Places of Scenic Interest

NAGARKOT, DHULIKEHL, POKHARA, TANESN, ROYAL CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK, BARDIA NATIONAL PARK.

NAGARKOT:
Like many of Nepal's best highway, the road to Nagarkot serves mainly strategic, not scenic purposes: Nagarkot was orginally developed as an army post, and tourist facilities came later, with government encouragement. Set on a ridge northeast of Bhaktapur, it commands a classic panorama of the Himalaya from Lang tang Himal to Gauri Shanker, and on a good day you can see from Annapurna south to Everest.

DHULIKEHL:
Dhulikhel, a well preserved town as well as a Mountain View point Dhulikhel can keep you occupied for days - especially if you are into walking or biking. It sits in a saddle 5km east of Banepa, just off the Arniko Highway, at the relatively low elevation of 1550m, from several places around the town, but for the full vista you have to walk to a small nearby summit. But perhaps more than for its views, Dhulikhel is known as the customary starting point for day hikes.

POKHARA:
The Himalaya form the highest, sheerest rise from subtropical base to icy peaks of any mountain range on earth, and nowhere is the contrast more marked than at Pokhara. Sited at just 800m above sea level, it boasts a nearly unobstructed view of the 8000 metre plus Annapurna and Manaslu Himal, 25 km north. Dominating the skyline, in beauty if not in height, is the double finned summit of Machhapuchhre - "Fishtail" - only one of whose peaks is visible from Pokhara.
Basking in the view, Nepal's main "resort" area lolls beside the shore of Phewa Tal (Tal Denotes to Lake) well outside the actual town of Pokhara. Pokhara also serves as a hub for the trekkers going for a trekking around Annapurna ranges.

TANSEN:
Tansen is sold as is, unvarnished for tourists' sensibilities. Once the seat of a powerful Kingdom and now a lowly district head quarters, It makes no attempt to be anything but a typical market town in the heartland of the western hills. Yet slowly, almost reluctantly, Tansen yields its secret: clacking Dhaka looms glimpsed though doorways: the potters of Ghorabanda: the view from Srinagar Hill. Above all, it makes a superb base for day hikes around surrounding country side. As long as you're passing by on the Siddhartha Highway it's well worth breaking the journey here - especially if you're coming from India, for Tansen makes a more authentic introduction to Nepal than Pokhara. Tansen's history goes back to the early sixteenth century when it was known as Palpa, and when the Sen Clan of princes, already established at Butwal, chose it as a safer base from which to expand family holdings that soon covered the length of the lower hills, almost to Sikkim.

ROYAL CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK:
In the early part of this century, the Chit wan was a centre for the hunting exploits on which British royalty was so keen. King George V and his son the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, never made it to Kathmandu but they did slaughter wild life in the Chitwan forest. Occasional hunting forays into the park did not decimate the tigers and Rhinos however. That was left to malaria, or rather to the malaria eradication program which began in 1954. Until the late 1950s the only settlements in the Chitwan Valley were scattered Tharu Village, inhabited by people whose apparent immunity to malaria was rumoured to be the result of their heavy drinking and eating hot and spicy food.

After the malaria was defeated, land hungry people from the hills were quick to see the potential wealth of the region. The Jungle was rapidly transformed into farmland and as their habitat disappeared so did the tigers and Rhinos. By 1973 the Rhino population of the Chitwan was estimated to have fallen to 100 and there were only 20 tigers left. Compare those numbers with the British royals' epic hunting trip 60 years earlier.

Fortunately this disastroud slide was reversed when the park area was delineated in 1964 and 22.000 people were removed from within its boundaries. The park actually became a national sanctuary in 1973 and since that time the animal population has rebounded. The Chitwan now contains an estimated 400 Rhino and more than 100 Tigers, quite apart from 50 other mammals and over 400 different types of birds.

ROYAL BARDIA NATIONAL PARK.
The Royal Bardia National Park is the largest unhurt backwoods area in the Terai. It's bordered to the north by the crest of the Siwalik Hills and to the west by the Geruwa River, a branch of the mighty Karnali, one of the major tributaries of the Ganges.

You stand a better chance of seeing a Tiger here than anywhere else in Nepal. It's a surprising place that seems a very long way from the 20th century watching the sun rise over the forest from the back of an elephant is like having a box seat at the dawn of time.

Most of the reserve is covered with open Sal forest, with the balance a mixture of grassland, savannah and riverine forest. The grassed areas are excellent for game, viewing. Most people will visit in the hope of seeing a Royal Bengal Tiger, but there are also Leopard, Jungle cats, Mongoose, Sloth bears, blue bull, Langur and Rhesus Monkeys, and Sambar, Spotted, Hog and barking deer. The Asian one - horned Rhinoceros was reintroduced from the Chitwan in 1986, and although they are breeding successfully there are only small numbers. There are of course some Wild Elephants.