Category: Chitwan

Woke this morning to the smell of a burning spliff drifting from a nearby farmer’s field. Perhaps he was just burning off a crop in the cool, damp early morning hours. Today was safari day, and first up after breakfast was the safari-on-an-elephant’s-back safari. I have been on the back of an elephant’s back before and know two things:

1. It’s not the most comfortable experience, continually rocking back and forth and side to side, and
2. It is not very ideal for trying to take pictures and change lenses with big, bulky cameras.

I reluctantly agreed to do the elephant ride as long as I could also do a jeep ride when I negotiated my tour with my Kathmandu hotel manager.

As it turned out, it was actually a really good way to see the wildlife. We weren’t permitted inside the national park, but we could explore trails in the surrounding buffer zone. Because elephants are native to the area, the other wildlife didn’t seem to flinch when we approached. I’m not even sure they knew humans were on the elephants’ backs! I got very close to a wide range of native wild animals, including a big adult rhino and lots of deer, just chilling out in the shelter of the forest.

Elephant Safari Walk

Afterwards, I was taken to where the elephants are rewarded for slugging 5 people around on their backs for 2 hours: a bath. They love water, so they walk them down to the river to drink countless gallons, spray, and submerge themselves to cool off and clean up. They let tourists stand on the elephants’ backs for the experience of getting a good-luck nostril spray, but I declined, not knowing how clean or sanitary the river was, or how sanitary it was to have elephant snot fired at you.

In the afternoon, I headed out for a jeep-based safari that actually went into the national park for four hours. The safari required us to paddle across a river in dugout canoes to reach the cheap Indian Tata vehicles.

Unlike my solo safari in Sri Lanka, I shared the vehicle with six others, though they were all very nice and as interested as I was. British, New Zealanders, and Germans were on board. At first we weren’t having much luck, possibly because it was a warmer-than-average mid-February day, but as we headed back and things cooled off, we saw all kinds of great things. There were several rhinos, an Asian bison, an Asian bear with two cubs on her back, countless deer, wild boars, numerous peacocks, lots of crocodiles, several monkeys, but no tigers! The tigers are supposed to be pretty rare, but just over the border in India, there are quite a few. All in all, I’d say it was a very good day.

Chitwan National Park Jeep Safari

I woke up early in the chilly Kathmandu air to wolf down breakfast and meet my driver so we could head to Sauraha, near Chitwan National Park in south-central Nepal, close to the Indian border. It was about a 4-hour drive on mainly switchback mountain roads, descending about 1200 meters back to the warm, sunny plains. Although the traffic didn’t seem quite as crazy as in Sri Lanka, there were some horrible-looking accidents and many broken-down trucks and buses left in the middle of the narrow road for everyone to try to navigate around. At times, landslides made road conditions atrocious, likely due to the summer monsoon season. Lots of dried, muddy stretches with massive potholes. As it turns out, the road is the main drag between Kathmandu and India.

The Drive from Kathmandu to Chitwan National Park

I arrived at a compound behind a gate with staff members dressed like Gurkha soldiers. Probably not a coincidence, since Gurkha is a town just up the road. The gate rolled open and about five guys descended on me with juice on a tray and help with my bags. The manager greeted me in the reception area. He proceeded to sit down with me and go over, point-by-point, my schedule (with military precision) for the two days that I’m there. I will be woken early in the morning for safaris, canoe trips, elephant rides, etc. All meals will be provided during my stay at precise times.

Oddly, while it is a moderately sized compound, I didn’t see any other tourists staying here. I have all these staff members at my beck and call, but it looks like they have no one else to serve. They seem very eager to please! Perhaps it’s a new hotel, and they are keen to establish their reputation.

The hotel room itself is like many I have come across in my travels through Sri Lanka and Nepal. On the surface, it looks modern and well presented, but you soon notice many broken and unfinished things. The TV doesn’t work, the air conditioning doesn’t work, you sit on the bed, and a large slat falls to the floor beneath you, there is barely any water pressure, the sink fixtures aren’t secured to the counter, etc. You simply pretend not to notice and, when asked, say you think everything is great!

By the time my late afternoon tour rolled around, it became apparent that I was, in fact, their only guest. It is a little weird to have an army of staff constantly standing around watching me eat and asking individually whether everything was okay. One guy in particular seems to take me on a tour every day. He is very nice and quite passionate about the local culture here in the flatlands and the area’s wildlife, which is always nice. He’s not from the area, so he sees things as an outsider, too.

Among the interesting aspects of the neighbourhood are patches of marijuana freely growing everywhere. The locals were harvesting bunches to sell on to India and Kathmandu – even though it is still illegal here. They didn’t even mind me taking pictures of them working their crop, stopping to smile proudly next to their piles of freshly cut weed.

Chitwan National Park is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Evidently, Nepal has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country in the world, so much so that it is not permitted to have any more. The park is supposed to have elephants, rhinos, tigers, deer, peacocks, and plenty of other exotic birds. I will see what I can find tomorrow.

In the evening, they took me to a town hall where locals performed traditional dances for tourists. Most of the dances required tight coordination because sticks flew around, smacking into each other, each held by a different dancer. One wrong move and someone’s head was going to get split open. Fortunately, that didn’t happen!

Short Tour around Sauraha, Nepal