Safari, Canoeing and Camping: Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal

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Modern lifestyle and its pressures often create a desire amongst individuals to explore new vistas, to tread new roads and to climb new mountains. It was the same desire which inspired me to choose and explore a new destination for myself, like I do every year. Well this time it was to experience life in a jungle.

Situated in the landlocked country of Nepal, Chitwan National Park is one of the most popular forest reserves in Asia. It is extremely rich in its flora and fauna and is home to the last populations of the single-horned Asiatic rhinoceros and the royal Bengal tiger. I arranged my 3 days and 2 nights’ stay at the Machan Wildlife Resort. It was a four hour scenic drive by car from Pokran in Nepal to the resort. The people at the resort impressed me with their kind affection and hospitality.For any further information on the resort, you can click http://www.nepalinformation.com/machan/machan.htm

My journey into the greens began the next morning when I experienced the first elephant safari in my life accompanied by the resort guide and four other tourists, one was a honey-moon couple and two were students from Spain. I had only seen elephants in the city zoo before and even the thought of sitting on top of them made me truly excited. We traversed into the forest in search of the wide variety of animals inhabiting the forest; of particular interest was the rhinoceros. The guide informed us that for the last few days the Asiatic rhinoceros was not to be seen. But we were lucky as the animal allowed us to have a glimpse of it as it was hiding behind a bush and was visible when the guide hit at the bush with his long stick. The day was made!!!!! We chased the rhino for almost two kilometres till the mammal was captured vividly by our cameras !!!! These humans are such disturbing element …that’s what the rhino must have thought about us.

After the grand chase it was time for some elephant briefing. For once I regretted my choice of subject at the university, why did I rule out taking up Zoology? The lodge guide told us about the difference between the African and the Asian elephant. He also updated us with some interesting facts about the animal…did u know that the size of an elephant is twice the size of the circumference of its leg? We clicked some snaps and heard someone say, “hey look at rampyari and janaki , they look so camera-friendly”, those were names of the female elephants not of the tourists.

Early next morning we went canoeing on the silent rapti river in a ‘dug-out canoe’. It seemed that we had entered the true wilderness realm far away from the maddening crowd. In the serene environment even the rippling sound of the water could be heard. We could catch glimpse of some exotic birds like the Giant Hornbill, Lesser Floricana and Paradise Flycatcher. The canoe ride was a completely awesome experience which I would cherish forever.

In the evening we were shown a slide show highlighting the various facets of the jungle. We were served tea /coffee and mouth watering breakfast, lunch and dinner cooked in asian spices everyday. A very exciting part of the stay in the jungle resort was the whole ambience created by the resort. Everything seemed wild as one could witness trees, wild bush, twisted vines, bungalows that perfectly blended with the natural environment, solar powered hot running water and lanterns to light up the resort. Bonfire was organised at the centre of the resort where tourists gathered from different parts of the world to talk about their diverse cultures and experiences and also to see the Tharu dance organised by the local tribe every evening.

In Nepal, I witnessed a rich heritage and the meeting ground for diverse ethnic groups, cultures, art and music. The experience was truly rejuvenating and has been very safely added in my Pandora of unforgettable travel adventures.

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Photos

elephants at the lodge
Rampyari and Janaki

Entrance of the Lodge...
The lodge entrance....

Elephant safari
On Top Of the World....

canoe ride
Moments before the canoe ride on the rapti river..

Comments

[Madan]

Nice article
Hi Neha....Nice article, very well written and brilliant photographs too. Remind me of elephant ride we had in Bangkok. Some day we will also make it to Chitwan Park to enjoy its beauty...

[Raj]

Chitwan
A well written article . Blame it on my ignorance but never thought Nepal can offer so much diversity. I was planning to go sometime in Nepal especially to Kathmandu. I am now thinking of visiting this place too.

[Rati Pugalia]

That was real fun.
Very exciting !!!! Wish to go to place soon .

[Ruchi Khemka]

That was an interesting piece of information about elephants ......well written.