I Named him Lumpy

sunset
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One area of Nepal that I haven't seen is the Tarai region. It is a jungle area right above the border of India. Since I had time, I took a trip to do some viewing of the landscape and wildlife.

The trip down was a long six hour bus ride. It seems like to get most places it takes six hours. The buses are uncomfortable, the going is slow, constant noise from the honking of buses. Basically bus travel is starting to feel pretty brutal.

The Tarai region is very flat, which is strange to see in Nepal,a country dominated by mountains.

"mounting" the elephant
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The hotel I stayed at took care of the tour programs. We started with a tour of local life, the tour left a lot to be desired. After the brief, lackluster tour we sat by the river and watched the sunset, that was pretty impressive, and hopefully the pictures will be able to do it justice. Then we went back to the hotel for a slide show of the animals that live in the Chitwan Reserve. The slide show reminded me of a third grade science class. I was just fortunate that there were four other travelers in my group who were friendly and had good senses of humor.

taking my seat
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The next morning we started with an elephant walk in the jungle. I named our elephant lumpy. It seemed appropriate on many levels. She looked a little lumpy, the ride was very jolting/lumpy, and the elephant didn't always respond to the elephant drivers kicks to her ears which were meant to prod her forward. When she wouldn't move he would whack her hard with a stick. So Lumpy was taking a few lumps as well. As far as viewing wildlife, we didn't get to see much. A few deer, I think that was it. But the jungle was nice, and it's not every morning one gets to ride on an elephant, so my disappointment of not seeing a rhino wasn't too bad. There was a bit of a tense moment towards the end of the ride. Lumpy refused to move, got a few wacks by the driver and made the noise of an angry elephant, followed by pounding her trunk into the ground three times, hard. We could feel the air that was forced up by the trunk. The group was hoping Lumpy wasn't going to choose this particular moment to rebel against her driver, fortunately it seemed to just be a sign of her unhappiness rather than the beginning of her rebellion and we were on our way shortly.

yum, elephant cookies
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After the elephant walk we were able to feed cookies to baby elephants at the breeding center and then went down to the river to bathe/get sprayed by the adult elephants. That was definitely the highlight. The pictures are pretty sweet too.

Later in the day we went for a ride in a dugout canoe and saw two crocodiles. Then a two hour jungle walk where we saw a couple of monkeys. Still no rhinos or tigers.

We finished the night with a cultural dance show that was really well performed.

bathing with the elephants
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I think the pictures will tell the story much better than my words. Enjoy.