NEVER TAKE CANDY FROM STRANGERS. AND NEVER, NEVER heed the advice of an agent hanging around the airport. We should paste this reminder in our passports.
The Greenline bus from Kathmandu to Chitwan National Park was a pleasant surprise and the roads weren’t nearly as bad as we feared. Tilak met us and took us to Wildlife Adventure Lodge, where we had booked through Ashok and his partner. Then reality set in. There is nothing seriously wrong with WAR; it’s on a par with all but the ultra-luxury lodges around Chitwan. The room is OK even if electricity is random. The food is palatable. We even acquiesced to the first day jeep safari, figuring it would give us an overview of the park. It was the rest of the “program” we objected to, that and the fact that Ashok’s office and WAR office didn’t communicate. We thought we made it clear we were interested in birding – Chitwan has 400+ species – but most, we learned, are in the “hilly section of the park and WAR was not about to take us there. Connie had to fight hard to get what we wanted and probably set US-Nepal relations back a decade.
Our room
Before we could enter the park there was the crossing of the Rapti River, ten of us sitting single file in a dugout canoe. Then we all got into the jeep, ten people each with different interests, personalities and experience levels. Some probably thought ten in a jeep was the norm. To his credit Tilak did his best to keep everyone happy and when we returned he was our advocate to get a full morning birding trip, just the three of us and a driver.
The day was beautiful except for the pall of smoke from the controlled burning in the park. Our driver went slowly and even pointed out some birds. Tilak seemed to enjoy himself and he and Connie were able to id many species using his Nepali guide and her English one. We probably saw sixty species in all, nine new to us and I improved on many of my photos. We were delayed for ten minutes when a huge male rhino refused to leave the trail, but he had the right-of-way, after all.
Rose-ringed parakeet
In 2012 all the lodges inside the park were forced to move to the perimeter. This is probably a good move for the park but it makes the best birding regions all but inaccessible. So if you are going to Chitwan for the birds, do some serious research ahead of time. And never, never heed the advice of an agent hanging around the airport.
