Here I am in the Chitwan Jungle, the Terai region of Nepal about a 4 hour bus ride SW of Kathmandu. We had a weekend of adventure there, beginning with the filming of a commercial at our resort, which included some pretty hilarious acting as well as two elephants, a chain, and a man in yellow pants with a pink scarf! Our first night had us trekking through the jungle, looking for some of the local birds such as indigo blue peacocks. They are pretty evasive, however, we did see a few on the other side of the riverbank. After walking through the elephant breeding centre (so adorable! 1 day old babies!), we ended up at Sunset Point where we watched the huge orange sun slowly disappear behind palm trees and sand, while enjoying a G&T. Now, Sunset Point has some pretty interesting things on their menu, including a long list of various lassis - mango, banana, apple, and most interestingly of all - a "special" lassie. Naturally, this one had us inquiring....and suffice it to say, that they blend a special herb into the yoghurt drink, which they said will ensure you can't walk home! I love Nepal.
After Sunset Point, we feasted on daal bhat, of course and after a lovely fire, off to bed, ready for the next day. We began the next day with an elephant safari through the jungle to spot some rhinos - we saw a mother and a young baby calf, up close and personal, right beside our elephant! They don't seem scared of the elephants and obviously don't notice us perched atop. After walking through the river on the elephants backs, they suddenly became very frisky, and started trumpeting to each other and smacking their trunks on the ground! It was both fantastic and terrifying - the elephant trainer who was also on the back of the elephant, was trying to control the elephant, and as a final showdown, my elephant plunged itself headfirst into a tree, clearly pushing it over! Crazy - the tree must have been 4 ft wide, and the elephant pushed it right over, exposing the roots and all. Then our elephants raced back to the breeding centre. Yup, raced. And riding on the back of a running elephant is just as comfortable as it sounds. They have elephant polo championships here - I can't imagine riding on the back of a running elephant for a whole game!
After Sunset Point, we feasted on daal bhat, of course and after a lovely fire, off to bed, ready for the next day. We began the next day with an elephant safari through the jungle to spot some rhinos - we saw a mother and a young baby calf, up close and personal, right beside our elephant! They don't seem scared of the elephants and obviously don't notice us perched atop. After walking through the river on the elephants backs, they suddenly became very frisky, and started trumpeting to each other and smacking their trunks on the ground! It was both fantastic and terrifying - the elephant trainer who was also on the back of the elephant, was trying to control the elephant, and as a final showdown, my elephant plunged itself headfirst into a tree, clearly pushing it over! Crazy - the tree must have been 4 ft wide, and the elephant pushed it right over, exposing the roots and all. Then our elephants raced back to the breeding centre. Yup, raced. And riding on the back of a running elephant is just as comfortable as it sounds. They have elephant polo championships here - I can't imagine riding on the back of a running elephant for a whole game!Post elephant race, we went swimming with the elephants. How exhilarating in a fairly terrifying way. I was waiting for a hazardous elephant trauma to happen, however the elephant trainer seemed to have full control over the 2500 kg beast! While in the river, we would take turns climbing on the slippery back of the elephant, then the elephant would shake us off and toss us into the water! We laughed so hard! One of the funniest scenes, was us trying to teach our Nepali friends, Rajiv and DC, how to swim. This isn't the most useful skill in landlocked Nepal, so most don't know how. It was so hilarious to see them madly doggy paddling away, trying to swim up the current and not drown.
After a walk back through the village to our resort, we took a jeep to start the last leg of our day - a canoe ride down the river to look for crocodiles. It was amazing to see them from the vantage point of a boat and we spotted dozens of crocs, young and old and (thank goodness) mostly docile. When we hopped off the canoe, we went for a trek through the jungle to search again for rhinos. The guide started the walk by giving us instructions on how to avoid being killed by a wild rhino. Really!
The instructions were as follows:
-remove a layer of clothing
-run zig zag
-climb a tree
all at the same time or closely following each other! I laughed so hard at the first one - try to avoid being eaten by distracting the rhino with your nakedness and running away in a zig zag fashion. I gather that the idea being that the scent on your clothing would distract, and running back and forth would further confuse as they can't turn their 2000 kg bodies quickly, nor climb a tree. I was fairly happy to not spot one on this part of the journey.
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