Chitwan National Park, Nepal – October 23rd – 26th, 2016

Rather than endure two overnight 20+ hour bus rides to Bardia National Park (where we actually wanted to go), we settled on the more touristy, but conveniently located Chitwan National Park. Since everything in the park has to be guided, we felt forced into taking the advice we received in Pokhara and going with an all-inclusive hotel with a tourist itinerary. Added bonus was that we did not have to plan anything for 4 days and the price was definitely right. Serious downside was that it turned out that we had to attempt to curb our type A personalities substantially because the hotel was so unorganized! We spent most of the time wondering what we were supposed to be doing or asking questions to each other attempting to reason out the way things operated at the hotel. However, like most things type A personalities try to control, everything worked out fine and we had a fun couple of days.

On our first full day we did a canoe ride and an 8 hour trek through the jungle. Within the first 10 minutes we saw a rhinoceros! It was so much bigger than either of us remembered from our previous experience with rhinos (at the zoo). We found out later that wild rhinos are actually very dangerous and the technique we should employ if/when a rhino chases us is to run erratically in a zig-zag pattern, every man for themselves (another example of some not very confidence inspiring advice from a guide). Lucky for us we never had to find out who is the slowest runner and our two guides flanked us through the entire trek. Along the jungle trek we saw many deer, two different types of monkeys, domestic elephants, many birds, crazy red bugs that shed their skin like snakes, peacocks (which can fly! who knew?!), man eating and non-man eating crocodiles, and my personal favorite, three toucans! We also saw footprints and other evidence (including poo) of sloth bears and tigers. The guides were impressively knowledgeable, spouting off bird names just based on the sound of their wings.

Along the jungle trek. 

Some of the animals we saw at Chitwan. The top-left photo is not a rock, but a man eating crocodile!

The next day was all about elephants! In the morning, we went on an elephant safari (in other words, an elephant ride through the jungle). Apart from it being super cool that we were riding an elephant, the fauna was not afraid of the elephant so we saw deer and moneys up close and personal. The only downside was that the mahout (elephant trainer) could be a bit aggressive with our timid elephant. When the elephant was not going fast enough or afraid of mud or a small hill, the mahout would hit it on the head/ear with a curved piece of rebar! After the elephant safari we took a bath with an elephant. You ride on the neck of the elephant while it sprays you with water from its trunk and eventually lays down, throwing you into the water. SO MUCH FUN! Again though, the experience was hindered by the rebar stick used to poke the elephant… Lastly, we did a bike ride to the elephant breeding center, where we learned some of the history and practices of breeding and training elephants. Oh and we also hung out with the elephant babies and saw a wild boar too! We made friends with a 4-month-old elephant that was clearly already a handful because he continued to knock over the fence post to join us on the opposite side of the fence. The training process occurs when the elephants are 2-3 years old and basically consists of breaking the elephants spirit. Downer moment… not sure that we feel good about ourselves for supporting the elephant culture.

Elephant activities. 

The morning of the 26^th, we took another very grueling bus ride back to Kathmandu. The 6-hour bus ride became over 8.5 thanks to the quality Nepali roads and Andy was not feeling well for most of the journey. He had been battling a cold since Pokhara and appeared now to be losing the fight. With only two full days in Kathmandu before leaving for Malaysia, we hoped he would feel better quickly. Spoiler alert: hoping didn’t work.