This is CHITWAN national Park - $30 shared Safari Tour
- So we just arrived in Sauraha city centre and right now, it is time to have our early morning coffee before we go and do our activities for the rest of the day, so let's go. Here we are at Jalapeno Cafe. This is how it looks like. I'm walking up the stairs here right now and I'm so curious how it looks like. They have a lot of nice cafes here in the area, but actually, in the morning, you can see it is not too crowded here; a lot of things are closed. Apparently, at night, things are more alive here.
Look who we have here! - Hello! - Hello! Hello! - Hi! - Can I have a cappuccino? - 2 cappuccinos. - Thank you! - Welcome! - Okay, we have the coffee and it's the absolute best. I really love this coffee. This makes me so happy that we have such amazing coffee to start our day. It's a blessing. Wow, thank you! - We have fruit salad.
So that was the early morning coffee and breakfast. Right now, it is time to go and explore a little bit. We are now gonna walk to the lakeside and see what we can do there. It is so nice to walk here.
It is really quiet on the streets. There are lots of nice restaurants, and there are also some souvenir shops. Not too many people. There are actually lots of bicycles going on here, which I haven't seen before that there are so many bicycles in one particular place. Here you can see again two parked.
Same as the Netherlands. I love it. What I love so much here is Honey House. Look at this.
They have so many different types of honey. All Himalayan honey, I think. Hello! - Hello! - How are you? - Namaste! - Namaste! - Fine! And you? - Very good as well! Wow, Pure Nepali Honey. These are all different or all the same? - Yes, all different. - Oh, different.
Oh, wow! Do you have a favorite one? - Favorite one? - Yes! - Yes, of course! - Which one? - I like the local bee honey the most. - Local bee honey. - Which is our natural bee. - Okay! - This one. - Yeah, this one. - Nice! - This kind of honey bee stay in this kind of house.
- In this? - Yes, this one. - Oh my God! This one? - Yes, this one. - It looks very closed. - Yeah! - But they go in here? - Yes! - Oh! - You can see this one.
- That's so cool. Oh, okay! And in there, they stay. - Yeah! They make a nest inside, - Okay! - and then make honey. - Wow! - It's very good. - Very good.
That's so interesting. So and this one, the small one, how much is it? - There is a price on it. - Oh, NPR 175. Pure Nepali Honey, this one is wild bee and it's 685 because it's rare, very rare. - Yeah, it's rare.
- Okay! And can I smell it or is it..? - Yeah, you can smell. - Okay! I'm really curious. It's very rare and it has a lot of health benefits, right? - Yes! - Okay, that's good! Whoa! - You can try it if you like.
- Can I try? - Yes! - It's so interesting. - And in this picture, you can see how people make this honey. - This is how it's made? - Yeah, yeah! Oh, it's very strong. - Yeah? - Yeah! No, I like it. You should try. What do you think? - Oh, yeah! - Good, right? Okay, I take this one.
There you go. Thank you! There are so many flower fields here in the Chitwan area, and actually, that's the honey that I bought now, so it's like a super local product and I'm so happy about it to use this back home as well. Only for 1 euro and 20 cents, and it's really from the local area. Wow, we are walking here outside of the honey shop and there are literally two huge elephants just walking here on the street.
They have people riding on them, but it's crazy to me to see this just in the middle of the day. I can't believe it. I'm gonna show you guys. I'm gonna cross the street. They are huge. I didn't know that Nepalese elephants are this big.
Wow! And they even have face paint on them; it's stunning to see. Elephants are such majestic animals, and there they go in the street. Wow! What is really interesting is that, like the street you can see here, there's not much to do on the street; it is so insanely quiet. For me, that's weird to see because all other places that we were, were packed with scooters, bikes, cars, everything, and here...
Oh, there comes a horse in the distance, you can see like the only thing that we can see right now is this horse and that tuk-tuk behind it, and that's it. Wow, look at it. Namaste! And here you see the tuk-tuk, and that's it.
That's crazy! Wow, it is so bright, but we made it. Look at how stunning this is. - Hello, Namaste! - Hello, Namaste! - Namaste! - How are you? - I am good and you? - I'm fine! - Wow, you look so nice. I love your style. Look at that. - Thank you! - Wow! - The best boy's of Chitwan. - Can I see your ring? Wow! I love it.
- We both have ring. That's cool, that's cool. - Hello, hello! - Hello! - What's your name? - Where are you from? - Susan. The Netherlands. - Where are you from? - The Netherlands. Wow, you guys look amazing. - Beautiful.
