Riding elephants

On Dec. 26th we took a 3 ½ hour Greenline bus ride west out of Kathmandu and then transferred to a 15-passenger van which took us another 1 ½ hours south into the lower elevation Terai region of Nepal. We were dropped off at a parking lot in the middle of a rice field and walked the remaining mile into the village of Sauraha, the center of tourism for Chitwan National Park.

Just as we walked onto Sauraha’s main street we saw a big red banner advertising an “Elephant

Race and Food Festival” running from Dec. 26th to Jan. 2nd. In fact, a parade had just started and was on its way to the elephant racing field about a 30 minute walk out of town. There weren’t any elephants in the parade, but there were several groups of women, each group wearing different traditional outfits. While watching them go by we also got up close and personal with a couple of camels tied up at the side of the road.

Sauraha is very small and only has one main street, so we took it all the way to the Rapti River where it dead ended into a bunch of lodges and restaurants. The van driver had recommended the Riverside Lodge. Krishna, its manager, said that he only had one room available for $20 per night but warned us that the lodge’s generator was just below it. We were so happy that they even had a generator that we didn’t care how much noise it made. Just in case we found something better, we reserved the room just for one night but told him we might stay on for another couple. He also told us to let him know by 6 pm whether we wanted him to arrange elephant rides or tours of the park for the next day.

After dropping off our stuff, we went back into town and looked at a few other lodges but decided we were better off at the Riverside. We told Krishna to sign us up for three nights and then decided to take an elephant ride in the morning followed by a canoe trip, jungle walk, and jeep ride into Chitwan National Park in the afternoon. All of those activities would cost about $100 for the both of us.

The sun was starting to go down over the river, so we found an outside table right on the river’s edge and ordered dinner and drinks. I ordered a “burrito” that had the shape of one but was made with canned baked beans instead of refried beans. It tasted suspiciously like the “enchilada” I was to have at another restaurant the next day. We watched the sun disappear into the forest on the other side of the Rapti before retiring for the evening.

At 8 am the next morning we were met at the lodge office by a van that would take us to the community forest north of Sauraha where the private elephant rides are given. Each elephant carries four people in a wood framed enclosure that sits on top of a giant pillow on the elephant’s back. The phanit, or driver, sits on the beast’s neck with a bamboo stick to guide it (or whack it when necessary). Bonnie went up the stairs of the platform and got on first, followed by two Australian girls, Hanna and Rowena. I managed to squeeze myself into one of the back corners of the frame. My legs were on either side of the vertical corner brace of the frame so that my crotch was right up against it. More on that later.

We took off at 8:30 for an hour’s ride through the forest. I hesitate to call it a jungle because it was more open and less tropical than what we think of as a “jungle.” Riding an elephant is not at all like riding a horse. Instead of the up-and-down movement of a horse, an elephant’s gait gives you a rolling side-to-side motion. We were constantly bumping our ribs against the wooden frame or bumping into each other in the tight enclosure. The phanit tried to move branches away from us with his stick, but occasionally one would smack us in the face as we went by.

Within minutes we reached a clearing where a mother rhino and her calf were grazing in the morning mist. They were obviously used to the interruption and didn’t even look up at us even though the elephants came within yards of them. As we left them, I got a nice shot of the elephant behind us as the sun’s rays punctured the fog. From there we forded a shallow river and were treated to views of water birds, peacocks and foxes. Our elephant stopped in the middle of the river for a few minutes for some “load shedding”.

We crossed back over the river but it took our jumbo three attempts to make it up the steep muddy sides on the opposite shore. Each time he tried to climb, I was pushed over at a 45 degree angle, staring down at the water with my crotch jammed against the vertical support of the frame. If we hadn’t made it up the third time, I was going to have to start screaming like a little girl.

The forest became denser. The phanit stopped a few times to point out a samber deer and a family of wild pigs sleeping on the edge of the trail just a few feet away from us. At the next clearing he got off the elephant for a pit stop behind a bush. Too much tea at breakfast, I suppose. On the way back to the starting point we came across what looked like Rhode Island Red chickens which I found out later are called red jungle fowl.

We got off the elephant and hung around the staging area waiting for our van to come pick us up. We noticed an elephant that had grabbed a big stick with his trunk and was using it to scratch his back. He looked really, really happy, like he had been itching for a long time.