one baby elephant please

Chitwan National Park is a big nature reserve in southern region of Nepal known as the Terai, which is pretty much a flat-plane area known for agriculture, being really hot and a huge jungle with tigers, asian elephants, rhinos, big snakes, leopards, crocodiles and other stuff.

as part of my volunteer program, we get to go for two days and check it out; walk in the jungle, ride elephants, hang out with elephants and canoe down a river.

so lazy he can't even lift his own trunk.

meet Goodwin. he lives at the lodge we stayed out and tagged along just about everywhere we went.

a big leech looking for it's next meal. crazy things. this one was maybe 3 inches long. God knows how fat he'd get if he got to gorge himself on your ankle for a bit.

elephant rides

four per elephant. we had two french girls and a guy from Arizona.

i drew the short straw for the views...

an indian couple was on the elephant behind us. she wore high heels and he talked on his cell phone for the entire two hours. somebody please remind me why American travelers are cursed so much?

mom and baby rhino in the wild

jungle

if you rode elephants all day, do you think you'd look this upset? he should quit his job and travel for a little bit. 

my ride

the pet elephant

the place we stayed had it's own elephant. it didn't do anything but stay chained up the whole time. we could walk right up to it and pet it. if i had to guess, that elephant could rip that chain out of the ground pretty easily.

she was a gem though. i think i found my new favorite animal.

elephant trunks are pretty cool

bath time

nailed it

jungle walk

what's the saying about walk quietly and carry a big stick? he carried two.

jungle

killer tree vine. that's what they called it.

Nepal has pretty cool clouds sometimes.*
*i swear i'm not as big of a hippy as that comment makes me sound.

elephant breeding center

the highlight was definitely this like 6 week old elephant. she wasn't tied up at all and the nobody really cared where she went.

she came right up to me to play. stuck her trunk in my pocket looking for food and everything. it was absolutely incredible. i got to play with a baby elephant. i want an elephant.

parting shots of Chitwan

soccer anyone?

waiting for the ferry boat. this one was full.

many times, you'd drive through town or be out and see people riding elephants casually around town like bicycles or cars out running errands. it was awesome. could you imagine seeing somebody riding an elephant to work on I-5 in Seattle?