Hunting Rhino, Swimming with Elephants and Doin’ the Kathmandu… Nepal Has It All!

We made our way down from the Himalayas on a bus that had about 25% of its seats in operation. Unbelievably, Nepal buys its buses used from India! The Himalayas flatten out onto a lush jungle plane which covers about 40% of Nepal. Our goal was the Royal Chitwan National Park, which up to 30 years ago was a Royal Hunting Ground for crocs, rhino, leopards, sloth bears and the Royal Bengal Tiger.

We lodged just outside the park at Unique Wild Resort where Mahandra, our guide, laid out our itinerary with German precision. As with all of Nepal, Chitwan’s tourist infrastructure is suffering from the 70% decline in tourism and we basically had this 24 room resort to ourselves. At 4:45 pm precisely, 15 minutes after our complimentary welcome soft drink, we left for our jungle sunset walk. Entering the park, we saw our first signs of the civil war, as the Maoists had blown up the park headquarters a couple of months earlier. We walked along jungle and river tracks with Mahandra machine gunning identification of flora and fauna wherever our eyes came to rest. Grasses, trees, plants, birds, reptiles, mammals, he knew the life cycle of them all. The track opened up onto a sea of waving white tipped elephant grass that shimmered endlessly west and to the setting sun. We were hurried from this vista as we were particularly close to being late for wash up before dinner which was scheduled for 6:40pm precisely.

We attended a traditional dance of the local Thula people and were amazed at the twirling bodies, sticks and torches. We joined into the final dance, giving it our best Canadian gyrations but were disappointed not to get a torch. I really like that fire twirling.

The next morning saw us up early for a jungle river canoe paddle at exactly 7:30 am. We would be joined by two girls from China that arrived the evening before who we eventually dubbed Dingaling and Dingalong. Even after Mahandra’s prodding they showed up late and not suitably attired as both were wearing tight shorts and macramé bikini tops. This is a very conservative part of the world and bikini trekking was not going to work. Mahandra was in a double state of agitation: his time table had been upset and he had a couple of Asian strippers on his hands. He could not take it and broke under the pressure asking the girls to put on more respectable clothes.

The tippy dugout canoe meandered along the river and I expected a tiger to explode from the elephant grass but we had to settle for man eating croc sightings. I know there must be a scientific name for these reptiles but this is what Mahandra called them.

We then trekked through the jungle viewing barking and spotted deer, boar and wild peacock and arrived at the park’s elephant breeding centre in the noon day 40 degree heat. There are obviously some very happy elephant bulls around here because there were lots of cows and calves: the youngest being three weeks old and still wobbly. A yearling befriended us and then fell in love with us when I brought out some cookies. Her powerful trunk wormed its way all over us in search of cookies. She would not leave us alone and was happy to leave slug trails all over our faces. Only another tourist with bananas saved us.

Later in the day we had been invited to the elephant daily bath and had been told that we may get in the water with them, but I did not know that we would be riding one to the river. From experience, I can now tell you never ever ride an elephant bare back in a pair of swimming trunks. Elephants have bristle-like hair and combined with me sitting on its convex spine, I almost passed out with pain. It felt like I was riding on a bouncing 6” diameter hair brush. All I was thinking is what type of cream could I buy for elephant rash between the legs. The elephant was so excited about the bath that we barely had enough time to throw our pack and our shoes off before she jumped neck deep in the river. We hung on for our lives as the trainer prompted her to buck us flying into the very river we saw the 8’ crocs in not more than 100’ from where we now treaded water. As we swam back to our Nepali bucking bull, we used its trunk as a ladder and its ears as railings and climbed back up for five more buck offs. It was so much fun we forgot all about the crocs. We walked back to the lodge as the elephant was scrubbed clean with a rough stone by its trainer.

