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<\/a><\/p>\nFarming is the main occupation with multiple crops grown including rice, corn, cauliflower & mustard. Tourism is helping to diversify the economy but it is still common for young people in each family to go outside the country for jobs so they can earn more money to support their extended families.<\/p>\n
Just before lunch Tek gave a slideshow presentation about the park to our group & then after lunch we all boarded a jeep & headed off to Chitwan National Park to see some sights & see some wildlife.<\/p>\n The park is a protected nature preserve with many species of trees, flowering plants, birds, deer, wild boars, cheetahs, tigers, rhinos & crocodiles.<\/p>\n The Narayani River flows through the park & there are essentially three main terrains: the river, the floodplain & flatlands adjacent to the river & the forest\/jungle. We travelled through each of these areas & Tek was excellent at spotting & pointing out unique plants & wildlife to us.<\/p>\n During our tour we saw many different different types of birds including a wild peacock. We also saw some deer & a wild boar and several beautiful butterflies- black and orange striped, yellow and light blue. But the real highlight for everyone was the rhino we encountered!<\/p>\n As soon as Tek spotted it he instructed our diver to stop the jeep & turn off the engine. He told us all to be very quiet & then began to make a series of soft whistles to attract the rhino\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n The rhino started flapping it\u2019s ears, came out of the bushes & began walking slowly towards the jeep. Gulp, hope he\u2019s not PO\u2019d with us intruding on his \u201cpatch\u201d.<\/p>\n I took a bunch of photos as it approached & then shot a video of the rest of the encounter. I will post the video on YouTube as soon as I get a strong enough wifi signal.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n