Chitwan 12th-14th of Jan

Chitwan rocked my socks off. Its a cool place. I won't give you a running commentry, I'll just tell you the highlights....

We stayed in a resort called 'Unique Resort' (where 'its really wild and quiet'...does anyone else think thats an odd tag line?). It was lovely. It suddenly made some of my Nepal adventure seem like a holiday, rather than an adventure...it was hot, there were nice trees and pathways to your rooms with little lamps dotting the way etc. The generator to make the lamps actually work made a hell of a noise though. Sigh.

So, some cool things...the canoe ride freaked me out (note to self, Sophie does not like canoes as a form of transport) I managed to relax a bit which was good and it was really atmospheric and creepy cos it was early morning, and there was steam coming off the water and mist everywhere and creepy trees in the distance and you could hear animal calls in the distance and every now and again a lone man on his canoe would come sliding out of the mist and it was totally like a 'and they were never seen again' moment from a film. Oh, and we saw a crocodile head pop out of the water in a creepy blink-and-miss-it moment. I used the word creepy a lot there. Sorry. Insert a different describing word if you get bored of that one.

The other cool thing about Chitwan was the elephant ride...I rode through the tourist village of Chitwan on an elephant. It was surreal, cos there were shops next to me selling chocolate and booze and stuff and I was ON AN ELEPHANT. Also, when we got into the jungle a bit, we saw two rhinos just hanging out, which was a major highlight. Rhinos are crazy cool, they kinda look almost dinosaur-like. And smaller than I thought, but maybe that was because I was on an elephant, perhaps. Heh. I like elephants. I think they are my favourite animal. I patted a baby one too in Chitwan, but he had an attitude. There were all these tourists crowding the poor guy and screaming and giggling, so by the time we got to him, even though we were nice, he had just had enough. Which is fair enough. I would have had enough also.

Chitwan was a good way to end my trip I think. It gave me an oppurtunity to relax and escape from some of the typical Nepali stresses of being in town, the constant noise and pollution and so on...and it also gave me time to distance myself a bit from the kids and the home I've been working with. I don't think I could have left the home then left Nepal the next day. Would have been too tough. So Chitwan was excellent on all those levels.

Sorry its taken me so long to post that!