The past three days I have spent in Sauraha, Chitwan, a place totally opposite of the cool, mountainous area of Nepal I left. It is flat, super hot and extremely humid. I felt like I was back in Houston. The town is the main entry point to Chitwan National Park, an approximately 1000 square meter area of protected preserve in the south of Nepal. The town is a popular place for Nepali and foreign tourists to stage out of for visits to the park. Like all of my travels in Nepal, getting from point A to point B was an adventure.

Sunday morning in Besisahar I promptly arrived at 5:30 am, as instructed the day before during my recon ops, at the micro-bus ticket booth. I informed the attendant I was interested in going to Chitwan and he pointed at a guy in a yellow and white striped shirt while informing me “He will manage you”. The appointed person, who turned out to be the driver, collected me and put me in the back row of a small, 16 or so passenger mini-van. Another guy got in, sat across from me in the back row, and we left the station. I was a bit surprised as I was informed that the bus departed at 6:30 am, and as we pulled out it was only 5:40 am. In addition, we were heading out in the wrong direction. I had a map up on my cell phone and it was easy to tell as there were not that many possible roads to take. I decided to wait and see what happened next before asking any questions. Sure enough we ended up doing a circuit of the town to collect more people. Around 6:15 am, with a full load of people, we were headed out of town in the right direction and I felt more confident I was where I was supposed to be. More than once here in Nepal I have been glad that I am an “early bird” sort of person as schedules seem to be guidelines more than anything strictly adhered to!

The micro-bus was scheduled so early because of known construction driven road closures at 10:00 am. Nonetheless even though we got to the construction zone around 9:30 or so the traffic was already in a huge snarl. Actually it should not have been surprising as everyone, being aware of the road closure situation, also starts early. Based on my observations, it seems that the whole country is on the roads in the morning! I was sitting on the right side of the bus (they drive on the left in Nepal) and as we were sitting in a stalled line I could see the road ahead for quite a distance. There was a huge, miles long line of buses and trucks waiting to pass in the opposite direction.

It’s a bit hazy but you can see the line of traffic on the opposite slope. This was just a tiny part of the traffic jam.

It was a long morning. Several times we simply sat there, with the engine off, waiting for the line to move. Also several times the driver, along with some other small vehicles, would jump the line, racing ahead as much as possible in the opposite lane before squeezing back into the line again. In these instances, I simply mentally sighed as this kind of action only added to the snarl problem, in general. The real issue was the construction and several narrow bridges so creating a new bottleneck was not going to solve the problem. Thankfully I did see someone official trying to control the flow, slow as it was. The other passengers were chattering the whole time, likely about the traffic, but since I was the only one in the bus that was not Nepali, I’ll never know. In total we probably were delayed about two or three hours or so. Prem, who was waiting for me at the bus park, tried to call several times to find out where we were, but unfortunately I had no signal, so he simply had to wait.

Once Prem and I found each other at the bus park I discovered my travel day was not over. We had three more bus journeys to complete to get to our final destination, Sauraha. I think by now I have been on almost all type of mechanical conveyances, with the exception of motorbikes, that you can be on in Nepal. For the final stages of the journey we took local buses, something that is only easy to do if you are a native or with one. Navigating local buses without knowing the language is extremely difficult due to the informal nature of how things run. Our last conveyance was a tuk-tuk, the first I had seen in Nepal.

Jeep safari time! The hat was totally necessary to ward off the heat even though the sky was a bit overcast all day.

Prem is from the Chitwan area and as such knows much about the environs so he managed the logistics for the trip. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into my room at the guest house to find air-conditioning, hot water and a modern bathroom. True luxury, especially after my mountain experience! The hotel is located in a quiet area just outside of the main part of the town which is very nice. After settling in we headed to the park headquarters, a ten minute walk to the other end of the town, to meet our guide and organize the jeep safari for the next day. As it was still afternoon and thus very hot and humid, there were not a lot of people out and about. As I walked down the street it was easy to see that this was a popular tourist destination; the main street was lined with hotels and restaurants. It was also clear that Prem was from the area. He was constantly being greeted by people as we walked along. The park HQ, which was located adjacent to the river that marked the park boundary, was surrounded by restaurants and cafes. The various establishments had tables at the waterfront along the river, providing a relaxing place for people to hang out in the evening or after returning from the park. After Prem had found our safari guide and made arrangements we sat there and had an early dinner. Even though it had cooled off a bit by evening, it was nice to return to the air-conditioned room at the end of the day.

