Chitwan

The thick fog creating a spooky, dark feeling surrounded us as we walked down the long pathway to the temple they made marking the birth place of Buddha. Monks sat around the tree where Buddha had his enlightenment, prayer flags covering absolutely every branch, stringed along like a tent. The prayer flags are put up and as the wind blows them each prayer is answered. I thought this was such a romantic (maybe that's not the right word, but all i can come up with) way to pray.
We drove for another 4 hours to get to Chitwan national Park.
Elephants and camels casually stroll down the street in the little tourist town of Chitwan. We settle into our hotel room, Rachel Super sick sleeps in our room as the rest of us go for a bike ride to an elephant breeding center. The Bike ride was an experience in itself. We were on these ancient bikes and had to bike on rocky, bumpy roads which made our bums bruised and our arms vibrate like crazy. We got to see the first ever Elephant twins in the world, SO cute! We went out for a nice rooftop dinner and stuffed ourselves with yummy Nepali food. The Nepali food i have seen so far is a lot like Indian but with a lot more variety of meats.. I am still trying to figure out a truly traditional Nepali meal.
The next day we started on our 2 day trek in the Jungle. The highlight of the trek is to spot the Rhino! We were warned ahead of time that if a Rhino charges all you can do it run in Zig zags, because they cant turn fast or climb a tree... I was secretly hoping that i would experience being chased by a rhino. We walked for hours, saw lots of birds, deer, wild chicken, wild pigs and lots of exotic bugs but hadn't spotted a Rhino. I was getting bummed out but then the guide spotted one and we all rushed through the trees to get closer. As we neared we could here it snorting and grunting guarding the young rhino at her side. We were super quiet, i was so excited to be so close but also a little nervous of what she might do. All of a sudden the Rhino let out a Huge grunt and one of the guides told us to start moving away fast, up the hill. When the guide started saying RUN, 5 of us girls just Booked it through the trees, frantically sprinting not knowing where to go, believing that a huge rhino was coming after us, and we would soon be his meal. As a scream out FIND A TREE the guide comes running up behind us huffing and puffing between laughs. He found it so funny 5 white girls frantically running for their lives but no rhino was chasing them. Although we took his message of Run as desperate attempt to save our lives he just wanted us to get a ways back to give the Rhino space, not to Bolt it through the jungle. The 5 of us with our adrenaline still running on full speed were almost peeing ourselves laughing at the whole situation. Everyone teased us for dramatizing the whole situation but to us we thought we were actually being chased. It was Hilarious!!
In total we walked 14 km through the jungle that day and ended up at a little village with our own little rooms to bunk for the night. We all took half attempted showers, putting our dirty clothes right back on and were treated to a Thali (assortment) of Nepali Dishes. Everyone was zonked so they went to bed slowly one by one until it was just me and Anand by the fire listening to cheesy bollywood music. I went to bed on the hard plywood mattress getting ready for a nice hike back.
When we arrived back at our Hotel area, we got to clean off in the river while bathing with the elephants. I got to get up on their back and they would spray water with their trunks in my face and slowly roll over, dunking me in the water.
Perfect way to cool off after a long hike I'd say!