Later we climbed on board a huge saddled bull elephant for an afternoon sunset safari hoping to see a one-horned rhino. We were joined by Dingaling and Dingalong. It was fantastic to trek through the jungle and press through the elephant grass 10’ off the ground as though we were Nepali Royalty 100 years ago. We saw deer, boar, peacocks, man-eating crocs and a huge narrow-snouted fishing croc. We trekked until it was pitch dark but did not see a rhino. Mahandra organized another free-of-charge elephant safari for us the next morning at 5am to ensure we would get to see rhino before we left. The two girls turned the offer down as that would be too early for them to get up! They opted for the 6am bird watch! They had come to Nepal to see the rhino but it was not worth an hour’s beauty sleep.

We saddled up in the early morning dawn and watched the sun rise over the misty jungle, our eyes peering through the dense jungle for a rhino. We had many false starts by deer and boar, but finally found two huge armor plated rhino lying together at a watering hole. The elephant trainer drove the elephant right up to the rhino so we were 10 feet away before the prehistoric monsters got up with an irritable huff and stood their ground. It was amazing to be so close you could hear and almost feel these endangered animals breath.

Satisfied with our sighting, we said good-bye to Mahandra to start our long bus ride to Kathmandu, the mythical capital of Nepal. The road is the major carrier of all goods into Nepal and is chalk full of transport trucks, cars, army road blocks and an impossible number of switch backs as it climbs 1000 metres of elevation into the skirt of the Himalayas. Kathmandu Valley is not only the royal seat of power and national capital, it is the spiritual centre for many Hindu and Buddhists as well. It is a city of pockets: pockets of poverty, pockets of royalty, pockets of historic temples and pockets of tourists. We stayed right in the hip pocket of Thamel – this is where most adventures here are started. Trekking, rafting, climbing, bungy jumping: all this and more. The lack of tourists compounds the quantity of touts and it is not unusual to say “no thanks” 20 to 30 times on a stroll of a single block. Since our five-year anniversary was around the corner, we decided to stay in a beautiful hotel suite that was bigger than a lot of apartments we have lived in. The cost of $25 per night was a bit mind-blowing considering we were paying $1 to $4 per night in the rest of the country.

We enjoyed the views from the Buddhist stupa of the Monkey Temple, which sat a top a hill overlooking the city. We were lucky to be in the city for the Kumari Festival where the most famous of several living goddesses comes out of her temple to take her seat in a massive four-wheeled chariot that is pulled through the crowd. How no one was crushed, we don’t know as it lurched into dense heaving crowds where people barely danced out of the way. We wandered through ancient Durbar Square with its carved wood and stone multi-tiered temples. Colourfully dressed and painted holy men wandering from one monastery to another. We visited the town of Pagan, where its neighbourhoods have kept intact their individual pagodas and temples in their original open square concept. We found the Hindu Golden Temple. It is actually brass and it still contains its original monk orders monastery. I wouldn’t say that Kathmandu is a place to relax, but a great place to escape to. We drank Nepali Vodka brew on our anniversary - it went down fine but it was the next day it showed its true strength.

Brandy and I have been lucky enough to enjoy adventures in eleven countries this trip alone. This is the first time we have left a country saying we will be back soon. The awesome spires of the Himalayas, the deep green valleys, warm rivers and jungled planes may bring us back. The international cuisine, rich culture and arts, the endless possible adventures and the timeless history are things we want to explore again. But the people, the people with smiles so warm and welcoming, they will bring us back!

KLH

Photos:
Traditional Thula Dancers
In Our Tippy Canoe
On Walking Safari
Cookies for Baby Elephant
Elephant Bath
Elephant Shakes Us OffA Fish Eating Croc
On Top of Our Elephant
Rhino At Last
Our Elephant
Monkey Temple - Kathmandu
Lighting Butter Candles in Buddhist Temple
Kumari's Chariot at Festival in Durbur Square
Monk and Prayer Wheel in Golden Temple - Patan
Our Anniversary Dinner
Himilayas from the Airplane: Kathmandu to Delhi