April 2, 2012
 Up early have to be at the tourist bus station at 6:30 AM for the bus to Chitwan National Park.  The bus is very comfortable and although there is no air conditioning you can open the windows. the road is paved most of the way but there are a few areas that are being repaired and are very dusty. The trip is supposed to take 5 hours, but there is a strike today, something to due with the tourist buses taking passengers that are not tourists and the other regular bus service is striking because of it. This has caused traffic jams all along the way to Chitwan and at one time had been stopped for 1.5 hours. It is very interesting just how the traffic will pile up and how it is resolved, one must see it to really know what is going on. 

major traffic jam

Chicken delivery, bikes were the only thing getting through

traffic has started to move

Stopped for a toilet break about 11:05, was a corrugated tin shed with a black plastic flap for a door and a cement sloped floor, usable but not that sanitary, but if you have to go then you use it.  Had bleach wipes along so have cleaned the bottoms of my shoes and sanitized my hands.

Because of the traffic tie up arrived at the transfer location for the Island Jungle Resort 2 hours late, but they have held lunch for us and after eating we board a bus and have a one hour ride to the river and a boar trip and a short walk to the resort.  It is in the middle of  Nagayani River and the Trisuli river flows into the Nagayani just up from the resort.
Upon arrival we were advised of the do and do not at the resort because of the wild animals and given our room keys and had about a half hour before going on a bush walk, bonus seen a rhino on my first day, but was a few hundred feet away, got photos but no close up,s.

Dinner is at 8PM and then it is off  bed, tomorrow one is up at 5:30 PM.

Day 2:
Up and had a cup of tea and off on a elephant safari for two hours, seen lots of deer but no rhino and no tigers or sloth bears, but did see lots of birds. Back for breakfast and then off by boat to a 4 X 4 safari truck for a two hour trip through the jungle, seen three rhino, deer and a wild peacock which was not it the mood for a photo op.  Then it was a float down the Narayani River where we saw two species of crocodile, the Gharial and the Marsh Muggar, neither of which would stay on the river side long enough to get a picture. Lunch and a short rest period and a bird walk , watched the elephants get a wash and a short rest before the show by the ethnic Tharu people of Chitwan who are preforming stick dances before we have dinner.  After dinner have returned to the sitting area out side my cabin and talking to a couple from Australia when a very nice lady who is a violinist with the New York Symphony give us a impromptu concert, which was a very special ending to a wonderful day.

Day 3
Up at 5:30, tea and a bush walk, seen lots of birds and just as we are headed back there is a rhino in the river eating river grasses and he is not spooked by us going as near as possible to take photos.
Then back for breakfast and get packed to go back across the river and to the transfer station and get the tourist bus back to Kathmandu.  Bus ride this time is uneventful.
 Still do not know if I will get my visa to Tibet, but will wait it out and if not will do some trekking.

Boat  in which we cross the river and also use for the float down the river.

Island Jungle Resort

One of the huts, very sparse but clean and comfortable.

Bar area.

Dining Hut

Walk to the Jungle

View from deck over river

elephant for safari

View across the river

First rhino

Deer seen on Elephant safari

 

Elephant I rode

Boat on river

Second rhino

Rhino seen on the last morning in Chitwan

Sun set on river