Wednesday night – TV dinner

Hanging  out in on our hotel room at 10PM waiting for dinner.. fish and chips, cauliflower  curry and some spinach thingy. We opted for room service because we couldn’t face the Bangalore traffic again.. It’s a nice room.. so it’ actually a nice way to spend the evening.   Last night we went to a fancy southern Indian place in the hotel with my friend Mohan and his friend Raj.. It was good meal served on banana leaves.  Gabe joined us for a while and demonstrated his musical skills before heading to the room for a TV fix…

 


Raj and Mohan

Dosa.. Yum !

My attempt at an Indain flag in chutney on a pratha

Our banana leaf plates

They gave Diane flowers to wear in her hair.. they smelled so great !

Oops.. This was breakfast yesterday.. also dosa

Pan for desert..It’s beetle nut, slaked lime, tobacko, cardamon, cloves and silver foil  wrapped in a beetle nut. It’s a stimulant..   and tastes .. uh.. interesting


 

 

Once again, Gabe has the TV clicker in hand and is taking us on a a tour of really goofy music videos and commercials in Hindi.. They are truly hilarious.. We’re also picking up hort clips f movies.  If you’ve never seen a ‘Bollywood’ movie you should !. They make every story into a musical .. murder mysteries, love stories, spy move.. I love watching them…  Here’s a quick sample  (oops.. can’t upload it.. I’ll try it later)

 

     Once again.. I don’t have much to show for my day.. it was 8am until 7:30 of brainstorming in a hotel conference room.  I was beat by the end of the day… and we have another full day tomorrow !

 

 

 

Diane and Gabe had a pretty layed back day, too… . Gabe slept in until 12:30 !.. ftter he woke up they shuffled down to the pool, played games and had lunch.   They then called up Joseph the driver and they went out to the market again. It turned out that today was some sort f holiday do the museums they had though about seeing were closed. They went  to an inside mall and parked in the underground lot.. As they drove in the attendant slid this thing under the car to check for bombs.. nice…   Diane said that they were amazed to find out how many folks were hanging out in service roles.. a person to press the elevator button. 3 people to point to where your car should park, one to open each door. There are so many people that there are people for every job. The mall was packed because of the holiday.   They went a couple of more markets.. for example they went to a silk store.. Diane and Gabe were instantly mobbed by a gaggle of earnest sales people who did not know the meaning of ‘no’.  They both said it was pretty cool.. but exhausting.. every time they turned to leave the sales people were spreading out more stuff in front of them..   Gabe says ‘it was crazy’.   It took 30 -45 minutes to drive back in the crazy traffic. Diane says she feels very safe being driven around.. even with the noise and crazy lane changes.. no one is in a hurry.. no one is mad. They use their horns every few seconds to let folks know they’re coming.. It’s chaos but friendly chaos.

She also observed how much everyone loves their kids here.   Here are some pictures from their day

 

Diane and Joseph

On the streets

Cow on the road

lunch !


A brick from Vermont ?

Yes.. they have it here

Our hotel

OK.. got to get back to the night in the room. We’ve been exploring our surroundings. Diane just found a copy of the Bhagva Gita in the room and some cool aruvedic aromatherapy lotion for your pillows. This place is full of nice surprise. Ok s time to logout and watch a movie…    (right now we’re watching skooby doo  with Hindi intro songs… )  OK.. Nite for now.. Nite Sam

 

-us