Chitwan elephants

NOW i know why the guide couldn't give me a straight answer on the

sunrise time.  It was sooo foggy that we just couldn't see the

sun.  I felt extremely stupid and humbled.

We walked a short hike to get to the elephant ladder platform.

This was where we met our rides, the elephants.  Each elephant

carried one guide and four passengers.  It may seem romantic,

riding an elephant in the jungle searching for rhinos.  The truth

is far from it.  It was rather bumpy.  Since we were tracking

the rhino, we had to go through bushes, trees, branches, spider

webs.  Leaves were full of dews.  It was quite an

adventure.  We also witnessed the tremendous power of these

elephants.  They literally make their our ways in the jungle,

knocking down trees, breaking branches and trunks apart.  It

seemed nothing can stop them.

We had a few little glimpse of the famous single horn rhino.  It was solitary and very shy.

The highlight of the day, however, was in the afternoon.  We

joined the elephants to take bath in the river!!  We swam toward

the elephants and climbed on top of our elephant.  My first

impression was:  elephant hair needed some conditioning!!  It

was hard and spiky, definitely not very comfortable to touch.  Our

elephant kept messing with us by turning its sides into the water; even

though elephant skin was pretty though and rough, we still had a very

hard time staying on the elephant.  After a while, the spiky hairs

didn't bother us any more.  Surprisingly not as people joined

us.  Most were watching from the river bank.  I guess they

thought being so close to the elephant was a dangerous act.

We thought this alone was wirth the trip!!