On safari in Chitvan, Nepal
MORE ABOUT OUR ENTIRE ROUTE AND THE EXPENSES WE MADE IN NEPAL: See TUK.
To the previous travelogue about Nepal – Pokhara: the tourist spot in NEPAL
The next morning we woke up early to catch the bus to Chitwan, where we were going to go on a jungle safari. If you haven't heard about safaris in Nepal yet, you will now know that this is also something you can do while you are here.
The bus ticket cost 500 rupees and as we set off at 6:30 AM, we arrived smoothly at 1:30 PM for lunch. Now you probably think we went very far and that's why it took so long, but the truth is that in those 7 hours we covered the modest distance of just 150 km.!
Chitwan is the largest National Park in Nepal and offers opportunities and conditions for various jungle safaris, bird watching and various wild animals – rhinoceroses first, and then wild boars, tigers, wild roosters, deer, herds of deer, buffaloes, bison, crocodiles, elephants, bears, monkeys and of course various birds, toucans, ducks and parrots.
The first moment I heard the phrase “Safari in Nepal” I laughed because it sounded very strange to me, as I had never heard before that there could be conditions for a safari there. The geographical location of the country somehow did not inspire me with confidence that this was a possibility.
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Anyway, we decided to go and check. After a long and exhausting bus ride there, we finally arrived at the "bus station" in Sauraha, which is the last settlement before the National Park and the entry point for it. The "bus station" was in the middle of nowhere, in the fields. On the map, the distance to the city center didn't look big, so we walked it in about 20 min. Along the way, we saw how far back in time people live there – for example, their houses don't have running water and people use wells to bathe outside, literally in the open, and cook, do laundry, and wash their food dishes outside at the well. What amazed me was the bathroom. In front of every house there was some kind of building made of three brick walls 150 m high without a roof. THIS WAS THE BATHROOM! It looked as if when you bathe, everyone can see you… The hotel we had booked from Booking.com was not found and after the third tour of the village in search of the hotel, we decided that we would book another hotel. Finally we stopped at Eden Resort – with a huge garden and beautiful palm trees. Not far from everything was not as it sounded – inside the rooms was complete misery.. The hygiene was questionable. Still, we had to somehow endure two nights.
We didn't have time to waste… We left our luggage and went to rent bikes to look around the surrounding area, and the best and cheapest way to do that is by bicycle.
–> Browse and book a budget hotel in Chitwan with a discount. Face TUK!
The posokata on dvizhenieto in Nepal e naobratno on Bulgaria, t.e. kakto e in Anglia, no sled vecher 10 dni prekarani in Nepal, ne beshе nikakъv problem da kara naobratno. Dokato se razhozhdam, vidyahme okolo destinacia slona da minavat preza samia grad. Edna ot vzmozhnostite za safari e, imannо slon v ramkite na dva-tri chasa, no tiy kato po vreme na nashata nashata Obikolka v Yugoiztochna Azia vechе se byahme kachvali na slon, tova ne ni predstavlyavashе interes za nas. Po ptya minahme preza mestnoto selo Tharu i vidyahme horata kak zhiveyat (bukvalno zhiveyat!) nazad v slamenni kishi bez tok i voda.
The people of Tharu have a specific culture, religion and way of life. They make their living by livestock breeding and agriculture, and also hold thematic evenings for groups of tourists. After the walk we went to our hotel for dinner. The food they brought us, however, was a complete parody – I ordered a Fanta – they brought me some orange juice, I ordered a normal pancake, spread with chocolate on top, they brought me a pancake with cocoa in the dough itself… Simeon ordered a burger, they brought him a burger, but inside with cinnamon… Overall, the atmosphere both in the hotel and in all of Sauraha, we didn't like it – ever since we have been in Nepal, here for the first time it was obviously apparent that the locals want to rip off tourists, to lie to us, to take more money than is written. Another example of this was a place we sat down for dinner and whose menu clearly stated that there was 0% service tax, and in the end the bill featured 10% service! Such a wonder did not exist anywhere else in Nepal, or at least it was not so obvious. Maybe because of the proximity to India…
Chitwan National Park offers three ways to do a safari – on foot, by jeep or on an elephant (but they are very clumsy and usually elephant safaris last no more than two or three hours). The jeep safari can be half or full day, but it seemed to us that it would be very difficult to see the animals hiding in the forest. We decided that we wanted not only to move on the road, but also to enter the jungle – so we chose to do a walking safari.
The best offer we found was Walking Jungle at a price of 1600 rupees/person, to which price we added one hour of canoe for 400/person. The price includes 2 guides. Separately, an entrance fee is payable when entering the National Park, which is in the amount of 1700 rupees/person per day.
And so… In the morning we got up early and at 7:30 AM we were in front of the tour agency, as it was located adjacent to our hotel. The guy from the agency drove us on his motorbike to the place where the canoes were leaving. To our great regret, there was a very thick fog everywhere and nothing could be seen. It should be taken into account that fog is something usual for places with low altitude and the presence of a water source nearby.
The entire Chitwan National Park is surrounded by a river and the only way to reach it is to cross the river by canoe. For one hour we sailed down the river, but in this fog we couldn't see anything, except some ducks and geese. Still, it looked pretty mystical everywhere and overall was an interesting start to the day.
The Nepalis use the word “jungle” as a synonym for forest, so the place we reached by canoe and where we were going to spend the next few hours had nothing to do with a real tropical jungle. It was more like a mix between tropical and temperate species.
As soon as we stepped on the bank, our guide saw and pointed out rhino footprints. And the big search for rhinos began! And even though we saw countless rhino footprints and dung, by the end of the day we didn't see a single real rhino. Our guide told us that there are an estimated 650 rhinos and 100 tigers in the National Park – these are the animals that tourists definitely want to see.
Our haul from the safari was – many wild roosters, several herds of deer and roe deer. We also saw two crocodiles at a distance of two meters, which were basking in the sun. Our guides explained to us that there are two types of crocodiles in the park – some eat all kinds of meat, and others – only fish. We had lunch at one of the many observation decks in the park. Later we saw enclosures for buffaloes, which were made because of their high mortality rate and tiger attacks. Unfortunately, even the electric fence had not stopped the tigers from crossing it and killing more animals.
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We had full confidence in our guides. They looked well-built and capable of handling any dangerous situation that might arise. Guns and knives are not allowed in the park. So the only "weapons" we had were two bamboo sticks 🙂 During our walking safari we crossed various terrains – broad-leaved jungle, forest, low grass terrains, high grass terrains, where something can pop out of nowhere at any time… In one such terrain we also heard the growl of a leopard.. On the way we also saw bear holes, but we still didn't see a bear.
After a break at the next observation tower, just when we had decided to leave to go home and as we were walking along, completely unexpectedly for us, behind one of the bushes at about five-six meters distance, we heard the very scary hissing of some animal, after which the animal ran away. Then our guide told us that he had seen the black tail of a leopard! That's why for greater safety, entering the park is done with a minimum of 2 guides/guides with one always standing in front and the other in the back.
The next day we caught the bus to Kathmandu, where we had another 2 evenings until our flight back to Bulgaria.
More about our latest experiences and emotions in Nepal can be read in the latest travelogue from the series: KATHMANDU 2
