Royal Chitwan
When you're 5 meters from a 2 ton wild rhino and her baby, the best place to be is 10 feet up a tree. Thankfully, that's where I found myself. Absolutely speaking, the best place to be is on the back of an elephant. But really, they're just trees that move anyway, so let's not split hairs. When my guide started throwing sticks and stones into the elephant grass to try and coax them out into the open, I began quickly to question his sanity. This was followed shortly by an assessment of my own sanity in following him and a curiosity as to how I got into this situation.
Well, this is pretty much how. After spending a little too long enjoying the crazy, horn happy, madness that is Thamel (Kathmandu's tourist district), we were very pleased to get on a bus and leave for a short while. Our destination was Royal Chitwan National Park, around 150 road km from Kathmandu. Back home, that would take at most 2 hours to cover. In this case, the road which looked like it had been through WWIII managed to slow us down a bit. Countless times, the road would narrow to a single lane of gravel, mud, and water that reminded me strongly of the roads we seek when 4x4ing back home. This coupled with the sheer drop to the river far below made for an interesting drive.
What made it even more interesting was the traffic. Unfortunately, we were not the only people on the road. We had to share it with a plethora of other busses, most of whom seemed in more of a hurry than us. At any slight possibility, an opening of mere inches in the road, they would lay on their unique and musical horns and make an attempt to pass us. The insanity of these antics, often done on blind corners, must be seen to be believed. Then there are the never ending streams of transport trucks, each nicely decorated with pictures of Shiva, nice ribbons, and more garland than the most gaudy of Christmas trees.
So finally, after 8 long, hot, and uncomfortable hours, we arrived at our destination. Luckily, we found a nice hotel by the river where we could relax and watch the sun set on the almost African scene.
The next day we headed off on a day long, 22 km walk through the park with our guide from the hotel. This began with a nerve wracking crossing of the river in just about the dodgiest canoe I've ever laid eyes on. The fact that we had roughly 2 inches of gunnel above the water on either side was made more poignant by the fact that our guide had just pointed out 2 "Marsh Mugger" crocodiles lying in the water a short distance from where we launched.
Once across the river, our guide felt it was the appropriate time to give us a bit of "information" about what we might run into. This essentially consisted of a listing of the dangerous animals in the park and what to do if we ran into them. In summary, if a rhino get's upset, climb a tree. If the tree is too big, just hide behind it. If there are no trees, run in a zig zag pattern and throw anything you can in his way. I have a feeling that this zig zag thing is akin to the story that bears can't run down hill (something my great uncle attests to being fasle, having once been chased down a hill by a bear), but at this point I was happy to accept it. If a sloth bear gets upset, we can probably annoy it enough by just screaming really loud that he will likely just leave. Our guide then explained that the only time tigers usually take interest in humans is when they are too old to catch wild game. The fact that he did not contribute a defence strategy here seemed quite important.
Tigers. The Royal Bengal Tiger to be exact. This creature is the most famous resident of the Chitwan park, though they are rarely ever seen. For the likely large proportion of you who have read "Life of Pi", you will know what this animal is like. Between 70 and 100 Richard Parkers are thought to reside in the park. I'll break the suspense now and confirm that we did not see one. However, we saw tiger tracks EVERYWHERE which was a constant reminder of whose kingdom we were in.
Shortly after leaving the river, we were walking through the 10 foot tall elephant grass when we heard something just to our right. It was not long after this that I found myself up the tree.
The rest of the walk was interesting, but much less exciting. We saw deer, monkeys, storks, and various (harmeless) snakes. Near the end of the walk, we stopped to check out the crocodile breeding centre. Jody and Thomas will be interested to know that along with crocs, they also breed turtles. I even saw some faded old signs for conferences is San Jose and Puntaranus Costa Rica. The latter was associated with Cabo Blanco, the Costa Rican national park that I vistited in April. This seemed a strange coincidence.
All told, the most dangerous (actually, more annoying that dangerous) creature that we had to deal with was the leech. Even though I had my pants tucked into my socks, one managed to find its way inside and get a good donation from me. However, I faired much better than the other guy that was with us. I'll leave it to your imagination to dream up where he might have gotten a leach. Have you had a chance to think? You're right. As bad as it could be, this guy got it. If I hadn't been there myself, I wouldn't have believed it.
The next day, we took it easier. Had an absolute blast playing with the elephants in front of our hotel. For about $2, we got to go into the water and help bathe the elephants. So much fun, climbing on their backs and getting sprayed and all that fun stuff. Later on, we went for a proper ride on the back of another elephant through the forest and got even closer to some rhinos.
