After rafting, our guide hailed down a Nepal Oil truck and loaded me on for Chitwan. On the way, I had a nice chat with a tenth grader who was going to boarding school in Kathmandu and was heading home for festival.
The Nepal Oil truck dropped me off at the entrance to Chitwan where I was greeted by someone from the lodge and brought over to the lodge. It was right on the river with the park across the street and it was beautiful.
Most people only stay a night or two in Chitwan, so the activities are designed to be jammed into a day and a half. I started that day with the Elephant Breeding Center where I was astonished to learn that a mommy elephant is prego for 22 to 24 months. Yikes!
The next day I did an elephant safari, where we got to see - and let me tell you this was very exciting - A LOT of deer. We also saw two one horned rhinos which I guess is a big deal because they only exist in Nepal and India.
That afternoon we did a canoe ride where we saw some crocodiles and a jungle walk where we saw some monkeys.
And with four days left in Chitwan, I had pretty much done all of the activities available! So I became the unofficial greeter. It worked out pretty well as I could easily spot those traveling alone or those who's native language was English. At one of the meals I would saunter up to them and ask if I could sit down. I would then tell them about the activities offered, the animals they could expect to see, how things worked at the hotel, etc. I really enjoyed it and it worked out great, because just about when we ran out of things to talk about, they would leave Chitwan and a new person for me to talk to would show up.
While I found the wildlife very underwhelming at Chitwan (I think after a safari in Tansania, it's pretty hard to get me stoked on some wild deer), I did find it a great place to relax and heal. Day 2 I found my new best friend, the hammock, and him and I spent a lot of QT together.
I did opt to do a side trip to twenty thousand lakes, which turned out to be a blast. As the only person from our lodge going, I got a personal tour from one of the guides, Roger. I hoped on the motorbike with Roger, and we made a few stops before hitting up the lake. The first stop was at his first sister's house. She is a subsitance farmer in Chitwan, so it was great to be able to see her farm. She gave me some home grown bananas and some home made Water Buffalo curd - which tasted somewhere between cottage cheese and yogurt.
Next stop was his other sister's house where I watched them harvest rice. They basically beat the rice stalks on a table to get the rice to fall out - it looked really strenouous.
After our house calls, it was finally on to twenty thousand lakes where we saw . . . MORE DEER!
On the way home we had the quite the adventure as we got a flat tire on the motor bike in the middle of no where and had to walk several kilometers to the nearest village. Some of the women of the village then hustled up the bike mechanic, who had already left for the day, who came and fixed our bike.
After the flat tire was fixed, we drove into town and sat and had a beer before returning to the lodge. While Roger went off to get more cell phone minutes, four young kids came and sat down across from me and just stared at me. After a few minutes I said hello to them and they started to giggle - the white woman talks! I started to take their picture, which they loved and the posed in funny ways so I would take more - adorable!
After 5 days in Chitwan, it was finally time to head back to Kathmandu.
The Nepal Oil truck dropped me off at the entrance to Chitwan where I was greeted by someone from the lodge and brought over to the lodge. It was right on the river with the park across the street and it was beautiful.
Most people only stay a night or two in Chitwan, so the activities are designed to be jammed into a day and a half. I started that day with the Elephant Breeding Center where I was astonished to learn that a mommy elephant is prego for 22 to 24 months. Yikes!
The next day I did an elephant safari, where we got to see - and let me tell you this was very exciting - A LOT of deer. We also saw two one horned rhinos which I guess is a big deal because they only exist in Nepal and India.
That afternoon we did a canoe ride where we saw some crocodiles and a jungle walk where we saw some monkeys.
And with four days left in Chitwan, I had pretty much done all of the activities available! So I became the unofficial greeter. It worked out pretty well as I could easily spot those traveling alone or those who's native language was English. At one of the meals I would saunter up to them and ask if I could sit down. I would then tell them about the activities offered, the animals they could expect to see, how things worked at the hotel, etc. I really enjoyed it and it worked out great, because just about when we ran out of things to talk about, they would leave Chitwan and a new person for me to talk to would show up.
While I found the wildlife very underwhelming at Chitwan (I think after a safari in Tansania, it's pretty hard to get me stoked on some wild deer), I did find it a great place to relax and heal. Day 2 I found my new best friend, the hammock, and him and I spent a lot of QT together.
I did opt to do a side trip to twenty thousand lakes, which turned out to be a blast. As the only person from our lodge going, I got a personal tour from one of the guides, Roger. I hoped on the motorbike with Roger, and we made a few stops before hitting up the lake. The first stop was at his first sister's house. She is a subsitance farmer in Chitwan, so it was great to be able to see her farm. She gave me some home grown bananas and some home made Water Buffalo curd - which tasted somewhere between cottage cheese and yogurt.
Next stop was his other sister's house where I watched them harvest rice. They basically beat the rice stalks on a table to get the rice to fall out - it looked really strenouous.
After our house calls, it was finally on to twenty thousand lakes where we saw . . . MORE DEER!
On the way home we had the quite the adventure as we got a flat tire on the motor bike in the middle of no where and had to walk several kilometers to the nearest village. Some of the women of the village then hustled up the bike mechanic, who had already left for the day, who came and fixed our bike.
After the flat tire was fixed, we drove into town and sat and had a beer before returning to the lodge. While Roger went off to get more cell phone minutes, four young kids came and sat down across from me and just stared at me. After a few minutes I said hello to them and they started to giggle - the white woman talks! I started to take their picture, which they loved and the posed in funny ways so I would take more - adorable!
After 5 days in Chitwan, it was finally time to head back to Kathmandu.
2 comments:
So did you ride an elephant? We're not surprised that you managed to find useful employment as a greeter.
Do they have moose? Did you attempt to put a deer in your purse, perchance?
I'm also not surprised about your new greeter job. Welcome to the world of having 3 million jobs. Oh wait, you only have one. And it's walking. :)
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