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People here are sooo friendly and helpful! At the airport I was directed to the train by 4 different persons without even asking. At the train stations I get plenty of help - I usually know where I'm going, but there are no time tables, hardly any signs saying where you are or where you're going and on one station there weren't even numbered tracks.
I visited a textil shop and tried on a tunic (no dressing rooms of course), and as my own shirt slid up a little when I struggled with the garnment (my head seems to be a lot bigger than the common Indian's), the clerk held it in place for me so I didn't show off too much white flesh. The only exception must be the taxi (auto rickshaw) drivers. Taxi, Madam? Taxi, Madam? Taxi, Madam? Madam, taxi, Madam? Madam, Madam? I did take one trip and bargained hard (he didn't look too happy when I handed over the money), but I still think I got ripped off a little. Being a little bug paranoid I sprayed the room with bug spray and went out to take a few photos before it was safe to enter the room again. I wanted to take a photo of a small Ganesh shrine and a guy next to it said no, no as I raised my camera, but then his friend told me yes, yes, you can take photo, no problem. I asked the first guy to be in the picture, and they were delighted when I showed them the result. Then he asked me to take a picture of his mother and wife sitting nearby cleaning some fish (those black spots are flies!) and looked very proud. I thanked him for the photo session, but he was even more thankful. It all turned into a little street event and everyone was very curious and smiling. I visited Sri Lanka a few years back and one of the things I remember very well is the head-wiggle. It's like a mix of nodding and shaking your head, and if you don't know it, you can easily take it for a head shake. Some people look like one of those dashboard figures wih a loose head when they do it, and it's fascinating to watch. It can mean yes, OK, no problem and a thousand other things, but rarely "no". I am so happy I read Shantaram before I left as it explains a lot about how different India is from home (or from everything else, for that matter). Especially that pooing and peeing on the street thing, I don't think I'll ever get used to that. But where on earth do the women poo???
India is about 4-5 hours ahead of Norway and I think I got a little jet lag. I was exhausted after running around and getting a little lost the first day and almost fell asleep in the Internet cafe (by then the time for me was around 5 in the morning). I slept for 6 hours in the afternoon and woke up around 7 pm. It was dark, but I had to get some food, so I ran across the street (traffic is even worse at night, so I just cling to some locals and hope for the best) to a restaurant that had the menu in the reception of my guesthouse. I was extatic when I realized there was air conditioning in there! Apparently it was some kind of a bar and the manager was very keen on serving me alcohol, but I only wanted food and water. I got a starter consisting of small white beans and chili, and it was very nice and not too spicy at all (I left the chilis on the plate though). Try this, Indian food, the manager said (no sh**, Sherlock). He wanted to give me another helping, but I said I needed some space for the fish. I ordered Fish Tikka and he said it wasn't spicy, but I did feel the burn and started sweating quite a lot in spite of the aircon. Could have been worse, though. The fish was delicious, grilled on a skewer, but I hope he didn't buy it off those people I photographed earlier!  |
