strange culture

first day when we got into a india hotel, it's full because there's a wedding function. there's no reception nor person incharge of the hotel. everyone juz crowd around Hope Too and us. when we got a room and shower ourselves, we went down. they invited me to their buffet dinner. everybody is so friendly and we started chatting with each other. then we start taking pictures. they are camera freaks! when they are in the picture, they will feel so happy. so, after one picture and after one picture, they would request for another pose and take more pictures.


some of them are friendly and some suddenly don't like us. we tried to go into the restuarant to take pictures with the guide of a local but we were chased out of the hall!


i went out to see around the road, another says in a serious tone, 'it's dark here, you have had your dinner, please go back to your room, please, this is india.'


i just want to loitter around with them and chit chat. maybe im attracting too much attention from the guest rather that the attention should be at the bride and the bride groom.


wierd.


we respect their culture and religon by not taking pict, i feel they do not respect us by intruding into our personal space and our breathing space. as a tourist, we respect their culture by not doing some things that they don't like, but what about us? do they know what we like and what we don't like?

while i was walking to the hotel counter to check the rates out and Sam was with Hope Too to guard the stuff, one indian man was chatting over the phone, walked in circle and spotted Hope Too. he got nothing to do but to use my foot brake pedal to remove the mud/shit on his shoe while chatting on the phone, like how some of us draw rubbish on paper while chatting on phone. then he stepped and release the brake to make loud click noises. Sam as looking straight at him but his mind is on the phone. i saw it while i was coming back to Sam and he walked away.

they would gather around us and and lay their elbow with their body weight on Hope Too's side panniers. at the hotel, Hope Too was covered. As soon as i remove the cover to do some admin stuff, 4-8 person would gather and ask the WWWHH. 1) Where you come from? 2) What is the tank capacity? 3) What brand of made it is? 4)How much can u go with one liter of petrol? 5) How much it cost in Rupees?

i start to love them. some like to guess where we come from by saying hello in japanese or korean. i didn't reply and they tried harder by saying some country names like Taiwan, China, Thailand, Japan..... hoping i would react. even they say Spore i don't care. if they come infront of me asking me to visit their shops or introduce their services to me, i would say in a strange language back to them where i don't even know what am i talking about.

i start to be curious about them. the more i fear them, the more i want to get near them. some people dislike because some of the indian here are dirty. i want to train myself that they would avoid me as if i first saw them. i want them to automatic avoid me. maybe be more dirty than them? may be more persistant than them by asking back question to them? maybe to those touts, i would try to talk about taking money from them.

it's starting to explore india and the people here. it may sounds wierd but i want to look into my fear and overcome it. im very used to the horn here. even i would horn like them.

on average, i can only go on 40km every hour on the highway. the days are short and night falls early. i got to reach a town maximum 200km away everyday.

well, i will try harder to find a better internet cafe in India to upload my pictures here.

Gong Xi Fa Cai...

huat ah India!