One-horned rhino hunting

Well, not hunting. But it sure felt like a throwback to India's colonial days, riding atop an elephant through eight-foot grasses at dawn in pursuit of a rhino. All I was missing was a big white mustache.

Khaziranga National Park in northeast India—the bulbous part of the country surrounded by Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, and China—is tough to get to but worth the visit. From Delhi, I took a 3-hour flight, an 8-hour train, and a 4-hour bus. Planes, trains, and automobiles. The rhinos, with their charcoal plated armor and articulated rib bones, look as close as anything to prehistoric. They grunt and stomp and charge, even overturn a safari jeep or two when they get the urge. That one horn packs a punch.