Sauraha

Sauraha is a town on the border of the Chitwan National Park.

Understand
Sauraha, Chitwan District, lies just across the Rapti River from Chitwan National Park. It is the eastern gateway to the park. The town provides tourism services including jungle safaris and primarily caters to tourists. Beginning literally as small and very quaint Tharu village of mud and daub huts and houses, with a half dozen mud and daub hotels, it has grown, for good or ill, into a small town full of Western-style hotels/resorts, restaurants, Internet cafes, and gift shops.

By air
In addition to good road access, Sauraha has good air connections through Bharatpur airport (Nepali: भरतपुर विमानस्थल) with regular daily air services from Pokhara and Kathmandu, making it the main tourist gateway to Chitwan National Park. It is located in the Chitwan district of Narayani zone, about 1.6 km southwest of Bharatpur and 15km west of Sauraha. You will need to change to bus, jeep or taxi for connection to Sauraha.

By bus
The Sauraha bus stand is located east from the main tourist road in Sauraha. When you get off the bus, you will be swarmed by touts waving pamphlets and offering to drive you into town. Ignore them or say you have a reservation and they will be respectful. It is a 15-minute walk into town. Backtrack on the dirt road the bus drove in on, take your first right, then follow the lodge signs into Sauraha.

There are several types of buses available from Kathmandu: Cheap Birganj-bound buses which will drop you at Tadi Bazaar about 6 km north of Sunauli where you can easily get local bus, taxi, rickshaws, tanga/pony carts. A bicycle rickshaw can take about 45 minutes and costs Rs. 120.

Several companies operate buses that go directly from the tourist bus park on Swayambhu Marg north of Thamel in Kathmandu to the bus park in Sauraha (Rs. 800 through an agency, Rs. 600 if you buy directly from the driver). Most buses board at 6:30 and depart between 6:45 and 7:00 in the morning; however, during busy season an afternoon bus leaves at 1PM - ask an agency to confirm it is running.

All buses travel via Mugling, Narayangarh/Bharatpur, Tadi Bazaar, Sauraha take around 5 to 6 hrs.

Via Sunauli / Bhairahawa on an east-bound (Birganj/Biratnagar) bus traveling through Butwal, Bharatpur, Tadi Bazaar. Change to local bus, jeep, pony cart, rickshaw to Sauraha (3-4 hrs).

Via Pokhara, like Kathmandu, direct tourist buses are available via Mugling, Narayangarh/Bharatpur, Tadi Bazaar, Sauraha (3-4 hrs).

See

 * Rare one-horned Rhino in Chitwan National Park (and many more wild animals)
 * International Elephant Race (December)
 * World Elephant Polo Competition
 * International Elephant Race (December)
 * World Elephant Polo Competition
 * International Elephant Race (December)
 * World Elephant Polo Competition
 * World Elephant Polo Competition

Do
Jungle and wildlife safaris by foot, jeep and elephant. You may see the great one horned rhinoceros (there are hundreds of them in Chitwan). Also many types of deer, monkeys, crocodiles, pythons, and rarely, Sher Khan, the great Indian Tiger.

Bird watching in and around the jungle. Especially Bishajar Tal (20,000 lakes) wetlands area approximately 10 km northwest of Sauraha.

Buy
There are a dozen or more gift shops around the main bazaar area. Tharu wares like dhokiya-woven colourful baskets are made locally from rice straw.

Drink

 * Jungle Pub The original bar on the beach, and the ideal place to watch the sun go down over the jungle. It's also the hang-out of the custom motorcycle riders from Kathmandu and Pokhara when they're in town, so you might see some interesting Royal Enfield bikes.

Go next

 * Bhairahawa
 * Bharatpu
 * Bharatpur
 * Birganj
 * Kathmandu
 * Mugling
 * Narayangarh
 * Pokhara
 * Tadi Bazaar