Miscellaneous 2
The Head Bobble
There is a rather famous, in America it seems, way that the Indians will move there heads as an indication of yes, no, maybe, I hear you, what's that?, etc. While it can be used to give a definate response it can also be indeterminate. We have figured out that the semi-equivalent Americanism is to include the word 'think' in an answer. Saying "I think so" in response to an inquiry such as "Would you like some more tea?" might not bring more tea. Saying "I don't think so" to an inquiry such as "Shall I dump hot tea on your head?" may bring an unwelcome shower.
Getting cash proved to be one of the early challenges in our adventure. It took us a number of tries on a few machines even before we left the airport in Dehli. We have not pre-paid for many of our accommodations and there is a 2.5% service charge added to credit transactions, so we are usually loaded up with Rupees. The magic formula for getting a large amount of money seemed to be requesting sub-Rs10,000. 9,800 seemed to be just the right number. That worked for a while until we started getting an 'Invalid Card' error all over the place. We tried a lot of different ATMs and with the prevalence of skimmers in the U.S. I am sure they are here. One ATM that we visited was not working but was instead displaying a Windows home screen. I suppose ATMs have an OS, but that seemed strange. Now it seems that we are down to one bank that works HDFC. Hopefully that one holds up.
Patti usally likes to hook us up with massages in countries where it is significantly less expensive than back home, because we are too cheap to pay full price. In Jodhpur she got us connected with masseuses that came to where we were staying, pretty cool. We imagined them coming with tables and the things that accompany a masseuse, but they came with only themselves and a bottle of oil. Needless to say this oil ended up all over our beds, not just our bodies. I wonder how many other oiled body parts have been on those pretty grungy comforters. Ewww. As a bonus, mine was a specially scented oil that attracted flies for the next day.
Well, not the government shop, but the garment shop. It seems like whenever we get to a town one of our first interactions is with with people wanting us to come to their garment shop. The first town this really happened in, Jaipur, I was really confused as the accent on the English made it sound like we were being asked to come to the government shop. It took a little bit for me to catch on. The garment and jewelry shops are everywhere and they are sources of revenue and sometime record profit if you are not willing to bargain for the price. When we checked into our last accomodation for the Northern leg of our trip, Udaipur, it was insisted that we visit a garment and jewelry shop. We finally acquiesed to look at some jewelry so the owner arranged a Tuk Tuk, paid for it and followed us there. After about 15 minutes we left without purchase and the owner arranged and paid for a Tuk Tuk back into town. It was later when we were officially checking in that he said that breakfast was not included. Patti always books for the included breakfast and she had the documentation to prove it. He finally gave in and said it would be only tea and toast. All our other breakfasts have included eggs, etc. I think the jewelry shopping kickback was supposed to pay for our breakfast ;-). We are a pretty ragtag bunch, not sure why they think we might be big spenders, we are barely spenders to begin with.
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