Going bananas in India by Julie Bye
The best piece of advice I was given for travelling in India was to pack a sense of humour. I found myself laughing hysterically every single day that I was there. I was not laughing at people or being disrespectful it was just that I experienced sights and events which I found funny.
The hotel we were staying at in Varanasi was lovely. There was a swimming pool and a great restaurant. The rooms were nice and it was very relaxing. We went to a nearby café to eat, in between tours. We all chose various food items and the waiter took our order. Banana split was on the menu. Yummy! The banana split was ordered alongside all the other dishes and we waited patiently for our snacks to arrive. The waiter brought everything to the table and we began to tuck in. One of my friends was prodding his spoon furiously into the ice cream. I looked around in bemusement and asked him if he was okay. He turned to everyone at the table and told us there was NO BANANA IN HIS BANANA SPLIT!!!!!
I burst out laughing, closely followed by everyone at the table. We called the waiter across and told him of the mistake. He apologised and walked towards the kitchen. We thought a new banana split was going to be created and brought to the table. The waiter appeared a couple of minutes later and he put down a plate beside the bowl of ice cream. On the plate was a whole banana! It was not peeled or cut up at all. I continued to shake with laughter. The look of complete disbelief on my friend’s face was a perfect Kodak moment. He shrugged and peeled his banana and put it in to the bowl of ice cream. Voila! One banana split, Indian style!
