Note from Jonah: This is the continuation of a photo series from the Great Himalayan Mountain Range. The photos document a journey by car, foot, boat, plane and elephant from Tibet to Nepal.
As you drop down thousands of meters from the world’s roof top in the Himalayan, the geographic climate and culture changes rapidly. While the Himalayan alpine zone doesn’t support much growth, it does supply what’s beneath it with a great deal of water and snow melt.
From the highest point of the Himalayan at 28,000 feet to Nepals lowest point at sea level, its similar to changing planets (well, at least countries). While the northern ridge of the country reflects the Tibetan culture, the southern flatlands reflect more of an Indian flavor. The wetlands at the foothill of the Himalaya support a completely different ecosystem and wildlife. As you drive lower and lower, the water from the Himalayan follows you, snaking through the landscape.
Nepal’s southern border with India is known as the Terai (Hindi: तराई, Nepali: तराई, Urdu: ترائی, translation: “moist land” or “foothill” [originally from Persian]). Within one day of being at Mount Everest, you potentially could be in Nepal’s wetlands which border India. This strip of marshy grasslands covers parts of India, Nepal and Bhutan. The variation in visual geography is stunning and is matched by the diversity in culture found in the Terai.
Although I’ve yet to voyage to India, these wetlands and grasslands reminded me more of a stereotypical view of Africa more than India. However, this showed me my vision of India was inaccurate and it was I who was foreign, certainly not the land.
As I drove south nearing the border of India, clay houses turned into straw huts, yaks turned to elephants and layers of clothing stripped off as temperatures and humidity skyrocketed. I was on my way to Chitwan Royal National Park, famous in Asia for its biodiversity and wildlife population. After some rough accommodation in the Himalayan and the dirtiness of Katmandu, arriving on the shores of the park was like getting to a tropical island paradise.
I arrived at the shores of the park just in time for the sun setting over the marshlands. This really made me feel like I was someplace far away from where I had been two days earlier.
If you look at the picture directly above you’ll notice black dots or specs everywhere (might be hard to see at 650px wide, click on it to enlarge to 1000px). These are actually bats at dinner time in Chitwan National Park. Almost like a painted through a paint brush at the landscape, this was my first sign of tremendous wildlife in the park.
Next post picks up inside the park with some crocs, elephants, rhinos, deers and certainly the tallest grass I’ve ever seen.
Road Trip on the Himalayan Shelf: If you’re just joining now, here’s what you’ve missed:
- Road trip on the Himalayan Shelf
- Lhasa: City of Sunlight, City in the Sky
- In Tibet, People’s Liberation Army (mostly) out of site, but not out of mind
- Attn: Crayola — a new color for you — Tibetan Blue
- Tibetan Cloudscapes
- Tibetan Prayer Flags Littering Roof of the World
- Should you pay for photos? The ethics of travel photography
- 29 Minutes and 15 Seconds on Mount Everest
- Desertification stretching from Inner Mongolia to Tibet
- ‘The journey not the arrival matters’
- Namaste and welcome to Nepal
- Kathmandu: The greatest place on earth to get lost
- Kathmandu: Full of mystery, culture, history — and trash
- ‘A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles’
- Who has the strongest necks in the world?
- Hey hey, they’re some monkeys
- After the Himalayan: The Terai
- Watch where you step: Chitwan National Park
- At the end of the road: Pokhara
- Final Destination 8 (in 3D): The luckiest travelers in the world
- Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’
