Dad enjoying the trip back to Kathmandu!

Evening photo of Chitwan National Park

Our elephant.

This is the elephant we rode on. Dad had seen other elephants take the tip money in their trunk and raise it up to give it to the mahout so he tried it and 'our' elephant did it too! It is fun to ride the elephants and all that but it makes me sad to see such a magnificent animal corralled, forced to do unnatural things, etc. Seems like all animals should do what nature intended them to do. I like the story of the elephants in Africa who are turned loose every night but return every morning of their own free will to take tourists for rides. The incentive for them is that they are given free food. But the elephants are really free to come and go as they please. Would love to go for a ride on those elephants.

Ma, the Mahout and the elephant.

We had watched this mahout give this elephant his bath in the river and he invited us back to the place (right in town) where they lived. He is mahout #1 but we didn't meet mahout #2. This elephant is 27 years old and seemed quite docile but it is important to be cautious around them. I really didn't want to sit there but the mahout insisted and dad wanted his picture!

Finding the rhino in the wild was like finding the prize!

Chitwan

It was crowded on our elephant and impossible to take pictures of ourselves so I took this one of dad and the pretty pink pampas grass.

Me, on our elephant. There are tourists from all over the world here and we have met very few American tourists (or even heard English in the streets) but wouldn't you know that the people on our same elephant were from Southern California! The place where we bought the tickets for our ride (two hours) guaranteed that we would see rhinos and we did! Will post a rhino picture next. We saw a mother and baby, although the baby must have been quite old as it was about 3/4 the size of the mother. The two hour ride cost 1,000 rupees plus a 500 park fee per person. 1,000 rupees is about $13.00. It was well worth it.

Washing clothes in the river.

In Sauraha this woman washed her clothes in the river right in town, right downstream from the elephant baths. In her defence she was there first, but when the elephants started arriving she didn't leave, just kept washing her clothes, then washed her hair, splashed water all over herself for her bath, then left. Never mind that the elephants use the river for their toilet during their bath time, didn't deter her one bit! Actually, I think Nepal is just one big toilet.

Bath time in the river. Chitwan National Park.

Every morning, right in town, the elephants take their baths. They let anybody who wants to get in and help. A lot of people do it but it is dangerous. Last month an elephant rolled on a tourist and smashed her hip and she had to be helicoptered out, to who knows where. I'd hate to have treatment in this country. It is fun to watch them though as the elephants seem to enjoy their bath.

Elephant Grass in Sauraha

It is possible to stay inside the park itself and to do that I think it is easiest to go on a packaged tour but most independent travellers stay in a very small town (Sauraha) right outside the park and then take tours inside the park itself. It's possible to take a number of tours as there are many tour agencies, so I don't see the point of staying inside the park. Among the possibilities are walks, jeep rides, canoe rides and elephant rides. Since the park is protected (or somewhat protected anyway) the main draw is the wildlife. There is a type of grass that grows inside the park that during certain times of the year people are allowed to gather. This grass is gathered and then used for many things. It is stored as in the picture above. This picture was taken right in the town where we stayed. Sauraha is very small, two main streets and at that the streets with the banks, money changers, shops and guest houses are short streets. I'd say that Mill Street in Grass Valley is probably the equivilent to the entire size of Sauraha. Nepal is very short of electricity and every day the government does what is called 'load shedding'. They just totally cut the electricity. People of means and business' have generators. But generators are noisey so in Suaraha the government makes all generators shut off at 9:30 p.m., which makes it nice at quiet at night. The electricity usually is on during the day and goes off about 6:00 p.m. and sometimes comes on later in the evening and sometimes I think it is off all night. This morning we had no electricity until about 8:00, but now we're back in Kathmandu. In Kathmandu they run the generators until later at night but now it is dark early so when we go out in the afternoon we always take our flashlight with us. We have changed hotels now, to Tibet Guest House and it has an elevator. There is a sign by the door that says "No electricity, No elevator". We are on the 5th floor so guess we'll have to hike up after load shedding. We have just moved here this morning. Have kind of a nice room, with windows on two sides so it's nice and sunny. Dad is sick so I splurged and got a room with a heater. It is a heater/a.c. combo like we used to have in Riyadh. They are actually pretty good. He is in bed today but at least we have a good t.v. with satellite stations so maybe he can find something he likes. It is sunny and warm today so I've handwashed a lot of clothes and have them strung all over the room. I'd have them washed in the laundry but after seeing how they wash by hand, just along the road and use the water until it is filthy I'd rather do them by hand, myself. We leave next Wednesday so need to have clean clothes to last until then, the place we stay in Bangkok has washing machines we can use. There are a few places here that advertise electric washing machines but I don't want my clothes washed with other peoples dirty clothes either. Since dad is sick I did wash his clothes but I refuse to wash his socks. He can get out of bed to do that!!

Our trip to Chitwan National Park

I'll just give a small description of our trip to Chitwan National Park today and will write more later. We took a bus from Kathmandu to CNP last week and spent four days there. A lot of the trip is along this river. Kind of reminded both of us of our Yuba River going from Nevada City to Downieville.