tibetan rather than dark like in India.

In Mahendranagar (border town) we got hooked up by a seemingly very friendly, polite and intelligent person, who said he can lead us to a good and cheap hotel. First we were skeptical, but later on we followed him. He said he is actually a jungle guide from Bardia NP. What a great luck, we thought, as we were planning to visit Bardia anyway, so now we could ask some information from him.

The hotel that he showed us was good enough, so we stayed.
The jungle guide Primo also mentioned us among other things that he met one German couple, who want to go to Bardia NP the next day, so if we want we can join. Cheap accommodation is available and jeep would come to pick us up from the bus station FOR FREE.

Hmm, again we were skeptical about all this, but next day still decided to go, since we knew that we will still have free choice to choose the place to stay around the NP...

We met the nice German-Kazakh couple Thorsten and Natascha and went all 5 (including Primo) by bus to Bardia. Primo "helped" us with buying the tickets. Tickets costed surprisingly a lot for us for this not so long distance...

The jeep was already waiting for us in Bardia bus stop and took us to a guest house called JUNGLE BASE CAMP. Hukum, the owner of the place welcomed us with the "welcoming tea, for free". We were shown the rooms. They were quite ok and cheap. Environment was good and nice as well. It as already going to be dark and around was a jungle with all the jungle dangers, as we were told, we decided to stay there rather than find another guest house.

Our Jungle Base Camp house

This was not a city hotel though, so we had to share the room not only with lizards but also with other creatures

In the evening we were introduced different possibilities for experiencing the jungle. Boat trip and elephant ride were possible, but the cheapest option (that was still quite a high price compared to the prices given in Lonely Planet) was walking tour, 1500 Nepalese rupees per person (approx. 15 EUR).

We had already come to jungle so it would have been pity not to discover it more thoroughly. We decided to take this offer.

When dinner time came close and we saw the menu.....wow wow wow.....the prices were double, some even triple as the normal prices anywhere else in Nepal.
Yes, that's a good business plan, to give cheap rooms and high food prices in the guest house in the middle of the jungle - people need to eat, right !

So, next morning we set out to jungle tour - Kadri, Branko, Thorsten, Natascha, Primo and another young guide. First of all, our guide Primo warned us about rhinos - they have bad eyes, but good smelling and hearing, their defense is attack, so if you spot a rhino, first thing you have to do is to look around and find an "easy tree" to climb on, because as soon as the rhino sees you, he will run towards you with a great force.

OK, easy tree, easy tree, must be easy !?

Entrance to Bardia NP

We spotted tiger footprints, walked around in bushes, hearing all kinds of voices around, that made our veins fill with adrenaline and brain look for an easy tree...

our jungle pathfinder Primo

First animal that we spotted

We reached to the river bank and saw fresh rhino excrements. So they were close !
After long waiting, we decided to continue inside the river bed, since there was almost no water in it.

Primo was walking bravely in the front and the other guide behind us. Suddenly the guide from behind stopped us: "psst, psst !!!!" He had spotted something in the bushes, some 25 m away from us, that we were walking towards. We froze, kept our breaths, looked through binoculars and saw something big moving in the bushes. There were two huge rhinos !!!!

Two backsides of the two rhinos in the bushes

It was the true moment of adrenaline ! And at the same time quite a ridiculous situation, as we were in the middle of the river bed, no easy trees around..... we were the most easiest target in the whole jungle. If we had gone just few more steps and not noticed the rhinos.....who knows what would have happened....

So, it was time to back off quietly, but quickly. We had to cross little water body to reach to the other side of the river. We climbed up the bank and were ready to watch an amazing show of nature !!!!

This is not exactly the way to escape from rhinos :-) ! Natascha on the back of our young guide.


We were sitting on the river bank, just some 50 m away from rhinos. Observing quietly and being amazed by the huge size of these animals. After some time they decided to go for a little walk in the bushes. This seamed good time for us to have lunch and watch other animals coming to the river to drink.

Suddenly we heard a desperate scream coming from somewhere further away, which after few moments subsided into jungle silence again. Primo explained us that it was a dear, taking her last breath in between the teeth of a tiger.

Now we had another reason to stay waiting on the bank, because there was a chance that the tiger would come to drink after great feast.

Tiger did not come, maybe he spotted us first and went to drink somewhere else.

But nevertheless, next we had chance to see something that was astonishing - rhinos came back, and this time they came out of the bushes.

First the big male used the toilet...

...then female sniffed if the place is right and lightened herself into the same place...

....they moved towards the water body (this is the real distance on the photo between our hiding place and rhinos).

Male goes in front, female follows.

Male drinking.

Some of us moved a little, which cause some noise. Of course, females are always the ones who can foresee the possible danger. She was looking towards us and sniffing the air.

Female was troubled, so she started to run away and called the male to follow her.



Off they went.

We were finally able to breath again after these stunning scenes.

And start moving towards the human habitation, since it was already afternoon.

Back in the jungle village

The evening in the guest house was filled with excitement and enthusiastic conversations about the day adventure. Natascha also kept trying to convince us that she saw a tiger though binoculars....

Well, one way or another she was the lucky one - to really see a tiger or to imagine to see a tiger is same same :-)

---

Next morning we were leaving together with Thorsten and Natascha to go to Butwal.

Hukum, the JUNGLE BASE CAMP owner said that he can not take us with the jeep again, since it costed a lot for him, but we can walk 1 km to the near bus stop and he will bring our luggage by motor bike. Seamed very nice of him...

Before going, he also suggested us, that it is better to book the bus tickets, since the bus comes from somewhere else and there might not be places. He was so kind to make a phone call and book tickets for us.

After long waiting for the local bus that was to take us to the main road, to catch the bus to Butwal, Hukum was already there with our luggage.

Now the real theater started.

Our disadvantage was that we had been in Nepal only few days and were not acquainted with the prices, customs and other daily stuff.

Hukum insisted us to buy the tickets from some hut, that was suppose to be the ticket selling office and not in the bus. The price was enormously high - 800 NRP (~8 EUR) per person, including booking the ticket. We were hurried by all people around, and bus were already leaving, so we had no time to reason if everything was right or not....well it did not seam right, but the numbers on the ticket were in hindi script, which we were not able to read and bus was already leaving.....

So we payed the amount and went.

Later we asked from different bus stations how much is the ticket price between Bardia and Butwal and the answer was always : "around 300 per person !!!"

So aside from high prices on food in Hukum's guest house, he earned on four of us 2000 NRS (20 EUR), when actually 80 % of Nepalese live from less than 1,5 EUR a day ! Maybe he gave some little amount to the ticket seller as well....

Also we realized that the price of the bus ticket from border town to Bardia was more than normal price, so we kindly and unknowingly enabled a free ride for Primo, out jungle guide and recruiter.

Here is our ADVISE / WARNING to all people wanting to visit Bardia NP in Western Nepal:

1. Be cautious about the people in the border city Mahendranagar, who are trying to take you to Bardia NP.

2. Avoid guest house named JUNGLE BASE CAMP. There are much nicer ones just near it.

3. The jungle visiting tours are always much more expensive when you buy them from your guest house owner. It is possible to get the guide from the NP headquarters for much more fairer price.

Although getting cheated does not feel good, the money we spent was worth the amazing adventure.