- What's your name? - My name is Janine. - Janine and you? - Susan. - Sushi? - Susan. - Where are you from? - The Netherlands. - Can we all say "Welcome to Nepal." - Welcome to Nepal.
- How old are you? - I'm 14. - 14. And you? - 14. - 14 as well. You're all 14. - Yeah! - You're so beautiful. - Thank you!
- Wow! What's your name? - Amisa. - Amisa. Nice to meet you! And what's your name? - Sumira. - Sumira, and yours? - Shivani.
- Wow, your names are stunning as well. And you go to school here or you're on a holiday? - School tour. - School tour. Where are you girls from? Where? - Damauli.
- Is that in Nepal? Oh, I don't know. Is it nice? - Yes! - Oh, beautiful! - Oh, God Shiva. - You like? - Yeah! - And the snake? - Yeah! - You have tattoos as well? You have tattoos? - No no...
- Tattoos? - No! - Tattoos gives us cancer. Okay, Mister! - You have boyfriend? - Boyfriend? No! - Do you have girlfriend? - No, I don't have. - So today you go on jungle safari? - Yeah! - On what time? - I don't know the time. - We can go together. - Yeah, yeah! - We go together. - What's your name? - My name is Susan.
Susan. - My friend name is also Susan. - Your what name? - Friend name. - Really, your friend? Where's your friend? What is he saying? - He's saying dog.
- Dog. Oh my God! - I'm 24 years old. - And you? - 25. - 25. - And you? - Tell us.
- 14. You're 13. - You're 13? - Yes! - 13... - Bye, see you! - Bye! - See you! Bye! - Bye bye! - See you soon. - Okay! - I love this.
- These kids were so sweet. Oh, I love them. But to go back to business, here you can see the beautiful river; it is quite big as well and it is so stunning. There's a strong current, so that is definitely interesting and it is really hot. I didn't expect it to be so hot in Chitwan area.
Wow! So we booked our tour at our accommodation. Our hotel is called Tree Tops Hotel, and we are going to do a shared safari and we found our guide here already. He was waiting for us, which is really nice, so here we are.
- You can wait for something here and I'll introduce you to the guide. - Okay! - And then you can continue. - Do we still wait here for 30 minutes? - Not 30, like sometimes because other guests are coming, so...
- Oh my God! He just points. He goes like, oh yeah, there's a crocodile here at the river and we have to cross the river within a few minutes. There you can see the crocodile; it's huge and there's a smaller one on the left. So we cross this river. - Yeah! - That's safe? - You go by the canoe, you know. - By the canoe. - Yeah, by the boat.
- But there's crocodile there, you know? - Yeah, but the canoe is not that dangerous. - Really? - Yeah! - Okay! We trust you, okay! - Yeah, it's fine. You can trust us. - Wow! - And you'll be walking there and there's a jeep, and you can...
- Okay! So here we'll cross the river in a canoe, and the crocodile is there and then we'll go there in the jeep. So good thing to know is that this tour is a shared tour. It costs us $30 per person, and you can book this at your own accommodation super easily. You can even book it here on the street. Hello! - Hello! - Namaste! - Namaste! - So you can just follow him.
- For a while, you can sit here. - Okay! - Okay, guys... - Thank you! - Have a nice journey. - Thank you so much! - See you in the evening, okay! Okay, see you! - Bye! - Bye! We are now walking to the little boat that's gonna help us cross the river, and look how nice this looks like. There are a lot of tables here; it's really nice vibe.
That really feels like a safari vibe here and there are the boats. Actually, there are quite a few tourists. A lot of people are doing this, I see. I'm curious how we're gonna sit in the boat. Okay, this is how it looks like.
A lot of people in a very small boat. Crossing a river which has crocodiles, oh my God! Crocodile river safely, check. Right now, we're walking to the jeep and it is insanely hot. This is the first time where I feel super hot in Nepal, and we just learned that this is the hottest region in Nepal, so it makes sense. Look how it looks like. There are so many cars here once you cross the river.
There are jeeps everywhere. They all look kind of the same. And we are now trying to figure out which one is our jeep and where we are going to spend the next 4 hours. Okay, here we are.
We step over and we are in the front row, which is amazing. We are about to leave. We have very good seats. I'm so excited because I have still no clue what we're gonna see, but it's so exciting.
