Chitwan safari?

[RRainey]

I am considering going on a safari in Chitwan. It just makes my trip so long nearly one month (increased homesick factor?). I am not too interested in riding an elephant or elephant safari or washing an elephant. But walking safaris seem interesting if slightly scary (Lonely Planet story of tiger attack). Net cost is maybe 200 dollars as airfare is cheaper going earlier.

Go? If so by raft,plane or bus? I want to stay in the park or nearby in a safari or river lodge. I will be alone so single supplement. I await your wisdom RR

[thranduil]

in 2007 I spent 110 USD for a cheap but all-inclusive 4 days-3 nights stay in chitwan.

I travelled by tourist bus (6 hours from KTM, but much more interesting than an anonimous flight), stayed in a lodge (http://www.safari-wildlife.com) just a few meters outside the park, had a GREAT birdwatching canoe trip on the river (crocodiles :eek: ), a nice 3hour walk inside the park (rhinos and monkeys :D), an elephant ride that my bottom will not easily forget :rolleyes:

I loved every single minute in Chitwan, especially after 15 cold days in khumbu ;)

My guide was Surya Karki, he told me he arranges tours inside the park up to two weeks, on foot or by jeep

PS: rafting? IMHO a waste of time: simply not enough rapids to make it exciting

[Escher]

I've been a couple of times with the same idea as you. First time I paid for the package like Thranduil did but stayed an extra day and hiked on my own with two guides into the forest. This I enjoyed the most. I didn't enjoy the elephant ride at all and will never do it again. The cruelty laid out to the poor creature was disgusting.

The second time we paid for a flight down there and inclusive lodge accomodation but asked not to be on the standard package and arranged with the guide as soon as we got there to go walking in the forest and not do the other "package" activities. We had a couple of very close encounters with rhino and sloth bears and saw quite a lot of wildlife. Probably the hairiest bit though was crossing crocodile infested creeks on slippery - fallen over - trees. For some reason I didn't get scared when being chased at high speed by rhino!

We also arranged an illegal night time trek into the forest for a couple of $100. The guides are not allowed to do this and the army may shoot on sight if you are seen as there is lots of Maoist activity down there but of course we were careful to go nowhere near the military. We had a very close encounter with a tiger and several rhino and the number of crocodiles revealing themselves with eyeshine in the water was quite startling. We went armed with two headtorches, two very dim Nepali torches and a stick each that was found in a hedge. We came within a few yards of the tiger but it just ignored us and sloped off into the bush. This was right at the beginning and we didn't see it again.

I, of course, wouldn't advise anyone to do this and I am not sure I would do it again but I am glad I did but it was pretty hairy. So the opportunity is out there if you want to be stalked by wild animals in the middle of the night.

Personally I've never had a problem hiking in the forest during the day as I can run fast enough and climb trees when needed. That said a lot of people would advise against hiking on foot during the day and would think you insane to want to do it at night.

I always fly within Nepal as I find the buses extremely wearisome and avoid them when I can. I've been on them too many times to want to do it much more. The flight to Chitwan in quite short and easy to arrange.

Rumour has it that the mammals have been heavily poached in Chitwan and there aren't many to see these days. I don't know how true that is but the last time I was there in 2004 I saw more than 20 rhino and 2 sloth bears and many other mammals, reptiles and birds. I find a little hard to understand that things have become so bad in just a few years. We saw tiger pug marks all over the place too.