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Udaipur was a really relaxing stop for me and I’m glad that I took the whole week to relax in the town and get used to the peculiarities of India.  I spent my days in Udaipur getting some work done, taking it slow on the sightseeing, and drinking some chai…actually not some chai, a lot of chai.

Indians drink a milked, sugared, spiced chai at least three times a day and most likely many, many more times than that.  Shop owners are quick to offer up a cup of steaming-hot, so-sweet, burn-your-mouth chai as you browse their stores.

And when you’re booking your train tickets, how about another chai?

Breakfast?…chai.

Dinner?…chai time.

Is it 95 degrees outside with a sweltering, humid heat?  Still, chai appropriate.

Here’s the kicker about the whole thing – you can’t refuse a chai.  It’s just not done.  Culturally, you simply have to accept each masala chai offered or risk major offense… we learned this the hard way.  As we were hunting for a specific shop that the Lonely Planet recommended a friendly Indian man in his twenties was uber helpful – he pointed out the way and good naturedly bid us a “good day.”  The next day we passed the same man again and he was really pleased to see us once more; he offered to take us across the road for a cup of chai and some conversation.  Not knowing that we were about to offend the man we very politely refused but told him that we would definitely take him up on his next chai offer, perhaps later in the day.

His response, said politely but definitively: “I will not offer again.”

And with that he walked away from us.

Not the best start of the day and we learned our lesson – unless you want to offend the person (which is sometimes needed and permissible) you just smile sweetly, do a mini-head bobble, and announce that yet another chai “sounds absolutely perfect, where should we take our tea?”

Helen and I have begun to keep a tally of our chai drinking – the most we’ve done so far is seven cups of chai in a day…not impressive by Indian standards but we think we can best that before we leave!