Steve Irwin
Arriving in Chitwan National Park after the rafting and the bus journeys seemed like a paradise. The Park itself is very large but the accommodation is just outside of the park proper, being part of the small town of Chitwan. The town was nice and small and very quiet. Elephants being ridden mix with the motorcycles and the small "baby" Rhino that walks the town, making for some interesting pictures. Being a plum I managed to leave my camera indoors for the most part so you'll just have to take my word for it.
The hotel was okay, though there was no hot water, but getting clean under the lukewarm shower and then falling unconscious into bed was the best part. We arrived at the hotel at 0700 that morning so by 0900 I was asleep. I awoke at about 1400 to hear that Matt, Matt, Gabriel, and Kate (the people who I had been rafting with and had come to Chitwan too) had not slept and had gone down to a small part of the river bank next to the town to see the elephants getting bathed. People could even get into the water with them and lark about. The elephants are tame and bred for this getting ridden business so there was less risk. I thought that my companions were just lying to me because I had stayed asleep for so long, but I saw it with my own eyes the following day. Pretty good stuff, and the elephants are cute. They enjoy bath.
Aside from loving spending a couple of nights in one place I went for an elephant ride into the buffer zone that forms a barrier between the park and the town. This was good fun, though gradually got less comfortable. I liked our elephant. If an elephant reaches an obstacle, like a fallen tree, he/she will jut lift it with their trunk and move on. If the obstacle is a standing tree, it just treads on it to push it over. Through jungle it is the only way to travel except being atop the elephant you get face full of brush and leaves. We did not see an awful lot, except two rhinos having a bath (which everyone sees, apparently, hmm...) and being on an elephant means there's no engine noise to scare away most animals. Our pilot/guide also kept gesturing to trembling branches at ground level and insisting that it was wild boar "Oh, we just missed him, again," but it was good fun. I was glad to get off in the end though and get some blood back into my legs. In fact I think I emptied more wildlife out of my trousers after that than what we actually saw. There are some fantastic looking creepie-crawlies in that park.
I had never appreciated elephants before this trip. From behind when they walk they look like old men walking, in the way that they bend their knees. They are very intelligent, too, as one of the people riding on the nelly with me dropped his sunglasses. The pilot just brought the elephant about and the creature picked up the sunglasses with the tip of its trunk and passed them back! I was convinced and will definitely buy one when I return.
In the afternoon we went on a jeep safari (quite a packed schedule this one) and bombed around the real park in a knackered Soviet jeep. This was quite good, though to drive deeply into the park meant long straight established tracks and not much to see. I enjoyed the environment though and being in a jeep with no windscreen meant that we were all kept cool. We managed to see another couple of rhinos this time just wandering down the river front and I'm sure at one point ahead of us in the track I saw a cat jump down from a tree and run off, though I could have been imagining it. It was not a bad trip, though the ominous noises that this jeep was making probably scared off everything bar the rhinos because they're just so big and not scared of anything.
Chitwan was very good, really. For what they offer it is excellent value for money and the rooms were clean, though their scheduling can be sometimes inflexible, right down to the set meals as Matt (not Matt Soden) discovered.
But this gave me a couple of days to recover and get ready for the trip into India. I really like Nepal and would recommend it to anyone traveling to Asia. The people are very relaxed and avoiding potential trouble is easy for westerners. The entry posts are also staffed by cheerful people who will talk to you when they stamp your visa which I think is very civilised
The journey to India was to be pretty long, involving more bus journeys to the border and then a jeep to Gorakpur in India itself. Then onwards by train to Delhi. My first experience of Indian trans was actually quite nice, though I'll write about that next time.
The hotel was okay, though there was no hot water, but getting clean under the lukewarm shower and then falling unconscious into bed was the best part. We arrived at the hotel at 0700 that morning so by 0900 I was asleep. I awoke at about 1400 to hear that Matt, Matt, Gabriel, and Kate (the people who I had been rafting with and had come to Chitwan too) had not slept and had gone down to a small part of the river bank next to the town to see the elephants getting bathed. People could even get into the water with them and lark about. The elephants are tame and bred for this getting ridden business so there was less risk. I thought that my companions were just lying to me because I had stayed asleep for so long, but I saw it with my own eyes the following day. Pretty good stuff, and the elephants are cute. They enjoy bath.
Aside from loving spending a couple of nights in one place I went for an elephant ride into the buffer zone that forms a barrier between the park and the town. This was good fun, though gradually got less comfortable. I liked our elephant. If an elephant reaches an obstacle, like a fallen tree, he/she will jut lift it with their trunk and move on. If the obstacle is a standing tree, it just treads on it to push it over. Through jungle it is the only way to travel except being atop the elephant you get face full of brush and leaves. We did not see an awful lot, except two rhinos having a bath (which everyone sees, apparently, hmm...) and being on an elephant means there's no engine noise to scare away most animals. Our pilot/guide also kept gesturing to trembling branches at ground level and insisting that it was wild boar "Oh, we just missed him, again," but it was good fun. I was glad to get off in the end though and get some blood back into my legs. In fact I think I emptied more wildlife out of my trousers after that than what we actually saw. There are some fantastic looking creepie-crawlies in that park.
I had never appreciated elephants before this trip. From behind when they walk they look like old men walking, in the way that they bend their knees. They are very intelligent, too, as one of the people riding on the nelly with me dropped his sunglasses. The pilot just brought the elephant about and the creature picked up the sunglasses with the tip of its trunk and passed them back! I was convinced and will definitely buy one when I return.
In the afternoon we went on a jeep safari (quite a packed schedule this one) and bombed around the real park in a knackered Soviet jeep. This was quite good, though to drive deeply into the park meant long straight established tracks and not much to see. I enjoyed the environment though and being in a jeep with no windscreen meant that we were all kept cool. We managed to see another couple of rhinos this time just wandering down the river front and I'm sure at one point ahead of us in the track I saw a cat jump down from a tree and run off, though I could have been imagining it. It was not a bad trip, though the ominous noises that this jeep was making probably scared off everything bar the rhinos because they're just so big and not scared of anything.
Chitwan was very good, really. For what they offer it is excellent value for money and the rooms were clean, though their scheduling can be sometimes inflexible, right down to the set meals as Matt (not Matt Soden) discovered.
But this gave me a couple of days to recover and get ready for the trip into India. I really like Nepal and would recommend it to anyone traveling to Asia. The people are very relaxed and avoiding potential trouble is easy for westerners. The entry posts are also staffed by cheerful people who will talk to you when they stamp your visa which I think is very civilised
The journey to India was to be pretty long, involving more bus journeys to the border and then a jeep to Gorakpur in India itself. Then onwards by train to Delhi. My first experience of Indian trans was actually quite nice, though I'll write about that next time.