Super Fun Happy Safari

Namaste ngajubintharri!

I have had a busy weekend. So Saturday I left Pokhara. I jumped on the tourist bus to Chitwan and settled in for about 5ish hours letting my mind wander.

Funny thing about the buses over here. Passangers can sit in the cabin with the driver. There are no seats but there are benches or mattresses, not sure exactly what. And it looked like no seat belts, and you were cuddling up pretty close with others if you sat there. Luckily I wasn't sitting there.

Checked in to Rainbow Safari

Once I got to Chitwan I was picked up by Rainbow Safari.

I'll be honest I was a little worried about the ethical treatment of animals, especially the elephants. I've never been on safari so I wasn't sure how ethical they are.

That first night me and two German blokes did a late afternoon walk with our guide to see some wildlife. We walked past the kept elephants and that's where my conscience started to niggle away at me.

I did not want to see elephants chained up or be ridden or be working elephants. That didn't sit right with me and I felt uncomfortable when we saw these things.

And then the guide said that they were chained up during the night but day time they were released out in the forest. And yes they were working elephants and were ridden by tourists (really not ok with this and firmly told the safari I would not be doing this activity), and by the National Park rangers. This one I can understand, the rangers protect the wildlife from poachers and there are a lot of places only elephants can manouver, plus (and I didn't know this) elephants make no sound when they walk. They tread very softly and silently.

So while I don't like the fact these elephants are kept they are doing a very important job and because of them poaching has dropped significantly and population numbers have grown.

The Bont is stoked!

After seeing the elephants we walked further and got to see a wild elephant! The Bont got super excited about this!

We also saw a croc and a lot of deer and when night fell we got to see bats. I got excited about the bats 🦇🦇🦇

Then after dinner we went to a cultural dance show and I really had fun watching that. I think my favourite dance was the one where the dancer was dressed up as a big blue peacock and danced the peacock dance. That was so incredibly fun to watch. The fire dance was also amazing.

And for those wondering why I didn't take photos it's because I am trying to be present and enjoy the moment.

Ten years ago when I went to Europe I took hundreds of photos and now I don't care to look at 3/4s of them. Most of them were photos of things I thought I needed to remember but that I've never cared to look at again. So I don't want to spend any energy taking wasteful photos and not being in the moment. And I'm really enjoying this - plus it is saving up a shit load of my very limited space on Google Drive.

Excited for safari

Sunday was a big day. Got up early to go for a canoe ride where we saw heaps of crocs. That's a little bit scary when you're also in the water on a very narrow canoe. But once I saw the monkeys I kinda forgot about that. I do really like monkeys 🐒

The birds are nice too, especially the bright blue kingfishers.

There was a croc 10m away from our canoes

You know what's not nice though? Leaches!

Ugh gross!!

I tucked my pants into my socks because I was so paranoid about leaches getting into my pant legs. And I didn't care half as much about seeing tigers as I was about avoiding leaches.

And you know what, that pants tucked into the socks trick, yeah that doesn't fucking work!!

One of those little bastards just chomped right through my sock and was happily sucking away 🤢🤮

But I guess that's just all part of the experience.

After treking through the forest looking for tigers, of which we found only pawprints, we went to the elephant farm where the mummy and baby elephants were.

Oh sweet Jesus my heart!

They were the cutest. Absolute cutest! And a few of the young ones came right up to the fence to say hello.

Now, I'm not going to have a go at the woman who was pushing her way in front of others to play with them, but yeah I was judging her...

Naw 🥰

Naaaaaaawww 🥰🥰🥰

I found a bit of fence away from the group and just enjoyed being there when one little guy walked straight up to me and reached out with his/her trunk and stroked (felt like smacked) my face. I was chuffed! So I said hello back and gave him a pat and thanked him for the interaction.

I am a firm believer that you should never touch wild animals no matter how big the temptation, unless you are trying to catch them to put them outside (more for frogs and lizards).

Like when I was in Pokhara sitting by the Lakeside a young cow was strolling along the pathway and two dogs started barking at it and scaring it. Some of the locals were growling the dogs and I was sitting there watching the whole thing when the cow cane right up behind me and stood there. I could've reached my arm out and stroked its hide and I really wanted to!! But I kept my arms to myself and spoke to the cow saying calming things until the dogs pissed off. Then the cow trotted away in search of peace and green grass I'm guessing.

Anyway, back to Chitwan, in the arvo we went on a jeep safari. It was absolutely pissing down! But I was willing to get wet to see some rhinos, and you know what, the first thing we saw was a mummy rhino and baby rhino walk into a river and have a bath. I was stoked! Could've ended the jeep safari right there and I would've been happy.

Jeep safari. Yay!

And do you know in Nepal they pronouce them rhino-ceros, kinda like rhino-saurus, and that is how I will be saying rhinoceros in future.

No tigers were seen this weekend, and to be honest I'm not that sad about that. Honestly if we had've seen a tiger while sitting in the open back of a jeep I probably would've shat me dacks.

So yeah, that was my weekend on safari. And I had a ball. Not sure what other safaris are like but if you're ever in Chitwan I'd defo reccomend this one