Rhinos and More — Chitwan National Park

As advertised in my previous posting, it took most of the day to get from Kathmandu to our lodging across the river from Chitwan National Park. Eighty percent of the time was waiting first at our hotel (two hours) then at the airport (two hours) then on the airport tarmac (an hour) for our flight to take off. Takeoff we did and our twenty minute flight to Bharatpur proceeded without further delay. The waiting bus took us to Meghauli Serai Lodge, a resort hotel across the Rapti River from Chitwan National Park. The far side of the park is along the border with India. We were warned that we should wear layers as the mornings and evenings could be cool. Hardly. Mornings and evenings were quite comfortable. Mid-day was warmer, but not really that bad, especially while driving through the well-forested park. I don’t believe, however, I would want to visit the lowlands of Nepal (or India) during the summer.

Our transportation to Bharatpur was again by Buddha Air. I ate my knees in the tight seating, but the flight was mercifully short.

Many of the houses along the route to the resort were surprisingly colorful and decorated. Much of the funding for these homes comes from earnings sent home from Nepalese men working in other countries. 25% of Nepal’s GDP comes from such transfer payments.

This area of Nepal is the breadbasket of the country. We passed surprisingly varied fields of crops, from rice to pineapples.

It would appear that each lodge or hotel we stay at during this trip one-ups the previous in size and luxury. (I write this section at our next stop and the trend continues. I suspect we’ll start over when we get back to India.)

Room with a view—and a private pool, which we had no time to use.

That first afternoon we were treated to a boat safari, each craft carrying six tourists plus our guide (a naturalist) and one or two boatsmen with poles to move us along. We are in the dry season and the water is quite low. At one point the boatsmen had to get out of the boat (which was scrapping bottom) to move us along. OK, a couple of us may have added a little extra weight to the passenger load.

We were treated to our first sightings of crocodiles and rhinos. These are the white rhinos (despite their gray look), less rare than the African black rhino but still not common. I loved the way our naturalist pronounced rhinoceros as if spelled rhinosaurus. The animal does look Jurassic. There are two types of crocodiles in the park, but I don’t know which this is. We saw several more during this boat safari.


The boat safari ended with drinks and snacks on the bank of the river.

Women near our picnic location were cutting grasses to take back to their farms as fodder.

On our evening drive back to the resort we passed villagers celebrating Holi. Rice stalks as animal feed are stored off the ground, often on sheds and the like, to reduce moisture rot.

Our meals at the resort were good, but I’ve been surprised as to the lack of spiciness with Nepali cuisine. We were told that this was generally true and not because the food was toned down for tourists’ tastebuds.

Our second and full day at the resort featured a morning and an afternoon safari. Some pictures follow (blurry and otherwise) but many animals we saw were a tad too far to get a useful photo with my iPhone. One group saw a sloth bear but it was gone before we arrived at the same area. We did see a wild boar, but it fled too quickly to get a photo.

After crossing the river on boats we loaded on safari vehicles, six passengers in each of the three. A first spotting was a deer, which we saw many of over the three safaris.

A special sighting was a wild bull elephant off in the distance. This rhino came very close to us. I shot several videos of its approach.

One can’t get too many pictures of rhinos. The army guards (rangers?) use elephants to patrol the park. This one welcomed a few pats.

The park is controlled and guarded by the Nepalese army. We checked in at several checkpoints. As with many Asian and African national parks, poachers are a problem.

Between safaris we participated in the resort’s own Happy Holi celebration. Some of us are still getting the coloring out of our hair.

A mother rhinoceros and its baby and a sleeping rhino. We were told that the number of rhinoceros we viewed was unusual.

We saw many monkeys of several types, including a large troop. The picture on the right is of a mother carrying its young one.

More spotted deer plus a distance shot of a bison.

I’ve been neglectful of posting shots of the many birds we saw, mostly because I lacked a good camera for bird photos. There are 540 bird species in the park and we saw a lot of them.

Our last supper at the resort was a banquet at a nearby outdoor facility where we were entertained by a local tribe, including dancing and music. (Alas, I didn’t document the clan’s name. I joined in for a bit of the dancing while Frances skeptically looked on. Their costumes were colorful, although a majority of the women could have passed as pregnant. Maybe some were. Nepal is populated with scores of clans and cultural groups, with distinct looks and dialects. I hadn’t expected this. Their physical appearance varies from Indian to Mongolian.

We were lodged in a wonderful resort but, as is typical for this trip, but there was little time to enjoy its luxuries and comforts. We didn’t try, for instance, the private pool that was available in our (and every) suite. It is quite natural that tour operators pack as much into almost every day to maximize the experiences. For most travelers, especially those still working or who infrequently travel abroad, this makes sense. For we of over-the-hill gang, maybe an itinerary with, say, one in-depth excursion or safari each day would be attractive. Meanwhile, it’s luggage outside the villa door by 7:00 a.m.

Oh, never mind. We are now at the Dwarika’s Himalayan Shangri-La Village Resort high in the mountains, with a full day ahead of us unscheduled. The massage appointments for the two of us are at 11:15 tomorrow. I’ll tell you about our in-route excursion to Bakhtapur (the third historic kingdom of Kathmandu Valley) and its marvelous temples in the next post.