Royal Chitwan National Park

November 13th - 14th 2009

Chill out days in Kathmandu, with a visit of Durbar Square and a night in a bar with live music. We meet two Nepalese girls, one shy, one crazy. I learned how to play a Nepalese game.

November 15th - 18th 2009

After 6 hours of bumping in the bus, I get to Royal Chitwan Park. Our guide, Laxman, is waiting for us in the bus station.
I have to tell you a bit about Laxman. He’s the jungle man, wearing camouflage clothes and a crocodile Dundee hat. He knows everything about he jungle, from the trees to the birds’ sounds to the habits of insects. For sure, he also knows about big animals and has many anecdotes, but that’s another story.
It was really a great experience : Laxman took us for a walk in the jungle, where sadly, we didn’t see any big animals. It was still exciting to walk below those huge trees, hearing the monkeys and numerous birds surrounding us, still hoping to see an black striped orange fur hiding in the grass.
We visited the Elephant Breeding Center, and played with two twin Elephants : Ram and Laxman… Yeah, the Elephant has the same name as our guide, a very common name in Nepal (because of the part of Hinduists).
We did an Elephant trek, meaning that you sit on the Elephant’s back, and take pictures… Not very exciting… But we spotted a Rhino, that was quickly surrounded by all the Elephants (people have paid you know, so they have to see)
The next day, we went for a small canoe trip…
As we were peacefully going down the river, Laxman told us that we may have to get out of the boat because a Rhino is in the river. Rhinos can be very dangerous animals, especially men when in heat, or female with babies. Several death occurs each years, mostly local peoples going to the jungle to get natural materials to build houses (elephant grass for instance).
We quietly approach, by canoe, and as the Rhino is on the right side of the river, we just pass him from the left side… to discover that there were 2 Rhinos having bath. Oh yeah, Rhinos spend 15% of their time in the water, so you have a big chance to spot some by going to rivers or lakes in the jungle.

On the afternoon, we went for a bike trip to a place called 20 000 lakes. In the first lake, we saw crocodiles. We went a bit further, on a small path going around the lake, separated by the water by bushes… on the right side, there is a canal, and on the left side there is a lake. The small path is going between them, and crocodiles often cross the path, as the bushes are destroyed in some places, with exactly the mark of the crocodile’s body going through the bush.
So we spot a first crocodile a bit far away, swimming and trying to get a turtle. And then, we spot few other ones… We go a bit further, and see one of the crocodiles on the left, close to us, quietly sleeping in the water. We watch the other crocodiles for a few minutes, when suddenly there’s a sound of water and bubbles. The closest crocodile (that was about 5 meters far away from us) has just disappeared, and we cannot see where he is…
So Laxman tells us : « ok, let’s go… ». So we left, walking quickly on the small path, surrounded by the canal on one side, and the lake on the other side, with small bushes on both sides, just big enough to hide something as big as a crocodile. A bit freaky…
We get back on our bikes, and in another half lake half swamp, Laxman spots a Rhino…  a bit far away from us. So I ask him if we can get closer. We get down of our bikes, put our lockers on, our crappy lockers that are always hard to open…
So he brings us to the border of the lake, through the jungle trees. As we come closer, and because we are noisy (branch cracks), the Rhino’s head suddenly goes up in our direction. It’s still far away, and we watch him, as it’s slowly walking towards us. Actually, it’s not directly going toward us, but it’s walking in diagonal. Suddenly, Laxman tells us : « Ok, please, let’s go, please ». I still stay, you know, to try to get a nice picture… And the Rhino is now going faster… faster… directly towards us. Fuck ! We start running like crazy through the forest, get back to our bikes, and for sure, the Swedish girl that joined us has troubles opening her locker.
Eventually, we all manage to get away as quick as we can. The Rhino was running at us.
Laxman told us, a bit later, that this Rhino was a male, because of his three collars, and also that he has a big cut in one of his ears. This cut means that he is a dangerous one, who already killed people, so they make a cut in his ear. It was exciting and scary. A good day.

At night, we go in a place called « The tower », to spend the night there. The Tower is a building with earth walls and rusty stairs, located inside the jungle. We hope to spot new animals at sunset and sunrise, but except a few dears, we don’t see anything. The noise, however, is really nice, and it’s a bit scary to go down the building and to cross it at night.
We have a very nice picnic : a delicious Dal Baht, some Raxi, the local Rice wine (hard to drink), and other local products.

The next day, we get back to Kathmandu, still in the bumping bus… But this time, Jacob and I spend half of the trip on the rooftop of the bus ! We get a really nice view, loads of dust, air in our hair, and adrenaline from the crazy Nepalese driving. The only thing you really have to be careful at are the wires and the tree branches.