Eric is a friend of mine from Park City who came on a Choice expedition to Nepal with me in 2003. When I told him I was coming back to spend a few months in Nepal it took him almost no time at all to decide he was coming to visit. He arrived about 3 days before the ladies from the Choice expedition were to leave allowing them the opportunity to meet.
Eric and I have always wanted to go to Tibet, so our plan for his time here was to take off to fly into Lhasa, then drive back to Kathmandu stopping at Everest base camp on the way. Well….. unfortunately the timing did not work out like we had hoped, so we were not able to go this trip. Instead we decided to head down to Chitwan National Park on the border of Nepal and India. The park is a wild animal refuge boasting animals such as rhinos, tigers, crocks, monkeys, smaller cats, deer, etc… The cool thing is that the resort where we stayed was on an island and you can go look for wild animals on the back of an elephant. Upon arriving we hear stories from other tourists of all the animals they had seen over the two or three days of their stay at the resort. Eric and I were excited to get and photograph the wildlife…..No such luck… after 5 to 6 hours on the back of an elephant over our two day stay the only animal we had seen was the ever illusive “jungle” chicken. Now, I am not sure exactly what the difference is between a “jungle” chicken and your common “farm yard” variety of chicken…but apparently one exists…or so we were told. If you ask me, the bird was nothing more than a lucky chicken that escaped becoming dinner for a group of hungry tourist and has since taken refuge in the dense jungle. All said and don’t it was a great trip even though we did not see a rhino.
Eric will be leaving tomorrow to go trekking in the Everest region of Nepal. I have opted out this time as I am still not feeling 100% and am coughing quite a bit. It was a hard decision, but with the Waterfalls coming in a few weeks, I want to be at the top of my game…..
2 comments:
Did you guys stay at Island jungle lodge? If so, this is where I stayed. i also did not see a lot of animals, but had a rhino eat the bushes in front of my cabin one night, just feet from my front door. I creeped to the window and could see the shadow. fearing he would see me and ram down the door I laid in bed trying not to make any noise. Just being on the property was way cool, I really liked the scenery and feel - Besides myself there was only 1 other couple there during my stay, there serenity was amazing.
yeah we stayed at the Island Jungle resort as well. It was full of tourist...maybe 100 or so. The place was nice, the food was good, and the scenery was amazing. I am glad we went even though it was a bust on seeing animals.
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