We crossed the border from India to Nepal in a cycle Rikshaw and nearly missed our bus to Chitwan. The poor Rikshaw cyclist was sweating in order to get us there on time. Once in a Nepali local bus, we could relax and admire the landscape. It took us some time to get to Chitwan because the bus driver had to stop and fix the bus twice.
Arriving in Chitwan was like entering another world. There were supermarkets and proper shops and restaurants with real Western food. We still can't believe how easy Nepal is in comparison to India. Even the shop owners were less pushy and definitely not that many beggars.
We did a canoe trip combined with a day-long jungle walk. It was great. I really felt like in the jungle. When we had to cross a river with crocodiles inside by balancing over one!! tree trunk, I nearly lost my good humour. The guide helped me across though. I just hoped I woudn't have to come back this way.
Our guide had explained to us what to do in case of a rhino or tiger attack. After all we were in a jungle and jungles are dangerous places for humans. Anyway, the trick was to run zigzag or climb or hide behind a tree when a rhino charged. He told us as well that he had been attacked by a rhino before and had ended up in hospital for a week. Great!!
There we were walking through the grassland, with the grass being more than 2m high. Suddenly we heard an animal coming through the grass. I looked at our guide in hope for some guidance what to do but he had already run off and was hiding, leaving the rest of us wondering where to go. We just turned around and ran where we had come from. Obviously right in the path of whatever would follow us. I tried to remember what the guide had told us. No trees in sight, therefore running zigzag was the only other thing left (apart from throwing some of my clothes into the other direction in order to confuse the rhino). It proved impossible to run zigzag through high grass and within seconds I stumbled and landed on my face. Fortunately, Neil came to help me up (what a hero!) and saw a deer (!) run away. We had panicked because of a deer. This little episode showed us how exposed we were and I really didn't want to meet any rhinos anymore. Wherever we walked, I made damn sure that I knew where the next trees were.
We decided to climb a tree and wait near a watering whole. Our guide (having come back from wherever he had been hiding) assured us that rhinos and other animals would come here to drink water. Sitting in the tree was a more acceptable alternative than meeting the rhino head-on. After 40 minutes we gave up. No rhinos in sight and I had had enough of the 'monkey life'.
We did see a lot of other animals though and it was certainly a beautiful day.
The next day we went on an elephant ride. We were running some errands in the morning and when coming back we found our hotel manager looking for us giving us hassle about the time and the elephant ride. Surely we had another 10 minutes before we had to be there? Only on the third day in Nepal we noticed that Nepali time is 15 minutes ahead India time. We had been late for every arrangement we had made without knowing it and the Nepalis had been too polite to tell us.
The elephant ride was great. It felt so much safer than walking on the ground. We were going straight through the jungle with the elephants moving everything in their way. Their physical strength amazed me. And then finally we saw a rhino. It seems elephants and rhinos don't get on. They were challenging each other with as much noise as they possibly could make, which was quite spectacular. In the end, the rhino retreated.
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