Day 33 Chitwan national Park 31st July 09

Once upon a time, in a land far far far away. Hehehe

Today we will be going canoeing, Jungle trekking, Elephant breeding centre, Elephant Bath, Elephant ride and cultural Performance. Seems like its gonna be an interesting day. Hopefully the weather will be on our side….

The dugout canoe

The croc that was "near"

Cristine, Joanna and me

Anyway we woke up today at 0600hrs. Cindy showered first and at the same time did some laundry.I woke up a little later, showered and while washing my face, suddenly there was no more water. WTF!! I turned the tap on and off but only managed to get a few drips of water but luckily there was pail filled with water so I only managed to wash my hair, face and brush my teeth. Well not too bad I guess.

After that we headed out to the dining area for breakfast. It was omelet with onions and tomatoes, Toasted bread and fresh vegetables. It was good actually. Lars was there but before we headed our separate ways, we said our goodbyes cos we will not be seeing him anymore as he had to catch a bus at 0930hrs. We promised to stay in touch by facebook. Maybe we’ll meet again in India.

So after the hearty breakfast, the 2 ladies and us went out, took the jeep to go for the Canoe ride. Arrived at the place after 10 mins ride. The canoe was a traditional one. Wow great! It’s made by carving out the centre portion of a single tree trunk. So all of us got in one by one. Trying to keep the balance of the boat at the same time. Trust me you do not want to fall into the water as it’s really filthy and filled with a lot of bugs. As we sat down, I can see all different kinds of bugs, spiders and insects on the side of the boat and even on the floor. Yucks!! So I tried my best not to rest my hands or legs against the sides. We saw part of a crocodile’s head in the water about 10 meters away from our canoe, king fisher bird flying across, peacocks flying, yes in case you are as lost as I am, peacocks do fly but they cannot fly more than 2 km continuously. Hehehe. But I think half the time I was flicking insects off my shirt or legs so I didn’t get to see much wildlife. Anyway 15mins later the guide asked us if we wanted to go for a Jungle trek. Everyone opted for it. So the boatman paddled towards the river bank and dropped us off there.

After everyone got off the boat, we had a briefing before we started the trek. It was about what to do. For example, if we see a Rhino, and if the rhino runs after us, we will have to climb a tree and be at least 9 foot off the ground. I was like what!!! Ya right like as if I can climb a wet tree with a pair of Sanuks. It gets better. If an elephant runs after us, we should run into a dense part of the forest so that it couldn’t get us. Here comes the best part. If we see a tiger, look the tiger in the eye and walk slowly backwards and away from it. Maybe he forgot to say, after you pee in your pants you should look the tiger in the eye…. I was thinking what have I got myself into. So after that scary brief, we started the trek. I think all of us were just looking out for tell tale signs of the unwanted animals than enjoying the nature. Hehehe.

during the trek

Anyway we finished the trek after about 20 mins and I think everyone was relieved. Except for “donating blood to the mosquitoes and a leech ( the Spanish lady got one on her leg), there was not much to see.

Baby Elephants out of enclousure

The trek ended at an elephant breeding centre. We went into this room first for a rest and at the same time have some information on the elephants by reading the posters pasted on the walls.

After that we went to the “Than” the place where they keep the elephants and we saw a mother elephant with a pair of twin calves. It was a nice site and while walking we saw a small elephant walking out from the “than” towards us. On its own, without any keeper around. At first I feel a little scared but the guide told us its ok. We all patted the elephant and took pictures with it. The guide was saying that the friendly elephants will be allowed to roam freely in the compound. After a while another small elephant came over to join the “crowd”. We didn’t know that elephants has so much hair on them and each strand is so thick and coarse like bristles from the brushes. The guide tried to play with the elephant with his bamboo and the elephant with just a little of its strength was trying to break it.. haahahahaha . than Cindy suddenly realize that she has left the sealife cam at the room we went in earlier, she ran back to the room and luckily came back with it. The person in charge help to keep it in the cupboard for safe keeping. Phew. We continued walking while the 2 elephants continued playing..

