Chitwan: part 2

Nepal has so many different types of landscapes within it's relatively small territory and I am continually amazed. I've seen mountains, the flat plains of Terai, and now the jungle of Chitwan.

This past week, I went on an elephant ride through Chitwan National Park early in the morning. The forests were so dense and I felt completely removed from my regular life. While the elephant plodded along through the trees (temporarily stopping to pick up branches and leaves to eat) I peered into the wilderness hoping that I might see a rhino. After about an hour I saw a group of beautiful peacocks, a wild chicken and some other brightly colored birds. And then suddenly we stumbled upon a rhino!

The rhino was eating and turned away when we approached, so I only captured it's backside. But we were so close to it and I was just so impressed to watch it eat. The elephant I was riding was clearly scared to be in such close proximity to the rhino - it made some high pitched trumpeting sounds - so we eventually let the elephant turn to walk a different direction. But only a minute later, we stumbled upon a second rhino. It was incredible luck!

This Chitwan trip was so much fun and introduced me another side of Nepal. Not to mention, I had an extremely relaxing stay at the newly opened Jungle Villa Resort. The view from my room looked across the Rapti River to the forests of the national park.