We ran into two bucks fighting. One eventually ran away.

Also saw a monkey with her baby.

The next day we headed out early, re-tracing our steps to the river, to meet our guide and start a full day of jeep safari. The most sought after prize on a safari in Chitwan is to obtain a glimpse of one of the 40 or so Bengal tigers that roam through the preserve. But the park also has abundant monkeys, rhino, deer, some elephants and sloths. There is a large variety of birdlife as well. I was looking forward to spending time in the jungle and seeing a different side of Nepal. When I first came to the country I never would have connected the words “Nepal” and “jungle”! Luckily, as the day dawned the sky appeared overcast, offering to minimize the heat. We were one of the first jeeps to leave although since May is the start of the low season the crowds would not be suffocating.

The jungle was very green and I enjoyed the change in scenery from the mountains. The park is rife with elephant grass which grows taller than I am so it was hard to spot animals even with the height of the safari jeep helping. However, the rhinos, with their light gray hides, stood out easily. Over the course of the day we saw lots of rhinos wandering through the grass munching as well as wallowing in the various watering holes that we passed. In the more forested areas we saw a multitude of spotted deer and different kinds of monkeys. The few elephants we saw were “working elephants” which meant that they were employed by the government to help manage the park. The elephants are apparently used for corralling the rhinos if needed, moving wood around, patrolling for poachers and general transportation. The Bengal tiger eluded us, unfortunately. We were staked out a popular tiger watering hole at the river, but as time passed it threatened to rain, making our secluded post precarious and we prudently decided to move on. Overall though, despite not being able to find a tiger, it was an enjoyable day in an extremely green and beautiful place.

One of the many rhino we saw during the day. This was a smart one- cooling off in the water!

In the evening I attended a local cultural program featuring regional dancing. It turns out that one of Prem’s friends runs the program so I went as his guest. I enjoyed the show and what made it especially nice was the background information that Prem and his friend provided on both the dances and the dancers, who basically do the show for fun more than anything else. I think the audience enjoyed it because at the end of the last dance, many went up on stage to participate. It was quite a mob scene and fun to watch.

Tuesday was a lazy day and I finally caught up on some of the writing I could not get to in Gaunsahar because of the busy schedule. I spent the morning relaxing and later in the day Prem and I went to visit the government’s elephant breeding facility. This is the home of the “working” elephants I had seen the day before in the park as well as a breeding center. Since during the day the elephants are out in the park we timed our arrival for late afternoon to see them coming back to the camp. Several had babies who were being trained to the expected work program. After reading about how the training was done I have to admit I was a bit horrified despite the pragmatics Prem explained to me behind using elephants to help manage the preserve. There are local hotels that operate elephant rides for tourists and those entities, apparently, according to Prem, mistreat their animals, whereas the government has rules and so forth. Clearly we had a culture gap on this subject because I hated to see the elephants working at all. Interestingly enough, he could not understand our practice of neutering dogs and cats, even if they were strays- and saw nothing wrong or unnatural with strays, which are all over the place in Nepal. Another cultural gap.

Culture program featuring local dances. Lots of fun to watch.

Tomorrow it is back to Kathmandu for a few days. I am speaking at a school as a favor to friends. The principal has invited Prem (who is a friend of the friends; they all know each other, long story- small community!) and I to dinner at his home so I am looking forward to that experience. After we will go to visit Bhaktapur, a city famous for its temples and religious sites, before returning again to Kathmandu. Even though my remaining time in Nepal is short, there is still a lot to do!

Government working elephant coming home for the day. I hate to see this because to me the elephants always look sad and resigned…..