Chitwan National Park, Nepal

On the way to India I decided to visit Chitwan National Park which is home to endangered Rhinos and Tigers. I was staying in a safari lodge on the edge of the park where I stayed for 3 nights. Each day they organised some wildlife spotting activities including; a dug out canoe ride down the river, trekking, jeep safari, elephant safari and bird watching.

5 Legged Elephant!!

Dug Out Log Canoe

Elephant Safari

A Rhino charging a Jeep from the bushes!

Rhino from Elephant

On the last day I got the bus to the Nepal border to enter into India. This was the first time I have had problems in Nepal. It turned out that when I arrived in Nepal and paid my $40 for my visa – they took the money but never actually put the Visa in my Passport. So I had unknowingly been travelling in Nepal illegally. Despite having a receipt to show I had paid for my visa, the immigration officials were being very difficult and demanded I paid them again before they would allow me out the country. After trying to reason with them for 2 hours I ended up paying another $40, which immediately cheered the office up since the cash was blatantly going straight into their pockets.

Along the way I met a Swiss couple and a Danish couple who were also going to India. Since none of us had train tickets, we decided to hire a taxi to take us all the way to Varanasi which is a 7 hour drive. Anyway this worked out very well as it was more convenient and cost less money than the train.