Chitwan National Park

Nepal has a vast set of wildlife and there are many national parks in which to view the various species. We had already seen the common Langur and the rhesus macaque at a distance along with several kinds of birds, but we wanted bigger game and for that Chitwan National Park is the most common destination, more common than a Langur. Pokhara is littered with brochures and posters depicting the various animals you can find in Chitwan. Strangely, an inordinately large number of the photos showed the animals copulating. There were tigers and elephants mid-coitus. Rhinos and pigs in the throws of love. Even a hyena making whoopee. I don’t know the reason, but Smith offered a logical theory: it’s probably the only time the animals are in one place long enough to be photographed thoroughly. Sounds good to me. Any other theories are welcome.

The travel agent we arranged our trekking guide through and purchased our flight from Kathmandu to Delhi from offered what sounded like a great three or four-day package. It included transport to and from, lodging, food and all sorts of activities, all at a great rate. We signed up. In the end, it was a mistake. Usually, we’re not package deal types, but we were lured in and trusting. The agent hadn’t led us astray yet and was extremely nice and grateful for our business.



We took the bus. It dropped us off in the middle of a field along with several other travelers and we were immediately set upon by hotel and resort people vying for our business. Did we have reservations? Who with? Etc. Finally, our guest house driver showed and we headed off. Our guest house was a short drive away, on the outskirts of town and in mid-construction. Half the rooms were finished and the other half looked to be in the middle of a slow construction. Our room was dingy, bare and the bathroom had a wet floor the entire time we were there despite the fact that none of us showered once. The beds were slightly sticky and as firm as the floor. They were also too small for me. The food wasn’t any better. Every meal was fried in half a bottle of oil and left a glistening residue on our plates. After our first night there, three people turned up with stomach issues.

You’re not really here to read about the condition of our lodgings so I’ll move on to the park and our activities. Our prospective activities included a plethora of elephant-related activities ranging from riding them to bathing them and watching them breed (thus the pictures mentioned previously). Also, there was a jungle walk, a village visit, a boat ride on the Narayani River and sunset watching. And there was a jeep ride deeper into the forest. The jeep ride included a visit to a crocodile hatchery. It was not included in our package. Shocking, I know. It would cost us an addition 1,000 Nepali Rupees. We signed up grudgingly.

We had arrived mid-day and after lunch, we visited one of the various places that the elephants are kept. It was extremely depressing. The elephants were all chained to giant wooden posts and given no slack to move about. I believe elephants have relatively sad looking eyes anyway, but in the condition they were in, they appeared downright depressed. It was hard going and Smith and Hilary were really hit hard by it. We declined all future elephant activities.


The following day, we struck out early and spent an hour drifting down the river in a dugout canoe made from one single length of wood, a local poling us along with a length of bamboo. It was extremely misty and we could make out very little at first, but as we went, we saw some king fishers and some Mongolian ducks. Toward the end we
passed a gharial crocodile making its way up river, its eyes and prodigious snout poking out of the water. Gharials have huge tips to their narrow and long snouts. They look like toothpicks nosing creampuffs or cow-pie-tipped pool cues. They are very curious looking creatures. It was also the first time I’d seen a feral crocodile. But it was the only one we saw and we soon pulled up on the shore and began our walk into the jungle, which was, to cut it short, fruitless. We saw some Langurs in the tree-tops and we saw some macaques drinking water. That’s it. Well, that and some birds. No hyenas. No tigers. No rhinos. Nothing. Bubkiss. We headed in for lunch disappointed. But it wouldn’t last because after lunch we set out in the jeep and got an eyeful. Not five minutes into our jeep trek and we came upon a rhino. None of us had ever before seen one in the wild. It looked fake, to be honest. It could just as well have been like Jaws at Universal Studios. The one that lunges up out of the water at you as you pass by on your train car. A machine encased in styrex or carbon fiber and cleverly painted, but it wasn’t. It was real. Standing there 100 feet away and staring right at us. We watched and took pictures until it trundled off. Then we drove on, passing barking deer, midget deer and various bird and Langurs. Finally, we stopped at the Gharial breeding center, paid our 50 rupees entry fee and gawked at their awkward mouths and unreal appearance. Their mouths are about the most unwieldy and seemingly uneconomically formed things I have ever seen. They might as well have had toes on their backs or ears on their tails. Either would be equally likely. Many of the males were missing the top or bottom half of their mouths from fights. Their mouths perpetually open to the sun or sand. Massive under-bites or overbites. They lolled in the sun and seemed as fake as the rhino had, especially so in their stillness. They are an endangered species and how could they not be?

On our drive back we passed several marsh mugger crocs. These guys and gals prefer stagnant water and will eat just about anything, thus the mugger portion of their name. They look what you expect them to look. Our excitement at seeing them was much dampened by the exoticness of the Gharial. Besides, they were across the marsh from us and some of us had to pee.

We got back to the guest house safely and looked at the remaining schedule. It was all elephant-related, so we decided to cut our losses. The money was already spent either way. Might as well be happy. We decided to leave a day early.