Let me preface this post w/ a comment a local student made to me when i asked him about Must Do's in Mumbai. "There's not a lot to do, but a lot of experience to be had."
Ok. No time now to go into detail about my tour of Asia's biggest slum. Afterwards, my friend Raju and i discussed luck a bit, hence the blog title.
Then i flaked out, and somehow forgot that the whole reason i wanted to get bk at 6:30 was so i could pick up my laundry. They close at 7:30. I remembered at 8. Tomorrow is Sunday. They are not open. I catch a train to Chennai tomorrow. Yay!
Tomorrow morning i will go shopping for pants and shirts and undies.
That's not bad luck, that's just life as me.
But then shortly after inconclusive banging on the laundromat door, i was walking past one of the countless dogs who laze around on the Mumbai sidewalks, and one nipped my ankle. Weird. No big deal, i just kept walking.
But then i realized that s/he actually broke the skin. That sucks. 'cause i shouldn't trust Indian dogs to be rabies free. so i washed w/ soap and water, and got some ointment on it.
i guess tomorrow i'll see a dr and get some antibiotics or something. what a pain in the ankle! Seriously. My thinking about it so much is making it throb.
Showing posts with label white and green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label white and green. Show all posts
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Monsoon Season
When i was in India last, i thought that i would like to come bk during the monsoon season. Here's the reasoning.
1. Less tourists everywhere.
2. Less tourist industry everywhere.
3. Better room availability.
4. Cheaper rates.
5. Less tourists everywhere.
So here i am. it rains pretty much everyday off and on, and sometimes heavily. I am now the proud owner of an umbrella. But it's still pretty hot. 27-32ish. So asides from the fact that my guest house smells a bit dank sometimes, it's rad.
1. Less tourists everywhere.
2. Less tourist industry everywhere.
3. Better room availability.
4. Cheaper rates.
5. Less tourists everywhere.
So here i am. it rains pretty much everyday off and on, and sometimes heavily. I am now the proud owner of an umbrella. But it's still pretty hot. 27-32ish. So asides from the fact that my guest house smells a bit dank sometimes, it's rad.
Take 2: India
Take 2 means that the last time i wrote about India, it nvr got saved or published. Such is life on an internet connection where it took me 1/2 hr to finally pull up an email from Heza. Take 2 also means that it's my 2nd time in India, the 1st being in 1999.
To sum up:
train from BJ to HK. 24 hrs of stumbling through mandarin w/ a Japanese guy who liked talking about alcohol and cigarettes. Nice dude.
HK now feels like the back of my hand, in a very nice way.
Flight to Mumbai. Met a man, Vinit, and we connected really well. So much that at one pt he asked me my star sign. Turns out that his bday is just 1 day previous to mine. Oh, them libras! He also invited me to his cousins wedding in Chennai, which is in a few days. Yay, Indian wedding! Jain, i think.
We will catch a train dn w/ 50 or so of his family members. i will not even be permitted to pay for my own train fare. sheesh. Then i will hang out in south india for a while, which is a-ok w/ me.
The above fully justified my plan to not plan, when travelling. How can pass that up?
Another typical Indian experience: synchronicity. 9 yrs ago on my 1st day in Mumbai i met a man who showed me around town and we stayed in contact for a while. 9 yrs later, on my 1st day bk in this city of 14 million people, i bumped right into him! he didn't recognize me at 1st, it was funny. i will have dinner at his house tonight and meet his wife.
As for India itself, i am very very surprised that it doesn't feel much different. i expected it to be all refurbished like BJ, but it ain't. Also, i kinda forgot how hectic it'd be here. It's like BJ but with goats and monkeys thrown into the streets, and instead of Chinese folk who peek at you out of the corner of their eyes, there's Indians who follow you aroudn and ask, "where you from? What is your good name? you want hashish? "
On that note, i should mention that i was hoping to have some "special cigarettes," since they don't exist in BJ. Here in Mumbai, it's constantly offered by dudes who seem greasy enough that they couldn't possibly be working w/ the cops. But it doesn't feel right.
Then yesterday i was at this stormy, blustery littered beach where crowds of Indians were hanging out. i met a few young lads who didn't speak much English, and after a while they offered me some hash. But i laughed to myself , cause honestly i could hardly think of a less chilled place to hang out. Mumbai and me wouldn't work well in any altered state, that's for sure.
To sum up:
train from BJ to HK. 24 hrs of stumbling through mandarin w/ a Japanese guy who liked talking about alcohol and cigarettes. Nice dude.
HK now feels like the back of my hand, in a very nice way.
Flight to Mumbai. Met a man, Vinit, and we connected really well. So much that at one pt he asked me my star sign. Turns out that his bday is just 1 day previous to mine. Oh, them libras! He also invited me to his cousins wedding in Chennai, which is in a few days. Yay, Indian wedding! Jain, i think.
We will catch a train dn w/ 50 or so of his family members. i will not even be permitted to pay for my own train fare. sheesh. Then i will hang out in south india for a while, which is a-ok w/ me.
The above fully justified my plan to not plan, when travelling. How can pass that up?
Another typical Indian experience: synchronicity. 9 yrs ago on my 1st day in Mumbai i met a man who showed me around town and we stayed in contact for a while. 9 yrs later, on my 1st day bk in this city of 14 million people, i bumped right into him! he didn't recognize me at 1st, it was funny. i will have dinner at his house tonight and meet his wife.
As for India itself, i am very very surprised that it doesn't feel much different. i expected it to be all refurbished like BJ, but it ain't. Also, i kinda forgot how hectic it'd be here. It's like BJ but with goats and monkeys thrown into the streets, and instead of Chinese folk who peek at you out of the corner of their eyes, there's Indians who follow you aroudn and ask, "where you from? What is your good name? you want hashish? "
On that note, i should mention that i was hoping to have some "special cigarettes," since they don't exist in BJ. Here in Mumbai, it's constantly offered by dudes who seem greasy enough that they couldn't possibly be working w/ the cops. But it doesn't feel right.
Then yesterday i was at this stormy, blustery littered beach where crowds of Indians were hanging out. i met a few young lads who didn't speak much English, and after a while they offered me some hash. But i laughed to myself , cause honestly i could hardly think of a less chilled place to hang out. Mumbai and me wouldn't work well in any altered state, that's for sure.
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