India Day 10: "Villages and Vacations"

India Day 10: "Villages and Vacations"

Last night Ben and I decided to take a brief intermission from our Indian dining and went to the popular local Italian restaurant. We we're given a very romantic candle lit rooftop seat overlooking the bustling street below. Two observations; this little remote village erupts at night. Where there once stood a desolate and dusty road beneath and unforgiving sun, now is over run with cars, motos, venders, and villagers. My second observation was quite spectacular. While dining on our naan pizza, we noticed a significant increase in bird sounds. As we look up to the tree(s) behind us we noticed thousands of parrots crowding the branches and hundreds flying in droves to join the already saturated trees. Our waiter explained that at 8am and 8pm everyday "we have the sound of birds." It was fun seeing schools of birds flocking to this set of three trees. There must have been about 10,000 parrots!

Today we were woken by our morning yoga instructor. "Too young to sleep so late!"he chimed through the door as we scrambled to see that the time was 7am (we had requested a 9am session). We groggily followed this 61-year-young gentleman to the large terrace of our hotel and rolled out some mats. It was a funny and productive session. Let me just state that what the Rosenfeld brothers lack in flexibility we certainly make up in tenacity. 

Next, our friendly tuk tuk driver picked us up for a private excision through the outlying temples and his village. Now this gentleman spoke 5 languages and is a home owner (more on this in a bit). We saw a few more delicately carve temples and listened to some very-excited-to-have-anyone-out-this-far guides talk about their little temples (even if only 10% was understandable English). But the capstone of this tour was when Raj took us to his parent's home and we got to look a family pictures and meet his parents while sipping traditional chai tea. Raj was awesome! We were able to ask all manner of questions about Indian/Hindu culture. We learned that there are 4 classes in India/Hinduism from the most elite (Ramans) to the untouchables (), and most rural marriages are still arranged by the families, and that one cannot marry outside of one's class. This meant that you were born into your class and can never change nor can your children. We were taught a great deal more on these cultural intricacies but I do not want to bore my already limited audience. Raj the took us around his village, "the oldest village in the state". He took us to his "own personal house. Not parent's. Not brother's. Mine." He was very proud to have saved enough money to by and build a house on his own. Needless to say, our touring around with Raj was a great interlude into day-to-day rural Indian life.

Next Ben and I, somewhat delirious from the extensive heat, decided to take an intermission at the pool located in the luxurious Radissan Hotel.

Wow! So this is how the other half lives. Ben and I enjoyed the guilty pleasures of a cool pool and curbside beer delivery during the hottest portion of the day.

Now this is a vacation (as Ben states, "all for the price of an American dive bar."). We were pleasantly surprised by a cohort of large monkeys, about 10-15, who swept the grounds in search of food. Ben attempted to get close and was violently warded off by the larger of the group, an impressive 4' angry looking male bearing his pearly vicious whites. I must admit that when they saw me charge forward, shirtless with arms raised they must have recognized one of their own (and a dominant one) and grumpily meandered away.