Tiger Country

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Last week, after leaving Chitvan Suites at Pench Nat'l Park (a fantastic hotel), we drove to Bandhav Villas at Bandhavgarh Nat'l Park. The drive... Driver has black hair, partially died orange. His style is to excellerate as much as possible whenever possible, to lurch to a halt when necessary, and to whirl within milimeters of cars, trucks, bikers, adult pedestrians, children, cows, dogs, goats and squirrels. Common refrains: "Ahh," "Ugg," "Oh my god," "Did you hit it?" and "That's too close. Please don't do that again." The drive between the parks took over 8 hours, when we were expecting 5, in part due to the "shortcut." The shortcut took us over about 30 k on a path that had not been repaired since the rainy season, and involved driving the early-1990s style van through at least one creek.

Anyway...enough negative, some positives. All of these hotels have been amazing. Chitvan is surrounded by a several acre organic garden. Many of the Park and hotel workers are tribal people who are not experienced with vegetable gardening, though they grew rice, wheat, and lentils on their own farms. So, the hotel partially used the garden as a method to teach them the farming practices for themselves. (Chitvan has become a swear word to us because the c is pronouced as an s.)

The staff was a customer service trainer's dream. They were all abundantly cheerful, kind, helpful and service-oriented. For example, at meals, we had a staff of several watching for us to finish something. If it was food, they promptly asked if we wanted more. If it was water, they immediately refilled it without request. I didn't want to waste the water, so I frequently emptied the glass, only to have it refilled when I was distracted. Eventually, I learned to keep my hand near or over the top when it was empty so that I could limit my intake.

One evening, Laura was feeling poorly, having come down with a cold. The staff brought her a lemon tea, blanket, water bottle, and food, so that she could rest in a hammock before dinner. She quizzed them on why they were so kind. After some prompting, they explained that they feel that guests are "like gods" because we bring resources to them that helps them feed their families. Initially, I had thought what I characterized as "over-service" as a fear/anxiety-based remnant of being treated poorly by uptight British employers. We were startled and touched by this explanation. Thereafter, we stopped trying to do things for ourselves to that we didn't seem spoiled to them, and let them spoil us. All of the people have been so kind and accomodating that we have been very moved. I think it made us all reflect on how we, and American workers in general, bring expectations to work. While we all are/were professionals who really put in lots of effort to do a good job, none of us was on par with our hosts-- when we return, we will work with their attitude in mind.

We vistited Bandhavgahr Park twice. We saw a tiger both times. Though the elephants of the Tiger Shows are great, siting the tiger from the jeep feels more authentic.

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