easy day - Blogabond

We took the morning easy, enjoying the warm sun on our patio-with-a-view after a quite painfully cold night. I think our little cute bungalow was built for the British in the height of hot season not for people to stay in the middle of winter. The ceilings are tall and thin metal and a few high windows are inoperably cracked open. We bundled up into our little beds with five blankets.
After bathing in the sun for several hours we headed out to Ooti’s renowned botanical gardens, which cost 10 ruppees each. We were amidst another monetary interaction in which the Indian salesman assured us they had no change when another white couple walked up on the other side of the bars and began a second interaction the sales person. My Mom flustered, tried to get our Rp 100 back and snapped at the guy when he told us to wait. As we completed the interaction and walked into the gardens, the woman laughed and told us she had felt the same way many a time. Turns out they were from the US. Where in the US? Denver, CO! Where in Denver, Whittier, our very own old neighborhood!
Well, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out with Brett and Cheryl, our fellow Denverites. She had got a Rotary international scholarship to study urban planning for a year and told us of the many plights of going to school in this country. In sum, its not very impressive learning and tends to be frustrating or a waste of time, not to mention that flighty classmates are hard to work with because they are always “paining.” She had some fun and also sobering advice about traveling in India as a lone woman. The gardens were nice too.
Two things about Indians: they are incredibly social people and thus have the odd habit of always coming up to us asking to shake our hand and talk to us or want to take a picture with us. If you oblige, it is a likely that a whole crowd will gather round as if you were giving out a prize or something. Second, if you haven’t seen the head bob from Bollywood movies you will see it here, they use this gesture for everything from assent to apology.

written by

Drie on January 3, 2008 from Udi, India

from the travel blog: Adventures in Hindustan

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