Royal Chitwan National Park- Welcome to the Jungle

  Sauraha, Nepal
Thursday, December 13, 2007

Kathmandu -> Royal Chitwan National Park

We had spent some time in Kathmandu and we had done two weeks of trekking near Everest. So now we were ready for something quite different. I was in the mood to see some animals, not to mention be in a warmer climate. Enter the Royal Chitwan National Park.

Royal Chitwan National Park is a nature preserve of forest, marshes and grassland and is almost 1000 square km in size. There are a multitude of animals that call this park home including one-horned Indian rhinos, elephants (both wild and trained), royal Bengal tigers, crocodiles, gangetic dolphins and leopards. The rhinos, tigers and the dolphins (and possibly other wildlife as well) are unfortunately all endangered.

The park is also a bird-watchers dream as Chitwan boasts about 450 different species of bird.

Our Lodge

The wildlife drew me to the park but what also intrigued me was that fact that in this small country of Nepal not only could one trek through some of the highest mountains on earth (including the tallest mountain itself) but one can also travel to a place that is low enough in altitude and tropical to support exotic plant and animal life. In fact, one memory that I vividly cling to is that of being along the banks of the slow moving river in Chitwan and seeing the Himalayan snow-covered peaks far away in the distance. I can't imagine that there would be many tropical forests where a similar view is possible.

We had to catch a 7am bus from Kathmandu to get to Chitwan so we arranged a wake-up call for 6am. The wake-up call never happened but we've come to expect this so fortunately we had a backup alarm set. Ramini, the guy who arranged our flight, was waiting in the lobby so that he could walk us to the bus. As we walked through the lobby we noticed the night-shift hotel clerk sleeping comfortably and soundly on the sofa. I wonder when it will dawn on him that he missed our wake-up call?

I was amazed at how much activity there was on the streets even at 6:30am in Kathmandu. I guess people have to take advantage of the daylight and the sun was on its way up at this time.

Beach by the Jungle River

It was good of Ramini to guide us to our bus. I think this is part of the reason we always went back to him. We may have found it ourselves but he wanted to make sure that we were on that bus.

Even at that early time of day the ride out of Kathmandu was slow but what made matters worse was that it there was an accident scene on the road that we were on. Looks like a motorcycle had hit a woman during the morning rush hour. To be honest, I wsa actually quite surprised that that was the only accident that I witnessed during my time in Nepal. I mean, there are no rules to the road. People just drive and honk there horn and make space for themselves. On top of this, every manner of transport is on the roads at a volume of about double of what it should be. With this kind of mayhem I'm quite amazed that this was the sole accident scene we would see.

Once we were out of town then the ride was quicker. Well, as quick as one could drive going around blind corners with a rock wall on one side and a deadly drop on the other. Still, it was a spectacular ride for the most part as we could view mountains or hills much of the way and the river below us was almost always in view. It's a good thing the views were good because it was a 6 hour journey and the bus was as old and decrepit as it was uncomfortable (and this was one of the better buses).

Sunset on the river

It was of course noticeably warmer when we arrived in Chitwan park but it felt great. Our guide met us where the bus stopped and brought us over to our lodge named "Nepal Jungle Resort". This lodge was actually just outside the park boundaries as the lodges within the park are about double the price if not more.

This was by far the nicest place I stayed at during my stay in Nepal. The room was more than comfortable and most importantly they gauranteed a hot shower. We would also soon find out that the meals are great too and the staff really friendly. We knew we would be well taken care of here during our 3 night stay.

Our facilitator/guide was named Jog and he had a full schedule planned out for the next couple of days. For the remainder of the day today though we would check out the village, visit a museum and watch a cultural show.

Boat driver

Stick Dance

Our first stop was to show us a Tharu tribe house. It was part of the tour and I was not really looking forward to this. In some of my travels before coming to Nepal I've been to "traditional" tribe dwellings for some cultures and more often than not they turned out to be some made-for-tourist lame village. So I was expecting to find the same tourist trap here but I was happily surprised. We were actually at an authentic Tharu home that some one would live in. In fact, the population of this entire village was predominantly Tharu. We also find out here that our guide, Jog, is Tharu himself.

He took some time to explain some about the Tharu culture, their history, the lifestyle and described the Tharu peoples natural resistance to malaria (something that I had read about previously). It was all far more interesting than I expected.

Our second stop was at the local museum. Ok, perhaps this was a bit lame. It was really only a couple of rooms with descriptions of some of the wildlife in the are. However, it did give me the chance to read up on some of the facts (all of which I have now forgotten) of these animals.

Drummers

Peacock Dance

After the museum we actually stopped by the river as the sun was just setting. It was too cold to fully enjoy a sunset in the mountains but here it was warm and watching the warm glow of the sun fade away behind the river and trees was truly magical.

The final tourist stop for the night was the Tharu Cultural Program which we would watch after dinner. I was not looking forward to this as I was expecting, once again, somewhat of a tourist trap an I couldn't imagine it feeling particularly authentic. Wrong again. Perhaps there is something to be said for having low expectiations because it was quite well done.

Don't get me wrong, it was of course geared to tourists but it just had a good feel about. Maybe it was that the MC's english, although good, was always just a little off or perhaps it was all the chatter backstage or could be even stuff we kept here dropping backstage. The fact that it wasn't a slick, perfected production actually gave it the right atmosphere. It was just some villagers trying to help themselves and their village by trying to make some money through cultural programs such as these.

Fire Dance

Come On Down

The items were all quite entertaining. They range from stick dances, to group dances, to dances set to plots and one especially memorable number was a man dressed in a peacock outfit imitating a peacocks mannerisms which was quite incredible. There was even a moment where one performer was doing a dance with a stick that was on fire at both ends. I'm quite sure some one almost got burned by that as we heard some urgent shouting back stage as this performer left the stage.

The last item of the show they invited people in the audience to come up on stage and try to mimic their dance with them. It was hard to refuse these people when they come with their hand outstretched before you so we decided to go up. Besides, it had been a while since I've made a fool of myself on stage and I figured what better place to do this than faraway Nepal?

Come on Down2

In the end it was all good fun and I was happy to be here in this park. Granted, we hadn't seen anything related to wildlife today but that would all change drastically tomorrow.