Sauraha,
Nepal
Sunday, December 7, 2008
On a whim, I decided to go with a girl I d met at the hostel to go and wash some elephants in Chitwan. Chitwan is a national park and area of jungle. You can take trips into the jungle on elephants, by jeep or canoe, but I was quite happy just to save some money and stay on the outside. From here I went for walks around the area including little villages and community forest (just like the national park!) and relaxed by the river, in the sun, watching the elephants being washed and getting away from the traffic of Kathmandu. It was nice to see the lush green landscape and golden mustard fields. One day we hitched a lift on a gravel truck to see where it went and walked back through a lovely area where kids stopped us to ask us to take their photos and show us their houses.
As I continue to discover, it s a small world and after already meeting my rafting guide briefly on the bus to Chitwan, I bumped into the brothers from Iceland (also from rafting) while I was watching the elephants. They were heading in the same direction as me, so with the girl I was with going straight to Pokhara, I made the next part of my journey with them.
