India Day 2

(Lesley) Today, Sam and I had lots of adventures in India. We went to a great coffee house for breakfast. We got tea easily but made a muddle of the food ordering part. We did order, but our attendant obviously didn't speak English because we waited a long time then had to reorder to finally get some food.

We then went to an ATM to retrieve some money but failed miserably at that. Fortunately, we have some travellers cheques to use to get by until we can sort out ATM use. You would think that should be simple enough, but it is not, really!

We went to a market and then visited the zoo. We saw lions, tigers, hippos, a jaguar, elephants, monkeys, various birds, vultures, hyenas and jackals, but no giraffe. Unless the giraffe was hiding.

We had a nice lunch: lots of small tastes. Each little pot was varied; one sauce was sweet and cardamom, another was very coconut, some had bits of okra, others clearly just lentils with different spices. There were at least 9 different little pots around our plates/platters. We had these with some rice, a chapati and a poppadum.

After lunch it was raining so we hopped on a bus to check out Kovalum Beach. It is quite touristy there, and we weren't really planning on going but the bus pulled up with Kovalum written on it and we jumped on. Sam went for a swim and I got my feet wet. The waves were fantastic. And the ride there and back on the bus was worth doing.

We saw lots of fun stuff today while walking around. The traffic in town is really interesting to negotiate. At one point Sam and I wondered about hiring an auto rickshaw just to get across the street. Navigating through traffic is not really terrible, but at certain corners, on certain streets, you really have to be careful and cautious yet quick and assertive at the same time. I'm really hoping Mhari's leg is improving; the surfaces here are challenging for able bodied people who haven't been thrown off by growth spurts or recent accidents. We will keep things easy to begin with; don't worry, girl!

Sam is really noticing the pollution and fumes. I think when you combine that with the heat, it is very noticeable. Big cities are often that way and when you come from a place like Winnipeg with low population density and clean air, it quickly becomes quite apparent how fortunate we are. Now Sam has just been looking up the pollution thing and apparently Indian diesel contains 50 to 200 times more sulphur that European diesel.

We miss John and Mhari. Yesterday evening, Sam kept thinking they were here. He kept saying: Oh yeah, Dad and Mhari aren't here. We looked into accommodations for us all once they do arrive. We haven't booked anything, but we have been scouting.

And tonight, we splashed out on supper: 230 rupees! That's five dollars for both of us including chai! But don't laugh it really was a treat and far costlier than our previous meals. In fact, just for fun, we calculated what we spent today. And if you have been reading this blog, you will have noticed that we did a lot today. We figure we spent 16 dollars today not including our hotel, which is about 11 dollars a night. I know, you are probably all thinking that we are so cheap! And not in a complementary way. I have to admit I am inclined to be a bit of a spendthrift. Right, Janet? Of course, Sam influences me too. He is good at bargaining with rickshaw drivers and doesn't have expensive tastes. We also don't mind walking so we don't always take the rickshaws. But more seriously it is interesting. I know in planning this trip we had no idea how to budget for it. It is hard to predict costs. We knew we could never afford to travel in Europe for a year. So now we are trying to add some examples of costs into the blog, in case others are wondering how feasible a trip like this is for a family.