Chitwan National Park, Nepal – Part One

Chitwan, Nepal’s first national park, famous for its tigers and rhinos was granted protected status in 1973. Prior to 1973 the area was used as a winter hunting ground for Nepali Royals.  The area consisting of about 360 square miles was granted world heritage status in 1984. Chitwan lies very close to India at the very South of Nepal. With a lower elevation, Chitwan was very hot and humid compared to the rest of the places we visited in Nepal. Mosquitos are the size of small birds and up until the 1960’s malaria was rampant in the area.

We visited Chitwan from the 26^th to the 28^th of September, 2011. During our visit we stayed at the River View Jungle Resort on the banks of the Narayani River in the small town of Sauraha, Nepal.  The lodge was pretty nice with hot water showers, no large spiders in our room and a good restaurant onsite. The second night of our stay we watched a wonderful dance performance by the local Tharu people (which turned interactive at the end) followed by a nice buffet of local cuisine, all on the resort property.

Dave attempting to dance with the local Tharu villagers

The small town had a couple good restaurants and bars which allowed you to sit on the banks of the river and enjoy the view. As for the view it could be anything from a great sunset to elephants, camels, horses, cows, goats or whatever else happened to come by.

Enjoying the view

Local transportation

Nepali cargo vehicle

One of the highlights of our trip to Chitwan was a two hour Elephant back safari through the park. Four of us hopped onto each mahout driven elephant and ventured off into the park jungle. About 30 minutes into the ride we came upon a mother and baby rhinoceros. The rhinos didn’t seem to mind a group of elephants and their cargo taking pictures of them. I’d say the closest we got to the rhinos was about 4 meters. Once away from the rhinos we saw monkeys, deer and got a very up close introduction to the local Nepali trees. Our mahout loved to take the elephant through the dense jungle, I’m sure he gets a good laugh of the cargo squealing through the trees.

Pamela and the rhino

Other elephants checking out the rhinos

Us aboard the elephant

Another highlight for me (DW) was an early morning elephant ride along the riverbanks next to our resort (see pic at the top). Several or our tour mates had organized elephant bathing which involved getting absolutely drenched by either the elephant or the river. I neglected to take a trip into the river with the elephant and chose the land route.

Another day down at Chitwan

Our trip to Chitwan ended with a seven hour bus ride back to Kathmandu. Although we didn’t see a tiger we definitely had a great time in the park and wouldn’t hesitate to go back if in Nepal again.

We have some other adventures to write about in Chitwan so please stay tuned.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave

All our pics from Chitwan can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/ChitwanNationalParkNepal?authuser=0&feat=directlink