We left the centre and waited for the canoe to come to help us cross the river. We heard there was a flood nearby as the rain yesterday was so heavy. It just kept pouring the whole night and we could hear it loud and clear in the room as we are “protected” by zinc roofs with some parts leaking.. About 10mins later the canoe came slowly at the mans own pace. We cross over and got on the “push start” jeep supposedly heading towards the flooded area. The flood was quite bad damaging some of the houses nearby the river but we heard it was common during monsoon so I guess not much “damange” as the villages are all prepared.

Headed back to the resort about 1030hrs and there wasn’t anything on till 1230hrs.. We got back to our own rooms had a shower and rested till lunch. Met them at lunch and chatted with them,

Carolynn and Scott the couple from West London told us about their adventures from Mumbai to Nepal…Only 4 weeks into their 1 year world tour they have had more “adventures” then we did.. Carolynn was talking about how upfront the men in India and Nepal could be.. When we all heard we were just down right DISGUSTED with their behaviors!!! She was saying that they were waiting for a bus and one particular Indian man was trying to start a conversation with them, Carolynn ignored him and he tried talking to Scott so with all common courtesy Scott chatted with him and the man still tried talking to Carolynn tapping on her shoulders.. And he told her if she wanted to get more clothes on… She just ignored him. They got up the bus and this men was sitting behind her, he tried to help and do the windows for her and while doing it he GRAB her BOOBS!!! She was like did that just happen??? What the??? Oh my goodness we were all so shocked and can you imagine how it is for her…2^nd incident also happen on the bus, they were on their way into Nepal if not mistaken, it was a overnight bus and Carolynn was suddenly woken up with the feeling of someone grabbing on her boobs.. and she said this time the person really grab her boos very hard and even slightly scratch her boobs as she could still feel it.. She couldn’t believe what she felt and was thinking to herself what have she got herself into… And she felt like going home at that moment.. Her experience just made us more angry and disgusted about India/Nepal. We didn’t know what Carolynn was wearing but I thought no matter what you still do not have the right to offend a lady this way.. And Cindy thought that like how Europeans feel Asians are “exotic” these Indians/Nepalese men just might feel the same about European women… As “exotic” that made them want to have a piece of them.. DISGUSTING!!

Joanne had the same experience while she was in India, she said they will just walk pass and grab your boobs.. And yes it happens she said.. Oh my!! And to think we are heading back to India again … What are we getting ourselves into now..

We enjoyed our veg cheese burger lunch and enjoyed their company. Till about 0300hrs it is our time to go for the elephant ride..Yahoo!! while we are getting our things to go it started pouring again.. hmmm nvr mind just go since we are all geared with raincoats.. Off we went on the big truck that came and pick us up... on the way we had to pick up other tourists from the nearby resorts… Slowly people filled up the truck with French, Dutch and CHINESE!! The noisy Chinese nationals.. we just wanted to have our ear plugs if we have them!!

30mins later we arrived at the pick up point, we were the first to get on our ride. Four of us had to squeeze into the small square crate…Amazingly we fitted just nice… as the elephant moved it felt real weird.. thump …. Thump….. thump…. While swaying lightly side to side.. we felt bad for the huge elephant as it has to carry maybe about 200kgs on its back in the rain… we went into the jungle and started our way.. on the way we were hit by tree branches and didn’t see anything for the first 30mins.. But we were just so amazed by how strong the elephant is.. Cross small rivers and up and down slopes slowly but steadily with all the weight it had on its back … there was another elephant just a few metres from us.. Cindy call it the warrior elephant cause it has drawings of a red band across its forehead and some decorations on its ears… Warrior elephant was really hungry.. It kept stopping along the way to get leafs and branches to chew on.. The mahout could not control it and had to keep

hitting its head to ask it to move on.. we felt really bad for warrior…

trying to get a picture of us

The male Rhino

After a while we heard Joanna talking to the mahout, she turn and told us that the mahout was telling her is raining, and we are like ah huh it has been raining since we started.. but when the mahout close his umbrella and pointed with his finger and pointed to say a Rhino then she got it.. WAHAHAHAHHA Raining and Rhino.. and yes we saw a big male Rhino just 50m from us..woa!! the elephant continued to walk towards the Rhino to pass… we were worried that both the big animal might have a clash of soughts…When the elephant was just behind the rhino it let out a sound blowing out from its trunk a few times seems to be signaling the Rhino to move!! And after 3 times the Rhino move along and walked towards a nearby water puddle totally ignoring our presence.. we were impress with our elephant!

