Traffic. Honking. The clinking of dishes. These are the sounds to which we awake in the mornings. Indian egg sandwiches and papaya are waiting for breakfast. It's interesting that even something so simple as an egg sandwich can taste so different on account of the spices. Then there is chai: it is regular tea but prepared by boiling half a cup of water, half a cup of milk and adding a small teaspoon of sugar and a small teaspoon of tea powder. Delicious! The lemonade is also very interesting since salt is also added along with the sugar.
Shopping is an interesting experience as well. To get to a market, you have to take an auto rickshaw. Instructions: bargain heavily to get a good deal (if you know where you're going) or make sure the meter is on. Before you know it, you're weaving through chaotic traffic and avoiding potholes on an open, three wheeled vehicle. As the wind blows through your hair and in your face, it carries exhaust and pollution. 1/2 an hour on the rickshaw feels like having inhaled a fews years worth of toxins.
On this particular day, we went to three shops with traditional Indian things and I remarked that everything is very colourful and heavily patterned. Then lunch at an Indian restaurant called Nandini Palace. They served us on big banana leaves and brought out multiple small dishes to be mixed with rice on the leaf and eaten with one's hands. It was quite an engaging (and messy) experience. The food itself is quite delicious! There are so many spices and interesting combinations of dishes: sweet, spicy, some with meat, others with cooked vegetables...
After lunch, a friend and I took a rickshaw (by ourselves!) to the Botanical Garden. It was nice to walk around for a while and escape the chaos of the streets. I was disappointed to see garbage in many places, despite the occasional presence of garbage cans or 'spit bins'. I was impressed, however, by the variety and distinctiveness of the trees. There were everything from maple trees to big oaks, to palm trees and large bushes of bamboo shoots. Some of the trees were enormous, surely hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. We also saw a family of small monkeys playing about the park near a lake. I thought it was strange enough to have wild goats, dogs, cows and pigs, but wild monkeys!
Next we went to get on a rickshaw to go to the next location, and the driver refused to drive us unless we stopped at one shop along the way: "20 Rupees and one shop" - no thanks. The next driver was nice enough and took us to the High Court and to Vidha Souda, the legislative house. Guards carrying big machine guns at the gate made it quite clear that no visitors were allowed. Very well then. We walked along another interesting park and finally made our way back to the flat with a few more heavy doses of toxins.
The next destination was Saree shopping at a big, western style mall called "Forum." Just like in Turkey, there are metal detectors lining the entrance and guards with machine guns. After some deliberation, I did get a beautiful blue Saree - can't wait to wear it!
Other: meeting up with some interns from AIESEC Bangalore, visiting the AIESEC Office, and my first motorcycle ride in India - good fun :)
Dinner at 10pm again, a bit of packing and off to the bus station leaving to Coimbatore, where a friend's family lives. The bus, like everything else, runs on IST (Indian Standard Time). This means everyone and everything is at least 15-30 minutes late. The bus itself was fine, yet halfway through the 7 hour trip we stopped on the side of the road for a pitstop. There were no open bathrooms. The men peed on the side of the road.. interesting dilemma for us women.
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