Rhinos and Tigers and Sloth Bears! Oh My!

May 10

The hotel at Chitwan was pretty nice. We had free wifi, it was clean. But, we also had to pay for air conditioning in the room and it was 10,500 rupees per night or something like that. Elisabeth and I didn't think it was worth it. We had a fan and it was pretty comfortable last night once the fan was on. We also had mosquito nets hanging above our bed. I wasn't going to use it at first but bugs kept flying at me all night so I ended up using it. It's pretty nice! I felt safe ha. All cozied up under it.
We woke up around 6:15am and headed down for breakfast at the hotel around 6:50am. We had put in our breakfast order in the evening so it would be ready when we came down. Of course it wasn't, but it was okay because it didn't take too long to get. I had a mushroom omelet (no cheese) on toast.
Chitwan is actually a National Park of Nepal. I had decided to do 2 of the 3 offered activities: a canoe ride and jungle walk that stopped at the elephant breeding ground and then a jeep safari. I skipped out on the elephant safari (you ride elephants around to see the animals). I figured I would get a lot of elephant time in in 2 weeks when I am in Thailand on the elephant conservation project.
Our tour guide came to get us around 7:20am and we followed him by foot down to the river. We got into canoes which were very long and skinny and made out of wood from a tree in the park that is very common and grows very fast.
Getting into the canoe was a bit awkward. It's super long so if you had to walk all the way back it somewhat felt like you were walking for a while. I know that is a terrible description ha. There were also moveable wooden stools or chairs that you sat on so your butt wasn't directly on the floor of the canoe. Ours fit 6 people plus the guide and the guy steering the canoe. Some of them had 10 people in them. When we were all sitting and started floating down the river it was difficult to find the balance because there were so many people. We kept rocking or tipping back and forth and it was a little scary. I for sure don't plan on swimming with crocodiles anytime soon.
Once we all got situated in the canoe, the guide began to tell us about Chitwan. There was a lot of information and I don't even remember half of it. The park was established in 1973 and became part of the UNESCO parks in 1984. Chitwan means "heart of the jungle" and there are over 50 species of mammals, a lot of birds and fish. The 5 most common animals the park is known for are the sloth bear, the one horned Indian rhino, the Asian elephant, the gharial (a crocodile), and the Bengal tiger.
While we were in the canoe we saw 2 crocodiles. I have no idea what kind we saw. The park is home to 2 different species. We also could only see its back sticking out of the water. We came when it was really hot and all the animals want to hide from the heat. At that point I was like well I guess today will be pretty boring then.
Once we got out of the canoe we saw rhino footprints by the river. They're pretty big. Apparently rhinos have 3 toes and elephants have 5 toes. Just in case you ever need to tell the difference between the footprints. We then continued on foot with 2 guides for the 13 of us. The only thing the guides had to ward off attacking wild animals was a stick. If we saw a rhino coming at us we needed to climb a tree. If we saw an elephant charging we needed to run. If we saw a sloth bear coming close we needed to huddle into a group and look more threatening. And for a tiger we needed to stand our ground and stare them in the eyes and back away slowly and not run. They attack from the back and side so you never want to turn your back on a tiger unless you're looking to be dinner.
We pretty much saw nothing. Some deer. Which we have all seen before. Our guide also tried for 6 minutes to knock an angel fruit out of a tree. they are very good but no one sells them because they are too expensive. he could never get one down so we didn't get to try it.
Then we were led to an elephant breeding park within the jungle. I really hope the one in Thailand is not like this. All the elephants were chained up by their foot to a pole and they couldn't go very far. Some of them were even chained by both feet! They at least had huts over them so they were shaded. The only elephants in the park are females. The males are in the wild and they are allowed to wander in and choose a mate. Elephant pregnancies last 2 years! How terrible does that sound!? Elephants begin breeding at 15 years for females and 20 years for males. I think he said they chain them up after they are 5 years old. There was a 2 month old baby elephant which was so cute! She really liked attention too so she kept coming up to the fence to let us touch her. She was very bristly and had thick tough skin. There were also twins! Twins are super rare for elephants to have and these twins (boys) were the first elephant twins in Asia and second in the world. I would assume in captivity but I'm not sure.
