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Published: February 4th 2011
Chitwan NP! Finally the time arrived to go to Chitwan Np! Early morning (06.15am) walking with our backpacks on through Thamel to find our bus on the side of a street!! Interesting but no problems at all!! Smooth bus ride again!! Our bus was smooth.. some vehicles that weren’t that lucky!! 4 cars, busses, trucks where upside down on the road and that in a space of say 100 kilometers!!
We booked a “package” with Sapana Village Lodge (www.sapanalodge.com) for 5 days/ 4 nights! Packed with excitement!!
Arriving in Sauraha we got picked up with a jeep at the busstop..Really nice to expierence..Cause normally we have to find our own way. But it was all organised really well!
Sapana Lodge was overwhelming for us... It's quiet with all little sitting areas everywhere..The room we got was just ridiciulous! Yes, fancy!!!
Our second day was a whole day jungle walk!! Fresh and excited we started at 8.30am. Crossing the river on a little canoe ready to walk that jungle walk! Before starting the walk our guide told us what to do in situations:
Rhino: They would slam their sticks on the floor and make a lot of
noise! But if that wouldn’t work we should find a tree and climb it at least 5 meters! If there are no trees than run for you live and zigzag it!! Haha..
Slothbear: Stay all close together and make a lot of noise!! Whatever you do, do not run!! The are like dogs and chase you! And they can climb trees!! So that’s no use at all!!
Tigers: Make a lot of noise.. Clap your hands and stay together!! Not really any explanation what to do.. Cause if they attack we would be screwed! But at the moment there were no tigers registerd that would eat humans... hmmmmmmm...hahaha..
After all that I (ariska) got already scared!! Haha.. no hero with animals for sure! And the climbing part.. couldn't see that happening.
But our first part was all good! Walking through the forest not seeing a path really, but the guide looked like he knew where we were going!
At one point he showed us some monkeys high up in the trees! Next thing we know it’s raining… but not really raining!! A bloody monkey just peed on my head!! Nice start!!
After the forest we head into the grassland! And
this time of the year the grass is as high as us! Our highlight was the HUGE rhino on the side of the river! So unreal!! And after that it really hit us that we were just on foot walking around not really knowing what’s behind the grass!! It felt like we were in a episode of Man versus Wild.. But this was more Wild versus Us! Some wild pigs really got us! Just jumping out of the grass infront and back of us. Even our guide made a little jump!
Kind a happy that we were on our way back to the living world! Yes it got us really scared walking around in almost a 1000 square kilometer park and seeing how big a rhino could be and not thinking of all the other animals (tigers)! They don’t have guns here to protect you, but just a wooden stick! Hahah…
The third day was a bit more “safe”.. We went elephant riding in the jungle.. Much better feeling to be on the back of such a huge animal... Atleast we were higher then the grass this time and could see what's behind it!! Again we were lucky and
we saw a rhino with a small baby! And of course all the other animals, like deer, peacocks, monkeys, boars, etc.. It was a relaxing hour and half on the back of the elephant.
In the afternoon it was time to visit the elephant breeding centre! First we took a little canoe trip over the Rapti river and the only thing we saw where tremendous big crocs around us! Laying lazy on the river banks, but still it looked like they could attack us every second!
Elephant breeding centre was cool to visit..But still we don't really like the chains around there feet! It's nothing cruel and defently for a good cause, but it's a bit weird to see so much elephants chained up at one spot! But they are active little buggers.. they even play elephant football with them!
The fourth day of our package was a lazy morning and around 11 o'clock we went elephant washing.. Not me! But Josh was the brave one to jump into the water with a mammal that big! The elephant picked Josh up from Sapana Lodge and brought him to the river close by.. But this time it had no
saddle/seat on what so ever!! Arriving at the river the elephant (man) made sure Josh would fall into to the water. Was amazing!!!
We got so hooked up with the Rhino experience that we changed our package and instead of staying in the jungle for one night we did a Jeep Safari into Chitwan! A good decision..We saw about 5 rhinos this time and amazing parts of the park!
Our last full day we just didn't do anything..We enjoyed chilling out alongside the river. The only thing active we did that day was bycicle into town (Sauhara) and back again!
Chitwan NP adventure was over and it was time to head back to Kathamandu! Thinking we are going to do some amazing hikes! But not really... our travel agency just let us know that the Chinese goverment decided that in March there are no tourist allowed into Tibet.. And our visa's for China only go to the 28th of Februari... Easy decission for us.. get to Tibet as soon as possible!!
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Paulien
non-member comment
Cool!
Cool story and even cooler pics!!! WOW!!! I so want to go there too. Enjoy the rest of the trip! Tibet and China.... lucky buggers. ;-) X