TRAVELMAN NEPAL: ...And Then There Were Elephants. Chitwan National Park

The bus dropped me off outside of Sauraha, the town adjacent to Chitwan National Park. Once again, I felt like I was being dropped in the middle of nowhere...

This is the National Park that everyone said I should take a couple days to visit? This is the jungles of Chitwan? This is a dusty, barren landscape. Where all the jungle at???....

As expected, a gentleman approached me asking if I had a place to stay. I said I did not. He held out a card for The Misty Hotel. He said that he could take me there free of charge, the hotel is on the river, in town, only 600 rupees.

Six hundred rupees was quite the deal. I asked what I’d be charged for the ride if I didn’t stay there. He said nothing, this was his work, he takes people into town to the Hotel Misty. I figured he was on the up and up. They figure once you’re there, you’ll stay so it’s worth giving you a five minute ride. I took that ride.

He put me in the back of the Jeep and asked me to wait while he went fishing for more tourists. He came back within three minutes with no further catches and said we were ready to go. He and his cohort got in front and drove me to the Misty like I was a two-hundred pound tuna they’d just caught in the ocean....

It was about a three minute walk off the main road. As we approached the gate it looked like an abandoned resort, but this was par for the course in Nepal.

It looks a lot nicer in this pic than in person. I think I was the only guest staying there that night...

The carpet was thin and dirty, but it was clean otherwise and the owners were friendly (overly friendly, like they were going to sell me off to aliens who liked to feast on big fat juicy American tourists)...

The bed turned out to be comfortable and the blankets were soft and velvety. I wondered how often they washed these blankets. The shower was hot, after a couple minutes, but the nozzle sprayed the water in odd directions so that there wasn’t much pressure. But it was six dollars a night! I took it.

This hut was outside in the courtyard...

This one was next to the river (A few meters away)...

I walked along the river into town, it was a short cut...

I walked past many riverside resorts. Most of them seemed built for crowds but were empty as well. This one had this chair wheel and a pool...

These wild flowers grew everywhere...

I could get a ride in one of these wagons if I wanted...

This family drove their wagon into town to collect some straw from a field in the middle of town...

It was all nice, the town was small and quiet, but it didn’t seem very special.

And then the Elephants walked by me. I would eventually get (almost) accustomed to them walking up and down the streets and through the jungle plains...

I’ll be posting a lot more about these gargantuan guys and gals in the coming days. They were mind blowing and sad. I discovered some depressing facts and witnessed upsetting scenes during my stay...

This guy was an employee of the elephant ride company. His job was to ride his wagon around town picking up elephant dung. It’s honest work if you can get it...

Travelman log, day 205. Raining on last full day in Nepal. !steemitworldmap 27.5858 lat 84.5044 long ...And Then there were Elephants Chitwan, Nepal, d3scr 358 Followers and counting, 1010 steem earned. Rep 59.2 Travelman out.