They are taken out and unchained for riding and gathering food and tours. They said they get free time to roam around the fields but I don't know if its true or not.
I was so glad I got my bag back last night because I would have been angry if I wouldn't have had long pants and a long sleeve shirt for the walk. There were a lot of plants brushing against us while we were walking.
I have realized I still have weird sensory issues. I still don't like sitting on certain fabrics or sleeping on certain bed sheets. I'm sucking it up though. Although I kind of think the random bites I had on my leg were maybe bed bugs. So now I'm paranoid about beds.
After the canoe and jungle walk we were taken back to the hotel where there was an elephant washing. I just watched because I know I will have a whole week with elephants. I probably should have for it though. It was only 100 rupees and it looked fun. I also didn't have the correct clothes on for it though so that would have been nice to know ahead of time. Basically, people got on the neck of the elephant and sat down and a guy would command the elephant to move out into the water. The elephant then gave the people on its neck a shower with its trunk. They were soaked. The elephant whisperer men then commanded the elephant to kneel down and lay on its side so the people were dumped into the water. Then you got back on the elephant and walked in to land. After that we had just enough time to eat lunch at the hotel and head off for our jeep safari.
The jeep safari was at 1pm. I'm not sure why it was in the middle of the day if it is really hot and the animals don't want to even be out then. The 9 of us followed our guide to the water again. We needed to take a canoe across the river to get to the jeeps. When we got to the water, we were pretty disappointed. There were a million other people being loaded into canoes to go across the river for the safari as well. So not only did we need to wait a while for the safari to start but we also were going to be around a large number of noisy jeeps and since we were close to last to cross the river, the animals will probably have been scared away.
We got into our jeep which had an open back part with 2 benches. We fit 3 people on each bench (Michael, Monica, Elisabeth, Curtis, Martina, and I) and Australian Steve sat in the front. Marianna and Solvei went in a different jeep because there was not enough room for all of us in 1 jeep. Our guide stood on the back of the jeep and hung on to the frame of the jeep.
Our guide was actually attacked by a sloth bear 2 years ago. He was with another guide and 2 tourists. They just left him and they ran away. He said it was a mother bear with her cub. He showed us the scar on his arm from her scratching him (it was huge) and he couldn't show us the bite he got on his leg because he still keeps it bandaged. He said he was in the hospital for 2.5 months. We asked him if he was scared to be in the jungle still and he said not really but that sometimes if animals come really close he gets a little nervous.
He said he has been working as a guide for 8 years in the park and he has seen 16 tigers total. We were hoping we would be able to see one, but we didn't. He said he saw one last week!
While we were driving into the jungle, it took a while to get deep. We also had to go past a checkpoint where our guide had to present our permits to be in the park. I think we paid 1700 rupees for the permit. For the first 45 minutes, Steve kept Fallon asleep. Normally it would be fine but he kept leaning toward the driver. There was actually one point where his head was in the guys armpit and many times when he was resting his head on the drivers shoulder. All of us thought it was hilarious. Elisabeth kept waking him up and telling him not to sleep on the driver so he would readjust himself and then he would slowly fall back to leaning on the driver. It wasn't terrible but the jeep is manual so sometimes the way Steve was resting on him made it hard for the driver to change gears.
We saw the back of a rhino but the grass was so tall that we couldn't really see the horn or anything else but the ears.
