Wild by Nature (Chitwan National Park, Nepal)

March 4^th, 2010 - The next morning I arose to the misty wonderland that is such an enchanting feature of the early morning landscape. I am sure Chandu felt exactly as he looked, which is to say shitty. While Denis was off at his home preparing our lunch for the day my expedition leader was supposed to take me for breakfast at the local food stall where he'd inebriated himself the previous afternoon. I have a sneaky suspicion that his failure to do so was related to his lack of funds and the probable debt he'd incurred the day before. What he did do was to ask for a bit of cash to pay for my night's lodging and meals. He said that it would be better for him to pay as they may demand more from me being a tourist and all. Nothing out of the ordinary there. What I learned after our trip (assuming Denis himself was being straight with me) was that Chandouchbag pocketed the money and never paid Denis and his family for the meals. I was an unwitting pawn in the deception.

When we set out for the misty riverbank to hop a dugout canoe to the other side Chandu appeared to be as excited for another jungle run as I am when I purchase deodorant. Sloshed Chandu is much more jovial than hungover Chandu. Once again we entered the cloud forest in search of exotic fauna. Once again we visited places of rhino frequency only to be flabbergasted at their absence. The fact that local villagers were cleaning a small lake (as in removing floating debris in order to make fishing easier……I think) where the pachyderms like to frolic did nothing to aid our efforts. A stop at a wooden watchtower yielded no better results but, again, the misty backdrop was so spellbinding that I hardly cared. We moved on.