Every summer, my uncle travels the world often in search of extremely remote locations and to find rare wildlife in the wild. He sends out emails when he passes through towns to let us know how things are going and to send pictures.
His email last week is one of the best yet, and I thought I would share it here as a fun post. In line with the “play hard” part of the common startup mantra to “work hard, play hard”, this is quite the play hard inspiration:
I have spent the past five days in Bardia National Park in Nepal. This was not part of my original plan. I had an airline ticket to Prague in the Czech Republic and was going to fly there on the 11th of July. The sole reason for my coming to Nepal was to see Asian rhinos in the wild. I did not enjoy my experience at Chitwan National Park and wanted to find another option to see rhinos. I read about a remote national park in Nepal called Bardia which had rhinos. No one knew a lot about it. I was told that it was hot, infested with leeches and crocodiles and that very few people ever visited the park. I was immediately interested. I had to change my airline ticket, extend my visa in Nepal, and find a way to get there. The closest airport was the city of Nepalgunj. I booked a ticket there and hired a driver with a four wheel drive to get me to the park which was two hours away. After finding a guide, the adventure began. Finding a guide was not easy. They normally do not work during the monsoon season. They do not expect anyone to show up during the monsoon season, especially an American.
I had to get special permits to hike at Bardia. In Africa, you must go with an armed ranger if you walk among wildlife. They are a bit looser in their rules at Bardia. I got a lecture something like this. If a rhino charges, hide behind a large tree. If you see a tiger, stare at it and slowly back away. If an elephant wants to kill you, there is not much you can do. They are too intelligent to hide from. Leopards are too stealthy to even see them coming. I was amused with the lecture. They did not even talk about snakes. This is what my guide told me. If you get bitten by a king cobra, Russell’s Viper, or krait, he will call the local witch doctor who will suck out the venom. It should work most of the time, he said. The king cobra would probably kill me, though. He gave me such comforting words.
The first day hiking in Bardia was one of the most tortuous I have ever had. I have spent a lot of time in jungles around the world, including two weeks in Borneo in a canoe. I have had many days of agony and discomfort. I do not think that I have ever suffered as much in one day as my first day in Bardia. I hiked almost 12 hours in intense heat, plagued by leeches. Leeches in Bardia inject saliva into the wound which prevents blood from clotting. I had blood dripping down my feet and legs, pooling at the bottom of my sandals. There was the sound of sloshing blood as I walked in the jungle. Amazingly, there were few mosquitos and flies. At the end of the day, we spotted a huge male rhino about a half mile away. How I had the energy to run to that rhino was beyond me. It was a magnificent animal. When I got back to camp, I cleaned my wounds, lathered feet and legs with antibiotic cream, and covered holes with bandaids.
The next four days were trying, but somehow easier. I protected myself better from leeches and developed more stamina. There were other trials, though. In order to hike in prime rhino country, we had to cross a river. Picture a swaying wooden bridge twenty feet above raging water. The bridge was three feet wide with no rails and missing planks. I tried that once. The other option was to wade across the river and possibly deal with mugger crocodiles. I have a greater fear of heights than I do of crocodiles. The balance of the trip was spent crossing rivers on foot.
As I sit in my cool room in Kathmandu, I am amazed that I did what I did. I saw five beautiful, almost prehistoric rhinos, pushed myself to the limit, and relished the raw jungle with all its misery.
I cannot tell you a tenth of what I went through in five days. I try to push myself while not taking unnecessary risks. My wonderful wife trusts me to use good judgment. I would take more risks if it weren’t for her. Anyways, I should be in Prague in a couple of days. I say would be because I might end up in the Himalayas in India.
Personally, I’ve been spending the last year snowboarding and wakeboarding as my embodiment of “playing hard.”
How do you live the mantra to play hard?
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