Here we go. What's your name again? Raju. - Raju. - Raju. - Raju...
And Raju has been doing this since he was 25 years old. That's amazing! So since he was 25 years old, he is doing this range life already and he loves it in the nature. I can totally agree; it's truly beautiful already. - Two different kinds of lizards called the Indian monitor lizard and Golden monitor lizard. Okay, you can just follow the light. - Oh, yeah! - Oh, yeah, that one, yeah! - Yes, yes, yes, yes! The tail, yes! - Can you see? - Yes! We're seeing a really big lizard - Yeah! - and he is showing it with the little light in the tree.
You must have so many cool pictures. - I have many. - Because you've been doing this for such a long time. I love it. - Yeah! - I had a very nice picture last year of the tigers. Really? From the Tiger? - Yeah! - Are we gonna see one today? - Let's see. - Let's see.
- This is the wildlife; nobody can give a guarantee. - Yeah! We're literally experiencing jungle book vibes already. It is so beautiful and it is really a jungle where we are going through. It's so lush and green and the sun is coming through the leaves as well, so there's a beautiful light that is coming through. It is absolutely gorgeous and there's no one else to be seen here; we're the only jeep here. I love it.
Now crossing a very small bridge. It's a bit shaky, but it works. We just learned that this part is 968 square kilometers. That's huge. I can't even compare that.
Wow! So we're now in the south forest and a lot of these trees are older than 200 years and this wood is used to make even bridges because it's such strong wood. Look at how amazing this is. These trees are really high and so strong.
Wow, we see the monitor lizard right now. It's so cute. - Oh, this one was on the tree, yeah? - Wow! - Yeah, this one was on the tree.
Yeah, that's a big one. Wow, it's like a small Komodo dragon, almost. It's so cool. We have this in Indonesia as well.
- Yeah! - The Komodo dragon? Yes! Looks like Komodo dragon. - There you can see it. What's the name of the crocodile? - Marsh mugger. - Marsh mugger. - Yeah! Never heard of it before.
- Why's it opening the mouth? - Wow! - Because they are taking a sunbath to digest the food. - Oh! - So we have a red one. In other animals, they have a red, but in crocodile, it is a white one. - White and it eats a lot. - They eat a lot and they collect the energy for defeating at night.
Wow, okay! Beautiful! So far, we've seen a crocodile and a monitor lizard, and right now we are driving next to this beautiful lake and it's really huge as well. It has a lot of green on the lake. It feels like such a Jungle Book vibe here.
Truly beautiful! You like it? - I love it. I'm really enjoying it. - Yeah, it's stunning. It is a beautiful area that we are in right now. Rhinos...
- Look at the rhino over there. - Oh my God, we are about to see rhinos. He just said it.
- See in the water. - Wow! I've never seen a rhino; it is in the lake right now. This is truly magnificent.
Wow! So we have to be very quiet. We cannot really talk very loud. There's even a bird on the rhino. This is so peaceful to watch, wow! We just arrived at the crocodile breeding farm.
We're gonna have a look here. It's gonna be very interesting. It's so nice to stretch the legs again and this is NPR 100 that we have to pay right now to get into this crocodile breathing farm. Wow! - Oh my God, okay, you don't see it. This is crazy. There's so many small ones here.
They almost look fake, to be honest. They're not moving. They have the really long mouth and they're all super quiet, like they're not moving. Looks like little branches almost, wow! So with every cage, there are bigger ones. So now we saw the smallest ones; next to it, they're already a little bit bigger and now let's have a look at the really big boys. Oh, woohoo! This is crazy! They actually look so bad, as they look very mean, to be honest.
Their eyes, they look straight to your soul. Wow! I just found the biggest ones of all; they are huge. It's crazy how small the first ones are and how big they actually can get and they are stunning. The way they look like, I've never seen anything like this before in my life. Here, you can see the eggs how they normally look like.
That's crazy, wow! So the name of these crocodiles is Gharial, which is definitely something I never heard before, but here you can see it Gharial Conservation And Breeding Center. Wow! So these crocodiles actually faced extinction during the late 1970's and because of this breeding center they're now slowly coming back, which is definitely it's such a good initiative. I love that they have this here.
It is so beautiful. The sun is slowly already going down, and right now we are driving next to this absolutely gorgeous lake. It is super big as well and there are a few birds here and the sun coming through the trees. It is such a beautiful experience for all nature lovers. This is definitely the best. On the top, we see a monkey.
