Jungle Safari in Chitwan National Park
Wasting no time after our trek, we signed up for a 2 night 3 day excursion to Chitwan National Park. Famous for tigers, elephants, and rhinos, visiting the jungle is one of the must-do activities during a trip to Nepal. We opted to go through an organized tour rather than going independently because we wanted to go during one of Nepal's many festivals. It would have been a bit like trying to fly to Florida on Christmas Eve by showing up at the airport without a ticket. Not worth the hassle!
My first impression of southern Nepal was a combination of awe - that I could STILL see the Annapurna mountain range clear across the country!!! - and annoyance - that I got 10 mosquito bites within the first hour of my arrival. I lost my battle with the mosquitos abysmally. When I boarded the bus back to Kathmandu I counted no less than 26 bites. Good thing I had taken my malaria medicine!
Our first day we walked to the river, which is a tributary of the Ganges, and watched the sunset while sipping banana milkshakes. It was warm and relaxing while it lasted. Our package tour was a bit rushed. As soon as the sun slipped down past the horizon our guide jumped up and told us it was time for dinner. We needed to be done with that before seeing the "Cultural Program."
I've always been more inspired and captivated by natural beauty and wildlife than by other cultures of people. This Cultural Program was no exception for me. We watched as a tribe of Indian/Nepalese people, whose origin is still a mystery in the history books, dance in circles to the beat of a drum. They're performance was different and very upbeat, but the look on their faces characterized my mood as well...bored. The highlight of the show was the dance of a man dressed as a giant peacock. If the manager of the program had any real showmanship he would have booked this act last. After that, the audience became antsy as we sat through 4 more dances. I'd sooner find fault with myself than those performers. I came to the jungle to see...well...jungle. So I was impatient to end the "Cultural Program" and rest up for my 6am wake up call.
The early morning dug out canoe ride along the river was awesome. Not the least exciting part was the lateral instability of the boat. Basically, at any moment I thought we'd tip over into crocodile infested waters. As it turns out, we only saw one crocodile at a distance, so we were probably safe. That is until we saw what our guide called a "man-eating" crocodile. Basically, the gangetic crocs have a long, thin mouth and are more specialized than the generalist crocs that occasionally have been known to attack humans. It turns out, people are not the preferred lunch of a croc. The real reason for these attacks is human encroachment on crocodile habitat. This much I know in my mind, but you couldn't pay me enough money to swim in that river!
We then spent a couple of hours walking through the jungle of the Chitwan National Forest. It was incredible. We didn't see any of the big game - tigers or rhinos - but I saw many brightly colored insects including a huge green butterfly that I didn't get a picture of...grrr! We also wandered into a group of rhesus monkeys that didn't seem to mind us watching them from a moderately close distance. I felt a rush of pride that I was able to identify the species for the group when we saw them. Special thanks to Dr. Altmann at Princeton's Evolutionary Biology program for that!
Finally, we enjoyed an elephant back safari through the jungle. Actually, "enjoy" is a strong word. I don't think I'd take another elephant back safari. When one of the drivers of the group of 25 elephants (Each carrying 4 tourists) spotted some rhinos, the entire mob stampeded towards the spot to surround them. It was an upsetting experience to watch a rhino mother and calf freak out as 25 elephants encircled them. They had no where to run. Neither fight nor flight were options for these two. So they anxiously withstood the barrage of photographs until finally the herd moved on. I swore that if I spotted any wildlife I would keep my mouth shut. Swaying through the forest on the back of an elephant along with 100 other loud tourists I'm not surprised that we didn't see anything else. On our return to the village I was given the opportunity to "drive." Translation: I sat on the elephant's neck. I think we got a picture. After nearly 3 hours, I was happy to finally alight to solid ground.
Our final day we visted the elephant breeding center where I had a hilariously close encounter. I walked around a sort of wall-less elephant stable with about 10 elephant moms and calves. One calf came to the fence expecting a treat. I put out my arm to pet its head, but it quickly wrapped it's little trunk around my arm for a smart, swift tug! We arm wrestled for about a minute which left my long sleeve shirt covered in mud and elephant goo. I also got some warm baby elephant breath in my face. What a cutie...and I only had a few scratces on me. The stout little trunk of that calf gave me further appreciation for how strong adults must be!
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