Advertisement
That is at least my rendition of it. That would have been very cool to see some lions, and tigers, and bears, but there are no lions, and very few (Bengal) tigers, and (Sloth) bears remaining at the Chitwan National Park, as they have a problem with poachers.
Regardless, in my relatively short stay in Chitwan, I got to see elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, deer, and peacocks, along with many other birds.
One of the craziest things was definitely seeing two rhinos while walking through the jungle. These huge animals look almost fake. A mixed breed of tank and dinosaur. None of the people I had spoken with prior saw any while on foot so I didn't expect to either, even though I kept my hopes up. We were all excited when we saw them, but made sure we kept our distance and stayed quiet, as these animals are extremely intimidating. Of course, a couple of days before I arrived and one of the few times I saw something on TV in English, it was a show on the usually docile rhinos and them attacking people in Africa.
Later that day, I got to ride on an elephant throughout
Rhinoceros Unicornis
Two of the ten I came across that day. This is a picture while riding the elephant. We got much closer here than while on foot.the jungle with a Nepali couple and our guide. We were lucky in that our group consisted of only our elephant. Most of the time, they go out in groups of 5-10 elephants so we were able to keep relatively quiet. This helped because we got to see a lot of rhinos. We were hoping to see some tigers, bears, or monkeys, but no luck on that front.
After that, it was back to Kathmandu to hangout for a few days.
About a month before I arrived, Nepal held their elections and the Maoists prevailed. The Maoists insisted on the abolition of the monarchy and two days before I left, their wishes came to fruition. The monarchy, which had reigned for the previous 240 years, was no more and because of this, they declared the following three days a public holiday. It was either because of that or they just wanted to celebrate my last few days in their wonderful country. Seriously though, it was very cool to be able to be there while history was taking place. The people are unsure of what the future holds (as is everybody else in this world for that matter), but
Chillin'
Me and some fellow jungle trekkers. they strongly believe that change is extremely necessary. They were also pleased with the current King losing his power. If you want to read something interesting, check out the Nepalese Royal Massacre and some of the conspiracy theories about it, which are widely believed by the people.
Anyways, after some momos and a couple Nepali dishes that I couldn't pronounce, it was time to go. I will definitely miss the people and the natural beauty of Nepal, but am happy to say goodbye to the Bollywood movies (which are basically an automatic headache for me and all they watch out there) and the bumpy roads. As my first and possibly last round-trip ticket (for the foreseeable future at least) reads, it is time to go back to Bangkok...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.171s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 9; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0694s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Aunt Sue
non-member comment
Awesome!!!
Casey - you are capturing some great photos!!! Thanks for sharing them with us.