Road Rage
We were on our way, via private car (one chicken bus ride was enough) to the trail head of trek number two, a short trek near Chitwan to precede our elephant safari (the easy part of the vacation). However, two-thirds of our merry way, we hit a roadblock. A mile long line of cars, trucks, and buses had reached the roadblock before we did. We learned the reason for the roadblock was that two weeks previously, a child had been killed by a truck. The trucking company had neglected to pay the agreed upon compensation to the victim's family, and so a roadblock was set up in protest.

After 4 hours of waiting around, we decided that the negotiations were not progressing, and so the carefully timed trek was no longer feasible. We asked our taxi to turn around. Fortunately, we were not on a bus. If we had been, we would have had to wait 9 more hours (it turned out) for the dispute to be resolved. We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve back in Kathmandu.

Chitwan National Park
Fortunately, it is also possible to fly to Chitwan via the "Elevated Elephant Expressway." :)
We stayed at a jungle lodge and did an elephant safari. Though we had missed by two weeks the Elephant Polo World Championship matches there, we did have plenty of elephant action. In three 1.5–2 hour rides, we saw mother and baby rhinos, deer of all sizes and species, exotic birds and some monkeys. Tigers are usually not possible to see. A treat was being followed on one elephant ride by a 18 month old elephant calf who almost had a run in with the mother rhino. Please see video below:

Video of Poochie, the naughty one-year-old elephant calf:



Even in Nepal, one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, it cost $17,000 a year to keep an elephant going.

When we were not on elephants, or canoeing or walking in the nearby village or lounging around, there was night life. Please see W joining the famous Tharu stick dancers.

Video of "Born to Boogie"