Randomnettes

We've heard from a handful of folks wondering about the food in India. We're only just now getting to the good stuff. During our travels with Kala he took us mostly to dingy, overpriced tourist stops where the ambiance was bleak (dead flies all over the floor, ancient cobwebs, and greasy hand prints on the walls illuminated by angry fluorescent light bulbs) and the food mostly mediocre.

We've had a few pretty great meals. The first was in Jaipur - room service at the hotel - a pretty tasty dal made of tiny dark lentils and some malai kofta. The second great meal came from a roadside stop where Kala ordered for us and I chanted under my breath "I won't get Hep A. I won't get Hep A." He ordered some dish that wasn't on the menu - made of mustard greens and chillies with lots of nan and another bread made from corn to stifle the heat. We've also enjoyed thali - a bottomless pit of vegetarian awesomeness. Two days ago the wait staff patiently explained that you eat thali from a banana leaf that then gets thrown out -whereas when you eat northern Indian food you eat it from a plate that gets washed and reused. Thank goodness they clarified that. Thali generally includes a dal, an okra dish, a fried veggie dish, a potato dish, rice, and more dal. You're supposed to eat thali with your fingers. But we're from the West, so forks and spoons are acceptable. Here you see me somewhat nervously enjoying my first Indian thali as the wait staff stood around and watched us eat -quick to add more rice and dal to our leaves the moment it looked like we might run out. (Pretty much every business in India is frightfully overstaffed with minimum 4-6 employees for every customer).

Today we went out to visit Joe & Shikha about 25 km from the heart of Bangalore - a trip that took over an hour by car. (Indian traffic makes I5 at rush hour seem like mere child's play.) Shikha treated us to our second Indian thali - more lavish than the first. Then for dinner we had masala dosa - a pancake filled with potato heaven. All in all a marvelous eat-so-too-much kind of day.

We've been to three malls so far (that's where Fran spied the Santa) because I didn't quite pack right. This trip was initially planned for August when the temperature is in the 80s-90s. I assumed that like SE Asia India would be only slightly cooler this time of year. Wrong. The temperature feels like Seattle in May/June with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the 50s. I needed one more pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt to get me through the next 3 weeks.

Fran, on the other hand, plans ahead. He made sure to buy a laptop bag even before we bought the laptop. I kept pretty quiet about the bag at first. Eventually I had to tell him that frankly the bag is a little douchey. Enit? I mean even douchey IT guys carry laptop bags less douchey than this douche bag.

Anyway - there are prettier things to consider. I'm amazed by the lotus flowers and their incredible will to bloom in even in the most polluted of waters. Truly inspirational. We're finding the south to be a little cleaner and more organized than the north. And we give mad props to Shikha who is the least insane Indian driver we've encountered thus far. We'll be traveling with them in about 10 days when Joe gets some well deserved time off of work for the holidays.

We have a day and a half left in Bangalore - then we head to Mysore by train. From Mysore we'll dip down to Ooty for some super-chill tea-in-the-hills time. More thoughts and pictures soon to come.