To Varanasi

Sorry it has been so long since the last posting, we were unable to find a reliable internet source in the jungle or near our new hotel. My (cydney) email account with WT has changed and I am not able to access it until I call (long distance) and set up a new address. Email brandon at motomobile2k@gmail.com . We reached varanasi and took a boat down the river this morning at 6am to see the ghats. It was not as enchanting as we were led to belive and could hardly see anything due to the amount of tourist boats. We have a clean room here with a nice family that owns the hotel. The bathroom is shared but has hot water. From Pokhara we took an air conditioned bus for 7 hours to the Chitwan park. Upon arrival we were mobbed by touts who's job is to get you to a speific hotel (but with inflated rates to pay the middleman). We ignored them and walked into the tiny town from the bus stand. We found the crocodile safari lodge with very helpful owners who helped us plan our entire day at the park. The rooms were hut like with grass roofs and mosquito nets around the bed. We began the next day at 6 with a canoe down the river (a dug out tree that I was sure was going to dump us in the croc infested waters). We made it to a bank down the river and were about to proceed on our jungle walk when our guide paused and gave us a quick briefing. " Now if rhino charges, climb 6 meter into tree, if you cannot climb tree, run around tree-keep between you and rhino, if there is no tree run zig zag. If Bear we make group and make loud noise. If tiger we pray, there is nothing you can do. With a new sense of anxiety we began our walk and found a peacock, a large group of monkeys and spotted deer. Our guide suddenly stopped, crouched low to the ground and peered into the bush, nothing. We kept walking and I stopped because on the road were perfectly shaped giant paw prints-Tiger! Left not too long before we came. Our guide had stopped earlier because he could "smell" a tiger. Fortunately that was as close as we got. We did get to see a giant marsh mugger croc on the bank of the river- they are very aggresive and known to eat people. The term "mug" comes from this prehistoric animal as it sneaks up and grabs people- no lie! Upon reurn we wanted to participate in an elephant bath where we thought we could get closer to these giant animals. Little did we know it was us that would have a bathing. We climbed on top of the elephant from a plaform and it sprayed us with water from its trunk and we fell into the river. We climbed on again-this time from holding the ears and being lifted by her trunk up onto he head. We had more fun-and got lots of pictues. Later we took the elephant safari and got to ride an elephant into the jungle. We were able to see even more wildlife because the elephants disturb it less than people walking or jeeps. Coming to a clearing we came upon a lone rhino grazing peecefully-it was really incredible- we were maybe only 50 feet from the thing! Our overenthusiastic guide took our picture and insisted on making our elephant move quickley (and rather uncomfortably) to cover more gound. We finished the day worn out but pleased with our journey.