After an 11 hour night train from Kanyakumara we arrived in Coimbatore, which is in the middle of the Tamil Nadu province. I immediately felt like I was treated very differently here than I have been in the other Indian cities that we have visited. Walking in the streets and driving in the bus I am getting a lot more stares from people and many seem almost shy to approach us. I feel as though many white tourists do not visit this city often. I have not seen another non-Indian person thus far in this city.
Coimbatore is known for its textiles and IT as well as the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. This university is known around the world for its agricultural research and extension work and has a partnership on projects with my school, the University of Guelph. In the afternoon of the first day in Coimbatore we visited the TNAU where we were greeted with chai tea and and were ushered into an air conditioned classroom where several people from the university spoke to us about the work that they are doing. Although it seemed very interesting and I wanted to listen to what they had to say, it was incredibly difficult to understand them most of the time because of their accent and speed of talking. I could follow for a bit and then there were times when they were speaking so quickly that their words were all connected and it sounded as though they were not even speaking English.
In the evening, I ventured out to a local department store with a group of girls from my school. This department store had 5 floors: one for saris, one for pre-made clothes, and the other three for fabric. This department store had about 25-30 people working on the floor and were more than happy to help you as you expressed the slightest bit of interest in the clothing in their section. It was so overwhelming as there were so many unique tunics, dresses, and skirts. I started to look at the fabric and I also started to get overwhelmed because there was so much that I liked and I could not decide which I liked the best. I ended up leaving the store without buying anything although some of the girls that I was with ended up buying 2 saris each. The sales people on the sari floor are very good. They dressed my friends in these saris and made it look so good and easy that they could not refuse to buy at least one. I am not sure if they will ever be able to recreate the same folding technique.
On the second day we had an amazingly scenic bus ride up a mountain about 30 minutes outside of the city to a TNAU agricultural hill station. Tea is grown in this mountain. The windy roads that led to the hill station had my eyes glued out the window. It was such a lush forest and there were even monkeys hanging out in groups on the side of the road. I was amazed to see as we got much higher to the top that there were so many people living in the mountain. After the hill station we also visited botanical gardens, a rose garden, and a tea factory. The weather was significantly cooler than it had been in the city because of the high elevation and many of the locals were bundled up in hats and sweaters. It was a really nice break from the constant heat that I have experienced since I have arrived.
Coimbatore is known for its textiles and IT as well as the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. This university is known around the world for its agricultural research and extension work and has a partnership on projects with my school, the University of Guelph. In the afternoon of the first day in Coimbatore we visited the TNAU where we were greeted with chai tea and and were ushered into an air conditioned classroom where several people from the university spoke to us about the work that they are doing. Although it seemed very interesting and I wanted to listen to what they had to say, it was incredibly difficult to understand them most of the time because of their accent and speed of talking. I could follow for a bit and then there were times when they were speaking so quickly that their words were all connected and it sounded as though they were not even speaking English.
In the evening, I ventured out to a local department store with a group of girls from my school. This department store had 5 floors: one for saris, one for pre-made clothes, and the other three for fabric. This department store had about 25-30 people working on the floor and were more than happy to help you as you expressed the slightest bit of interest in the clothing in their section. It was so overwhelming as there were so many unique tunics, dresses, and skirts. I started to look at the fabric and I also started to get overwhelmed because there was so much that I liked and I could not decide which I liked the best. I ended up leaving the store without buying anything although some of the girls that I was with ended up buying 2 saris each. The sales people on the sari floor are very good. They dressed my friends in these saris and made it look so good and easy that they could not refuse to buy at least one. I am not sure if they will ever be able to recreate the same folding technique.
On the second day we had an amazingly scenic bus ride up a mountain about 30 minutes outside of the city to a TNAU agricultural hill station. Tea is grown in this mountain. The windy roads that led to the hill station had my eyes glued out the window. It was such a lush forest and there were even monkeys hanging out in groups on the side of the road. I was amazed to see as we got much higher to the top that there were so many people living in the mountain. After the hill station we also visited botanical gardens, a rose garden, and a tea factory. The weather was significantly cooler than it had been in the city because of the high elevation and many of the locals were bundled up in hats and sweaters. It was a really nice break from the constant heat that I have experienced since I have arrived.
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