Chitwan National Park in Nepal- Part 1

Nepal from Caleb’s perspective.
The last few days we have been in Chitwan which is about a 5 hour drive from Thamel which is in Kathmandu. The driver picked us up at about 11:00 am after a delicious sandwich, cinnamon roll and mango smoothie (one of the best breakfasts in Nepal so far.) Anyway the driver was a nice guy with a nicer car then all the other drivers. They all had these crapola Suzuki’s and he had a nice orange one (I forgot the name but it was nice).

So we're driving, and driving, and driving we see all the majestic mountains and cute villages and all that. We stop for lunch at this cozy place with tables outside that are just everywhere it’s like a maze, there was about 7 staircases and they all led to a different table. Of course we sit at the first one. There is this group of about 15 people and they're all French. Mark orders a dhal baht which is rice, veg. curry, dhal and pickles. So we're waiting and waiting and the French group all get there dhal baht and were still waiting for Marks. 20 minutes later I get up and go get the drinks because they haven't come yet. I mean at least we will have something to drink while we're waiting. Ok so again with the waiting and another 20 minutes later the frenchies have already had seconds and our driver comes up to us and he’s already finished and we haven’t gotten Marks food. Of course Mark was ready to leave but his stomach wouldn’t let him. So our driver says he'll go tell the cooks to hurry up. After about and 40 min we get our food and the waiter feels really bad so he keeps coming back with more rice and more dhal and more curry and all that stuff.

And then we're back on the road, and nothing exiting happens till we get to Chitwan. We get to our hotel and it’s called Jungle Adventure World.

Outside the Cabin

I know it sounds like a ride at Disneyland, but its comfy inside and the beds look sleepable, and its 15$ for two rooms, one night. The first day we don't do anything just look around the town talk to a tourist info dude and all that jazz.

The second day we don’t do anything until about 2 when we go for a canoe ride. The canoes are reallllllly long and skinny. We all get in and have two guides and one canoe driver.

Canoeing along the river

So we're just bookin down the river looking for crocs and then the guide sees one! And we're all like wooooow. And Artemis is basically pissing her pants of fright. Well let me explain the situation we're in for 1 sec. Ok so we're on one side of this mini island that attaches to the land and u can get in from one side, and the croc isn’t on the island thingy but it’s on land. So we go to the bottom of the island and turn around and come back up to see the croc. We went right up close to it and it was pretty small but it was a short snout which means it eats everything so we're all pretty scared because at any second it could hop into the water and eat us all, But there's nowhere we can go so we look at it and then continue down river to our destination.


We only see one more croc for the rest of the canoe ride but we couldn’t get close at all so we didn’t really see well. Then we get to the place we we're supposed to be and we all get out. By the way the plan was we take a canoe ride down the river and then walk back through the jungle back to our hotel. Artemis is still reallllllly scared.

Starting the walk in the jungle

So we get into the jungle and the guide stops us and says "If we see a rhino then climb a tree more then six feet high and then he says if we see a tiger then keep in a group and then if we see a sloth bear then they'll fight them off with sticks. (By the way sloth bears are very dangerous and aggressive like a grizzly bear.) And we're walking and he tells us about these red bugs that are everywhere. They are about as big as a pinkie finger. And they are e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e and u knows Artemis she was SCARED I think she was shaking through the whole walk.

We didn’t see anything except a deer and those bugs actually, wait not true we did see one more crocodile when we where on this ledge. It was about 15 meters away and it was bigger then the first one we saw. I took some pictures and watched it for a while but it didn’t move so we continued on our walk.

We get back safe and Mark and mom plan our 6:00am elephant ride for the next day. Alls well we get a good sleep considering getting up at 6, none the less we are very exited. We walk to our elephant and hopp on the back onto a not so comfortable seat but we are in Nepal so what do you expect. The elephant starts walking towards the place where we start the actual walk in the forest (about a 10 min walk). We are very exited to see some rhinos. The guy back in Thamel said there was a 100% chance of seeing a rhino. We get to the forest and we see where all the tourists are. There are about 20 elephants all with 4 or more people on them. Beneath us there are kids trying to sell us bananas to give to the elephant. We have to wait about 5 minutes before we can go on the walk (I have no clue why). But we get into the forest and the elephant is very wobbly, but we get used to it. We see some peacocks and some deer and some cool plants and before we know it where back where we started. Where all like what?!!??!? It felt like 10 minutes. Sure enough we had been gone for 45 minutes and didn’t see any rhinos. We where pissed off. We can’t believe it. He said 100% chance!!!

Well it’s all over now so we better get back to the hotel, but the elephant drops us off at the beginning of the forest. It’s about a 25 minute walk back and where all mad and tired and now we don’t have a way off getting back. So we hang around in the parking lot and then we sit in some random jeep. And then a bout 20 minutes later a guy comes and asks if we are going to town we say yes and we hopp into a different jeep and he takes us back. So we go down to the river to grab a bite to eat and chillax in the sun. And where there for a while and before we know it it’s like 10:00. And then we see and elephant coming and it goes with its trainer and hops into the river to take a bath. There’s no one else there but this is reallllllly cool!


We watch it for a bit and then some people come and more people and more elephants until there are about 30 people and 4 elephants in the river having a bath. The cool thing is you pay 100 rupees and you get to sit on the elephant and it sprays you and stuff!

Well we're watching this one elephant that had a certain trick. It could sort of move its skin and jiggle its back and everybody falls off. Where looking at them like come on stay on the goddamn elephant it can’t be that hard! Well me and Artemis decided to try because it looked like a lot of fun. We go into the room and change into our bathing suites and get ready for the ride of our life. Once you’re on the little platform to get onto the elephant, looking down on its bare back, your like oh-my-god. Artemis hesitantly steps on while forcing a little smile and I follow behind her. And then another lady comes on, who spoke Nepalese. Where getting ready to go in to the river and not to get knocked off but man is it scary! It takes about 30 seconds for the trainer to get the elephant to actually do the trick (the longest 30 seconds of my life) and where both so scared we practically jump off. Once in the river u have to get back n the elephant.




So what you do is grab on to its ears and step on its trunk and it lifts u up and u step on its head and the go right to the back. Artemis goes first and she falls off the first 3 times and then finally gets on. It doesn’t look too hard. I get it right on the first try. On the second try to stay on the elephant us both fall of the first time to. But we have one more go! So we step on the trunk (this time I go first) and there are six people crammed on the elephant. So it shakes and I don’t fall off!! I’m so excited I don’t even realize that it’s already started shaking a second time and then I fall off.

Well that’s all the elephant riding for today. So we go and grab some lunch and meet up with a couple we talked to yesterday we chat with them for a while and they say there going for an elephant ride tomorrow through the jungle. We wish them luck and chilax for the rest of the day.

The next day is our last day so we go and do another elephant bath and its much like the first time except this time there are about 5 people there and 5 elephants. We take the elephant we took the day before and this time I stay on for five shakes and then the trainer says to do a really big shake and I just can’t hold on.
More to come on Chitwan National Park
Caleb