I didn't spew!

and for any of you that know me well, will know that I do not have a great stomach from car/bus travel. Yesterday we left Kathmandu for Chitwan National Park. The trip took six hours and was a combination of the Gillies highway (near Cairns) x 150km and the Kewarau Gorge (in NZ) x 200km. Overall it took us 5 hours to travel 150kms! It was horrendously windy and up hill then down hill to get out of the Kathmandu valley in an old bus that I feared may have dubious breaks. If it wasn't so smokey it would have been a good view of the mountain range. The road was potholed and rutted but not as bad as some I have been on.

We arrived at Chitwan about lunch time, had lunch of vegetable momo (dumplings) and then later in the afternoon headed off to the elephant breeding program and saw this cute elephant twins which sounds like a nightmare 24 month pregnancy. To get there we had to take a jeep ride and I can say that long legs and this mode of transport dont work well, especially when everyone else is as tall or taller than I.

Today, I went on an elephant ride which is a bit more 'economy'  class than the Thailand rides that I have been on. We went in search of the asian tiger and rhino but found 8 deer, 3 birds and a couple of goats. Not exactly the jungle experience I was imagining. Four of us were jammed into a basket on top of the elephant which after 2 1/2 hours led to some very dead legs.

Elephant riding in Chitwan National Park. A painful 2 1/2 hours

This afternoon I have sat by a river and watch people heading off into the jungle on their search of rhino and tiger. I am starting to think it is a tourist ploy and in fact these animals are not even in this area but later some of our group did see a rhino on a canoe ride.

Tonight I am having a Nepali dinner of vegetable curry and then a cultural show which if as noisey as one across the road last night sounds like it should be a heap of fun.

Hopefully I will be able to load some photos soon. Unfortunately the USBs on this computer do not work.