Masala Dosa on the Mekong

I was trying to explain arranged marriage to the woman. She said, "Boy meets girl. They kiss and fall in love. The parents arrange the marriage". I said, "No!". I was travelling through the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, to find the coin with the lowest value in the world. I had just landed in Nairobi airport in Kenya from India. I was on my way to Antananarivo, commonly known as Tana, the capital of Madagascar. The small concourse was filled with people. There was barely any space to walk around. The display boards were not working. I had to find out the gate number for my flight to Tana. There were a million people in front of the information desk, all of them trying to find their gate numbers. But I have been through Nairobi airport several times before. I walked to the coffee shop at the end of the concourse and ordered a coffee. As she was giving me my coffee, I asked her, "Can you tell me my gate number?". She stared at me, then smiled and checke...

"Never use your flash", we had been warned. But her flash went off. The gorilla charged at the woman. I was in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, tracking mountain gorillas in the wild.  I had just landed in Kampala in Uganda. The arrivals area was a small open-air shed with a roof made of corrugated tin sheets and held up by iron poles. Ceiling fans were hanging from the roof. But they couldn't drive away the mosquitoes. I was in a long line for immigration with a group of old men from England. One of them asked me, "Why are you in Uganda?". I said, "To see the mountain gorillas. What about you?". He said, "We have come to see the wild flowers of Uganda". They were a group of 40 people from England - all gardeners. The immigration itself was a breeze. He hardly took 10 seconds and stamped my passport. But the customs check was a different story. They examined my bags thoroughly and went through each item. It took a long while to cl...

"Alimony should be paid by the woman", she said. I said, "Why?". "That way the woman retains control, even after the divorce", she said. I was in Lomé, capital of Togo in West Africa talking to a matriarchal woman. I was in Hillacondji crossing the border from Benin to Togo. The officers on the Beninese side of the border were relaxed. He punched my passport lazily and gave it back to me. The women officers on the Togolese side were business like, observant and very smartly uniformed. People were deferential to them. I was sitting in front of a young Togolese immigration officer and she asked me, "What is the purpose of your visit?". I replied, "Tourism". She then asked me, "What is your profession?". I replied, "Engineer".  The road on the Togolese side was better, even though Benin was the richer country. I anticipated road blocks and checkpoints on the road from the border to Lomé, the capital of Togo. I had to ge...