During my weekend after the first term examination, I went to visit Chitwan with my parents and elder sister. We reached Sauraha after a seven-hour long travel. As soon as we got off our vehicle, we took a rickshaw to reach our hotel. It was my very first ride in a rickshaw and I was too excited.
Our hotel had a homely environment and it was peaceful. We freshened up, had our dinner and rested for the day because I we were too tired after the ride. The next morning, we booked the tickets for Tanga Gadi (horse chariot) and jungle safari before going for lunch.
Around 11:30 am, we travelled to Tharu Cultural Center in Tanga Gadi. It was also my first time in Tanga Gadi. I was a bit scared at first and thought I would fall off when the horse started to take pace. But I started to enjoy my ride later and looking back, it feels like that was my best moment in Sauraha.
Upon reaching the Tharu Cultural Center, we saw statues, paintings and sculptures themed around the Tharu culture. Our next stop was the wildlife museum, where we saw the preserved dead bodies of wild animals, many of which were rare. When we were at the museum, we heard some noise outside and went to see what had happened. We saw that a baby rhino was running in the field, and it was a once in a lifetime experience.
Oh Mother, tell me a story,
Thereafter, we took some rest at our lodge before a jeep came to pick us up for Jungle Safari. I was terrified to go near an elephant to take pictures, but my dad told me not to be scared and convinced me that elephants were friendly and won’t harm us. We clicked numerous photographs with the elephants and even got to know their names.
Our elephant for the jungle safari was called Ramkali. She took us for an adventure in the jungle and we saw crocodiles, deer passing our way, peacocks dancing and even rhinos. Apart from that we also did bird-watching. We were asked to remain completely silent while watching birds so as to not scare them away.
It was really exciting to see wild animals in their own habitat than locked up in a zoo.
We moved onto visit an elephant breeding center after having some snacks. This part of our trip was quiet scary because a wild elephant had entered the breeding center and we were told to stay as far as possible from the direction where it was. We somehow got a sight of the wild elephant. He had really big tusks compared to other elephants. The elephant tamers were trying to control him and make it go away.
We enjoyed the sight of elephants getting fed and baby elephants with their mothers at the breeding center. My sister made me touch a baby elephant even though I was scared at first.
Then we crossed a bridge made of bamboo and woods, and returned to book tickets for the night show of Tharu culture. We sat in the first row to get a better view of the stage. The performances were entertaining, there was a cultural dance with fire tricks, a peacock dance and they even made the audience join them to dance at the end of the show. We had a very good time at the program and then we went to eat a delicious Tharu dinner.
We woke up early in the morning the next day, packed our luggage and made our payments at the lodge before heading to Kathmandu. I recalled our moments spent in Sauraha on my way back home. The excitement wouldn’t end.
