An excellent base from which to explore the park is O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat, a rustic guesthouse built in 1926, with its accommodation options ranging from comfortable modern villas to cosy log cabins to basic rooms in the original guesthouse.
A varied breakfast buffet is served until noon on weekends (19.50 euros a person, not included in the basic room rate), but a receptionist assured me that breakfast could also be ordered and served in-room — the only catch is the lack of a menu from which to order.
Prices quoted in late April are for a basic room without a harbor view on the night of June 19.
The 138 rooms in the hotel range from a 365-square-foot basic room to a 1,165 -square-foot suite with a Jacuzzi and two bedrooms.
"I sleep in a basic room, no television, wake up in the morning, run, have breakfast, sleep, do gym in the afternoon and another run in the evening," he tells BBC Sport.
Some satras, such as the one Uttar Kamalabari, can put visitors up in very basic rooms for a couple of pounds.
Stay The cheap and chic Marina hotel (0034 963 203 010, room-matehotels.com, doubles from €70) in the port has basic rooms but a great location.
In one property, we saw several families each paying hundreds of pounds a month to live in a very basic room.
Delivery rooms were basic rooms with a simple delivery bed; all had electric lights but only 40% had running water.
(They have, of course, increased with the times, said Mr. Gold, explaining that the basic room price started out in the late 1960s at $450).
