Kabini River Lodge - Day 1

Today we headed to the Kabini River Lodge. The trip there was interesting. It was a ramshackle bus (again with no air conditioning) and the fumes and dust were (again) overwhelming. The roads were atrocious and we bounced around for almost two hours before we reached the Kabini River Lodge. Once we got here, time seemed to slow down some. This is a beautiful place with our rooms in British-style bungalows with lovely covered porches extending along the entire front of the building. We could sit in the breezeway and just listen to the sounds of the birds and the rustle of the leaves in the breeze. Very relaxing. Even here, the signs of the flattening world are everywhere. We just took a 2-hour ride on an old bus through rutted and unpaved roads and found ourselves in the middle of an idyllic jungle resort. Still, my cell phone signal was strong and I found a cell tower right next to a colonial bungalow on the grounds. On the drive over, we passed through many tiny villages with miniscule tin shacks that served as general stores and seemed to be no bigger than refrigerator cartons. Yet, many of them proudly displayed “AirTel” (a local mobile phone company). Here. In the midst of extremely rural and poverty-stricken India, I could still buy a SIM card for my cell phone.

We went for a “Jeep Safari” in the afternoon and saw wild elephants, thousands of spotted deer, a Malabar giant squirrel, some sambhar, peacocks, and much more. Quite a trek. My raw throat has grown into a drippy nose and hacking cough.