Bardia and India

Hello All,
Update on where and what I've been doing:
I left Pokhara midday on the 1st and took an overnight 16hr Bus to Bardia national park. The journey wasn't great... The bus dumped me 13km from the actual park so I had to hitch from Ambassa at 6.00am. (Nepalis get up at day break, so they've been busy for an hour or so...) One nice chap even rang a friend to pick me up from the other side of a swollen river that his bike couldnt pass through. Even though I arrived early I didnt go into the park on the 1st day. I went for a stroll along the river and came across some domestic elephants being taken out for a walk. Saw some rural villages which were very tranquil. Then the sun really got going and it was seriously hot. I retreated to the lodge and tried to relax, but the heat penetrated everything. I organised a local guide for the jungle the next day. We set off at 6.00am into the jungle. It's monsoon season meaning that the animals needn't come to the waterways for water as many ponds form in the jungle so I was told not to expect too much. At the start of the jungle there were hundreds of Mosquitoes, foolishly my shorts and rugby socks i was wearing offered little protection. We came across fresh tiger tracks and followed them until they seemed to vanish into thin air...gulp. There were loads of monkeys, deer, wild boar and numerous birds so the time in the jungle was nice. We arrived at a vantage point near a river where we sat for about an hour seeing nothing, but one local on a domestic elephant. We moved to another spot, after an hour we saw a troop of otters, which was really nice, they came really close and I got some decent pictures. We ate our packed lunch and then moved to our final spot. We saw lots of deer and other animals, at one point it seemed that the monkeys and deer moved around together, the monkeys shouting at us and the deer following them...As we got to the last spot I noticed an Elephant and got excited, but they turneed out to be domestic and their owners were chilling out in this man made vantage point. They were from an up market lodge and their job was to go into the jungle tracking the big animals so that when the rich guests come along they know where to find the animals. They said they'd seen a tigress 2/3 days before but it was relocating with cub. They said the elephants were all further North at the moment but some rhinos had been seen in this exact spot the day before. We waited for 2 or 3 hours but saw no rhinos. Saw some more deer but that was it. On the way back to the park entrance the guide told me some fascinating run-ins with tigers. One with a Canadian: They were on one of the trails and the monkeys started going crazy (usually means there is a leopard or tiger) and the guide said to the Canadian there is a Tiger in there we shouldn't go in there. The Canadian said he wanted too and marched off the track into the bush. He literally nearly walked into a tigress with cub. The tigress charged 3 times and the guide made noises and hit the ground with his stick (running is the worst thing to do), the tigress retreated each time. They had time to climb a tree but then she came back and tried to climb it also. The guide hit the tigress numerous times in the head and eventually she went away...Lol tells you alot about Canadians. This comp isnt recognising my camera so i'll upload some photos in a couple of days.
I left Bardia the next day and took a bus to Nepalganj, this annoying adolescent sat next to me, he spoke no English and me no Nepali but he insisted on trying to communicate, and kept taking things off me and staring at them in awe...I had a bit of trouble crossing the border as I couldnt find the Nepal side of things. In fact I would have gone completely across the border with no interuption if I hadn't asked an Indian policeman where the immigration was. He sent me back, and they sent me back 1km to the Nepali side of things. Once the formalities were sorted out, I got a share taxi with some lovely Nepalese guys who were on there way to Assam where they worked on a tea plantation. They even insisted on buying me lunch which was nice. We arrived in Lucknow about 8 in the evening. I'm currently wasting time in Lucknow whilst I may or may not have a train to Delhi tonight (on the waiting list), the train to Amritsar as booked in all classes for 3 days and there is very little for tourists to do in Lucknow so I thought Delhi was the lesser of two evils. Also there are lots of trains from Delhi to Amritsar so hopefully can get one that same day...

I have just read about the floods in Pakistan, it's a tregedy. It also effects me as the floods have hit the areas that I intended to go...I'm currently thinking i'll go to Ladakh in Northern India, do some trekking there then into Pakistan slightly later. If the roads have been repaired i'll go up the KKH and not trek. Or fly from Islamabad to Kashgar in China. We'll have to see...In Amritsar I intend to live in the Golden temple (Eat and sleep for free) for a couple of days and then weigh up what to do regarding Pakistan. Love to all, x