We had a nice lazy rest day in Kelshi, a super quiet beach town in the middle of the jungle. It’s the kind of town that you would probably never think of if you thought of an Indian beach town. The beach is surrounded by agricultural fields (rice?) and the town is small and quiet. It is nice to be so far away from crowds and especially tourists; we are the only westerners in town I think, though there are other Indian tourists from other parts of Maharashtra. We are enjoying it while we can because we will be in tourist-filled Goa in a week.
Our hotel has an amazing chef on staff who made us all three of our meals and told us we were doing it all wrong! He’s got quite a fiery personality, but because he speaks in Marathi, we miss all of his jokes. He has the other guests giggling, though, and he invited a group into the kitchen to give them some tips.
We asked for dinner at 7pm, and when we came down, he asked why are you eating so early? It should be 8:30 or later for dinner. He speaks English really well but doesn’t understand our American accent, so we didn’t get a clarification, but a couple at a neighboring table overheard us and asked if he could help. He said that it’s typical to eat 7-8pm, but there is no set time, so don’t worry about it.
We saw them drinking chai, so after our dinner, we asked for two. “Tea, now?! Okay…” We wondered aloud what we’d done wrong since the other table had ordered it, and he spoke up again and explained it’s usually had in the morning, but some people (like them) enjoy it after a meal or before bed. Okay, one more lesson learned!
The other thing we are trying to master but haven’t figured out yet is eating with our hands. No one has said anything to us about doing it wrong, and some have told us just use a fork and spoon, it’s no big deal. But sometimes they bring our food with no utensils, and we feel like we should be able to master this! I mean, the fork hasn’t been around forever! We already know that eating with the left hand is absolutely forbidden, so we haven’t made that faux pas. But when they bring chapati (like a soft flour tortilla) along with dal (lentil soup), how the heck do you eat soup with that?? After watching some YouTube videos, we’ve learned that there are two tricks. First, as we go further south, we will get rice instead of chapati, so we can mix the rice with the curry or dal and eat it that way. Or we learned a technique for folding up a piece of chapati into a spoon shape and scooping up the dal that way. More practice is required…
Another custom that’s not as easy as YouTube makes it out to be is the head wobble. Apparently in Maharashtra, the head wobble is particularly pronounced, and we’ve noticed that often they will wobble without speaking. It means anything from hello to okay to yes to maybe. Each meaning is subtly different, and we are slowly picking up on it and also trying to emulate it.
We are finding that, except for younger people, the women here are much more guarded when we say hello to them. While most guys will instantly respond back and smile, most women give us an incredulous or worried look, though many do smile or wave. Being in a different culture, I have to stop myself from jumping to judgments or conclusions, so I will just leave it at that and see if we learn more about the gender differences as we spend more time here.
We spent a lot of time lounging around the hotel, so I downloaded a history book on India and am enjoying reading about some of the ancient history of the subcontinent. There’s a nice palm grove in the back of the hotel with walking trails and a swinging bench.
We walked around town again, and it was very sleepy on this Sunday. Tried to say hi to everyone we met, and most people responded with a head wobble at least, but we don’t get nearly as much attention off the bikes as on!
Since our internet has been kind of working, I planned out our routes all the way to Goa, uploaded them to my GPS unit, and made sure there are hotels we can find in each stop. So even if we don’t get internet again, at least we will know where to ride! I also reduced our expectations to 60km/day, as that’s all that’s realistic with the roads and heat. Should be in Goa in about 6 more days.
(Tried to upload photos, but it’s timing out…)