This region is obviously more fertile than the area around Jomsom and is covered with a variety of crops. The rice is being harvested and the rice stalks are being piled into stacks, I suppose for winter feed for the animals.
Chitwan National Park has many resorts but we’re booked into one of the bigger ones – the Chitwan Rhino Residency. Our rooms are built in a circle so we’re all pretty close to each other and near the pool and dining room.
We arrive in time for lunch then it’s off, by a wagon pulled by oxen to visit a local village of the Tharu community who fled from India many generations ago but have maintained much of their culture and language. Their houses traditionally are daubed with a mixture of clay and dung and many are built on stilts to avoid the annual monsoonal flooding. 
Those villagers who can afford it have installed methane generators like the one in the picture. The dung is in a pit covered by the rectangular blocks you can see. Extra dung is added through the circular concrete pipe and the gas is fed to the house via the galvanized pipe. Apparently, the system will last indefinitely.
On the way back, couple of kids jump on the bak of the wagon for a ride, and maybe in the hope of a few rupees. No such luck! We're asked not to give them money as it teaches them to be beggars.They are a very attractive people and hard-working. The guide who takes us to the village is a very precise man and very knowledgeable. I know you can see Asperger’s Syndrome in almost everyone but this man is a classic case.
On the way back from the village he took us to the riverbank to watch the sunset, telling us about local birds on the way. He turns up again in the evening introducing a cultural show which features the young men of the village. 
It was quite impressive and obviously well-rehearsed, but tomorrow is the big day for us – we are going to see more elephants than you can imagine.
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