When we finally made it to Mettupalayam we decided we had earned a beer...yes I'm feeling mostly better at this point and think I deserve one too. The last time we had a beer was 2 weeks ago in Kerela (14 days and counting...), so even though we knew the beer would be awful we wanted to go for it anyway. The guy at the lodge we were staying at pointed us in the direction of a bar. At first we passed the "bar." It was really just some cement walls put up with card tables set up and a bunch of drunk, drunk Indian men who could barely stand up straight. We received quite the looks when we walked in there. I don't think any women had ever set foot in this place...let alone western women. A man came over to us and explained that it wasn't a good idea for us to be there; that this place was too crowded and things could turn ugly in there and it wasn't a good place for tourists. So, we got kicked out of our first Indian bar! Proud?
He and this other man showed us to another bar that would be more suitable for us. We got seated ordered a few beers and thought we were in for a relaxing evening. Mind you this is only about 8 o'clock at this point. Then the men came back with a friend or two and sat at the table next to us. He started fishing for conversation so eventually we invited him to our table to chat so we didn't have to yell across the bar. The bartender kept coming up to us and asking if this man was bothering us and we kept telling him no that it was fine, and he kind of gave us a "suit yourselves" kind of look. Throughout the conversation he kept coming up and checking on us. We should've taken this as a hint. Then another man came in and exchanged some words with the man sitting with us. The two switched spots and the original man didn't seem too happy. All of these men seemed harmless and nice, but the bartender came over yet again to check on us..."no, no, no we are ok...they are fine." Every time the bartender came by, the men would put on these puppy dog eyes to make sure that they weren't disturbing us. It is so hard to tell when the men here are being sincere and genuine...which we're finding more and more that unless they are married and with their family, they have ulterior motives. The conversation kept up then the original man came back and looked upset, took away the piece of paper he had written his number on for us. It all got a little weird and the second man who was sitting with us got a little too close for comfort asking if I was married and trying to invite us all to his family's house for dinner. No one would just let us be, and moral of the story we should've listened to the bartender and say that we would like to be left alone. We always are trying to give men the benefit of the doubt here, but we are learning that sometimes you just can't do that, especially if the man is under 40. Our nice relaxing beers were cut short and we were home in bed by 9:30...what a bust! Its nights like these where my love/hate relationship with India stems from. Can't a girl just get a beer?
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