All of a sudden while we were driving around, something happened and we ha to get out of the jeep. We had a flat tire! The guide said that another jeep would come with a new tire and it would get changed so we could continue on our safari. He then proposed we walk to the crocodile farm instead of waiting around for the new tire. He said it was maybe a 10 or 15 minute walk but we walked for about half an hour. It was blazing hot and we didn't bring a ton of water with us. Monica kept asking if walking through the jungle was safe. He never heard her or chose not to answer. Finally we got to the croc farm and we rested. You had the option to pay 100 rupees and see the croc farm an I didn't. I don't know why. Probably because I was dying and the elephant farm and been disappointing. Instead I bought a cold bottle of water and sat in the shade with a few other people who decided not to see the farm. We waited for our jeep for an hour.
It finally arrived and we waited for the driver to grab a drink for another 10 minutes. They piled us into the jeep too and then we all got out and back in.
The guide said that we would make up for lost time.
It was getting cooler which made the jeep ride a lot more enjoyable. We saw another 2 rhinos through the grass, some monkeys, deer, peacocks, and pretty massive termite hills. Curtis thought he either saw a tiger or a termite hill at one point. He wasn't sure lol
While we were driving back, it started to smell like rain. We could also see it raining in the distance. The clouds were moving in fast so we started throwing all our bags up front to keep them from getting wet.
Then it started down pouring. It was so cold and the rain felt like needles against my skin. It was really uncomfortable. My pants and underwear soaked through and became heavy with rain.
When we got to where the jeep had picked us up, it actually had to drive further past that point because the part we had walked from the river was already flooded. The jeep drove through a good amount of water.
Then we had to wait on shore for a canoe to come back to get us because it was still shuttling people from the other safaris across. That made us think we didn't get to complete our whole tour because we lost an hour but still got back when everyone else was getting back.
The canoe was full of a good few inches of water and we all just squatted down, we didn't sit. I actually started feeling the water soaking through to my socks. We booked it back to the hotel and on the way it stopped raining and the skies were clear again. It was around 6:30pm by the time we got back.
As we entered the hotel we heard screaming. And it was in English. I stayed back but a few people went running to see what was happening. Steve was yelling at the manager of the hotel. I still have no idea what happened. It sounds like Steve was sharing a room with Nick and there was only 1 key and he couldn't find Nick so he wanted to get let into the room but he wanted to get in the room to get Zs number so he wanted the manager to call Z or something. I don't know. It was crazy though. I watched Steve follow the manager into the office and heard more yelling and all I saw was the manager grab a stick and go toward Steve. A ton of people ran in there so I left. I know that's the whole bystandard affect but I didn't want to get involved in that, especially in a foreign country. I went upstairs to change and get ready for dinner.
When I came back down at 7 to meet the group for dinner everyone was sitting at a long table and Z was trying to mediate a discussion between the hotel manager and Steve and some random French guy who just kept giving his input. It was very uncomfortable. None of us felt like we needed to be there and Z didn't take Steve and the manager into a private setting. It took a while to sort things out but we ended up going to dinner at a restaurant called K.C.'s. The service was amazing. It was fast and it didn't take a million years to get our drinks. It was impressive. Everyone else's food looked really good too. I ordered butter chicken and garlic naan and the chicken was strange to me so I pretty much just had naan in the sauce. I don't even know if it was chicken. The pieces were long and thin and there was a lot of tendons in it still. They were really concerned about if we had liked the food or not because it was large portions and most of us couldn't finish the whole dish. We also accidentally went in the back through the kitchen at first and the kitchen was really clean! So that was exciting. Ok... Maybe not really clean. But cleaner than the other kitchens I have seen so far.
After dinner some people went out to drink but I was so tired I went back to the room. I packed my bag for the morning and fell asleep with my head lamp still on under the mosquito net. I feel better packing my bag the night before because I never know how long it is going to take me and so far if I have learned anything on this trip it's that when you can sleep you need to! I have no idea what I was doing but I know it happened because Elisabeth woke me up when she came in around 1am asking if I was awake since my head lamp was on. I don't think she came to bed until 3am.
Tomorrow is another travel day. Heading to Pokhara!