Returning here today turned out to be the greatest adventure of all. The Maoists decided to burn a bus in the middle of the road which left a traffic jam that took us 3.5 hours to get through. All told, it took us 12 hours to get back here. I am now completely ready for bed.
Well, sorry for the length here. Hopefully some of it is of mild interest.
Take care,
Justin
Well, this is pretty much how. After spending a little too long enjoying the crazy, horn happy, madness that is Thamel (Kathmandu's tourist district), we were very pleased to get on a bus and leave for a short while. Our destination was Royal Chitwan National Park, around 150 road km from Kathmandu. Back home, that would take at most 2 hours to cover. In this case, the road which looked like it had been through WWIII managed to slow us down a bit. Countless times, the road would narrow to a single lane of gravel, mud, and water that reminded me strongly of the roads we seek when 4x4ing back home. This coupled with the sheer drop to the river far below made for an interesting drive.
What made it even more interesting was the traffic. Unfortunately, we were not the only people on the road. We had to share it with a plethora of other busses, most of whom seemed in more of a hurry than us. At any slight possibility, an opening of mere inches in the road, they would lay on their unique and musical horns and make an attempt to pass us. The insanity of these antics, often done on blind corners, must be seen to be believed. Then there are the never ending streams of transport trucks, each nicely decorated with pictures of Shiva, nice ribbons, and more garland than the most gaudy of Christmas trees.
So finally, after 8 long, hot, and uncomfortable hours, we arrived at our destination. Luckily, we found a nice hotel by the river where we could relax and watch the sun set on the almost African scene.
The next day we headed off on a day long, 22 km walk through the park with our guide from the hotel. This began with a nerve wracking crossing of the river in just about the dodgiest canoe I've ever laid eyes on. The fact that we had roughly 2 inches of gunnel above the water on either side was made more poignant by the fact that our guide had just pointed out 2 "Marsh Mugger" crocodiles lying in the water a short distance from where we launched.
Once across the river, our guide felt it was the appropriate time to give us a bit of "information" about what we might run into. This essentially consisted of a listing of the dangerous animals in the park and what to do if we ran into them. In summary, if a rhino get's upset, climb a tree. If the tree is too big, just hide behind it. If there are no trees, run in a zig zag pattern and throw anything you can in his way. I have a feeling that this zig zag thing is akin to the story that bears can't run down hill (something my great uncle attests to being fasle, having once been chased down a hill by a bear), but at this point I was happy to accept it. If a sloth bear gets upset, we can probably annoy it enough by just screaming really loud that he will likely just leave. Our guide then explained that the only time tigers usually take interest in humans is when they are too old to catch wild game. The fact that he did not contribute a defence strategy here seemed quite important.
Tigers. The Royal Bengal Tiger to be exact. This creature is the most famous resident of the Chitwan park, though they are rarely ever seen. For the likely large proportion of you who have read "Life of Pi", you will know what this animal is like. Between 70 and 100 Richard Parkers are thought to reside in the park. I'll break the suspense now and confirm that we did not see one. However, we saw tiger tracks EVERYWHERE which was a constant reminder of whose kingdom we were in.
Shortly after leaving the river, we were walking through the 10 foot tall elephant grass when we heard something just to our right. It was not long after this that I found myself up the tree.
The rest of the walk was interesting, but much less exciting. We saw deer, monkeys, storks, and various (harmeless) snakes. Near the end of the walk, we stopped to check out the crocodile breeding centre. Jody and Thomas will be interested to know that along with crocs, they also breed turtles. I even saw some faded old signs for conferences is San Jose and Puntaranus Costa Rica. The latter was associated with Cabo Blanco, the Costa Rican national park that I vistited in April. This seemed a strange coincidence.
All told, the most dangerous (actually, more annoying that dangerous) creature that we had to deal with was the leech. Even though I had my pants tucked into my socks, one managed to find its way inside and get a good donation from me. However, I faired much better than the other guy that was with us. I'll leave it to your imagination to dream up where he might have gotten a leach. Have you had a chance to think? You're right. As bad as it could be, this guy got it. If I hadn't been there myself, I wouldn't have believed it.
The next day, we took it easier. Had an absolute blast playing with the elephants in front of our hotel. For about $2, we got to go into the water and help bathe the elephants. So much fun, climbing on their backs and getting sprayed and all that fun stuff. Later on, we went for a proper ride on the back of another elephant through the forest and got even closer to some rhinos.
Returning here today turned out to be the greatest adventure of all. The Maoists decided to burn a bus in the middle of the road which left a traffic jam that took us 3.5 hours to get through. All told, it took us 12 hours to get back here. I am now completely ready for bed.
Well, sorry for the length here. Hopefully some of it is of mild interest.
Take care,
Justin
posted by Justin Callison at 11:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home