Rowdy Roadie Round Trip 2015
With a visa in hand I flew back to Katmandu and to Sam’s Bar and ‘V’. Hello V! Things had calmed down from the earthquakes but a ‘Banda’ was in place. A Banda is a nation wide strike where no private vehicles are allowed to move, only government emergency vehicles, army and police. But it depends where you are in the country because some groups have no cares for the politics of in Katmandu. And even in Katmandu there were a few motorcycles out and about. In other areas motorbikes and cars were burned and even bicycles thrown into the river. Life goes on none-the-less.
The constitution was signed by pulling something like 16 different parties together. One group in particular was upset because they didn’t get their own division and India, a democratic country, slammed the door on oil hoping to influence the outcome but Nepal was stead fast and turned away from India and towards China. And Banda was back on.
The way many Nepali look at it is that they are a hen being pecked at by two big roasters, one on each side. I went back to Thakadurwara and helped build the dinning hall and in the process helped identify a species of owl that wasn’t supposed to be there.
We took a quick stop at the river in search of Gangetic dolphin and found a few along with a Garial Crocodile fishing side by side.
Johnny Sparshatt, one of the owners of www.wildtrakadventure.com was asked to help identify an owl species that, until now, was said by specialists not to inhabit Nepal. Johnny downloaded a couple tracks of Wood Owl sounds and I brought my speaker and we loaded up the cameras in his jeep and off we went to where they had been sighted. We turned on the tracks and the speaker sung out to a pair of Mottled Wood owls who responded almost immediately with song and fly-bys. When one of them landed Johnny and I both began taking numerous pictures until we could without identify the bird. It has been corrected in the area expansion that Nepal now has the Mottled Wood Owl. Even in the Wild Trak Adventure compound owls persisted to hang around and once the lookout was up and running we tried the Mottled Owl calls there and they arrived. The whole experience was really cool.
In the end we headed up to Shey Phoksundo Lake in the Lower Dolpa region in the western Himalayas.
We trekked for around ten days or so and ended up in Jumla and we flew back to Nepalgunj where we bid farewells.
I headed back to Katmandu and met some great people like usual and said good-bye for now to Sam’s bar and ‘V’.
My flight was supposed to be nonstop but due to the fuel shortage we stopped in Delhi for fuel and then on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
I dropped in on Malacca on my way to Tioman Island on the other side of Malaysia. Malacca was nice but I remember being eager to get to the ocean and swim and Malacca was not the place for swimming.
Crossing to Mersing town and out to Tioman was a snap and in the water I went. I met a nice couple from England whom lived in the next bungalow. We would sit on our respective porches and talk the evenings away.
Returning to Kuala Lumpur I flew to Thailand and had a short visit there before heading off to Krabi,
Koh Phi Phi,
Phuket,
And up the coast to Khao Lak where I joined Wicked Diving on a 6 day live aboard dive trip; a most excellent experience with good people. I learned a lot from the staff in regards to the condition of the Andaman Sea and how to be a more compassionate diver. That may sound like an odd phrase but considering the way we all mistreat the oceans and the life in them it makes sense to me.
I was not disappointed when I reached Khao Sok National Park either. I’ve been here many times and again up to the lake where I could hear Gibbons howling in the jungle, Hornbills fly overhead, take jungle walks, go caving, and swim out my floating bungalow front porch.
From Khao Sok I took a van, a bus and a boat to Koh Tao where I spent a few weeks around Christmas and New Year. Yes, I have to say, that it was an incredible year and here I am sitting on Koh Tao having a beer at Maya Beach Club and listening to some great DJ music whilst watching the sun go down on New Year’s Eve.
