Southern Hospitality
Trip Start
Jul 19, 2005
1
34
38
Trip End
Dec 21, 2005
Mangalore, India
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
I no longer feel like everyone is out to get my money. I even started letting my guard down and talking to more locals. I did most of the city exploring on my own since Katie was feeling ill.
I met the owner of a bakery shop and talked to him for a bit. He was extremely nice and kept telling me "In my shop, all prices are posted, foreigners get the same price as the locals." It may not seem like much, but after fighting everyone for weeks in the North, getting the same price as locals for tea biscuits without a fight felt great! The tea biscuits I bought were so delicious, they were gone within a few hours. I was back at the bakery that afternoon to buy a second bag. The owner was really happy that I had liked the cookies so much.
I went to a local restaurant for breakfast. Like in the North, I was the only woman in the place. However, the men did not stare at me with a naughty-intense-creepy-hunger. Instead, they looked my way with curiosity. If I caught them looking, they would quickly turn around and pretend they were just looking around and not directly at me. I think they were just wanted to see how I would eat my masala dosa. They wanted to know if I would eat it with my right hand, or use the knife and fork kindly provided solely for my comfort. I ate like the locals and used my right hand.
In India, especially in the South or more traditional areas in the North, people eat with their hands; even the rice and curry dishes. However, only the right hand is used and the left hand is never to touch food. The left hand is used to clean yourself after going to the bathroom (they use water and not toilet paper - Katie and I carry our own roles everywhere). Therefore, you should never bring the left hand to your face, especially while eating, and never shake anyone's hand with your left or hand over anything. When I first arrived in India, it was a challenge not to use my left hand. I had to consciously keep it behind my back to avoid mistakenly using it. Today, I hardly think about it and it would feel weird to handle anything with my left hand in a public restaurant.
