NEPAL 032812 More Elephants and a Whole Lot More Water

Hello All, 

This morning started with a refreshing, open-air ride in the back of a small pickup through the “really downtown” area of Sauraha – restaurants, shops, hotels, bars, etc. – to the outdoor “embarkation lounge” for elephant rides through the jungle.  There were several towers like the one pictured below that eager tourists climbed to sit in what was essentially a big wooden box on the back of a willing elephant.  

Each of us straddled a corner post of the box for a gently rocking ride through a stream and onward into the jungle.  


This ride was more at the treetop level and we were able to see many deer as well as admire the vegetation.  

Here is a picture of tigers that a very happy and excited Gopal sent to us in Kathmandu.  He had seen them with another group of visitors the week after we left.

We saw lots of “barking deer,” many hard working elephants with passengers aboard, and lots of beautiful jungle vegetation.  This area seemed greener than in the jungle on the other side of the river where we had walked and “jeeped” two days ago, or maybe it was the elevated point of view we had among the leaves that had not dried and fallen to the ground.

After our elephant ride we returned to the hotel and got ready for elephant bathing at the “private” area of the river where we had made out first dugout canoe excursion and became enchanted with the Chitwan bird life.  Not having researched “Elephant Bathing” on You Tube before we embarked on this small adventure, I had envisioned that we would be provided with brushes and an appropriately biodegradable soap – "Camp Suds,  gentle on Pachyderm skin"? – and would have at it washing and, hopefully, pleasuring an enormous creature I’ve always loved.  I had looked forward to having a close encounter with that deliciously rough hide as the elephant purred at an inaudibly low pitch that I’d feel through the soles of my feet – and maybe in my “soul soul” as well.

Needless to say I was surprised, as well as delighted and pleasured myself by what happened at “Elephant Bathing” even though the actual event was far from my uninformed imaginings.

OK, elephant bathing means that one or two people sit astride the neck of the elephant.  The mahout stands on the elephant’s back behind the “bathers” and gives instructions to his charge. I started in front, and held on TIGHTLY to a rope around the elephant’s neck and tucked my feet under the back of her ears.  Donna sat behind me and held on by putting her arms around my waist.  The elephant was then directed to wade into deeper water and suck up a trunk-full of cool river water and reach her full trunk behind her head and vigorously squirt her startled and delighted passengers who scream, hoot, laugh, and gasp.  The mahout encouraged her to repeat the “suck and squirt” process by bouncing up and down on her rump, speaking to her in a chortling vocabulary, and tapping her with a stick. 

The Mahout, Donna and I all laugh after we've received out first BIG SQUIRT from our beautiful elephant gal

I figured out that I could duck down as the water was released and let Donna have a little more than her fair share of the cool blast.  A not wetting highlight of the bath was the most remarkable feeling of the muscles of the elephant’s powerful and BROAD shoulders working under my grasping legs as she walked.  As a finale to mark the end of the bath, the mahout asked the elephant to roll over onto her left side to gently dump Donna and me off her shoulders and into the river.  Scrambling back onto her was not as easy as I thought it might be, even with an assist from the mahout.

For some very funny action shots taken by our guide Gopal -- who must have a lot of experience doing this and knew just when to squeeze the shutter release -- of Donna and me elephant bathing, go to my August 23 post and get ready to laugh!

Dick and Karma took their elephant baths separately and in a much more dignified, but equally wet, manner.

Four happy, wet "elephant bathers" and their helpers, our mahout and his charge Mali Kaya

.  Photo by Gopal :-)

After lunch we went on another jeep tour for wildlife viewing and spent a tranquil interlude birding near a placid lake.  At the hotel in the evening there was a Tharu Cultural Show with vigorous dancing with expertly clashing of sticks and an elegant dancer in a red dress who was one of the guys.

Tomorrow we fly back to Kathmamdu and return to our hotel in Boudha.