And if you see a charging rhino…
My last day in Pokhara was very relaxed just hung out and watched TV, in the evening Manu gave me a cooking lesson in Nepali food, Dahl is so easy to make! So next year it will be dahl every night! My bus was leaving at 7.30 the next morning so early start and managed to fit everything back into my pack. The bus to Chitwan was, like all the buses, dodgy looking and after watching the news the night before of 2 major bus crashes and 1 bus hijacking I was a little nervous, we arrived safely but not after passing about 5 crashes on the way and empty bus shells down the side of the hills…so safe. Anyway I sat next to a nice Swiss guy who’s been to Chitwan before so went with him to a hotel once we got here. Chitwan is the big national park here and we were staying in the little town just outside the park. Very relaxed place, and nice to spend a few days hanging out here. Have a really nice room in a garden, its great! Signed up for the 2 day activity programme which would start the next day and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging in the sun as it’s a lot warmer down here. Spent the evening sitting around a campfire then off to bed for early start the next morning.
7am after breakfast myself and 3 Spanish people headed down to the river for our dugout canoe ride, the water bobbing dangerously close to the edge as our guide explains about aggressive crocodiles…super. Spent most of the hour on the water looking at birds, which is not really my most interested subject. Always thought bird watching was an excuse you came up with when then weren’t any real animals around to see. This was definitely the case as we were supposed to see lots of crocodiles but ended up with lots of birds instead…the Spanish were interested and even had binoculars. So we ended up in the middle of the park for our Jungle walk.
Now the jungle walk is where you set off into the jungle in search of wild elephants, charging rhinos, man eating tigers and angry bears, but don’t worry your guides are armed with a stick. A stick!!! What the hell is a stick going to do?? Surely a gun would be better, I mean I’m all for animal welfare but when it comes down to my life or some endangered tigers I more selfish. So we were given a safety briefing on how‘to save the life’. Run away in zigzag or up a tree if a rhino charges you, don’t run up a tree if a wild elephant charges you, tigers you don’t run anywhere just stand still, bears we will fight with the stick. Oh good at least the stick is useful then. Suddenly I think about how much I like zoos. So by now I’m a little freaked out as all around are crazy sounds that apparently are the rhinos fighting because its mating season and they’re very dangerous. Even better. We set out off into the jungle, to look for these animals, which is really the last thing I want to do. We hear a distant roaring sound. “A bear” they whisper to us and take off IN THE DIRECTION OF THE ROARING. Surely we should head away from it? As we get closer our guide reminds us ‘if they attack they make big scary noise but don’t run away’ oh right we have a stick to protect us. Luckily we didn’t find it, in fact we didn’t find anything much to my relief. Other than some very impressive tiger and rhino footprints and a cobra skin, reaffirming that there is no way I want to find any animals. So back to the hotel for some lunch and a nap then its time for our elephant ride.
The cool thing about the town is there are elephants everywhere, hanging out on the road, wandering through fields, its very cool. So we climbed aboard our massive elephant and set back off into the park to look for more animals although feeling much safer now on the top on a 3 meter mammal. And we did find animals! We found a mother and baby rhino who seemed relaxed about the fact there were about 10 elephants with tourists surrounding it taking photos. Was really cool to be so close! Crossed a few rivers and saw some crocodiles, deer and loads of monkeys. Nice to just wander through the jungle on the back of the elephant. At one point all the elephants decided to have a ‘who can make the most noise’ competition. So lots and lots of noises followed us out and back to the hotel and no charging rhinos thank goodness!
For the evening I went off to the cultural programme. Always bound to be cheesy and painful ‘cultural programmes’ are as bad as each other the world over. So we all filled into a strange little theatre with a ‘typical village scene’ painted on the back wall. The show was a whole lot of dances, some very impressive with lots of sticks, others bollywood style romance and one with a guy dressed as chick and not looking too happy about it. A hilarious narrator ensured the whole thing was unintentionally funny. Basically what you would expect from any ‘cultural evening’.
Tags: Nepal, Travel
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