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Having said good-bye to Pokhara, we arrived in Chitwan after a 5 hour bus journey. The journey moved us from lush green valleys with snow-capped peaks behind down onto the hot, flat plains of Nepal known as the Terai. Our hotel was located right beside the river and we were very thankful for the powerful fan as after 4 months in the hills the humid heat was a bit of a shock. We had opted for a package tour which crammed a lot in to a short stay.

Had it been up to us we might have taken it easy for the rest of the day after the journey from Pokhara, but after lunch the itinerary kicked in and we were taken to the elephant breeding centre. This was an interesting place where the baby elephants wander around and greet the visitors with endearing curiosity. It was slightly unnerving at first as the way that the young elephants get out of the pens is by clambering over iron fences which have obviously been trampled at some point; however, the twin 10 month old calves that came out to greet us soon made us forget any fears. One in particular seemed to have a fetish for feet and Heather was among those whose shoes were thoroughly explored by his trunk. A bit of adrenalin was reintroduced to proceedings when someone asked asked one of the guides about the restraints on the older, larger elephants and the broken fences; the answer included the far from reassuring phrase “sometimes they hurt people”. We can't now remember whether this was before or after a mid-sized elephant tramped past with its broken chain trailing behind it.

The next day we were up early to go on a dug-out canoe ride down the river. This was a very pleasant and relaxing way to start the day. Our knowledgeable guide pointed out loads of different birds including: egrets, wagtails, martins, three different types of kingfisher, two different eagles, peregrine falcon, and a giant stork. From the end of the canoe ride, where we were greeted by a bunch of lemur monkeys, we then had a 2 hour jungle walk back. The guide was well practised in adding to the drama of walking through the national park by pointing out the fresh tracks and dung of rhinos, bears, elephants and tiger scratchings. We were not at all disappointed not to have a first hand encounter with any of these beasts whilst on foot and it was a very interesting walk through 8 foot elephant grass and mixed jungle.

We got back to the village just in time for the elephant baths. Heather was very excited about splashing about with the elephants, and chose a very good person to ask to take a few snaps with our camera whilst we climbed onto the back of one of the gentle giants. Several trunk-fulls of water were sprayed over us before the elephant dropped to its knees and toppled us into the river. This was all great fun for us, and the elephants seemed quite happy to be cooling off too.

More elephants in the afternoon, with a ride through the jungle on a platform on the back of one. We weren't holding high hopes of seeing much wildlife, but were pleasantly surprised by a few encounters with some deer, a crocodile, and 3 different rhinos. It really was impressive how little notice the rhinos seemed to take of the handful of elephants with their complements of camera-toting tourists. We've seen them before in zoos, but to be so close to them with only another massive pachyderm as protection was really quite something. The experience of riding the elephant through the jungle was enough in itself; our one seemed to delight in snapping large branches out of the path with an effortless twist of his trunk. We got the unexpected bonus of an extended ride all the way back to our hotel although by the time we got there we were very ready to climb off and there were quite a few funny walks as people stretched off aching limbs and buttocks.

We soothed our limbs with a gin and tonic down by the river watching the sunset. It was quite a novelty after all of the hill/mountain terrain that we have been in for the last four months to see the sun setting over a relatively flat horizon. Sitting beside the slow-moving river, watching egrets and kingfishers and watching the blazing orange sun cut through the jungle and elephant grass in front of us was certainly something we appreciated both nights we were in Chitwan.

We had another early start (bit of a theme recently) to get a lift to the junction where we'd meet our bus heading East towards the border with India. This all worked out fine, but it was a long long bus journey – about 10 and a half hours on seats that rendered our derrières numb within 30 mins or so. We had a few stops along the way – including one for some very good dal bhat at an unglamorous roadside place (which we thought might be our last in Nepal).

By the time we arrived in Kakarbhittha, it was about to get dark and we'd had about enough of bus travel for the day. We checked into a somewhat dingy hotel and wandered off in search of a cold beer and more dal bhat (we think we might be addicted).

After a leisurely start the next morning, we loaded ourselves up and set out to cross the Indian border on foot. On the other side of the border, over the river, we arrived in Panatanki which made Kakarbhitta look positively picturesque; we were glad we had not arrived here at dusk the night before. We picked up a bus to the nearby hub of Siliguri and although the bus was not any better than the standard fare in Nepal we were suitably impressed by the smooth tarmac road and rapid progress.

The final leg of the journey was in a share jeep, which by the time it left had more than ten passengers on board and was sweltering hot. It was not long before the road started to zig-zag steeply back up into the hills and the road deteriorated equally quickly. For some reason the jeep ride was significantly longer than we'd expected and we were very happy to arrive in Darjeeling; our home for the next few days. We caught a glimpse of some of the spectacular Himalayan views which the town sometimes benefits from on the way up, and we hope there will be more to come during our stay.

Four months in Nepal and we are now in India for the next few weeks. The hotel we are staying in tonight is run by Nepalis, so can you guess what we are going to have for dinner?

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