"We call this the London Bridge, because we used English technology to build it," he made the joke with an expressionless face. I could tell he was joking when I looked down at my feet to see them standing on a few wood and bamboo logs, lined with bags of sand, and of course no hand rails.
I was in Chittwan, Nepal's oldest national park, with hopes of seeing crocodiles, the one-horned rhino, which is found only in India and Nepal, and like everyone else--I wanted more than anything to see a tiger, but was right to think it would never happen.
Unfortunately in trying to book a bus ticket to Chittwan, I got suckered into purchasing a tour package, and was told that there was no way of getting to Chittwan without the transportation provided by the package. Sounds unlikely, I know, but every agent stuck to that story, and I didn't want to ask my hotel manager about it, since with every conversation he would insist that I join him to a far away mountain lookout to watch the sunset and sunrise. I don't know how many combination of words I can use to explain that it is never going to happen.
I bought the package, also because it didn't sound half bad with activities including a jungle walk, canoeing, and an elephant safari, with a guide each day.
I had a guide for about two hours total over the period of three days.
"Canoeing" was misleading, as we sat on the river being paddled around by a local at the back of the boat, more in the style of a gondala. Complaints aside, we managed to see a few crocodiles at close distance and several gorgeous birds. One in particular looked oddly familiar, but I did not know where I could possibly have seen it.
"Do you know this bird?" my guide asked. "It's the Kingfisher."
A word I knew, but never associated with birds, but with friends who sat and laughed and drank away the stars late into the night. Kingfisher is India's biggest beer company.
After our short "canoe" ride," my guide and I set off for the jungle walk.
"This is fresh rhino print," he pointed at the round impression in the ground with the three points for toes.
I couldn't really say that I trusted my guide, as he didn't really appear to be a professional so much as a bored man barely out of his teens who recited a memorized script.
I looked for reassuring words: "I once heard that rhinos kill more people than any other animal."
He wasn't worried, and it was disconcerting when he pointed at his bamboo walking stick. Apparently my guide was properly armed to fight off a rhino. Good. Great, really. I am so lucky.
He asks me what my favourite animal is, and in response to my answer he pauses and turns around. "But why? They are so dangerous. Just two weeks ago one of the villagers was killed by a wild elephant while she was picking grass."
Oh, good. I probably shouldn't worry about that either.
After about an hour and a half of canoeing and going on a jungle walk, he took me to the elephant breeding centre, where a baby elephant was born just a few days ago. It was pretty much as adorable as you would expect.
After our visit, which was finished by 9 a.m., since the program, for reasons beyond me, required me to wake up at dawn, my tour guide said we would return to the hotel for a rest. Was the morning really that straining?
Left to my own devices I wandered around the the village for a while, which was a refreshing shift from the city, and quite beautiful.
The afternoon held what I was most excited about going to Chittwan for: elephant safari. This entailed riding atop an elephant in search of animals, where we saw one horned rhinos, barking deer, peacocks, and monkeys.
I was in Chittwan, Nepal's oldest national park, with hopes of seeing crocodiles, the one-horned rhino, which is found only in India and Nepal, and like everyone else--I wanted more than anything to see a tiger, but was right to think it would never happen.
Unfortunately in trying to book a bus ticket to Chittwan, I got suckered into purchasing a tour package, and was told that there was no way of getting to Chittwan without the transportation provided by the package. Sounds unlikely, I know, but every agent stuck to that story, and I didn't want to ask my hotel manager about it, since with every conversation he would insist that I join him to a far away mountain lookout to watch the sunset and sunrise. I don't know how many combination of words I can use to explain that it is never going to happen.
I bought the package, also because it didn't sound half bad with activities including a jungle walk, canoeing, and an elephant safari, with a guide each day.
I had a guide for about two hours total over the period of three days.
"Canoeing" was misleading, as we sat on the river being paddled around by a local at the back of the boat, more in the style of a gondala. Complaints aside, we managed to see a few crocodiles at close distance and several gorgeous birds. One in particular looked oddly familiar, but I did not know where I could possibly have seen it.
"Do you know this bird?" my guide asked. "It's the Kingfisher."
A word I knew, but never associated with birds, but with friends who sat and laughed and drank away the stars late into the night. Kingfisher is India's biggest beer company.
After our short "canoe" ride," my guide and I set off for the jungle walk.
"This is fresh rhino print," he pointed at the round impression in the ground with the three points for toes.
I couldn't really say that I trusted my guide, as he didn't really appear to be a professional so much as a bored man barely out of his teens who recited a memorized script.
I looked for reassuring words: "I once heard that rhinos kill more people than any other animal."
He wasn't worried, and it was disconcerting when he pointed at his bamboo walking stick. Apparently my guide was properly armed to fight off a rhino. Good. Great, really. I am so lucky.
He asks me what my favourite animal is, and in response to my answer he pauses and turns around. "But why? They are so dangerous. Just two weeks ago one of the villagers was killed by a wild elephant while she was picking grass."
Oh, good. I probably shouldn't worry about that either.
After about an hour and a half of canoeing and going on a jungle walk, he took me to the elephant breeding centre, where a baby elephant was born just a few days ago. It was pretty much as adorable as you would expect.
After our visit, which was finished by 9 a.m., since the program, for reasons beyond me, required me to wake up at dawn, my tour guide said we would return to the hotel for a rest. Was the morning really that straining?
Left to my own devices I wandered around the the village for a while, which was a refreshing shift from the city, and quite beautiful.
The afternoon held what I was most excited about going to Chittwan for: elephant safari. This entailed riding atop an elephant in search of animals, where we saw one horned rhinos, barking deer, peacocks, and monkeys.
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