Chitwan
When I got up this morning, I noticed my arms and legs were covered with hand shaped bruises – I looked like someone had beat me!
After a quick breakfast, we drove to Chitwan. While Kathmandu and Pokhara are in the foothills, Chitwan is in the jungle and is close to India’s border. The resort where we plan to stay is on across a river and on the park’s property. Because of poachers, the army is also garrisoned at the park.
We arrive at the river and a canoe-like boat is sent for us and our bags. We reach the other side and have to hike about half a mile to the cabins. We deposit our bags and go eat lunch, which they have held for us. Lunch is typically at 1pm and we arrived an hour late. After lunch, we watch as the elephants are bathed and other guests are in the river helping. It’s much hotter in Chitwan than the other places I’ve been and I’m hot and sticky in my clothes. We have an elephant safari schedule for 4:30pm, so I walk another quarter mile to my cabin to take a quick shower and change clothes.
There are five elephants total on this particular safari and Som, Ball & I are on one of them. Uma is on another while Earle opts to take a nap, having ridden them many times before. For the first 30 minutes, my butt is killing me as it gets worked over by the rocking motion of the elephant’s gait. My back is also hurting, so it’s kind of hard to enjoy the safari. Other than a few deer, we don’t see any other animals. We finish the safari around dusk and walk back to camp only to see a rhino crossing the river. How exciting to see this animal in the wild!
After dinner there is tribal dancing. I’m tired and sore, so I’m in bed by 9pm.
