We happily ejected ourselves from the bus upon arrival at our jungle lodge in Chitwan National Park (these bus rides are scary stuff!) In the afternoon we went to a Tharu village to observe rural life. It was quite an interesting experience and the people were so welcoming to us bunch of foreigners. It was scorching hot until the clouds finally came and let loose the rain. It poured for about five minutes and suddenly we found ourselves on a very muddy walk.
The following morning we went on an elephant ride which unfortunately reeked of commercial tourism. The highlight was definitely seeing rhinos in the wild (and up so close)! We also saw a number of deer hiding out in the bushes and got whipped with countless branches as our elephant was rather fond of bush bashing and keeping away from the trails!
Better than the ride was the elephant bathing in the river – the elephants seemed much happier and we sat on them as they squirted us with water and knocked us off – SO FUN! A few of us then hired the dodgiest bikes and went exploring around town.
Later in the afternoon we went on an ‘oh so relaxing’ canoe ride. All we had to do was sit there as we were swept downstream, oh – and keep on the crocodile lookout! We passed plenty of them and fortunately no one lost a limb.
Our final dinner in Chitwan commenced with a cultural performance by the Tharu tribe, which had everyone on their feet by the end of it (and had everyone in hysterics at the young cross dressing boys). This was washed down with a fantastic thali plate – SO YUM!
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