A grey monkey, wow! I don't think I've ever seen one like this before in the wild. It's just peacefully sitting there. I love it. It is coming to an end and it's actually quite cold, as you can see, but look at the sky; it is simply so so beautiful. There are so many clouds and it is perfectly blue. It is perfection. And that was the end of the safari, guys.
Wow! Look at how close we are to the water. It's scary a little bit. This is how many people we have in the boat. A lot of them I'm the last one.
If the... Oh! Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! This is scary. Okay, we made it.
- We made it back. - My heart is beating 10 times faster, but we made it. So we just left the riverside, and right now, it is time to go and explore the nightlife here. We're gonna look for a nice restaurant to have some food because apparently, here at night things are more alive. There are more people out and about, so I'm curious to check that out.
So what I always really like when I'm in a new city, I want to see the souvenir shops to see what they are selling. Here there are many different things. Oh! - I love it. - Nice!
Here, you can see everything is like, I think, made from wood. Look at how creative these things are. You see the elephants here. A lot of elephants made from woods are here and I think everything is evolving around the animals that you can see. Here, you can see the crocodile. A lot of handmade things.
It's actually super interesting and they have a lot, a lot. And we walk out of the souvenir shop and we bump into an elephant. Scared me so much. - He kicked it to the ears, you see. - Wow! I feel sad people riding on elephants, but it is normal here. But the elephant is so insanely huge and for me, it is so weird that you literally walk out of a souvenir shop and an elephant is standing in front of your nose.
We found a place where we're gonna have dinner; it's called Sauraha Tandoori Kitchen and Lodge. Very interesting, but it looks promising. So let's see.
This is the oven? - Yeah! - Oh my God! - And this is the dough. - That look so satisfying and here we have more. So we're now at the restaurant where we're gonna have dinner and it is super interesting because we can see how they are actually making naan. Here, they are making garlic naan. It's very cool.
And this is the oven where they put it in, so I'm gonna wait until he puts that in. Look at that, wow! And then here they're gonna take one out, I guess. One that's almost ready. Look how skilled they are. They have really good skills and then it goes on the caution like that and then, I think, put a little bit of water on it. Here we go.
He's gonna take one out. One that's almost done. Oh, wow! Okay, there it goes.
And then the new one is gonna go in. You smash it against the wall. You just smash it, right? - Yeah! That's it.
I'm gonna have a look from the other side. I'm really curious. Oh, there you can see it.
Okay, so they literally smash it against the really hot one and then they just leave it there for a couple of minutes and that's it. And here you can see the fresh garlic, the fresh bread, I think, the butter and some water. Wow! And one thing that I've been seeing in Chitwan so so much is that they have these long things with meat on it, and here it is chicken. This is how it looks like.
A lot of them. We've seen it with chicken, I guess with beef, I think with lamb as well. I'm really curious because they've been grilling it everywhere on the barbecue and their barbecue, this is how the barbecues look like. So the chicken things that I saw hanging here; they're actually called Chicken Sekuwa. They have chicken, pork, mutton and tandoori chicken. Really interesting.
I ordered the chicken one because I'm super curious how it tastes like. I've been seeing them everywhere here on the street and we also ordered naan, the one that we've seen, and some more butter chicken masala, so we're gonna try everything out. We got the skewer, the chicken one, and it actually looks like this, so it's not served on a skewer, but it's served in an aluminium bowl. I'm so excited for this. Okay, so this is how it looks like.
We're gonna have our first bite now. Is that the sauce? - Yeah! - Maybe it's spicy. - Yeah! - Yeah, be careful.
Okay, here we go. Wow! It's hot. - Sorry, but this is the bone.
- Oh my God, this is so nice. I love the barbecue flavor, I think. This sauce that you get with it; it's pure devil, so don't take it. It's way too spicy, but the chicken itself, I love the flavor.
There are bones in it, which I don't really like. - Yeah! - But the chicken is so tender; it has a lot of flavor like a lot, a lot. - The spices and herbs are really nice. - Wow! I love the spices and herbs. What do we rate this? - 8 out of 10.
- 8.5 out of 10. Really good. So all the food has arrived. This is how the plain naan looks like and we have the butter chicken masala, so we are going to dig in now. This food was literally 10 out of 10.
We enjoyed ourselves so much. We had a really nice evening. Right now, we're gonna walk back to our hotel and then tomorrow morning, we're off to another adventure, so I will see you guys in the morning.
2024-02-27 10:50
