The Wonders of Wayanad

After setting off from Ooty, my crew of visitors headed to a place called Jungle Retreat in Wayanad. This was another 5 hour trek in the car with our now friendlier driver and we arrived around 5:30 in the evening to a beautiful secluded group of small cottages that were literally in the middle of the jungle. We were sharing a two bedroom suite type of cottage that was very simple and clean. Each room had a really nice balcony and we were soon sitting outside enjoying tea and snacks as we listened to the sounds of nature. There were crickets that sounded like lawn mowers and we literally had to yell to hear over the sound. After tea, we unpacked a little and chatted with the staff about our agenda for the next day. They were two of the friendliest guys I've encountered since coming here and all of us enjoyed the stay very much as they attended to our requests and showed us different sights and sounds of the jungle. We played a few card games in the outdoor dining area and climbed up to the watchtower to scout out wildlife. That night we saw a ton of deer and some wild boar. We ate a delicious and simple Kerala style meal and headed to bed shortly after. We knew we were going to have an early start.

The next day we were up at 5:30 to head out to Nagarhole Forest in order to try and book a jeep tour in the jungle. There is only one jeep available and it was said to us that it was a first come, first serve basis type of thing so we tried to be the first in line. Unfortunately when we arrived, we found that someone had beat us to it and we couldn't hire the jeep so we took the bus ride instead. Other than being pricey, it still was pretty nice and we saw many things along the way, such as tons of deer, Malabar squirrels, peacocks, an anteater, a small viper, and a family of elephants. We drove back with Manu (one of our guides from the retreat) at a leisurely speed, stopping to take photos and enjoy the view. We headed to a Tibetan Colony that was located nearby and toured a monastery and small village. This area had been given to Tibetan refugees and it was so interesting to see. After walking around, we stopped in the local cafe and had "momos" which are basically fried dumplings. They were delicious!

We headed back towards the Jungle Retreat and Manu jokingly asked if any of us wanted to drive the jeep. Well, he doesn't know me well enough to know that I of course would take him up on the offer. I said, "Yes! I want to drive. Can I???" He smiled and agreed. So it was my first attempt at driving in India on the left side of the road on the right side of the car. It was a challenge for sure as almost all cars here are a stick shift. This one happened to be completely opposite of my car's shifting style so I was really up a creek...but I persevered and got it into gear and took off! It was another added component of our adventure as my family and friends started giving me a hard time about the occasional veering off the side of the road. Luckily we had few obstacles, the wildlife must have heard there was a new driver on the road. My aunt casually says from the backseat, "I'm not worried. I have traveler's insurance." Manu pipes up, "Me also, am insured." We started dying laughing. Luckily we got that on video.

Once we got back to our cottage, we had lunch, and some of us made use of their swimming pool. We relaxed for a couple hours and then did our best to find the right colored clothes to wear for our jungle trek. As we were not warned in advance, this became a bit challenging as most of us had typical Indian bright patterns and colors on our clothes. Finally we all managed to find something wearable and headed on a trek into the jungle. Manu gave us a list of rules to follow in order to stay safe and I think all of us felt a little bit of nervous tension as he described how there was nothing to do but run if we encountered a wild elephant and that we were supposed to stare down a tiger and stay still if we ran into one of those predators during our hike. To make it all the worse for my friend who is not a fan of snakes and spiders and other creepy crawlies, we had to walk through some tall brush and under branches, that kind of thing. She was freaking out a bit but I was so proud of her for going with us. It certainly wasn't AZ hiking! We climbed for about 15 minutes or so and had to be really quiet. That proved a little difficult for my cousin and I as she fell on her butt at one point and we, the mature people that we are, couldn't stop laughing. When you've grown up with someone, all it takes is one look for the giggles to overpower you once again! After a few more minutes of weaving around the jungle, Manu held up his hand for us to hush and he whispered that he saw tiger tracks. We were all excited by this until he proceeded to tell us that they were only about an hour or so old (quite fresh) and he said we had to turn back for our safety. Unfortunately we had to come back down a different way than we had climbed up and it was even thicker than the climb going up. I felt so bad for my friend who was pretty fearful at this point and marched on the tall grass and brush as to warn anything crawling down below that she was there. We made it back without any issues and my friend collapsed on the bed with relief as my cousin and I decided to go play some cards at the dining area.