The other 2 Rhinos

All of us

We headed to a open field just ahead and there was 2 more rhinos one small and one medium size.. Maybe they are a family dad, mum and baby… we felt for them after a while as about 10 elephants with tourists surrounded them.. Our elephant and warrior waited for them to go before we go near the rhino to get some pictures.. about 15mins later we continued on our jungle route and with no other animals in sight we arrived at the starting point ..

We all got down the elephant and Cindy wanted to treat our elephant with some bananas where the villages were selling. She asked the price and was shocked.. A small bunch of bananas maybe maximum 4 pieces costs 50NPR = 1.00SGD crazy!! We wanted to bargain but then when the mahout saw told us not to buy as his elephant don’t eat banana… ermmm we were curious … so we didn’t buy any…

Got back to the resort about 1750hrs a bit drenched… And nothing till dinner at 1930hrs so headed back to our rooms to take a shower again and rested.. Seems they like us to rest a lot… wahahha

Dinner time came and it was still pouring… we were thinking what we will have for dinner as before we smell curry from the kitchen and was thinking it might be Dhal Bhat… we joined the rest in the dining hall and joanne also guessed the same as she saw the settings on the table is just fork and spoon… Christine was worried cause she didn’t try Dhal Bhat in Kathmandu and only had it on the flight from Delhi to Ktm with Yeti Airlines and she said was too spicy for her… oops..

So when they came out with the big silver trays, we all knew …It is Dhal Baht!! We all dug in some with hands some with spoons and fork.. It was tasty but not spicy at all Cindy told Christine… told her it is catered to European taste.. not spicy… we all finished our dinner had tea and was waiting for desert as the night before we had hot custard, even lumpy it was tasty!! No desert came only the guide came to ask us to get our rain coats to go for the Tharu cultural dance… ohhh we were disappointed…

No choice… a total of 8 of us headed towards the jeep… another 2 tourists came to the resort in the afternoon… we all got in and guess it right.. they had to push start the jeep again and with everyone all inside.. my goodness… 4 of the hotel workers were using all their strength to push start.. we felt real bad… but they made it and off we went to the cultural hall.

We all went in and the hall was already half filled with tourists.. Woa we didn’t know there was so much tourists in Chitwan so I guess monsoon didn’t stop anyone from coming… while waiting for the show to start the power was cut so many times and we were all in total darkness and people was screaming and all.. it came back on with the help of the generator but went out again.. Wahahha

So finally about 10mins later the host came out to announce the start of the programme.. This host has a real funny slang which was so difficult for us to understand.. we just tried our bests and the first presentation started… It is all men no ladies .. hmmm 1^st dance was a warrior dance or something.. Men with their bamboo poles circling and hitting each others bamboo.. It was all very synchronized and performed very well… and after the next few presentations is also almost the same… not that interesting interesting but acceptable for some entertainment…

The finale was invitation of tourists to go up and dance with the villages. Scott went up and seems to be really enjoying himself.. At first everyone seems to be embarrass to go up.. But after 1 min so many tourists mostly Europeans went up dancing like mad … but there was this particular European lady in purple, she was really letting loose and seems not to be following the beat at all… Myself, joanne, Christine and Cindy is looking at her all the time.. 10mins went by and she is still dancing the same… suddenly power cut again but after it came on again we couldn’t see her on stage … she left.. wahhahha that was the entertainment for us today I guess… kekekke Christine remember her from the bus we took from Ktm to Chitwan and told us she is from Holland and with her boyfriend… We were thinking what is the boyfriend thinking letting her go up stage.

The monsoon night ended with laughters and we all headed back to our rooms after arriving at the resort about 0930hrs.. Rested for the night and waited for morning to come with no programme except breakfast …