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Recently I returned to Nepal for the first time since the heady days of the great Asian overland journey. So much water has passed under the bridge since then... Afghanistan remains essentially impassable whilst Nepal itself was paralyzed by a murderous insurgency until a few years ago. The old monarchy has ended in dramatic, indeed tragic, circumstances, supplanted by a turbulent democracy. Kathmandu now sprawls unrestrained across the once-bucolic valley, yet much remains of the magic kingdom: the great stupas and the implacable faiths - intertwined, in peculiarly Nepalese fashion - of Buddhist and Hindu believers; the magnificent legacies of the three historic city-states of the Kathmandu Valley. Beyond all this lies the countless villages, the terraced slopes and towering above them all, those impossibly perfect snow-capped peaks.
And the wildest dreams of Kew... lead some, like Kipling, back in time to Kathmandu. The semi-mythical city, which Kipling never set eyes upon, now sprawls unrestrained across the once-bucolic valley, yet much remains of the magic kingdom: the great stupas and the implacable faiths - intertwined, in peculiarly Nepalese fashion - of Buddhist and Hindu believers; the magnificent legacies of the three historic city-states of the Kathmandu Valley. Seemingly engulfed by the metropolis, Patan nonetheless best preserves the ambience of a medieval city, with a minimum of artifice.
Chitwan: Watch Out for Sleeping Crocodiles! We are gliding through the mists in a dugout canoe.. the monsoonal jungle fringing the riverbank stands motionless. The only sounds are bird calls and the rhythmic slopping of the water beneath us. Then a dull thump - and Hari, the guide standing in the prow, gestures urgently to the fellow poling from the back. Get back! We have slid right over a mugger crocodile, which, fortunately for us, hasn't reacted to the intrusion.
Nepal's Chitwan National Park preserves a tract of lowland forest - tiger, rhinoceros and elephant country - far removed from the snow-capped Himalaya for which the landlocked nation is so well known.
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