Nepal - Chitwan

Being born and bred in a city,
nature is new to me.
.
In Chitwan, there is no end to nature; it's full of lakes, rivers, jungle, trees, birds, monkeys, deers, other wildlife and a whole lot of elephants.

Even a huge grass patch is new to me. 
We city people think country people live in a well.
But now that I am back, I feel like I am in a well.

回来后感觉自己好像活在洞里。

There is a massive amount of stuffs going on in my head these two months.
And I am transforming out of control. I think it may be an after effect of receiving too much info and not having enough time to sit down and make sense of what I have read and seen. Also, I have been letting my mind wander too freely, fantasizing about many possibilities.





This part of Chitwan is a Wildlife nature reserve.
So wild animals roam around freely.
We hardly see any of them out in the open and it is easy to understand why.

Sometimes when we see monkeys or deers, they would be hiding behind bushes and leaves and peeping at us. Feels like we are the exhibits.

A pair of loving couple. :( Super envy okay.
Every time I see a pretty sight, I think 'why is my bf not here with me'
Then i miss him a bit more.





Weather was rainy the whole time we were there. Or the pictures will turn out mighty pretty, but nope.




Ok, enough of nature.
Now to some more touristy stuffs:
Elephants and elephant rides.
When I first saw the elephant rides and many tourists riding on the elephants,
I didn't feel too good about it.

I have never ride an elephant,
and I do want to try it out.

But maybe in my own fantasy, my idea of riding an elephant is making friends with him/her first,
establish a connection before getting on. (Do I sound silly now.)

But this was like, JUST GET ON IT AND MOVE ALREADY.
I don't know the name of the elephant or how old she is or whether she likes us sitting on her,
I thought that was not very meaningful. 

I was even telling dj maybe I should go hit on one of the elephant caretakers in private so we can hang out with the elephants for free after their work time. k just kidding.


Elephants are mighty cute things.
They are on my love list after cats and pandas.







See, if I have a elephant rider friend, he can tell me why the elephant putting his leg on the pillar.
But now I am clueless and my closest guess is stretching?

There are lots of elephants in Chitwan, they even travel on the main roads,
They are owned by households for transporting stuffs and to make money.
I heard that they can make over 100USD a day, which is a lot for Nepalese.
But they eat a crazy amount too.




The white patches on an elephant's skin actually signifies its aging.
The more surface area that is covered in white patches, the older he/she is.
To think I thought it was scrubbing until skin peel...
Because they do bathe and scrub the elephants, and the elephants seem to enjoy it.


Elephant bathing.
The elephant just lay there hor, then the caretaker take a sponge and scrub the elephant.
Like enjoy.




I LOVE ELEPHANTS AND I WISH I CAN SPEND A FULL DAY WITH ONE ELEPHANT.
Sighhhhhhh.
They are such intelligent and gentle animals with a good sense of humor.

Sent yl a few pictures of the elephants and he said,

'Don't you think
Pig nose and elephant nose is the same
Just that one is longer'

I thought that was ridiculously out of point,
so I posted in their group chat,
BUT his friends agreed with him.

Okay, win.



This is the elephant riding I was talking about,


Our elephant ride,
can cross slopes and rivers and she even uprooted a small tree so that we can see rhinos from faraway.
Such a majestic angel.





Now, the next few pics are interesting.
Elephant spotted two wild rhinos in the jungle.

Elephant walked towards one of the rhinos
Elephant naughty, went to disturb the rhino
And made the rhino come down the slope lol









An elephant's trunk is actually warm and soft wtf. 
HOW CAN THAT BEEE

Conversely, the body feels hard and hollow. 
Like when you knock, it makes a tok tok tok sound. Similar to wood. 

Other tourist activities also include boating.
I have no exciting pictures, but there were crocodiles in this river.
I could see their head above the waters and their beady eyes, but in pictures they just look like a pieces of rocks. Secretly excited to know I am just metres away from crocodiles.

On the way, we saw some wildlife like monkeys, birds, owls, eagles,
deers and baby deers.

Baby deers deserve a separate mention cause they are too cute. 





Our guide say this is the crocodile house.


I don't get it when our guide points to a random bird somewhere and everybody goes ooohh, awww,
making a commotion.

I'm like wtf it's just a bird.

Then I get over it and think maybe many people think the same way of my reaction when I see a cat.
Live and let live.



Marijuana plant


Intrigued at how the villagers hang their laundry out to dry.





I am sure bridges like this haven't been through the test of physics,
but since it has been through the test of many humans,
I should take a leap of faith.

Goodbye and goodnight.

And my wishlist goes on

Jumping on a trampoline,
Hot Air Balloon,
Stand Up Paddling,
Seeing a firefly,
Getting a bicycle,
Free Lunch,
Scuba Diving,
And Seeing Sakura bloom.

And may I not forget that I want to teach.
Maybe not now, maybe not this year or not the next, but eventually one day I will.