DEVOJIT SANYAL: Trip to Chitwan National park

On 28 th Feb/ 1st March'09, we set out for one of the famous tourist-spots of Nepal, called, Chitwan national park. It is around 160 kms south of kathmandu.

Chitwan District is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal. The district is in the western part of Narayani Zone, Bharatpur (the seventh largest city of Nepal) is its district headquarters. Bharatpur is the commercial and service centre of central south Nepal, it is the merger destination for higher education health and transportation of the region. It covers an area of 2,218km² and has a population (2001) of 472,048.
Narayangarh, on the bank of Narayani River, is the main town with numerous shopping zones where people from all over the district and even from neighbouring district come to shop.
At the foot of the Himalayas, Chitwan is one of the few remaining undisturbed vestiges of the Terai region, which formerly extended over the foothills of Nepal.

(The road towards Chitwan)

(Sumona, dariya-kinare, shooting for latest blockbuster)

(The serpentine river)

We reached Chitwan at around 1 P.M. and ventured out to have a dekho of local market. The local market mainly caters to the taste of foreigners who have a craze for colorful and ethnic things.

(A local shop)

(The curios being displayed in the shop)

(They are really very cute)

After the market stint, we started towards the main attraction, the National Park.

(The Locals)

(Some Tourists relaxing in make-shift Restaurants)

The spot which is otherwise crowded at sunset time, wore a deserted look. We plan to return here in the evening.

(The pathway towards the Park)

(Old habits die hard - Me with my bottle of Water!)

(Children wearing traditional attire)

We are now again crossing the market area in a jeep. They take you inside the jungle in a jeep to a designated place from where you start your elephant ride.

(The market place)

(Me, having a jeep-ride, on our way to the Park)

After the treacherous and bumpy jeep ride, we finally reached the spot from where the elephant ride begins.

(The ride starts here)

These elephants, or to say, their owners are very rich. For a ride of one hour, they charge you Rs 500/- per person for SAARC countries, and it is four times more for other foreigners.

There are quite a lot of them. I am talking about the foreigners !

Also, there are a lot of elephants, too!

The jungle is very thick.

We are now going to enter the main jungle area.

And the jungle starts.

All the souls out there are enjoying the moments, to their heart content.

A huge Hippo taking water-bath and sun-bath, all at the same time. This was the only animal/bird/reptile we came across, in the entire jungle. Our bad Luck!

The elephant is quite close to the Hippo !

Now, everybody is on a lookout of anything that moves, any bird or insect or animal, and the wait is endless..........................................................

But, anywhere you put your eyes on, you only see the huge trees welcoming you with their hands-like-branches stretched out.

Now, it was almost the end of our journey, but apart from the solitary Hippo, no moving creature could be seen! ( except of course, the elephants and the homo-sapience!)

So, we disembarked from the jumbos, and went to the sun-set point, I had previously talked about. It was already 4.30 P.M. and an apt time to relax across the river banks.