We arrived in Chitwan in the early afternoon and bought our package deal at Jungle Wildlife Camp, because they had functioning fans. Chitwan is tropical. I tried to think of it as a weekend long steam bath. It didn't help much when I couldn't keep my eyes open for all the sweat dripping into them.
In Chitwan, you purchase a package deal. That means your hotel, board, treks, canoeing, and special events like elephant bathing and Tharu culture dance program are all included. The whole weekend cost a grand total of $52 USD, including bus fare.
That afternoon, we pestered our guide, Suman, until he agreed to show us around the village, where he had grown up. The mud huts are populated by the Tharu people, a tribe indigenous to India, who left the country out of protest to British colonialism. They live in a very basic way, raising goats, chickens, ducks, making ends meet by growing their own food and selling what they can to tourists. They are surprisingly untouched by westernization, despite the huge amount of foreign traffic through their village.
That evening, we went to the elephant breeding sanctuary, and this is where I was attacked by the infamous pony. I broke my own traveling rule: I made an assumption. I thought hey, there's a cute little pony, grazing in the grass around all these humans. I bet I can touch it. Pony did not like being touched. Pony tried very hard to get me behind himself so he could kick me. Thankfully, using my superior skills of observation and deduction, I realized I was about to get a hoof in the bladder, and pushed up against the pony's side, turning with him to keep myself in front of his powerful hind legs. People were screaming advice in Nepali, which helped me not at all. Eventually I decided I had to get off the merry-go-round, and spun out as fast as I could. The pony knicked me, but nothing more serious than a bruise on my leg. My guide was amazed I was not hurt worse. He told me several times "not tame! not tame!" To which I responded "no kidding."
The elephant sanctuary is interesting, but uneventful. They have a new set of twins. They fed the elephants. End of the excursion.
That night after dinner was actually the most fun. Somehow Wynee convinced our guide, Suman, and another hotel employee, Manyo, to pick up a guitar and bongos and play songs into the wee hours of the night. As the rest of the guests in the hotel (from Japan, Canada, Holland) realized what was happening, they trickled down to join us. We all sat in the dining room and tried to teach each other songs and danced to Nepali folk music until they kicked us out, reminding us of our early morning jungle trek.
Early Saturday morning, we got up, skin sticky as taffy, shoved down some breakfast, and boarded a canoe in the Rapti river. Right off we saw a crocodile, and during the course of the canoe trip, saw two more. Suman said villagers are often injured by crocodiles when they try to fish. We also caught sight of a wild bull elephant. Very majestic. We got word that a rhino was nearby, and got out to track it. We could see footprints everywhere, but the rhino seemed to have moved on. We continued our jungle trek, and managed to find monkeys of a beautiful orange color, spotted deer and antelope with sweeping antlers. Just for your reference, a jungle trek is not an easy one. I was sliced on the legs and face many times by knife-edged leaves, stumbled over lots of unseen dips and bumps, and was only saved by a myriad of insects because I basically bathed in repellent. No leeches or malaria for me!
When we canoed back to the hotel, we could see some people playing loud music and dancing on the shore. They began setting up cameras and lighting equipment. We realized they were filming some kind of dance number. We started filming and taking pictures of them. They saw us and laughed and smiled and waved. And then, they cast us. They brought us over in front of the cameras and taught us about 3 bars of dance steps. While the stars did their spinning and twirling in the foreground, I, lead backup dancer, bounced up and down like a maniac, covered in river mud, sunburned (white girl forgot that just because you can't SEE the sun doesn't mean it can't burn you), and wearing my ugliest clothes. And now I'm in a Nepaliwood music video. They said it would take about 3 months for production and it may never end up on the internet, but we exchanged information to try and find it once it comes out. I'd love to see it, but being in it was enough of a blast. Totally going on my future resume.
After this came one of the highlights of my existence: bathing an elephant. The elephants from the breeding center are set free in the jungle each morning. When the driver brings them back, they are covered with ticks and jungle nastiness, so they need to be washed. Since the tourists love this, they let us do it. We rode the elephant into the Rapti, where she sprayed us several times with water from her trunk. Then she flopped down in the water, rolling us off to the side. The driver gave us rocks and told us "massage, massage" so we rubbed her thick, wire-haired skinned with river stones to knock off ticks and mud and give her a relaxing little massage.
After that, came lunch, and then elephant safari.This was a much better way to see the jungle, rather than walking on foot. We saw much more wildlife, including boars and anoter variety of monkey. No rhinos. Bummer. The only problem with an elephant safari is: you are riding an enormous basically wild animal. At one point things got a little scary. One of the baskets that we rode in was loose. The girls riding in it got very nervous and started screaming and getting agitated. This upset the elephant, who started stamping and trumpeting. This upset the other elephants in the caravan. This caused a few extremely tense moments while the elephants seemed to debate obeying their drivers or stampeding. They opted to listen to the drivers. Thank goodness. Our guide, Suman, told us later that he has known several people who died because the elephants decided to run off. I am glad he saved this information until after the safari.
Returning safe and sound to our hotel, we ate dinner and then headed for the Tharu cultural dance program. It is kind of a Nepali version of Stomp! Several young men and boys perform percussive dances to drums and bells with sticks that they beat against each other. It's really beautiful and fun to watch. At the end they invited us up and I saw no reason to resist so I hopped up on stage and clumsily followed along. So much fun!
The next morning we hopped on our bus for the six hour ride home. I slept.
I am just now getting the chance to read this....I am so jealous! :)
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