India Photos
Rana woke me up claiming he was unable to sleep and that it was 4:30 in the morning and he wanted to take a walk outside before the sun rose. It was actually 3:30 am. It was only after we showered and about to walk out the door that I realized that he had lied to me about the time. We started out walking around the neighborhood and eventually made our way down to the art museum by rickshaw.
Later that morning, still early in the day we met up with Megan and Json at the hotel along with the driver and Rana’s parents. We started with them getting a full body massage and scrub shower at an Ayurvedic facility where and hour session of pampering only cost each person RS 750 (Indian currency) or $7.50 US. We checked the brochure in Json and Megan’s hotel room to compare the prices of a massage. There were several basic massage packages that ranged from min RS 2,000 to RS 5,000 or $50-$100. There was an item for RS 750 which “to assist changing of bridal costumes”. One example of local pricing versus tourist pricing.
Today’s destination was up a mountain to Ponmudi, a mountaintop resort for locals to escape from the summer heat. We made several stops along the way on our way up to the top.
The first place we stopped was at a Botanical Institute or garden. We had paid our tickets and got in, but later when the administrator saw white people coming out of our van, he began to demand higher ticket prices for Json and Megan. According to the administrator the justification for charging Megan and Json more was because they were foreigners. They didn’t charge me the higher fee because they thought I was Nepalese, which didn’t make much sense to me since I would still have been considered a foreigner to the country. We thought the higher pricing for foreigners were unfair and their response was that US dollars could buy more and that we wouldn’t feel the pain of paying higher prices in India. We promptly got our refund for the entire group and decided we had seen enough. Our frustration was mostly in regards the principle than the money. If they had asked us for a donation it would have been a different story.
The second stop, was to a university where Professor Basheer, Rana’s father, had taught for about 25 years. I was introduced to this one teacher as Rana’s wife and Prof. Basheer’s daughter-in-law. Happily to show off his English skills, the man started talking with us and I had trouble understanding him due to his very Indian-English accent. The frustrated man turned to my husband and asked if I knew how to speak English. We were then greeted by the principle and board and had a very enlightening conversation with them about ourselves and their university. To my surprise their English was very good and wished we had more time to chat.
Our final mountain stop was Ponmadi. The ride to the top was long and scary. The roads were narrow and it shared both directions of traffic while we meandered along the edges of steep cliffs all the way to the top. Once we reached the top past the tea plant and rubber tree plantations, it was all worth it. The air was fresh and COOL. Mountain tops were peaceful and the view went as far as the eye could see.
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