ELEPHANT DRIVER EXTRAORDINAIRE!

When I last left I was in Pokhara soaking up my last few days of good food and resting a bit from the trekking and well, otherwise just being lazy. Ella and I hopped on a tourist bus earl in the morning to Royal Chitwan National Park in the hopes of seeing the rare Indian One Horned Rhino and, of course, a tiger. The bus ride was OK, not too much horn, we didn't go over a cliff into the river and we actually had an entire back row of seats for three people. Basically the ride was uneventful until about an hour before we arrived when the touts started getting on board.

The touts never make for a pleasant ride as they always start with "hello! where are you from?" and you know for sure the next thing is going to be a brochure stuck in your face and them telling you how great the hotel is and that you should stay there and that it is cheap and the rooms big and there is hot water etc. etc. etc. None of it is ever true, OK, rarely true. They were particularly bad this time and particularly early. Usually they get on one stop before the end or even wait until you get off the bus. Not this time, we had a joyful hour of them nattering in our ears despite the fact that we said "no thank you" over and over. In this case, they all kept starting with "so sorry to bother you but...." or "miss, I know you do not like to be bothered but..." Ella finally lost it and almost shouted at them, "Look, if you don't want to bother us, or you are sorry, then shut up and go away and don't bother us!" The result was peace for about 10 minutes and then more apologies and brochures. Getting out of the bus was even worse and at one point, I was surrounded by around 20 guys waving brochures, shoving cards in my face and grabbing my arms and hands and trying to carry my pack off without me. Ella got lucky and escaped out of the mess and managed to actually find the place we wanted to go. For some dumb reason we didn't go there first but went to another place with a French guy who promised his place was fantastic. The deal was, that they drive us to that place, if we didn't like it, we got to move to the other place. So much for that, we didn't like it but it became a big mess to get them to move us to the other place. In the end they did, but they did it with much grumbling and a bit of a wait.
The place we settled into was just grand! Big beds with mosquito nets, right on the river across from the national park and with very friendly people. Although I am sure they still took us for a bit of a ride and still kept a bit of the truth back (don't really want to say they lied about stuff, but hell, yes, they did). In any case, we booked for an all inclusive deal and got all food, room, elephant safari, canoe ride on the river, jeep safari and walking safari – oh, and all the tea we could drink. I don't think they quite counted on getting a 'real' tea drinker like myself but lets just say they started bringing Ella and me big pots of tea rather than the small ones as we kept having to ask for refills.

Unfortunately the great Siberian Tiger remained hidden from us during our various trips into the park and jungle but we did get to see about 8 of the One Horned Indian Rhino. They were quite spectacular and looked like they were covered with plates of armor. Very different looking from the African rhino. On our walking safari we came across three of them in the tall grass and had to walk past them in an open area. This was a bit freaky as they have been known to attack on a fairly regular basis and if they do, you are supposed to climb a tree. We looked around before crossing the open area and well, there were NO trees anywhere. That meant, if they did decide to charge that we needed to run in a zig zag pattern and throw an object (clothing or backpack) off and to the side so that they would stop to sniff it. Neither a very fun option. I definitely prefer the tree option. So, before heading out, our guides debated if we should actually cross (it was a male, female and baby). They decided yes and about mid way across the open field, the biggest (of course) perked up his ears and looked at us intently. They can't see very well so god knows what he actually thought he was looking at but I wish he thought we were elephants. At this point, the lead guide waved a bit more frantically and said “come, come, quick, quick” and we picked up the pace. Then the nice little rhino looked a bit more serious, ears flapped forward and he even took a step toward us out of the brush. The lead guide started to run, Ella and I started to run and the guide behind us started to run. I think it became serious when the guide following us overtook both Ella and I and was about five paces ahead of us. Clearly I am still alive, as is Ella in case you were wondering. Personally, I think they may have been doing it to add a little drama to the walking safari. They stopped a number of times on the walk and said things like “I smell a crocodile” or “I smell a tiger”. I don't really think you can smell them but one of the times when he smelled a crocodile, there actually was one on the banks of the river. We did see a number of tiger prints and also some scratching on a tree but that was about it. Hell, I am not going to take the chance though and if they say “run”, I'll run!

The jeep safari was nice. Couple of rhinos but mostly birds and LOADS of Chinese tourists, which were something to see in themselves. They were all covered up with their towels over their heads and their gloves and their cameras. We all had a laugh at them and prayed that we didn't come across them while out on our safari as they would scare everything away, which they did as one point we were up in a tower watching a rhino and sure enough, here came three truck loads of Chinese and off went the rhino.

I think our last day was probably the most fun as it was the day we played with the elephants. In the morning we went for a bath with them in the river and that was an absolute blast. As Ella would say, “that was soooo WICKED!” Basically you hop on the elephants back and head out into the river with them. The elephant trainer/driver gives commands and the elephant fills up his trunk with water and sprays it back all over you. We had a particularly playful elephant and driver and they took us into the deeper part where we played the game of “lets see if these silly people can stay on top of me while I shake about and then sit down in the river”. The elephant clearly won but we had a grand time climbing back up on her and then getting tossed about and back into the river. The elephant and driver were having such a grand time tossing us in that we finally had to stop and ask to be finished with our elephant back. After we fed the sweet little elephant bananas. Their trunks are so funny, they reach right out and sniff you, slobber on you and then scoop the banana right out of your hand.

After the bath, we headed off for an elephant safari. Not the most comfortable sitting arrangement – four people in a box/stand type thing on the back of the elephant but really a fantastic way to see the jungle. Also not the driest of things as the elephant kept blowing spit and dust up at as. Good thing I saved the shower until the evening. We had two rhinos straight off and you can get really close to them as they don't mind the elephant. Again we had a really sweet elephant and she kept making this purring sound that you could feel go through her body. I can't remember her name but the translation was Happy Girl and I guess she really was. The purring means that they are happy. Of course, it didn't hurt that her friend was up ahead and as she got closer she purred more. At one point we even stopped for them to have a conversation and they were both purring and tossing their trunks about and blowing dust and trumpeting. It was really sweet but also VERY loud. We spent about two hours crashing our way through the jungle. getting whacked by trees and bushes, and plowing through small rivers and it really was quite a joy. At the end of it all, the driver turned around and asked if I wanted to drive the elephant. Now who could turn down such an offer? I jumped on that and think I have found my new profession! It was much more comfy up there and a lot less snot/spit came up my direction although I really don't think I was doing much. The driver walked along side the entire time and occasionally grunted something. Still, it was fun to do and the locals faces looking at a westerner driving the elephant were enough to make us laugh.

Otherwise, Chitwan was a very mellow pleasant place and we spent our time wandering around, hanging with a Danish guy we met in Pokhara and sitting in lounge chairs along the river drinking tea and cocktails and watching the sun set. A very agreeable place I must say! Too bad I had a 6:00am local bus out....but that is another story.