Continued from here.

I tried to sleep on the flight from Hyderabad to Bangalore. The plane was nice and big and there was no one in the middle seat. Marvin Gaye was whispering sweet nothings into my ear(bud)s.

I was bone tired, but the flight was only an hour long and the flight attendants were scurrying about serving dinner, even though it was well after 10 p.m, so Marvin and I gave up and watched an un-subtitled Indian sitcom. I think it was funny.

Once we got to the hotel, though, I was greeted with this –

- and as hard as the previous hotel’s bed had been, this was soft. Soft and crisp and clean and…

I laid down and didn’t move until the next morning. It was the first full night’s sleep I’d had in 4 days.

*****lalalalala*****

Our hosts for the day picked us up in a bus to take us to their site.

(Aside: When I texted Mr. Hot that we were in the bus, he immediately asked if it was a ‘bus-bus’ or a ‘coach-bus’. I think he was concerned that we were taking this ‘act like the locals’ a bit too far. I assured him that I had an actual seat and was not sharing it with chickens or goats.)

These are some of the sights from the 3 hours we spent on that bus that day. Please forgive the quality – the roads were none-too-smooth.

One of the signs on this building says, “Opening Shortly – Hotel Anugraha”.

I took this one because I liked the apartment in the top center. What a view, eh? Also shown – the popular 3-wheeled motorized rickshaw (it’s yellow and green) – we once counted 12 people in one.

A construction site – and wouldn’t OSHA just have a conniption? No hard hats. No orange tape or warning signs. Hell, no shoes! The arrow at the top is pointing to the roof of a temple – intricately carved and painted.

Yes, Virginia, there really are cows wandering the streets. Although Hyderabad had far less than Bangalore, Bangalore had nothing on Chennai.

During my 2004 trip to India, we spent a day in Bangalore. This scene did not exist. There were no high-rise apartment buildings. The influx of I.T. jobs and western money has completely changed the landscape in this city.

And yet, not all of the city is ready or able to grow. Muddy streets and outrageous traffic is normal.

*****lalalalala*****

At dinner that night, once again under the starrs, we sampled more local cuisine. Lizards scurried around on the patio; desserts and cigars were passed around. (Note: For the record, I abstained from the cigars.) We laughed and joked – these were “our kind of people” – laid back; not so worried about gaining our business that they forgot about showing us just who they were. And we liked who they were.

Just as we were getting ready to call it a night, one of the guys stopped us.

Wait! You have to try this traditional Indian delicacy. It’s a Areca nut wrapped in a Betel leaf. It’ll help your digestion after all of this food.

He handed out what looked like a greasy green leaf wrapped around something with a triangular shape.

We all took one – stuck them in our mouths – and proceeded to chew. And chew. And chew. And chew.

The more you chewed, the more it grew. The more it grew, the harder it was to chew.

Imagine – eight Americans – standing around after too much food and too much beer – trying to masticate these things into submission. Someone made a noise that sounded like, “HELP ME” and we all started choking with uncontrolled laughter.

Spewing green slimey saliva was probably not the most formal way to end an evening, but it ranks right up there with one of my favorite memories. Laughter followed us into the hotel as we said goodnight to our hosts.

—- Unfortunately, I was wearing a light blue sleeveless sweater when I slobbered all over my own chest. That stain will NEVER, EVER come out. —-

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