Mon-Wed, 5/21-23.  (Pictures will follow.)  Another long drive over bad roads.  Met Rafting crew.  Captain is smart and funny.  Paddling instructions simple.  “And Stooooooooop. Thank you very much.”  First day not much of anything.  Lunch boxes.  Kit Kats were a melted mess.  Camp is above average, as usual for the tour company.  My tent was the only one directly connected to my personal bathroom.  Others had to unzip the tent, then zip the tent (bugs), then walk three feet to their personal bathrooms.  Don’t know how I lucked out.

Hot! Humid!  Bad sleep, but it wasn’t as bad as I feared.  Between two and five I slept like the dead.  Massive spider on tent wall.  Not poisonous.

Rain in the morning, sometimes heavy.  Took the opportunity to skip the walk.  Sun came out at noon, so I did the afternoon walk to a “village” and suspended walkway.  Incredibly humid.  Everyone regretted the trek.

Slept badly again, though it again could have been worse.  I desperately wanted to get back to either cool air or AC. Rafting was much more exciting.  Wet.  At destination we encountered a fairly smooth, brand new road!  A first for Nepal.  It’s the main road from India.  About five miles of heaven.  Then we were back on Nepal-normal bumps.

Our Chitwan National Park Resort has the weirdest rooms.  Entry from outside into an open air vestibule with a pond and couch.  Right is the AC bedroom.  Left is the non-AC bathroom.  The shower is only partially covered.

Chitwan is incredibly hot and humid (I’m repeating myself).  Ox ride into a very poor community village.  Old-style hand-water pumps in the front yards.  Brought joy to one extended family with printed pictures of them.  Back at the resort I took a dip in the pool with my Bhutan Buddies and talked about the “others”.  Just before dinner we had a big surprise.  It was one person’s birthday, and Sanjeev arranged for an elephant to walk into the pool patio with a sign and cake!  Petting the elephant was a blast.  Fed her an apple.