It's a jungle out there.....

Trip to the Kabini lodge.

What an awesome two days. We traveled on roads that for the standards in India were ok until we reached the last ten km which was a dirt road plagued with pot holes and debris. According to Varma, (p164), from the time he wrote his book through 2007 the Government of India will have spent 12 bil on road construction, covering 13000 km’s or 8125 miles. With the current road ways, that will barely dent the landscape. The significance of the road showed the contrasts of India and its culture and the challenges that they will face.

The time was very relaxing as we spent the first couple of hours hanging out on a hammock that held 10 of us. After a brief stroll around the compound we stumbled across the second flattener of Friedman, an old style satellite dish what was five feet in diameter. The last time I saw such a large satellite dish was off of hwy 42 in Minneapolis where there is a satellite grave yard. This giant piece of equipment is keeping this peaceful hide-a-way resort connected to the world.

The evening safari was awesome. There were 9 of us in the TATA jeep that drove around the park. The sides of the jeep open and our guide hung off the side scouting for various wildlife. We were able to see elephants, deer, Guru’s, peacocks, and various other birds during the three hours that we spent traveling the country side.

Safaris have some a long way since the back packing and horse days. The off road vehicles where equipped with Motorola radios that the guides used to communicate back and forth with and where the animals were. Our guide also had a high-tic pair of binoculars that we use to zoom in on the various animals that were almost too far to see with the human eye.

There was an event that happened at dinner that evening, that bothered me, and it bothered me enough to inquire about the next day. When we were sitting at dinner that evening with our guide from SDM, the driver from the school went through the food line and sat at the table next to us, even though there was ample room at the table. I motioned for him to come and sit with us, but as he looked around the table and saw who we were sitting with, he declined. Varma spoke of the hierarchical society in India, however I did not recognize that it existed to that degree. That is where I like how India handles the school system in India. Other than a few private schools, the government runs the schools and the students are given uniforms to wear each day and the meals are also paid for by the school. I like how the government has taken class structure out of the clothing and meals and gives each student a chance to education where by looking at a student you do not know if they come from money or not.

With a wake up call at 5 am to do yoga, we started the am fresh and rejuvenated. I have come to the conclusion that I will never have the flexibility that I once had. The morning safari yielded the same animals, although we spent the better part of an hour looking for a tiger. We finished the morning with at fantastic breakfast day with eggs over easy and a grueling 3 hr buss ride.

The flattener of the evening was at trip to Regallis Hotel, a five star hotel for my first Indian hair cut. For $140 rupees I received a hair cur, head, neck and back massage, straight razor shave done twice and a shampoo. What a deal. The event was an Indian barber that used French shampoo, Gillette razor blade and shaving cream and Axe after shave. What an international event.

After 4-5 hrs of paying attention to my real job, I joined the group for a night cap at a club called The Road. They try very hard to immolate the American society, with theme nights. They had a hip-hop night where the dance music was from the 80’s and 90’s but the weird thing was the staff was dressed in cow boy outfits. What a warped sense of the western world.

Good night.