We arrived from our bumpy bus ride to Sauraha. When we arrived, the hotel touts were lined up outside of our bus holding up their signs and pamphlets for the various accommodation options.
We had already booked a package in Pokhara and opted to stay at Hotel Parkside (rated number 1 on tripadvisor!)
We got into the back of a truck and were carted off to the hotel. Our room was located on the 4th (top) floor of the hotel, with windows on two sides overlooking rural Nepal. And the bathroom had a bathtub! Meaning that when we took our shower, the water flowed into the bathtub drain and not all over the toilet like most hotels in Nepal! What luxury! We had fantastic hot showers which felt incredible after two days of rafting and camping on a sandy beach. (Sand gets EVERYWHERE!)
Once we had washed all the sand away, we joined our guide for a walk through the village and to the river to watch the sunset, On our way we stopped by the elephant stables where we got to see a three month old elephant and her mum.
Sauraha is the gateway to Chitwan National Park (formerly Royal Chitwan National Park - the Royal was dropped after the end of the civil war and the end of the monarchy in Nepal). Chitwan is a former hunting reserve and was Nepal's first national park. It is home to elephants, rhinos, sloth bears, and tigers, among other things. The chance of seeing a tiger is pretty low though! They use elephants for everything here! Aside from the tourist draw, elephants are also used by the army on patrols around the park, and by locals to carry hay and other loads. You can't look very far in Sauraha without seeing trained elephants walking around amid the cars, motor bikes and horse drawn carriages! Our first night, walking back from watching the sunset at dusk, motor bikes and cars weaved by us on the street. Suddenly I looked back and realized that there were two giant elephants walking down the street behind us! I grabbed Dave and we moved off to the side, and they sauntered past. It was quite the sight to be seen!
At the river, we noticed an army station surrounded by barbed wire and enquirer about it. These were some of the guards protecting Chitwan park against poachers. We enjoyed a rather warm and untasty cocktail on the banks of the river as the sky turned to dusk.
That evening we were treated to a delicious dinner buffet in the hotel garden lit by candle light, and afterwards a cultural Tharu dance by the male hotel workers. We were then dragged in to join. The Tharu people are the indigenous people in the area, and were immune to malaria. They encountered many dangerous wildlife in the jungle and their dances mimic fighting, with rhythmic movement of sticks and the sounds of the drums.
The next morning we awoke early for breakfast and then headed out to do an elephant safari in the jungle. We climbed on top of our elephant with two others and were off across the river, through some grassland and into the thick of the jungle. We were alongside another elephant when we stumbled on a rhino! When the elephant saw the rhino it let out a low rumble, almost like a growl, and trumpeted. Luckily the rhino stayed out for awhile and allowed us to get a good look before disappearing into the dense bush.
After the safari we went down to the river to get an elephant shower. We ran into Michelle who had been rafting with us and she was also there to do the same. Dave and I approached an elephant and its trainer. The trainer had the elephant kneel and I hopped on first, holding on tightly to the rope around its neck. Dave hopped on behind me and held on to me tightly while the elephant stood up and sauntered further into the river, The trainer yelled some commands and the elephant filled up its trunk with water and then doused us both with it. It then repeated it a bunch more times until we were thoroughly wet!
The trainer then shouted some other commands and the elephant kneeled again and then started turning onto its side, resulting in Dave and I tumbling into the water. She turned back over, we got back on and enjoyed a few more showers before returning to the shore and hopping off.
We returned to the hotel for a real shower (not sure how clean the river water full of elephants really is!) and the enjoyed lunch. In the afternoon, our guide Gopal took us on a long jungle walk. We crossed a river and started in the jungle where we were tracking a rhino but couldn't get quite close enough to see it. Then we ventured into the grassland, with the long thick grass towering above us. We made our way to the river with the hot sun beating in us and sweat pouring down our faces. When suddenly across the river a rhino was spotted. It soon made its way out of the bush to the low grass and then out came a baby rhino with it! We stood there for awhile and watched them. Our guide thought they were heading for the river but likely sensed us there. In the river we also watched a crocodile swim around and then climb up half way onto a rock.
We stopped again at the elephants on our way back to the hotel!
Typical Sauraha - working elephants walking down the street
The next morning, our alarm went off while it was still dark out and we got up and ready for our 6:15 boat ride down the river. We climbed into dugout canoes, the mist coming off the warm river as it mixed with the cold air. The sun rose and glimmered on the water, incredibly red as the light passed through all the smoke in the air (Nepalis are always burning something).
We slowly paddled along seeing hundred of birds, when suddenly we turned a corner and saw a rhino in the river eating the algae off the bottom! It was incredible! We just sat there and watched it for awhile from a safe distance when our guide suddenly noticed there were actually two rhinos - we just couldn't see it from the angle we were at. We moved the boat closer to shore so we could get a glimpse of both of them just hanging out in the river. After watching them for awhile the guide started making noise by hitting the boat, as we needed to go by them and it would not have been safe with them in the river. Rhinos have horrible eyesight but a great sense of hearing and smell. They heard the noise and slowly made their way up to the banks of the river and into the trees. We passed by and continued down the river, seeing some more amazing birds, but no more rhino encounters!
We made our way back to the hotel and enjoyed another hot shower and breakfast. We have a booked flight back to Kathmandu at 2:55 pm. As of Monday, November 11th the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist and coalition of 33 political parties that broke away from the Prachanda-led UCPN (Maoist) called a week long bandh (strike), calling for the postponement of the election and resignation of the government due to the election being held without the involvement of the 33 political parties. On Monday it was a general strike, with everything including transit, shops, and school shut down. For the next week, it's a general transit strike, meaning that members of this party are trying to enforce this shut down and it's dangerous to be on the roads at all. Tourist buses are still apparently running and allowed past, but no Nepalis are allowed to be on those buses.
According to this morning's newspaper, it has been a peaceful strike with only two buses and four cars burnt, nine cars with windows smashed in, and 11 bomb scares yesterday!
So here we are in Sauraha at 10am and we have to get to the airport in the city of Bharatpur about 25 km away for our 2:55 pm flight. This morning at 9:30, the hotel sent a truck with 4 Italians catching their flight and put signs all over the truck that said "Tourist only airport" so that any bandh enforcers would know these were tourists. Because it's too dangerous for the driver to be on the roads without tourists, he will wait at the airport until 5:30 pm when he is picking up arriving tourists. So since the truck will be at the airport, we won't be able to be brought in it. The solution? Well, we sent our bags to the airport with the driver and Italian group. We have our day packs (with all our valuables) with us and apparently they will take us on the back of motorbikes (these motorbikes that swerve in and out of traffic and scare the hell out of us!). So now we wait and hope that we make it to the airport and that our bags are there with nothing missing when we get there!
UPDATE (8:30pm): Made it safe and sound to Kathmandu after an exhilarating motorbike ride and no blockades!
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