Another town where they haven't seen another tourist in a while, you get crowds wanting to talk to you. I can't walk along the street without waving people off otherwise progress is dreadfully slow. The gesture for 'come closer' unfortunately appears ambiguous to me which doesn't help! Each time another awkward conversation, where none of us speaks a word of the other sides language. I could probably start to learn Hindi quite quickly, if I had some texts to work with. As it is I've just the back page of my guidebook. Still 'bhaago' (get lost, or run) seemed to have the desired effect on the more pesky children.
As a strange effect of the Indian currency, my counting goes as follows (approximate english spellings): das (ten), biis (twenty), tiis (thirty), chaaliis (fourty), ... A confusing misunderstanding delayed my purchase of a papaya. The local shouting two-seventy in fact meant twenty seven. I learn that the hindi for 100 is 'so' my guidebook has 'sau'. 'do so sattar' is 270...
Word about 'the english' spreads quite quickly. By the time I have walked back to the hotel, after buying my papaya at the other end of the town, the room boys already seem to know that I will want a knife and a plate, well on side due to my generous tips!
I need to head south where I can pretend to be less of a 'why don't you speak english' idiot.
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