Chitwan jungle safari

First off, congratulations to Nepal on finally passing their new constitution! It's been a long, difficult, and controversial process since the end of the Nepali civil war and the beginning of the Nepalese republic. Many Nepalis are unhappy that the new constitution underrepresents minority groups, and the last few weeks have seen violent protests in the Terai regions bordering India. Every Nepali we talk to has a different opinion to share. Regardless, the constitution finally passed this weekend, and in Chitwan there were celebrations, including rallies and lots of candles on the streets:

We stayed a few days in Sauraha, on the border of Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, famous for it's rhino population. As expected for a jungle, the climate is hot, humid, and rainy, and everywhere is crawling with insect life. We visited during the low season, when it's extra hot and the elephant grass is tall and thick. It's hard to see lots of wildlife this time of year, but we saw plenty.

We spent a full day tromping around in the park. We started with an early morning dugout canoe ride down the river bordering the park. We saw a rhino in the river in the first 200m of our journey, plenty of birds, and lots of gharial and mugger crocodiles.

We continued with eight hours of hiking through the park's wetlands, grasslands, and forest, mostly through extremely thick vegetation. I've never been so sweaty. We mostly saw insect life (red cotton bugs and more leeches) and a few deer until the end of our trek, when we came across a lake in the grasslands. Emerging from the elephant grass we saw three rhinos 100m away! Our fellow trekkers were too noisy so the rhinos flipped their ears a few times and slowly worked their way back into the grass.

No further notable encounters except passing another rhino in the grasslands, but the underbrush was too thick so we only heard each other.

Chitwan wasn't made a national park until the 60s, and when it was thousands of villagers were relocated. We went to a tiny museum on the Tharu people, which included some compelling material on the loss of their culture after relocation. The area surrounding the park is now completely claimed by cities, villages, and farms, so it's easy to see the fate of the jungle had the park not been created.

We're briefly back in Kathmandu- it seems so much more polluted arriving after Annapurna and Chitwan vs. arriving from India. Tomorrow we're flying to Bangkok to start the SE Asia leg of our trip!

Update- felt a 4.5 magnitude earthquake today, just a small rumble but the dogs and birds didn't like it.

-Peter