It wasn't too long into our card game that my cousin started telling me that she had not really understood what Manu had explained to us the previous night about the "alarm call. " Neither of us had understood what he was saying because it really sounded like "lamb call" when he was describing this to us. We all kind of just smiled and nodded as we pretended to know what he was talking about. We eventually after some time figured out that he meant "alarm call" but my cousin proceeded to tell me how she had made sense of "lamb call" in her head. I asked her to explain such brilliant logic and she said, "Well, I thought he meant that the deer made a sound like a lamb in order to see if any predators would come running. If they came and there was nothing out in the open, they would be like "Suckers, you fell for it! haha" But if no predators came, then they knew it would be safe for them to go out to drink the water." I was doubled over laughing as she said, "Hey, it made sense in my head." I'm not sure I'll ever be able to stop teasing her about that one!

As we laughed and continued with our game, my aunt came down and was chatting with us for a few minutes and then decided to head to the watchtower. We promised to come soon and attempted to finish our game when Manu came flying down the stairs with a wild look of excitement in his eyes and said, "Elephant!" We dropped the game and quietly followed him to the watchtower. A young female had just come out of the jungle and was exploring literally right in front of the tower. We had about 30 minutes with her as we just watched in wonder and I couldn't believe how close we were to a wild elephant. My friend had been resting and Manu sent another staff member to go grab her from the room so she wouldn't miss out. It was such a cool thing to see and I felt so blessed that God had allowed us to witness this part of creation particularly with a gorgeous sunset in the background. After our up close encounter, we had dinner and then came one of my favorite parts of the trip. Manu and Anish were arranging for us to have a campfire under the stars before bed. We weren't sure we would get to do half of what we had planned since it was the start of the monsoon season, but again we were blessed with incredible weather. My aunt and cousin had hit a wall and literally couldn't stay awake during dinner so they unfortunately missed out. But my friend and I, another newly married Indian couple and the staff guys had a great time trading cultural music, stories and just laughing with one another. I never wanted that evening to end but after a 5:30am start, we eventually couldn't keep our eyes open and went to bed around midnight. Great times at Jungle Retreat!

A Different Way of Thinking

I had a pretty amusing conversation today on the way to work with one of the doctors I work with. He and I started talking about cars and he asked me what kind of car I drove in the U.S. I told him that I drove a Honda and that my family currently has it and are paying the insurance fees. He explained how there is such a huge difference between our country's enforcing of the whole insurance business compared to here. He said when there is an accident here, you automatically assume the person that hit you does not have any insurance and there's no reason to get mad...that's just the way it is. He and I then went on to talk about return policies for business and the idea of customer service. I explained to him how Costco will pretty much take anything back even without a receipt and if you've used it for a great deal of time. I said, "For example, if you buy a new big screen TV and after 6 months, it stops working, you bring it back to the store and they will replace it with a new one." He looked at me in disbelief and said, "That would never happen here in India. If you got 6 months out of it, that was it's life. Forgot a replacement, you'll be lucky to walk out of the shop with a repair phone number." The store owners expect that once you buy something, they are done with you and have no obligation to help you when it breaks. He said, "You buy something and hope for good karma!" We had a good laugh as he said, "Costco may be a reason to think about changing my career and moving to the US!"

I then proceeded to tell him how I had bought a phone adapter back in February and then 3 weeks later it stopped working. I told him that I tried to take it back to the store and they looked at me like I was crazy. Now it all makes sense...there are no such thing as returns. He laughed so hard as he imagined the store owners looking at me like, "Yeah, you had it for 3 weeks. That's pretty good. Guess you need to buy a new one." I insisted on getting a replacement and looking back, I can see how "American" of me that was. It was very likely that I took the store owner's own personal adapter as he pulled one out of the wall and said to me, "Because you are a foreigner I will give you a new one." It definitely wasn't new and didn't look a thing like the original one I bought. I feel badly now as I realize I probably stole his own working adapter! My doctor friend really laughed at this story. You live and learn huh?

One other funny part of our conversation was when I was explaining about doing taxes and how I do my own because they are simple but others in the U.S. use a tax company and pay a fee. I mentioned that if I have any questions, I can call my uncle for some free advice because he's an accountant. The doctor laughed at the word free. He said, "You are happy because he would offer you free advice? Of course. He must. He's your uncle. Here in India, I could call my sister's husband's dad's friend's uncle in the middle of the night and he has to help me. There is no question. It doesn't have to be my actual uncle. But if he knows something, he must tell me." I laughed as I explained this was not really possible in America. Talk about individualistic vs. community living! It was such an interesting conversation that I had to share :)