We're in Kerala now, which is on the southwestern coast. Our hotel here is twice as nice as the one we stayed in in Mumbai, but the same price. It smells a bit like pee on our floor, however. I kind of liked the simplicity of the one in Mumbai, even the fact that there was no barrier between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. The food was also better there.
Today we're going to take a ferry to another island to see an old fort. I admit we didn't do much research (okay, none) about this area, so we are kind of winging it. There is also apparently a bird sanctuary, which we will try to do tomorrow.
So far, there has been toilet paper in all the bathrooms I've gone in. The domestic terminal in Mumbai had a bunch of stalls with Turkish toilets and two in the back with western toilets. The locals were all using the squat ones. I can't imagine preferring those. I also can't imagine preferring to hose off instead of using TP, but all the stalls had a hose as well. Or maybe they do both. I didn't notice if the Turkish toilet stalls had both.
I have yet to try a real Indian mango lassi. But I did have a pomegranate milk shake at breakfast today. It was really just room-temperature pink milk, but I loved the idea of it. It drives me nuts not being able to use ice.
I bought an Indian outfit, but I don't know what it's called. It's not a sari. It's this one where there is a long shirt with slits on the sides and then baggy pants and a scarf. I really only wanted the shirt. Jeff suggested saving the clown pants to wear as maternity pants. I don't know if even then I'd be able to bring myself to wear them. The outfit cost less than $20. I would probably use the scarf, too. It's light blue and brown, one of my favorite color combos.
Although I had cell reception in Mumbai, I don't have it here. Jeff does, though, and he's also on AT&T. I paid $24 to have unlimited texting and internet access, so it better work when we get back to Mumbai tomorrow night. I was even able to text with Jen (who is in Hong Kong), which I wasn't able to do when I was at home. It makes no sense to me why it would work here but not from home.
ps -- Kerala is pronounced CARE uh luh.
2 comments:
Hi Craige! Thanks for the email -- I just realized you guys were probably blogging also, so I came here! That outfit is called a salwar kameez (chemise) - and I got a really beautiful one in Chennai too! I agree the pants are ridiculous - they did tailoring at the store and took the whole outfit in about an inch, but obv. the pants are still huge. However, our friend Ritu warned me not to wear it like a dress -- that I had to wear the pants too, otherwise it'd be inappropriate. The one I got was kind of fancy, and I actually wore it to a wedding this summer, only feeling a little weird about it. (and anyway, with the top on, nobody will know just how huge the pants actually are!) I also got a nice plain cotton print one, didn't buy pants or scarf with it, and I just wear it with jeans.
I hope you both continue to have a wonderful time!!!
Thanks for the warning, Jenny. I read something about how an Indian would think you were only half-dressed if you wore the top alone, although mine would not work alone anyway because of the slits.
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