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00:22:41
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00:22:41
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Transcription: [00:22:41]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
Um, And Porter-- are you related to Bob Porterfield who runs the theatre in Virginia?

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Yes, as a mater of fact, I am. We're cousins and I've worked down there, for him, barter.

{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
Have you?

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
mm-hmm.

[00:22:53]
Before we took this trip, I was down there.

[00:22:56]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
He's a nice fellow. I used to know him quite well when he was in New York a long time ago.

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Isn't he though?

[00:23:00]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
Well now we've organized the family background. [[laughter]] I left you in Greece didn't I?

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Yes, I think you did.

{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
I better get you out of there. [[laughter]]

And back to the--

[00:23:10]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
We -- we might sort of stop here. You said you were able to live in every country pretty inexpensively.

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
mm-hmm, that's right.

{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
But that you didn't live in the kind of places where the tourist goes.

[00:23:22]
{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Oh never--[[cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="LISA CHICKERING"}
You know that what's so important, even for wealthy tourist really--they'd get so much more out of traveling if they did stay in the out-of-the-way hotels and inns. Because actually, if you stay in the luxury hotels in Europe, it was very nice but you might as well stay right here in New York.

[00:23:39]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
In a big hotel.

{SPEAKER name="LISA CHICKERING"}
That's right, because it is identical.

[00:23:42]
Even in India - the hotel, the finest hotel there, is like an American hotel. It's like the St. Regis or the Plaza. And there is certainly nothing wrong with that.

[00:23:51]
But if you've gone all the way to India, you certainly don't want to stay in an American hotel. And of course, we did it for the economical reasons.

[00:23:59]
But no matter how much money I would have I would absolutely stay in these little places where, even though they don't speak the language, English, you can manage.

[00:24:08]
{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Oh, you can always get along.

{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
Of course. Where were you in India?

[00:24:11]
{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Well, we went to New Delhi, and down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and Jaipor the Pink City. We rode on elephants. And we went to Amber. And then even up to Kashmir, up to Srinagar and lived on a houseboat.

[00:24:27]
And incidentally - speaking of a houseboat - the other day I read an article in a paper, and it was of a person who had gone to Srinagar and said, "never stay in a houseboat, stay in the luxury hotel". But the houseboat is one of the most fabulous experiences.

[00:24:40]
We had a living room. Now this is right in the middle of Lake Dal --

{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
And it is a houseboat.

{SPEAKER name="LISA CHICKERING"}
Oh, it's a real boat.

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
-- in the center of the Himalayas. It's absolutely Shangri-La.

[00:24:49]
And it's a real houseboat. And we had a living room, a dinning room, a kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. We had 4 servants, a shikara which is the Kashmirian gondola, and we had 3 meals a day.

[00:25:02]
And we could say to the cook, who did speak English, because the English, when they were occupying Engla-- ah, India --they always went there on their vacations. So we would tell them, we want Tibetan food tonight, or Indian food, or European.

[00:25:16]
And all of that cost us 7 dollars a day for both of us. Everything, our food, our boat, our little shikara, everything.

{SPEAKER name="LISA CHICKERING"}
That's right. It was a reasonable place.

[00:25:27]
{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
So, when I read in the paper advising Americans to stay in the luxury hotel - Don't take a trip to Kashmir to stay in a hotel!

[00:25:32]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
Seven dollars for both of you!

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
For both of us, yes.

{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
And this elaborate suite with 4 servants?

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
Yes, this beautiful, beautiful boat.

{SPEAKER name="LISA CHICKERING"}
[[cross talk]] And tea in the afternoon with service.

[00:25:41]
{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
You know, he would take us to the Shalimar Gardens which is so magnificent--

[00:25:46]
{SPEAKER name="MARTHA DEANE"}
You mean the man who ran your boat, your chauffeur?

{SPEAKER name="JEANNE PORTERFIELD"}
[[cross talk]] Yes, that's right Adu, that was his name, yes. And he would take us - and in the shikara -

[00:25:53]
- well, he would take us for lunch in the Shalimar Gardens and spread, ah, one of these fascinating materials on the ground and he then would serve us our lunch. And then he would take us all around, the 4 oarsmen taking us at any speed we wanted to go through --
[00:26:06]