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  Souraha, Chitwan National Park, Nepal
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

On Sat morning Charlotte and I caught the early bird bus down to Chitwan National Park having negotiated ourselves a hefty discount on a standard 3 day package tour. A pretty long and uncomfortable journey, but after a 2am finish the previous night with Tilbs, experiencing Nepali clubbing* courtesy of Paul (one of the parahawking guys) I didn't have too much trouble drifting off on the way.!

* Quite a bizarre experience seeing (relatively) scantily clad young Nepalis dancing to Shakira 'Hips don't lie' in one of the most sexually repressed countries in the world!!

Slight hiccup when we arrived at our lodge and were served up a set lunch of burger and chips having been promised full menu choice as part of the package, but after a few firm words with the manager, all was back on track, and Charlotte & I now have them prepping fresh salads, curries & chappattis for us while everyone else gets fobbed off with fried tourist fare ;)

First on the itinerary was a slightly naff guided walk through a typical Tharu village explaining the local culture & customs. The 'authentic' mud/ thatch houses lack a little credibility with the modern additions of a tin roof and electricity, but it was interesting to see people going about their day to day lives- threshing grain and lentils in the road, harvesting the paddy fields etc. We were accompanied on the walk by an intensely annoying Chinese family (mum, dad, son + partner), who talked non-stop and didn't seem remotely interested in hearing what the guide had to say or indeed in really looking at anything we were seeing along the way (with the exception of the son who spent the ENTIRE walk photographing God only knows what! I don't envy the person who gets invited round to see his holiday snaps when he gets home!!). Frustratingly this has been ongoing throughout the entire stay and we have come close to clobbering said family on more than one occasion for shouting loudly at the first sighting of wildlife. Lets just say if I were a tiger I or a rhino I would run a mile the second I heard these guys coming! We also had an amusing encounter with a 'wild elephant' on the evening guided walk- somewhat conveniently in the vicinity of the elephant stables. The guides all shouted to the tourists to run back to the safety of the houses whilst themselves remaining remarkably unperplexed at the allegedly dangerous, lone male ambling our way. Cynics that we are we strongly suspect said bull elephant just happens to turn up at the same point on the walk right on cue every evening at 17:30..

Day 2 was much more action-packed, kicking off with a dug-out canoe safari, a walking safari through the Sal forest and a trip to the elephant breeding centre where they have an adorable 1 month old male. Then came elephant bath time down at the river which was great fun - I never would have imagined it could provide so many laughs being repeatedly showered & dunked into a muddy river by an elephant! After lunch we opted for a 5 hour jeep safari, which to be honest didn't yield much in terms of wildlife until the last hour or so, but as a pleasant drive through some beautiful scenery was enjoyable none the less. We were beginning to think our luck might be about on a par with my trip to the Bat Cave, having only managed to sight spotted deer, wild boar and peacocks all afternoon, but as dusk fell were granted a few Marsh Mugger crocs in the waterways and a lone rhino which was pretty exciting (we managed to get pretty close on foot protected by our stick-wielding guides). The highlight of the day absolutely has to have been the Tharu cultural show in the evening however- a programme of what can only be described as Nepali morris dancing, presented by a very serious young man in a style somewhere between Borat and game show host, which had us laughing so hard our pew shook. I only hope the video footage I took does it justice!

This morning we completed the itinerary with a dawn elepant safari which was much more rewarding than the jeep - rhino, peacocks, spotted deer, woodpeckers, kingfishers, a macaque monkey and a mongoose amongst the fauna on show, plus lots of ducking tree branches and cobwebs en route. Charlotte was then bundled off back to Kathmandu with the other 3 day package tourists while I opted to stay on for one final day of R&R by the river before the next few days of enforced noise, traffic and election chaos in the capital. I've moved from the Rainbow resort to a smaller, more intimate place in the centre of Souraha village and have spent a very chilled out day sat in the sun watching other people getting dunked by elephants, chatting to the lovely Nepali girl who ran the restaurant I went to for lunch, and cycling round some of the nearby villages generally taking in a bit more of the local way of life. (I can strongly advocate this incidentally as the tours miss alot). Ironically I just had my best crocodile sighting this evening whilst sat enjoying a beer and watching the sun set over the river- a 3m Gharial obligingly swam right by, slightly worryingly at exactly the spot we had bathed with the elephants yesterday. Gharials are meant to eat ony fish, and the Nepali fishermen certainly didn't seem phased by him, leaping in with their nets not 5 minutes after he'd submerged again, but even so..

6 hour bus ride back to Kathmandu tomorrow and should manage to catch up with Clare and Charlotte for one final evening before Charlotte heads on to Goa and Clare flies up to Everest, then need to decide how to spend my last week in Nepal depending on the state of play after the elections...

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