Last night we went to a restaurant "supposedly" listed in the Lonely Planet guide as Garden Restaurant (actually we think the rickshaw driver just took us to a place with a garden)-because it ended up being at a Resort...The Resort had gardens, yes, but it also had a gym, a pool, all sorts of play equipment for kids and a great restaurant with the best service I think I've ever experienced.

It was sort of weird because we were the only people in the restaurant and there were like six waiters. Every time something on our plate ran low, one of the waiters came up and served us more...when our water was empty, they pored us more as if the water was wine, with one arm behind their back-not spilling a drop! Part of our meal included fried okra-which was absolutely delicious! The meal came to about $6! Incredible!

Oddly-there were framed photos of American movie-scenes on the wall, but it didn't suprise me too much because it seems that the idea of "America" here is just a symbol of prestige and wealth. For these images to be on the wall at this fancy Resort, makes sense I guess, but still weird. We are learning that most people here see us as wealthy "Americans" (which sometimes includes Europe and Canada-they don't understand that they are different places) -its seems they hate us and love us at the same time! Whenever we stop somewhere, instantly a crowd forms around us. The people in the crowd may speak a few English words, but mostly they want to just stare at us. The people laugh and joke-which none of it is understandable to us of course! At the train station in Jalandhar City -on route to Junagadh, we were sort of bullied by a large group of boys. One quiet man who spoke English explained that they were saying some bad words to us and we shouldn't talk to them...Ashby was trying to be nice and tried to talk to them, but I just ignored it and read my book. After awhile though I got sort of tired of it and told them to leave, I said we just want our space and if they could kindly leave us alone This "speaking up" kind of worked, but one of the boys was sort of making a big show of it and came back down to put his arm around Ashby and start joking again...that's when I just told Ashby to come with me and we moved to a different area...All of it is sort of unnerving. All I can say though is that so far the good experiences have outweighed the bad experiences!

Ashby and I obviously stick-out like a sore thumb, but yesterday we each went to the tailor, the separate fabric stores to choose fabrics and order new outfits. I ordered two Shalwar Kameez (a traditional outfit aside from the sari)-Perhaps I will look a little more presentable to these women that look like neon signs compared to me (and I thought I dressed pretty colorfully)! Choosing the fabrics and getting measured was super cool...I wish I could purchase all my clothes like that! And the two custom made outfits came to about $14! Ashby ordered two pairs of pants and two nice button-down shirts. We are scheduled to pick up our new duds on Sat.!

We leave Sunday morning for Una-the launching off point to the tiny island of Diu!

I can't wait to get to the beach, have some fish and some beer and feel the sand between my toes!

Love, Cara