Chitwan Nat'l Park

After two days of exploring Patan and Bhaktapur, the medieval city-states of the Kathmandu Valley, we took a six-hour bus yesterday morning to Chitwan National Park, which is in the southern region of the country. At our stop along the drive, we picked up some samosas, curried potato and peas in fried rice dough. These have become our favorite snacks here in Nepal and, as they were so good, S ran to get more while I made sure the bus did not leave without us. We arrived in Sauraha, the town just north of the National Park, around 1:30 PM and checked into our jungle-themed cottage on a small and quiet street in town. We spent the afternoon sitting on recliner chairs by the Rapti River and watched the sun set. We had some good curry for dinner and drank tea until we could see thousands of stars in the sky. Our room had hot water which, at this point, was a wonderfully pleasant surprise.
Today we got up at 6 AM for a full day of jungle activities. We Started with a 7:30 canoe trip on the Rapti River in a dugout cotton tree canoe as the mist was rising over the river. We saw many different birds and, towards the end of the canoe trip, spotted a gharial crocodile. As our hotel specializes in ornithology, our guide took us on a 4 hour jungle walk where he pointed out many beautiful birds. We were hoping to see some rhinos in the forest but settled for about 5-7 rhesus macaques jumping around in th trees near us. This afternoon we are heading on an elephant safari which we have heard is where you have better luck seeing wildlife. Excited to ride an elephant and hope to see some jungle animals.
Tomorrow we head to the Indian border town of Raxaul, where we hope to catch a train to Kolkata the following morning. Hopefully we can get train tickets!

Chitwan Nat'l Park