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| Chitwan National Park, Nepal Chitwan National Park is great, we loved it. Go to the village of Sauraha, not to one of the expensive up-market places in the Park, unless you are on a higher budget than most backpackers. If you go to Sauraha, here's a couple of tips. Firstly, do NOT take a package from a Nepal (either in Kathmandu or Pokhara) travel agent. Don't let anyone talk you into doing this (you'll be surprised how many budget travelers do it for some reason). They charge about US$20 - $30 a day to take you there and back by bus (which you can organise easily yourself anyway), and put you in a guest house of their choice (when every place has rooms galore to just book in to when you get there). You will also have to eat in their restaurant EVERY meal, even if it's crap and despite the fact there are lots of nice restaurants to choose from. You can eat your own meals elsewhere, but this increases the daily cost even more. (Our hotel.) A tip for Chitwan: like anything, shop around for activities. Your lodge will probably want you to do all activities through them. But there are lots of independent activities organizers in town, if you shop around you can save a bundle. Also, you can go on an elephant safari in the National Park itself, or you can go on a private elephant into what's called the community forest. Its not the Nat Park, but adjoins it. We went on both, and saw more in the latter. Possibly because the trip was longer (2.5 hrs compared to 1 hr), and possibly due to luck. The community forest trip can be cheaper too, unless your lodge rips you off on a ride. Also, you can pay the mahout ("driver") on the Nat Park Government trip a bribe ("baksheesh") to take you longer and further into the Park. Otherwise you sort of follow a well trodden area right at the edge. We heard R100 or more was good. Photo of a rhino from one of our elephant safaris. Other activities Hiring bikes to ride around the lovely, surprisingly intact village of Sauraha, plus neighbouring villages is cheap and very relaxing. Don't forget to stop and chat with the locals. You can also take an early morning trip to the nearby lakes area, there are some beautiful sights and you can see lots of wildlife. This is usually as a jeep ride organised thru a local activities organizers, but you can also ride a bike there. A common activity is a walk thru the jungle, coupled with a dug-out canoe trip down the river. We only saw deer and monkey, but it was exciting. |
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