Little cultural misinterpretations

Today we are in Madurai...smack dab in the middle of Tamil Nadu. A fairly decent town with a very big elaborate temple (Meenakshi Temple). But I don't want to talk about temples...rather, what we've been spending most of our time thinking about: cultural harrassment. By this I mean simple little cultural differences (and big ones I guess) that can drive you NUTS!!!! when you're not in the right mood....or most of the time, that is.

Some highlights:

"Pepsi madam!" "Monkey madam" "Tsshst! Rickshaw...hey rickshaw madam!" (We are perfecting the disapproving scowl"

"Hey madam...where you from? Canada? Ah...I'm a tailor...tshhh I smoke marajuana grass!" (said in a devilish whisper)

And then there is the restaurant phenomenon...which is a regular occurrence as we eat about 3 meals a day:

US: "Hi...we'd like to order 3 pineapple juices, one aloo paratha, plain rice, channa masala and 2 corn soups and out hot and sour soup"

man: you want mango lassi? indian thali's are really good...south indian thali comes with rice, raita, naan...(cut off)

US: no we'd like 3 pineapple choices, one aloo paratha, plain rice...(cut off)

man: just a minute madam (goes and gets a second man)
2nd man: yes?

US: umm..we'd like 3 pineapple juices...(cut off)

2nd man: 3 pineapple juices...we only have watermelon juice and orange juice.

US: then 3 watermelon juices!!! :/

2nd man: ah, 3 watermelon juices! (turns to original man, mutters something in tamil, gives an enlightened look, laughs and then both men disappear

US: sigh......(we see original man coming by again and we flag him down. He ignores us and we wait 5 minutes and then we see him again and flag him down) "Excuse me, we'd like to order!"

man: "Just a minute madam!" (Goes and gets second man)
2nd man: Yes? (takes out a notebook...halleluiah!)

US: umm, we'd like a stuffed paratha, channa masala, plain rice, 2 corn soups and one hot and sour soup...(roll our eyes and look exasterbated)

2nd man (says amazingly) stuffed paratha, one, channa masala...only one? corn soup, 2 and one hot/sour soup?

US: yes!!!!! (this continues...the men return 2-3 times usually just to double check and we re-order till it all appears)

You may think I'm exaggerating...but I'm not...not in the slightest. maybe not every restaurant is this bad, but most. We're learning that people don't like to listen to you, or take 3-4 repetitions to get it right. We like it especially when people assume they know what you want and where you want to go and blatently don't listen to what you're actually trying to say!!

So much fun!

Looking for Pi (and crepes) in Pondicherry

We've made it out of Chennai now and are relaxing in the relative peace of Pondicherry...looking over the at the Bay of Bengal thinking about the tsunami, and the book "Life of Pi". So far we've slept in, did laundry, found 2 internet cafes and eaten and walked about. Last night on walking on the breakwater was pretty cool...they block off the streets on the weekends for people to go walking and have cultural displays like traditional dance set up along the way. Pretty nice.

Lots of French people still living here...it only became part of India officially in the 1950's...but don't expect it to be France. Had fries the other day...but still in search of the elusive crepes that I've heard you can get here. But, I think we'll chill here another day before we brave India's transportation system again...

Chaos, cake and cockroaches in Chennai

Well...yup. That sums up our experience in Chennai---capital of Tamil Nadu, capital of chaos.

We arrived into the station an hour and a half late....hoards of people standing on the platform ready to push on as we were trying to get off! Only our carriage of course. We escape the station to be bombarded by hoards of rickshawallas telling us RS 150 to get to the bus station (our map said it was 10 blocks and should only cost about 20)....we plowed through to find a rickshawalla willing to take us for RS 30 (30 there and 30 back to pretend to tell us the bus station wasn't where we thought it was). We yelled at him and didn't pay and for once they didn't chase after us!

So...an hour later and we're still at the station. Aurora and I go off to find out about how to get to Pondicherry and Joanne guards the bags. We return with bus routes to the bus station and blackforest cake! The Chennai highlight. Getting late so we head for a hotel (not an easy task) and spend the night in a decent, but yes, cockroach infested hotel....some of those babies are big!!!!

Anyway, we jammed with Aurora's baby guitar for a while and it was all ok.