Where the heck are we now?: Chitwan National Park, Nepal...Part 1

We left Kathmandu at 5am by private van to go 150 km to Chitwan National Park, even though it was early the city was busy and again we could see the amount of dust in the air through the headlights. This city is slowly choking to death!

The journey took us through the mountains on almost non existent roads and took us a little over 8 hours as lots of time there was only one way traffic....

This is a blurry picture but shows just how long the line snaked around the mountains with most of the traffic being heavy trucks...

Though as we drive the scenery was quite lovely...

Flowing rivers and mountains...

Terraced farms on the side of the hills...

Foggy hills in the distance...

Breakfast stop at a green riverside cafe...we had pakoras which is a typical breakfast food made of chickpea flour and veggies then deep fried...

Pakoras...

Some of the roadside scenes...

Carrying a load...

Colourful roadside stands...

We finally arrived at our riverside lodge which was quite a pleasant spot with beautiful gardens and a room with a balcony...

We took a bike ride around the village and the riverside before supper...

Josh, Zach, Joe and Don....

The river at sunset...

A couple of village scenes...

Prepping the veggies for supper...

This man was cleaning the duck and invited us for supper...

The villagers live simply growing and raising their own crops and animals. One interesting fact is they have devised a method to convert cow dung which is everywhere, to methane gas for use in their cooking. It saves them a lot of money and is quite ingenius!

Their home gardens...

The elephants coming home from a day’s work...

One evening we took in a local dance performance at the Cultural Center...

Our announcer...

The dancing and music sounds quite tribal...

Lots of drumming and dancing with sticks...

This peacock dance was amazing...

Some fire dances...

I was trying to get the moves!

The next morning we set out for our two day adventure in the Chitwan National Park which was the first National Park established in 1973 and covers 939km2. It is famous for its’ biodiversity and the rhinos and tigers.

We set out in the morning in a dug out canoe for our trip up the river...