The hotel manager has been a fantastic help in organising Chitwan for us. He told us about a safari lodge on the edge of Chitwan national park that a relative of his owns. The lodge offers packages with bus tickets, all entry fees to the national park, transport, accommodation with air con & river views, food & safari activities included.
We decided to book a 4 day, 3 night package that would include 5 safari activities & 1 elephant interaction activity. It would be a lot easier and probably cheaper than us booking all these things individually.
All our paperwork was organized the night before & we checked out at 5.45am, sneaking in to the back door of the darkened office & putting the room key on the desk. It was still heavily raining outside following last night's storm. Lucky for us as we walked out the hotel gate a taxi drove past & I was able to wave it down. A few minutes & 220 NPR (including a tip) later we were at the bus stop.
At the bus stop we were greeted by a friendly Nepalese man who helped us out of the taxi with an umbrella and sold us coffee, water and snacks for the bus.
The bus ticket was again for a tourist bus and was a similar arrangement as the bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. By 6.30 am we were on our way to Chitwan !
The bus was quite full but pleasantly comfortable & cool because of the rain which continued to pour until lunch. We arrived at Chitwan just after lunch and were greeted at the bus stop by a jeep to transport us to the lodge which was only a few kilometres away.
The town of Chitwan feels very rural & traditional. The peoples lives are heavily influenced by the seasons and farming. We see lots of buffalo tied up or in enclosures next to houses, there are chickens, ducks & goats everywhere, occasionally people will herd them to a new area of grazing. The houses here are made of natural materials and have mud walls & thatched roofs. As we drive through the town we see elephants strolling down the main streets with mahouts on their backs, as common as the horses drawing carriages.
We arrive at our accommodation & check in to our room. It's the nicest room we've stayed in while travelling through Nepal & we are grateful that we booked the deluxe room with air con. Chitwan region is extremely humid and hot, even though it is just past lunch time we can hear thunder coming & the promise of a late afternoon storm.
The lodge features the hotel rooms, a dining hall, a thatched observation deck by the river & several hammocks stretched out over the green grass. We immediately notice the presence of the military, as we sit by the river we can see them patrolling the river borders of Chiotwan National Park with their rifles over their shoulders.
After lunch we meet some other tourists at the lodge who are mostly young, volunteers from the UK. We all load into the jeep to go into the town to buy bananas & meet a local elephant.
Pinky is 8 years old, she was bred in captivity in India before coming to Chitwan where she met & bonded with her mahout. They will stay together for the rest of their lives. Pictured here, she is standing under her shelter behind his family house. If separated for too long, pinky becomes distraught. Their bond is complex & they rely on each other for survival. She is best described as loving, excitable & sometimes naughty.
She seemed to be in excellent spirits and health while we were there. I couldn't see any evidence such as scars, from her having received any beatings or trauma. She did have a chain wrapped between her front legs & a rope teether on one of her hind legs that seemed to have decent length and was secured to her shelter. I enquired about this and I was told the chains are put on when she's going to have visitors, she gets really excited about visitors with banana's and has previously knocked people over with her trunk. During the day she is not tied up but of a night time she needs the rope to prevent her wandering off. She lives quite close to the river bank and the threat of wild bull elephants is a real risk to Pinky.
All of this seemed very reasonable to me, after all we put muzzles, harnesses and leashes on dogs, stable horses of a night time.
After we leave Pinky, it's back to the lodge to watch the sunset from the river bank, eat dinner, drink probably too many beers and collapse into our bed in the blissful air con.
We decided to book a 4 day, 3 night package that would include 5 safari activities & 1 elephant interaction activity. It would be a lot easier and probably cheaper than us booking all these things individually.
All our paperwork was organized the night before & we checked out at 5.45am, sneaking in to the back door of the darkened office & putting the room key on the desk. It was still heavily raining outside following last night's storm. Lucky for us as we walked out the hotel gate a taxi drove past & I was able to wave it down. A few minutes & 220 NPR (including a tip) later we were at the bus stop.
At the bus stop we were greeted by a friendly Nepalese man who helped us out of the taxi with an umbrella and sold us coffee, water and snacks for the bus.
The bus ticket was again for a tourist bus and was a similar arrangement as the bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. By 6.30 am we were on our way to Chitwan !
The bus was quite full but pleasantly comfortable & cool because of the rain which continued to pour until lunch. We arrived at Chitwan just after lunch and were greeted at the bus stop by a jeep to transport us to the lodge which was only a few kilometres away.
The town of Chitwan feels very rural & traditional. The peoples lives are heavily influenced by the seasons and farming. We see lots of buffalo tied up or in enclosures next to houses, there are chickens, ducks & goats everywhere, occasionally people will herd them to a new area of grazing. The houses here are made of natural materials and have mud walls & thatched roofs. As we drive through the town we see elephants strolling down the main streets with mahouts on their backs, as common as the horses drawing carriages.
The lodge features the hotel rooms, a dining hall, a thatched observation deck by the river & several hammocks stretched out over the green grass. We immediately notice the presence of the military, as we sit by the river we can see them patrolling the river borders of Chiotwan National Park with their rifles over their shoulders.
After lunch we meet some other tourists at the lodge who are mostly young, volunteers from the UK. We all load into the jeep to go into the town to buy bananas & meet a local elephant.
Pinky is 8 years old, she was bred in captivity in India before coming to Chitwan where she met & bonded with her mahout. They will stay together for the rest of their lives. Pictured here, she is standing under her shelter behind his family house. If separated for too long, pinky becomes distraught. Their bond is complex & they rely on each other for survival. She is best described as loving, excitable & sometimes naughty.
She seemed to be in excellent spirits and health while we were there. I couldn't see any evidence such as scars, from her having received any beatings or trauma. She did have a chain wrapped between her front legs & a rope teether on one of her hind legs that seemed to have decent length and was secured to her shelter. I enquired about this and I was told the chains are put on when she's going to have visitors, she gets really excited about visitors with banana's and has previously knocked people over with her trunk. During the day she is not tied up but of a night time she needs the rope to prevent her wandering off. She lives quite close to the river bank and the threat of wild bull elephants is a real risk to Pinky.
All of this seemed very reasonable to me, after all we put muzzles, harnesses and leashes on dogs, stable horses of a night time.
After we leave Pinky, it's back to the lodge to watch the sunset from the river bank, eat dinner, drink probably too many beers and collapse into our bed in the blissful air con.
- Alli
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