TII – This is India

Today we leave India.
We say goodbye to the food, the cows, some of the nicest people we have come across on our trip, the beaches, the corruption, the chaos, and all of the things that just don’t make sense but what make this country like none other. India.
Our flight left on-time today. This is noteworthy because our 6 other flights and all of our train rides in India over the past month, have either been cancelled or delayed. At the beginning of our time here it was frustrating, but now we’ve completely come to accept it. Basically everything that is done here, is a process. There are 4 times more people doing each job than we have at home,  and yet everything is inefficient and slow.  Chris and I have been noticing other tourists complaining lately about how long it takes to do everything, or wondering why absolutely everything in documented in triplicate with carbon paper. After a couple of weeks here, we stopped even noticing these idiosyncracies of the country. Why? TII. This is India. There doesn’t have to be a reason, it doesn’t matter how long things take, we can’t change it. We have embraced it.
Almost all of the people here (with the exception of store owners who basically want to fleece you for all your worth.  AKA…white-skin tax) want to help you and give you the best service they can. They greet you as you come and leave the hotel, open doors for you in restaurants, talk to you about where your from, where you’ve been, how you like India. It’s so friendly. But the difference between here, and well everywhere, is the execution.

Unfortunately the caste system is alive an well here. It is visible in Northern India much more than in the south. This means when it comes to service no one has been empowered to take charge or get anything done. You can ask one man in a hotel standing next to bottles of water for a bottle, but until he gets the direction from his boss and his bosses boss, to ask the “water person” to bring you a bottle of water to your room, nothing happens. You actually have to go back to your room and wait 20+ minutes for it there. Then once the guy arrives, as I’m sure he was instructed, he barges right past you and puts it in the warm bar fridge! They think they are giving you great service, brining it to your room, keeping it “cold”. But in reality you were just thirsty and wanted the water right then at the front desk.
Indians have a very small personal space. No bubble! Coming from a country with a billion people, I get it. It becomes pretty funny when they are serving you and basically breathing down your neck while you are deciding what to order. The other day when the food got to the table one man stood there and tried to spoon the food onto my plate for me. I’m pretty sure if I had let him he would have spoon fed me himself. One night in Northern India we asked for an extra blanket for bed. As it took about 40 minutes to make it to the room, Chris and I were already in bed. I got up to answer the door and get the blanket and the guy barged right by me, put the blanket on the bed while Chris was still in there and and basically started tucking Chris in. It is all hysterical. We are so grateful for all the nice people wanting to give us such great service, everyone truly is so nice, but we also look forward to our home life again where things happen in a more timely fashion!
The past week we have continued to take it easy. We’ve spent some time on the beach, I did some yoga, and Chris took a meditation course. We also both had ayervadic treatments, something the province of Karala is known for. They basically consists of getting naked and having a stranger rub litres of oil all over your body. You have to lay on a table that reminds me of the chopping block my mother uses for roast beef, with the groves around the outside to catch the drippings. As far as relaxing, well, it has its moments. I did a treatment where I had hot oil poured across my forehead for 30 minutes. I guess it was a interesting sensation, but not sure I’d subject myself to trying to get the oil out of my hair, ears, and off my entire body again. Here are a few pictures from Varkala:

Varkala Cliff and Varkala Beach

Dinner with Louisa and Conrad

Christmas Dinner Night!

Christmas Dinner…probably looks a bit different than yours!

Fire Dancers after dinner

Chris and I also did a backwater canoe ride. It was a really neat experience to see how so many people live on these canals. They grow many spices and herbs down south and it was cool to see how they look before they make it to your pantry.  Here are a few pictures from the backwater adventure:

Chris walking in town to find the place.

Our ride.

It was so hot that Chris had to go buy these bandanas to try to cover our heads.

Our Captain

Sunset in the Backwaters

Now we’re off to Thailand for a brand new adventure. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your friends and families. We will be ringing in the New Year in Bangkok. I know we have had so much to be grateful for in 2010. Looking forward to see what 2011 has in store!
Love Ashlyn and Chris