Life in the jungle

We have taken the trip from Kathmandu to the jungle of Chitwan, close to the Indian border. Here the Bengali tiger lives alongside with rhinos, leopards, monkeys, bears, snakes, wild elephants, pigs and you name it. It is in the middle of the day, and we are resting at the hotel after a long journey.

Suddenly we here a roar. We run over to the windows. We can almost not believe what is happening right in front of us. Another roar. It´s the elephants who are coming to take a bath in the river. Three tourists sit on the back, ready to get a shower from the trunk. – Dooooper – Doooper. Give me water, give med water, the elephant tamer says. But it is out of season, the water is too cold and the elephant does not want to get into it. Stirred it runs several meters in the water and before anyone knows it, they are all in the water, both the shocked tourists and the colossal elephant, which has now laid over to one side and is kicking its giant feet in the water.

The tourists splash and crank with their hands, terrified to end up under the heavy colossus that seems to be completely out of control. The elephant tamer jumps up on the side of its big back, while shouting and hitting with a small stick. Eventually, the elephant gets up, slowly, on his feet. Two of the tourists climb hesitantly on his back again. People from the area, both tourists and people working in hotels and restaurants, gather at the riverbed to see what is happening. Once again, the two deeply soaked tourists are thrown into the river. A liberating laughter spreads among the spectators and more people are coming to see.

In the evening we sit by the fire together with the hotel staff. It is cold in January. The stout and charismatic chef begins to tell stories in Nepali. Every time he finishes a story, the crowd bursts in laughter. Once he was so tired after having done the dishes all day, that he fell down from a ladder and ended up in hospital. Laughter. Later he tells stories about all the guests who have visited the hotel. An Englishman who was there recently, arrived in a helicopter and spent money like water. Eventually he was so broke and unrattled that he asked the hotel staff what in the world he was going to do. They suggested he needed to go back to his work in Kathmandu, that maybe he had some important things waiting for him there? The man thought about it, yes, they were certainly right, but how could he go there without any money left? Then the staff collected money for the cheapest microbus they could find. He came in a helicopter and left in a microbus. The crowd laughs in tears.

Chitwan, January 2005

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