Tiger central

I took a last-minute trip to Chitwan last weekend to meet up with my pal D who has been posted to another project for the time being. Chitwan is one of the closest national parks to Kathmandu and is a real tourist destination. I had hoped to go on Friday evening but was hindered by the fact that you can’t do anything in Nepal past about midday. The tourist buses all leave at 7am (if you believe the ticket – more likely 7.30) and the last local bus or jeep is at 2pm. So I had to resign myself to just one night away but we had a great time. I arrived at the hotel which was overlooking the river at about 1pm. The afternoon was spent on the back of an elephant stalking the local wildlife. Elephant-back is less relaxing than it looks. You sit on a platform (large enough for 4) which falsely gave me the impression of comfort and style. Elephants are however pretty ungainly in their gait and you constantly have to adjust yourself to the rhythm of their walk which basically means an hour and a half of working the core muscles.
Entering the park you realize that you are not the only people taking an elephant tour – there were some 15 to 20 elephants ferrying fellow tourists. Once in the forest though you feel as if you are on your own as each elephant (directed by a guide obviously) takes a different path so that you can’t see the others. We spotted lots of deer and several different types of bird but of course what we were all waiting for was the elusive rhinoceros. Suddenly we were on the trail and could glimpse a large rhino with its child through the undergrowth. Word then got out and soon enough all the other elephants came trotting up and the aggressive pursuit of the rhino family on to some open ground began. The culmination being the encircling of the poor beasts so we could all get our photographs. It was very exciting and I did enjoy it but I also felt guilty for putting the poor rhinos through such stress (although on the other hand they’re probably so used to it that it’s all a big act and they take it turns to play the leading role, perfecting their expressions of panic and fear). Sunday morning was the crocodile cruise which I know Chris will be thrilled to read about. Sitting in a hollowed out log being paddled down the river was fantastic. There were countless crocs sitting on the banks but mostly they were so still that D was prompted to ask if it was all a hoax and they were statues. Soon after this though one of them moved it’s head and gave us all a fright. It did make me wonder what would happen if one of them was in the water. It was fairly shallow and we were sitting in low-lying canoe. I consoled myself with the thought that the six of us could definitely take on one of them using the classic defence mechanism of going for the eyes. Two or more however and I would have been less confident. Our final brush with ‘wildlife’ was watching the elephants being washed at the beach overlooked by the hotel. There were four of them having a great time rolling around in the water. D and I fed bananas to one of them when it came out to dry off. It was pretty gross really – their tongues are like gigantic, pink slugs and you have to put your hand right into their mouth to feed them. And then it was all over. Almost. I had to get to the nearest town to catch to last bus (2pm) back to Kathmandu. The most common form of transport …a horse and cart! Brilliant. And as a connoisseur of local buses I was quite accustomed to the pace and level of comfort offered by the cart.

Oh, and I didn't see any tigers :(