I flew in to Nepal on a last minute unplanned Christmas getaway from Hong Kong, without any planned. Winged it, completely, so wasn’t really sure what I’d find, and how things would work out. From Kathmandu, I made my way to Pokhara, and I then realized I have a day or two to explore more of the region before going back to the capital. Can’t do a decent hike in 2 days, so I started exploring other options, and noticed Chitwan National Park, with Bharatpur as the gate town, not too far away. All I had to do was cross the high mountains with the winding bad roads for ~4 hours, and I’m there. Booked a place to stay from Pokhara, got myself a taxi ride, and finally arrived in Bharatpur.
Chitwan National Park has lots of wild animals, protected, and you can take guided safari tours to try and spot the animals in their natural surroundings. It’s tricky, since many of the animals are not fond of humans, especially not tourists, and many of them prefer the night time, so you can ride around for a while and not see anything. It’s down to mainly two things – luck, and you’ll need plenty of that, and a good guide that knows and understands the animals, their schedules, the places they like to hang out, the noise they make, it makes a huge difference. I can’t really tell how good my guide was, I’ve heard from other groups they did better, but we were able to see quite a few things, though – I must admit – far less than I expected to from similar tours I did elsewhere, like in Sri Lanka.
Still, it was an adventure to remember, and the music show with the locals dancing at Bharatpur was a fun experience.
Shall we go into the park?
Yay, we found a rhino…
Which we can spot from…
My mobile has bad optical x3, you need decent zoom camera/lens to capture these animals…
More lizzardy wildlife…
Lots of alligators, this is a rescue breeding center for a specific endangered type…
It’s all on large 4×4 trucks…
More crocs..
Birds…
Monkeys…
Wild boars, that come to hang out with the guides…
And finally, a local dancing show…
With a lively party afterwards…
The following morning we went with a guide by foot, started from the somewhat sad elephant barracks (/jail)…
Not sure why, but some of the locals still use’em to entertain tourists…
But there’s also free wildlife. Just before I was to head out back to pack up to leave to the airport, I got super lucky and a Rhino came to visit very very close.
Last stroll through the little town..
Location: