Sick in Chitwan

---

After a bumpy five hour bus ride from Kathmandu we arrived to the village of Sauraha in Chitwan national park. Chitwan was conveniently on our way towards Indian border. When we got off the bus everybody seemed to have someone from a hotel waiting for them, except for us and a dutch couple. After five minutes everybody else had disappeared so there were only the four of us surrounded by a number of drivers offering us a lift and cheap hotels deals.

We ended up in the Riverside Hotel (www.hriverside.com) together with the dutch couple, Cees-Jan and Elsa. This turned out to be a very good choice, the hotel is situated in a beautiful location on the river bank and is cheap, clean and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful. Way more than what we were used to in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

During the day time the elephants come bathing in the river and this is a fun thing to watch. You can also get on an elephant and join the bathing, but we didn't feel like it. The big thing in Chitwan is the elephant safaris. We did ours on a private elephant together with Cees-Jan and Elsa. Our safari didn't actually go into the national park but to a community forest which is a buffer zone between the village and the park. During the three hour safari we saw a couple of rhinos and a tucan. We were sitting on a wooden platform on the back of the elephant, a bumpy ride which caused all of us a sore butt, but it was well worth it. Some others were wise enough to bring a pillow to sit on but we weren't. 😊

Our plan was to spend three nights in Chitwan but both of us got fever and diarrhea on the second day so we ended up staying for two more days. For two days we couldn't go far from our hotel room and a toilet so we stayed in the hotel garden, reading, chatting with Cees-Jan and Elsa, playing cards and watching the river float by. Cees-Jan and Elsa are travelling for a year and told us about their facinating experiences traveling through the Russia, China and Tibet where they had been during the last three months.

On our last day, after getting well, we rented bikes and visited the elephant breeding center. The big elephants were chained to a pole, which was a sad thing to see, but the small elephants were freely running around. The baby elephants were shy and still attached to their mothers but the young ones were very active and curious about all the people. They were so cute.

From Sauraha our journey continued to Sunauli on the border of India. We stayed there overnight and crossed the border by foot the next morning.

---

Photos

Boatmen on the Rapti river
Watching the sunset from our hotel garden

Elephant safari
Kirsi getting on the elephant.

A rhino surrounded by elephants
Poor little rhino

Elephants crossing a river
We were not the only ones doing the safari

Comments

[Simo Koski]

sitä sun tätä
Olisikohan teillä aikaa Chilessä, jos minä järjestäisin teille jotakin.Meillä on n. 10 ukkoa siellä päin. Itse tulen sinne vasta maaliskuussa. Terv. Simppa

[Cees-Jan]

Hey that's me on an elephant! How are you doing? We're in Ethiopia now.. Cees-Jan and Else