Royal Chitwan National Park

I took a tourist bus from Pokara to Chitwan. It was certainly nicer than my last experience with Nepal buses. However, it was still not what I would call comfortable. Although the bus was mostly filled with tourists, there were Nepali people on the bus. Because of the strike, this was a problem. As we approached the strike line all the Nepali people had to exit the bus. Only tourists were allowed to cross the strike line in buses. So many Nepali people were walking or taking rickshaws. I felt really bad being able to take a bus. When we let people off the bus, we had to wait a long time. I really didn't understand why at the time. We finally got going and about 10 minutes later a couple of guys with big sticks got on the bus obviously looking for anyone trying to break the strike. We moved on and drove for about 5 more minutes and then some of the people we let off got back on. It was now clear to me that the long wait had been while these guys had walked through the strike line to a safe place to be picked up by us.

I was let off about 15 minutes later. As I was trying to describe my backpack to the guy on top of the bus, someone else's backpack sailed off the top of the bus and landed at my feet. I was pretty lucky it didn't take me out and that it wasn't my backpack as I am sure a fall like that must have broken or dented something in the pack.

We waited for another bus to take us and bus passengers from another bus to a nearby hotel for lunch. We then drove on to the Chitwan NP where we boarded a boat, crossed the river and walked about 10 minutes to the Island Jungle Resort. Below is a summary of the activities that I did there. Despite it being really, really hot, visiting here was really awesome.

Elephant snacking from kris on Vimeo.

Elephant Close up from kris on Vimeo.

Elephant Ride
Three or four people ride an elephant on a platform. The elephant is controlled by a mahout. As far as I could tell they control the elephant by nudging them behind their ears with bare feet, talking to them and clocking them on the head with either a stick or a pointy metal bar. I asked and the training to become a mahout occurs in India and it lasts 2 years. Riding the elephant we saw rhinos, peacocks, eagles, monkeys and several other birds. One of the most amazing experiences was when the mahout spotted a python. He used the elephant to knock down all the trees in that area. Then got down and pointed the the snake which had curled up in a hole. He poked it a bit and it crawled out. Then he yanked on its tail as it tried to slither way. Photo below.

From Chitwan

Elephant Washing
Elephant washing is a supercool experience. You wade into the water and climb up onto an elephant. Then it sucks up water in its trunk and squirts you. One of the elephants also likes to throw you off like a bucking bronco.

Bird Watching
This was kind of a slow activity for me but we saw a cool nest and a baby bird. Most of the birds we saw on the trip were junglefowl (like chickens/ roosters). We also saw flycatchers, eagles, peacocks, bulbils, etc

River Boat Ride
Mellow ride on the river

Jungle Walk / Nature Walk
Prior to doing this we got a lecture about the dangerous animals of the jungle and what to do if we encounter them.

• Rhino: climb a tree (impossible no limbs), hide behind a tree, or if no cover run in a zig zag as rhinos run straight.
• Sloth Bear: stay together and make alot of noise
• Tiger: do not turn back, keep eye contact slowly back away.

One the first one the most dangerous thing we saw were bees. We saw cool red bugs called cotton bugs and learned about the jungle. The most impressive thing was seeing tiger tracks. They were right by the camp. On the longer jungle walk we saw a male rhino. The guides had us hide behind a tree and tried to distract the rhino with a loud noise in another direction. It took off but we then encountered it again down the track and had to hide again. I might mention at this point that the guides had only big sticks for protection.

Cultural Dance
Nearby village kids came and performed three dances for us.

Full size photos here or watch slideshow below