On the second day of our trip, we travelled from Kathmandu to Chitwan National Park and spent a night there before proceeding to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha the following day. We stayed in a pleasant hotel just outside the park.
After checking into the hotel, we went on a 45-minute elephant ride that took us to a part of the park where we saw rhinoceros, hornbills and a herd of elusive deer. Not exactly wild-life but more of the usual fare that tourists were supposed to see such as the lone male rhinocerous that was totally oblivious to the elephants surrounding it with loads of camera-toting tourists pointing cameras at it.
The female rhino and her baby were rather perturbed at being chased at by our elephant just so that we could take good photos of them. The crocodiles were real and touch wood but had our flimsy dug-out canoes flipped we would have been you will not be reading this now. So far, our guide assured us, no such accident had occured. As our canoe passed the crocodiles I could almost see my past life flashing before my eyes. It was, on retrospect, a dangerous tourist thing to to - sit in a flimsy canoe and sail past a big crocodile with its mouth wide open showing off rows teeth that looked like the serrated edges of a murderer's knife.
The Chitwan National Park has a proper safari tour and not having the time to experience it, I felt a little short-changed. Elephant rides are for kids! Still, it was a good to break the even longer journey to Lumbini.
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