Chitwan National Park

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Our day started with a spider. A huge spider. Literally as big as the palm of my hand. It was in our bathroom and we didn't want it to go into our beds or suitcases so our only option was to smash it. Plus it was really fast so there was no hope of catching it. So we shut the door and armed ourselves with shoes and then I chased it around the bathroom before successfully smashing it and throwing it outside. Mission accomplished!
After breakfast we rode elephants looking for rhinos. There were four of us on each elephant riding on a platform on its back. It was fun and we could see pretty well from up on top. We went through the jungle and got sufficiently covered with branches and spiderwebs. But we managed to find a rhino! There was an adult and a baby. In all our pictures they kind of just look like big rocks but we actually could see them pretty well. I'm not sure adorable is the word that I would use to describe the baby, but it was kind of cute in its own way. We also saw a wild boar and a bunch of its babies and some deer.
The monsoon still hasn't started yet. We've had some rain but not anything like what it's going to be like once the monsoon starts. It's so humid though that nothing dries! And when stuff doesn't dry within 12 hours or so it gets musty and smells terrible! Kind of moldy smelling. So all of our clothes are going to smell super good!
In the afternoon we went for a ride in a dugout canoe. There were 12 of us in the boat and there was just enough room for us to sit cross-legged. We were pretty low in the water and a couple times it felt like we were going to flip, but as long as we didn't move much we were fine. We saw one small crocodile on the side of the river before it slid into the water. We then went for a walk through the jungle and ended at the elephant breeding center. The baby elephants were adorable! There was one that was only 2 months old and it was tiny! Well for an elephant at least. We got to feed it cookies and touch it. It was really depressing though because all the elephants other than the really small one were chained all the time. They are walked from 10-4 but other than that they're just stuck on short chains. I understand why they need to breed elephants but still, it was really sad.
In the evening we went to a Tharu cultural dance. It was amazing! It was all guys and a lot of the dances involved sticks, smacking their sticks together and swinging them around really fast. One of them lit their stick on fire for a while which was pretty awesome! I'm kind of ruining it by trying to describe it, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was amazing!

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