So this last weekend 5 friends and I decided to go down to Chitwan National Park and ride some elephants. It is about a 4-6 hour bus ride (depending on the roads). The bus we rode down on I think was made in the height of the ‘60’s and the Beatles took on their Magical Mystery Tour. It had green and orange lights running down the middle with green, orange and gold plastic designs along the luggage rack. Every time I stood up I would hit my head on one of the lights. And of course the seats were not that comfortable.
When we got to Chitwan we met up with one of our other friends that had been in Kathmandu with us and had just finished his teaching program he was doing. We stayed at the Eden Jungle Resort. It was really nice; the rooms were like little duplex bungalows with a nice pouch out front. The landscape was beautiful, with palm trees and great flowers. Like its name suggests it was like a little jungle.
The whole trip was a package, so we had a schedule already planned for us. The First day we got there our guide took us on a tour and gave us a little history lesson on Chitwan. Which I must say is very rural, the houses are separated by large rice patty fields and most of the houses are made of mud and have straw roofs. The whole area is fenced off with an eclectic fence, to keep out wild animals (elephants, rhinoceros, and tigers). We went for a walk around the village and down by the river. As we were walking our guide pointed out to us that just on the other side of the river was a rino. It was hard to believe that this was an animal I had seen before but this time we had no bars between us, and all he really had to do was run across the river to get us. It was amazing. After stopping to take pictures and about the time the rhino made it half way across the river we moved on to the end of our walk, just in time to watch the sunset across the river, BEAUTIFUL! After the sunset we went back to the resort and had dinner. After dinner we had a cultural dance performance. It reminded me of a luau in Hawaii.
The next day we started at 7:30 with breakfast and then took a truck ride to the elephant safari loading platforms. The elephants wear a “saddle” that holds four people at a time. It’s kind of like a box made out of wood with no top and only 2x2’s framing the sides. So you sit with your legs on either side of a corner. We had to climb up a large platform that the elephant backs up to and then climb on. You have a driver that sits just behind the elephants head. I must say, it is kind of scary and it take some time being that high off the ground and not having any control of where you are going. I think the worst part was when you were walking down hills. But the whole experience was amazing. We crossed rivers, charged through large bushes. We did see a rhino that was just standing around eating. I felt a little better seeing from the top of an elephant then when I was standing on the ground. We also saw some white spotted deer. The whole trip lasted an hour and a half.
After we got off the elephants we walked a little ways to the river and got a chance to bathe with the elephants. Pretty much we got on the back of an elephant (bareback) and he then began to spray us with water from his trunk. The water was so cold. After about 5 good sprays he thought it would be a good idea to lie down in the river, causing us to fall off his back. It was so bad the first time I had to do it twice. The first time I was in front, the second time I was in the back, and in case you were wondering the front of an elephant is much more comfortable then the back.
After the bathing we went back to our room and changed into dry clothes and had lunch. Shortly after lunch we all loaded into the back of a truck and drove a ways up river and waiting for us were canoes. These canoes were carved out of the trunk of a tree, so they were one single piece of wood. I was sitting in the front of the boat aside from one of our guides Laxman. He loves birds and because I was the only one he was able to talk to he told me all about the birds we saw. It was great talking to him, he spoke quite good English and he loved talking about the birds. The ride itself was very nice and calm; we just had one man in the back with a stick that he was using to push us down the river.
When we got out of the canoes we got back into the truck and it drove us to a spot right across the river from where we would be entering the jungle for our jungle walk. First we had to cross a bridge that was made of large branches and 50 gallon sandbags to walk across. On the border of the jungle we had a safety briefing. If you see a Rhino climb a tree, If you see and sloth bear run, if you see a tiger run for your life, but don’t turn your back to it. Just a little ways into the walk we found some monkeys, we could only see a couple of them, but we know there was more because we kept getting half eaten fruit dropped on us. The walk lasted about an hour. We did see large herds of deer, and we did see a buck that was hiding in the trees. The closest we got to any tigers was some paw print in the mud from a male tiger.
The jungle walk ended at the elephant breeding center. Where they had a 4 month old baby elephant, and a set of 4 year old twins. This is the first set of twins at this center and only the 5th set reported in the world. They were so cute. After that we went back to the resort for dinner and sleep.
The next morning we started at 630 for tea and then bird watching. Because I had talked to Laxman the day before I was on top of this. They do have some ducks called “love ducks” they are always found in pairs and if one of them dies then the other will kill itself. They are beautiful. When they are on the ground they look tan, but when they take flight their wings are white and only the tips are tan. After the bird watching we went back and had breakfast and then went and caught the bus to come back to Pokhara.
All in all it was a great weekend. But it was really nice to get back to the kids.
On a side note
Today is Thanksgiving I didn’t think I was going to have such a hard being away from home today (I has saving all my homesickness for Christmas) But I have had kind of a hard time today. I did get to Skype with my Mom and Dad, Sarah and Amber this morning and that was great. Then this afternoon I stayed back at the orphanage to help get dinner ready while Tor and Tasha went with the Didis to get the kids from school. When they kids came home they all came up to me and told me Happy Thanksgiving. By about the third child I was hold back the tears, it was so sweet.
I just want everyone to know how thankful I am for all of you and I love you all very much!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING AMERICA!
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