Bathing with elephants? No thanks

It's cruel. It's abuse. It's wrong. Elephant bathing is one of those things which in a guide book seem like the funniest thing you could ever do, but the reality of it is quite different.

I watched a few tourists "help an elephant bathe" in the Chitwan National Park in Nepal.

The procedure is simple. The dumbo driver tells the elephant to lie down in the shallow river. The tourists climb on and the driver tells the elephant to get up.

Then the biggest mammal in the world gushes water from his trunk to the tourist's face. Ha-ha.

Elelphant is told to go down again and splash, into the river the tourist dives.

Which would be very nice and funny if the elephant wasn't whacked and kicked to perform this tourist ritual.

"Helping an elephant bathe" a term used in the LP was one of the things I really wanted to do in Nepal. I get all silly around these massive animals. Their presence is so commanding, yet they seem so emphatetic as if their yielding to man's wishes was only because they wanted to help out. Elephants are my favourite animals.

A visit to the Elephant Breeding Center will clear one's head of such childish thougts. The croggy little informantion centers goes into surprising detail explaining how elephants are trained for taking tourists to tour the national park.

They start training the elephants when they are 2-4 years old. The young elephant is separated from his mother, and given very little food a water to make it weak. They chain its legs and then drag it around, using a particular little axe to force it forward. Worst of all they treat the elephant's sensitive skin (yes, the elephant's sensitive skin) with fire so that it gets hardened enough for a saddle. After a month's torture the massive animal has succumbed.

Not fun at all.

I've heard that there have been initiatives to find softer ways to train elephants. I really hope that they succeed.

PS.

The info center also tells the tale of wild male elephants who go to nearby villages in search of home brewed alcohol and get drunk. That part of the center I really liked. And the amazingly cute baby elephants who thump around freely in the center. If only watching them did not make one feel so guilty.

Tansen - a Nepali town without the tourists

Tansen is the type of city that forces a smile on your face even if your guest house faces the noisy bus station and suffers from seriously bad plumbing.

The bad news first. Accomodation in the lovely mediaval city of Tansen does not quite measure the charm of its location. I searched and searched and what I found was bug infested, dirty rooms. I walked out of the Lonely Planet recommended "cheerful cheapie" hotel Bajra in a minute and I'm glad that I did - a couple I met who stayed there were madly itchy from bug bites. The other guest houses mentioned in the book were full, I guess with local tourists as Wessies

are an endeeringly rare site in Tansen.

I ended up in hotel Simrik in a room that smelled like shit but at least it didn't smell as bad as the toilet on the other side of the corridor. The odours of all the piss corners of all the Indian bus stations combined together are Chanel 5 compared to that toilet. Now, did I make myself clear?

On to the good news.

1.Tansen sits on a beautiful hill, topped by a little pine forest and a small Buddha statue.

2. Tansen's center cannot be entered by motorized vehicles as the roads are too steep for them. You'll get to wander around town unbothered by honking horns.

3. And there's so much wandering around to do! The little alleys are filled with vegetable and tailor's shops, chow mein restaurants and tea houses that sell delicious fresh Nepali bread, which actually isn't like bread at all but more like a first cousin of doughnut.

4. No kid will ask you for sweets or money. Most often they won't even hello you. They say "namaste" which is what they should say as you are in Nepal after all.

5. This is the kind of old fashioned place you normally only get to see in the black and white American movies before rock'n'roll came to town. The scenic spots harbour not tourists but shy young couples trying hard not to be seen. The guys will readily volunteer you information on where to go next as they are most eager to get rid of intruders to their romantic moment. How sweet they are!

6. The Nanglo West restaurant, the only upscale one in town, serves amazing Nepali food sets for a fraction of the price you would pay in Pokhara or Kathmandu in a similar place. Beware the garlic!

7. This, I believe, is Nepal.