Nepal : Part 23 - Royal Chitwan National Park (Day 3) - Elephant Ride and Elephant Breeding Centre

After lunch, we were outside the lodge waiting for our jeep ride to go for our Elephant Ride! It is my first elephant ride. I am pretty excited. Elephant dung is abundant in the streets of Sauraha Village. But it did not smell as nice as yak dung. So much elephant dung that it is used to make paper! Elephant dung paper felt like a recycled paper material. It has a paper-dusty sensation.

At 1.30pm, we find ourselves in front of the Elephant Ride Center. It was a cloudy afternoon. Good weather for an elephant ride. Not too hot. There was a tall staircase for a person to climb on the elephant. One gets down the same way too. Before the ride starts, the mahout collects the ticket from the counter.

It was a very slow bumpy ride. The mahout presses the back of the elephant's ear to direct the elephant. The elephant ride was for an hour and a half. We walked through a jungle, and once my leg got wedged and twisted among the branches, and I was struggling to release my leg as the elephant walks on. An elephant steps are so soft that you cannot hear a single leaf or branch break.

The elephant stops to pull out barks of a tree trunk. I did not realise the strength of an elephant's trunk.

Behind us, a mahout went for a pee. This is how a mahout climbs back up on the elephant. Look at the below series of photos. He pulls both ears of the elephant and climbs back up to his seat by walking on the trunk.

 After our elephant ride, we went to a Tharu Village. The locals that earlier inhabited Sauraha.

The guide plucked a leaf and told us to eat. It was neem leaf. Bitter and sticky in the mouth. We gulped water after eating it.

Then, it was a canoe ride to the Elephant Breeding Centre otherwise known as EBC. I always remembered EBC as Everest Base Camp but it is not such anymore.

Before we entered EBC, we detoured as another guide told our guide that there was a rhinoceros in the vicinity. So, we walked really softly which is not possible as we break twigs, leaves and our legs brushes against the grass. And from my sister's camera, we see the rhino.

Then, we made our way to EBC. There were about 20 elephants in the breeding centre. The walk around EBC took us 30 minutes.

Going back, I see more gorgeous views of the skies. While we canoed back across the river, we see buffaloes wading across. Very inviting especially since the weather is so hot.

At night, the guide brought us to have a taste of jungle coffee. Jungle coffee is warm. It is made of coffee and the local rum i.e. Khukuri Rum. Price of a glass of jungle coffee is Rs215. Well, one can opt to use whisky too but we wanted to take the original Jungle Coffee. We got served some free popcorn too.