Monday evening.
Our hotel is a converted house; or rather several houses and I think there are about 22 rooms. They are called Bangala and would today be called bungalows. I was going to say that the place is stunning, but that is not really the case as it actually grows on you and it is only after you have looked around and begun to appreciate the detail that you become truly impressed.
We were greeted with a foot massage at check-in and a very friendly staff. Vivek had to use his negotiating skills as they said that it was a different rate for foreigners. His response was that they had not asked when he made the reservation so tough luck!!. That appeared to have worked. Differential pricing is common and blatant, and foreigners are referred to as just that: Foreigners!
Rooms have AC and the light switches look like something out of the 40s (1940s!) but everything appears to function well. My door lock is a huge padlock that must weigh 3 pounds. High ceilings and wooden beams round out the décor.
It is early Tuesday morning and it is about 70 degrees, and I am sitting outside at the hotel restaurant. I have South Indian coffee. Hot strong and made with milk!!!
It is SO good!
We ate dinner here last evening and it was really good. It was all vegetarian and shared. Really tasty and the total bill for the three of us was about $10!
We had Ahloo Gobi, which is potatoes and cauliflower in a sauce with onions, tomatoes and some spices. I make it at home. Theirs is less spicy but very good. Another dish was “Indian Chinese” made again with cauliflower but with a sauce/glaze rather like the one on General Tso’s chicken in the US. It is called Gobi Manchurian. We also had Dal and Nan bread. We bought a beer from the room, and all was good with the world!!
The rooms are very reasonable for the location. Not luxury but very comfortable and are about $70 per night, but everything else is very inexpensive.
I had brief Internet access, which was a cable from the office computer threaded in to the lobby. They have some wildlife and a 10-day-old deer fawn wandered thru the lobby while I was doing email. Apparently it lives in the office in a box and is bottle-fed for some reason.
There are relatively few guests as far as I can tell. There was a party of 5 at dinner, and I think they were French, and a group of ladies who got out of a car quite late after dining out I assume.
It is very quiet here at the breakfast table outside and I can hear some birds chirping and the occasional cow.
As we were driving in last evening we came though small town and for the first time I saw women in a full burkah. There was much evidence of a sizable Muslim population in the town, and just after we checked in I heard the sundown “Call to prayer” from the mosque, which must be quite close. Thinking about it I did not hear anything this morning.
I do not know why I have not noticed this so far but as I was walking around after breakfast I noticed a lady who was laying out a pattern on the ground using rice flour. I asked Sriya and she told me it is called “Kolam” and is created by setting out a pattern of dots and then connecting them.
It is basically a symbol of welcome and after she had explained it I noticed a Kolam outside every home we passed. Some patterns are very intricate and some quite simple. Again the level of accuracy and detail is amazing. I suspect the lady who did the work was not paid a lot of money.
The other thing I noticed were that some of the symbols were familiar like the one shown in the picture of the Star of David and another that I saw that was actually called a Swastika as in the Nazi symbol. I believe the symbols go was back in Hindu culture and have none of the connotations that we associate with either of those symbols today.
We left the hotel around 8.30 and headed to another temple in Thirumanaseer. The temple is a well-known place (in south India anyway) for people praying for a partner. Sometimes this is the people themselves, or in Vivek’s case his Mom and Dad. They had come here to pray before Vivek and Sriya met. Today’s visit was to complete the circle and give thanks that they met and married. Normally this is done very soon after the wedding, but 7 years later is still good as long as you do it! The priests process batches of people and they are divided up in to married couples, single men, and single ladies. The latter two groups are praying that they will find a suitable partner. Babu (our driver) and I figured that we were just “observers” and are now wondering if any of this rubbed off on us! Time will tell I guess.
I felt privileged to be a part of this with two friends who are very dear to me and who have been such fantastic hosts during my stay.
I said that the temple was well known, but that does not mean well marked.
Both the hotel and the temple were quite difficult to find. I discussed this with Vivek and we believe that GPS does not work as well in India as the more commonly used system known as APS. This is the acronym (they must have learned it from Caterpillar) for Ask a Perfect Stranger!. It certainly seems to work quite well and automatically updates at no cost to the user!
We left the temple for the drive back to Chennai. It is about 220 km and some of the road is very narrow and some is 4-lane highway where Babu can safely drive at up to120 kph. Many sections of the road are still under construction and it would be hazardous to try and drive the road at night.
I have noticed significant improvements in the roads since my visits in 2002/3 and 2004. Many more 4 lane roads and even projects to widen smaller roads. There is still a long way to go!
We had a delicious dinner with Sriya’s Mom and Dad, and it was good to see the children again. Anika is quite the little charmer with a wonderful smile, and Ananthi became animated when she saw my photo on the computer, and said she wanted to visit my grand daughter Anna when they are next in the USA!
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