Chitwan National Park and the elephant race

After the elephant rides earlier in the morning (see the previous posting), our lodge manager had arranged for a guide to meet us at the office at 11 am. His name was Bikram: a slightly built young man in his late twenties or early thirties dressed in an official looking outfit complete with an army-type hat. He had a couple of bamboo walking sticks, one of which he handed to Bonnie. He handed me a couple of bagged lunches to stick in my pack and then we were on our way to the edge of the river.

At the river we met up with our canoe paddler. He steadied the 12-ft long, but very narrow, flat-bottomed dugout canoe as we stepped in. The temperature was in the low 70’s, the sun was bright but not too hot, and there was a gentle cool breeze blowing up river – perfect canoeing weather. The river current was very slow now that we were in the middle of the dry season. At its deepest, it probably wasn’t more than 6-8 feet, and its width was maybe 70-80 yards.

The next hour was the nicest part of the entire trip. We slowly floated down river while Bikram pointed out the wildlife and gave us some of the history of the park (which lay on the opposite side of the Rapti from Sauraha). There were lots of bird species including egrets, eagles, kingfishers, storks, martins, and ducks. In the water floating like sticks, only their eyes visible, were gharials – the long-snouted fish-eating crocodiles that can grow to over 20 feet in length. We also saw some on the river bank along with marsh muggers, the meat-eating crocodiles. Some of those were lounging on the bank with their mouths wide open (“grinning” as Bikram called it) which is how they help regulate their body temperature.

We passed people who were at the edge of the river doing bathing, fishing and doing laundry. In fact, we made a slight diversion so that our canoe paddler could drop off a dirty jacket to his wife who was at the river doing laundry. There were also some elephants wading into the river for a bath. One elephant handler in the distance ahead of was standing on the back of his elephant, making a really nice silhouette against the river and forest.

Shortly after noon, we beached the canoe and got out onto the park side of the river. Our paddler went back home while Bikram led us into the forest. He pointed out footprints of sloth bears, rhinos and deer and then took us onto a path through some tall elephant grass. That eventually led into a denser part of the forest where birds were abundant. We saw yellow-headed woodpeckers, a large hornbill, blackbirds, orioles, jungle foul and pidgeons.

At 1 pm we came out onto a 2-rutted jeep trail where we stopped to wait for a jeep to take us to the Gharial Breeding Center. We broke into our lunch bags which contained boiled eggs, deep-fried veggie pakodas, Tibetan bread, apples, tangerines and bananas. There was so much food that we were able to save the leftovers for lunch the next day at the Elephant Breeding Center.
Lots of jeeps passed by, but they were all filled. It wasn’t until 2:30 that the last jeep of the day came by for us. The ride to the crocodile center took an hour, with Bikram standing on the back bumper searching for wildlife. He pointed out more crocs on the shore of a narrow lake, peacocks, a rhino in the distance, a few macaques, and a really cool monitor lizard in the crook of a tree.
There wasn’t much to the crocodile breeding center, just different cages holding gharials of different ages. They also had a large wooden enclosure where they kept a “man-eating” tigress. The poor thing was bored to death and just laid there staring back at us. After spending about 45 minutes there we got back on the jeep for the uneventful 1 ½ hour ride back to the parking area across from Sauraha where we got into another canoe for the short trip across the river. Bikram walked back with us to the lodge where I slipped him a 500 rupee note as a tip for an excellent job of guiding. We didn’t blame him for the long wait for the jeep.

The next morning we walked an hour to the Elephant Breeding Center where several jumbos were chained up beneath shelters. There were a couple of really cute babies laying down in front of their mother and a few wandering around free. I petted one and it felt like I was petting a wire brush – their sparse hair is so coarse. There was one huge bull elephant that was rather well endowed. After viewing the elephants, we stopped at a bench for lunch. A 5-6 year old boy came up to us and said “chocolate.” We indicated that we didn’t have any, but he kept repeating “chocolate.” Finally, Bonnie offered him a boiled egg and he started to flap his arms wildly in frustration saying “Chocolate!” Sorry, dude, all out of chocolate. He finally went back to his mother, completely defeated.

Down the road half an hour toward Sauraha was the big field where the elephant races were being held. It was about twice the size of a football field, roped off with probably a few thousand or more spectators around the edges and milling about the refreshment tents. Shortly after we arrived they had some pony cart and ox cart races. The race was a down-and-back competition as opposed to the usually oval track. It took nearly 2 hours before they had an elephant race. Six large ones lined up at one end of the field, each with two riders. Once the race started it was all over within a few minutes. The winner outran the others by several lengths, although calling it “running” is an overstatement.

We got back to our lodge in time to take a short nap. For dinner I had the so-called “enchilada” that tasted like the previous day’s “burrito”. We spent the evening watching the sun go down over the river, drinking beer and wine, and talking to an interesting English couple who were touring South Asia for several months. Back in England they live in a small trailer in a farmer’s field and make their own moonshine. She’s afraid of having babies because they run large on both sides of the family (over 10 pounds), and twins are common. The idea of bearing two large twins didn’t appeal to her.

We turned at a 11 pm and caught the bus back to Kathmandu the next day -- with visions of elephants and large English babies dancing in our heads.