Meet the Prakasams Part 2

Who wants to hear about my trip from three weeks ago? Okay, good!I guess there's a little left to tell. Saturday we took a day cruise to the Bahamas. Since the boat left at 7:00 am, we had to be there at 5:30, which means we again had to get up at 4:00. Anyway, when I was in high school the marching band took a trip to Miami to march in the Orange Bowl parade, and at some point during that week we took a very similar boat to the Bahamas for a few days. Though in that case we took the boat there one day, spent another full day on the island, then took the boat back in the evening on the third day. It never ocurred to me to go there, spend 4 hours in Freeport, then turn around and come right back all in the same day. I figured, "Wow, 4 hours isn't nearly enough time in the Bahamas." But truth be told, since we weren't going scuba diving or parasailing or spending the day on the beach, it was like "Okay...we need to kill 45 more minutes until the boat leaves."

But of course the boat itself is an experience. You can chill on the deck, watch odd shows in the lounge, play bingo in any of the available locations, or take part in one of the several activites they stage throughout the trip. While most of the patrons opted to drink on the deck, then drink in the bar in preparation for drinking on the island, the Prakasam family joined the trivia contest in the lounge. They asked questions like "Name a marsupial other than the kangaroo" and "Name 3 of the Bahama islands other than Grand Bahama." There were twelve questions, and they said if you got eight correct you got a t-shirt or something, and if you got all twelve you got the grand prize. Well, Ramya and I finished with 10 (including the extra credit question- "Name all nine planets of our solar system") so we were like "Free t-shirt here we come!" But the lady was like, "Oh, sorry. That's for people who get eight correct." I say "So, not eight or more, but exactly eight?" She says "Yes." Ramya's like ".....Really?" Anyway, we walked away shirtless. You know what I mean.

We spent most of the way over hanging out in lounge chairs on the deck, but we did head inside for a while when it got too cold. That's right, it was a chilly day out on the open sea. I wore shorts and a t-shirt (to continue the trend of being improperly dressed) but brought a hoodie- but it wasn't enough. So we go inside the ship, and guess what- it's even colder. They had the air conditioning cranked! I understand that this is an epidemic on cruise ships.

Once we arrived at Port Lucaya we disembarked and found a taxi to get to Freeport. They're all vans that take like 10 people, and ours was operated by "Uncle Willy." The other travelers included two extremely white-trash southern women who were traveling with the Hispanic Tony and his mom. Tony was one of those dudes that had a comcorder and videotaped everything. I mean, he recorded the entire drive from the port to downtown (about a 20 minutes), and later the entire drive back, presumably out of fear that he missed something amazing on the way there. These people kill me- is there going to be some day in five years when he has a bunch of friends over and says "Hey everyone! Who wants to watch the video of a 20-minute drive from Port Lucaya to Freeport?" Then someone asks "Are there dilapidated yet pastel-colored houses?" Tony will answer "There and back!" I guess it's more entertaining than those videos of the airport people are always shooting.

Speaking of which, times are rough in the Bahamas. While there is still a nice casino (we went in to use the bathroom and get our free Bahama-mamas) and the beach is beautiful, the place on the whole seems to have fallen on hard times. We talked with one of the shop workers, and she said that it's been tough ever since there was a particularly bad hurricane a few years ago. The island still hasn't completely recovered, and I guess US toursim is down in general. Since tourists are the major source of income for the islands, that leaves them with only offshore bankng to essentially support the country. In high school I rememeber there being just rows and rows of craft stands (all offering the same shirts and trinkets, but hey) to peruse, and this time they were down to about 5 or 6. It was nice to see that their sales tactics haven't changed- if you ask them how much something is, they always answer with "I buy it for 10 dollars, but I sell to you for 8." No wonder the economy is hurting!

So we kicked around the island, looked at the arts and crafts, walked in the ocean, then headed back to the ship. Shortly after sundown it was way too cold to be sitting out on the deck, so we headed in to one of the lounges for karaoke. Ramya and I went up second and did Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer, which is always a sure bet to get the crowd rockin'. But we didn't have the sheer showmanship presented by some of the other participants- most noticably one woman that I really wish I had snuck a picture of, because she totally looked like a klingon. I'm not saying that because I'm some Star Trek nerd, but the lady was dark skinned, had huge eyebrows and a gigantic forehead complete with receded hairline. Seriously folks, she looked like this but without the bumps on her forehead. Or the crazy outfit. However, the most awkward performance of the night was a lady who was dressed in clothes much too young for her that dedicated a song to her daughter for her 16th birthday. The song? Mariah Carey's Dream Lover. Complete with overly sexual dancing. It was uncomfortable for everyone in the room, but it was fun to watch the daughter squirm and look like she wanted to die. Then we played cards in the lounge during the uncomfortably stereotype-laden "comedy" show, and got home way late at night.

Sunday was fun because we slept in, then went for a run around her family's beautiful neighborhood. The only real event was when we went to Royal India, which apparently is the Indian restaurant that all the white people like the best. You know what? It was all good. Even the curry chicken, which surprised me because the word "curry" has long been associated with "intestinal distress" in my mind. Still, my favorite thing there was Naan, which is this delicious Indian flatbread (not surprising, since I pretty much live off carbs). Apparently this is a stable of their quisine- in fact, when we were back in DC we were talking to Ramya's roommate Padmini about her upcoming wedding, Padmini asked what (Indian) food she should have at the reception. I was like "Oh! You should have naan!" This made them laugh, because apparently meals aren't served without it. Padmini very patiently said "Yes. There will be naan."

The most memorable part of Sunday for me was that I found an English to Tamil (the language Ramya's family speaks) phrasebook in my room. So, before I went down I looked up how to say a few things like"good morning," "please" and "thank you" (and more importantly "no thank you-" Amudha will keep putting food on your plate until it's all gone) and worked them in at breakfast. Holy God were they impressed- Vidya was like "Whoa! He's speaking Tamil!" and her parents looked at each other and smiled. I'm telling you people, they ate it up. That was easily the highest payoff to effort ratio of anything I've ever done in a relationship. Later that day we watched the Tamil station on TV, and there was an Entertainment Tonight-type show about the 10 most popular current movies. Eight of them were Tamil films, but Rambo and The Golden Compass squeaked in there (dubbed, of course). During one fight scene Vidya walked in and said "Are you practicing your Tamil?" I was like "Well, I can tell you that no one's saying 'please' or 'thank you.'"

So the rest of Sunday we lazied around, and then Monday it was once again time to get up at 4:00 am for our flight home. All in all, great trip. I got along with Ramya's family, I think I passed the test, and I really enjoyed spending time with them. Good all around!