NEPAL

ROYAL CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK

My husband and I visited Nepal in 1995, and the best part of the trip was our stay at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in the Royal Chitwan National Park. This park is the home of the endangered Bengal tiger and the one-horned Asian rhinoceros as well as many other species of animals. The lodge is built out of reeds in the native style. There's a generator in the dining hall for refrigeration and ice, but the accommodations are lit by kerosene lanterns. Water for showers is solar-heated.

The real fun comes when you go out on elephant-back game-viewing safaris. Two or three people fit on a platform on each elephant, with a driver sitting on the animal's neck. About a dozen or so tourist-loaded elephants go out together. The elephants are trained for years to accommodate passengers and to help find game. At one point on one of our safaris, they found a rhino in tall grass (above the rhino's head), surrounded him and herded him out into the open so everyone could have a good look. The rhino stood there stamping and snorting, and when he tried to charge through an opening, the elephants closed rank.

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