crucial

On Thursday I went excitedly to JFK only to find that the ticket was different than the itinerary and actually the flight actually had left the day before. That was a dramatic shock (I was feeling quite dramatic), but in the end it worked out quite well. I slinked back to NYC, bought a couple of extra things I really needed and burned off more CDs to clear the hard drive. I really needed the extra time. Also discovered I had left the camera charger !

On Sunday, I left for Delhi. The guy at the counter asked me where I was going to, I said "Delhi", he checked me in. Just before boarding, they noticed that I was going to Mumbai (the city previously known as Bombay); and the luggage was already going that way. So I had better go with the flow (and the luggage) and go to Mumbai.

I don't recommend Kuwait Air. In Mumbai they were quite rude and never offered me any compensation. It took me hours to convince them to bother to make an inquiry.

6 hour lay over in Kuwait City. No alcohol in that duty free. But you can get Iraq's Most Wanted trading cards, lots of dates, really expensive jewelry and 8 Duracells for only $4.

Lots of guys in dishadakas (however that's spelt), women in Burkahs or normal robes, and even some african looking woman wearing blue jeans and a shawl.

In a sudden surreal moment John Lennon's Imagine comes over the muzak. "Imagine there's no heaven, no God above... imagine all the people living in peace". No words of course, and no one else notices this playing in an Islamic State (howerver progressive and democratic). I remember Ronald Reagen actually quoting this in a speech ! He talked about Jesus the savior and then quoted "John Lennon when he said 'imagine all the people living in peace, a real brotherhood of man'" Don't tell me these people don't know what doubletalk is and look for every chance to distort reality and rewrite the past. Its deliberate.

Arrived Mumbai at 5am, Tuesday. Everything seems quite sedate at 5am. The rush of tropic heat, immediate smells of incense and spices even inside the airport. Catch a taxi with an english ex-pat named Norman.

Dawn didn't happen until 7am. We are suprised that its seems so empty and quiet. Even though one market has more people than Canal street at peak hour. Piles and piles of food waste and garbage everywhere. Lots of crows digging through it, and dogs and people just looking for anything edible. People laying around the street sleeping. We get out at Mumbai Central because Norman wants to get on the 6am bus to Goa. I know full well he won't find a bus at that hour and that we will go find breakfast somewhere. I'm right.

The local trains work well in Mumbai so I drag him onto that which is quite fun. Down to the Fort Area. Still not that many people. This city doesn't get started until 10am at least ! every day. Its like a big pot of water sitting on the stove, by noon its boiling and by 8 pm insanity has set in. It takes hours for the city to come down.

The smells are intense. The best food you can imagine, incense I've never smelled, horrible garbage, human waste. Every couple of feet it changes. Its like someone taking an electrical charge and zapping random parts of your brain just to see what it will do.

Mumbai has some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and at the same time these rich people walking around with their mobile phones and nice suits are walking through piles of trash. And then lots of really nice buildings, gorgeous colonial architecture, hindu shrines everywhere. Just arriving, we tend to notice the trash, but this is a really expensive city for Indians. Its very LA. Its like 2 LAs stuffed into an island the size of Manhattan. And then put on the stove for 10 hours a day. Its like if Bangkok was having a going out of business sale and everything must go ! every knick knack and box taken out of storage and set up on every inch of street everywhere you go.

Every couple of feet someone says "hello", "hey friend". Mostly trying to sell me things, but sometimes just shouting across the street "hey dude" just because they can. There aren't that many tourists noticeable.

By the Gate of India we meet a guy who saw the bomb go off (2 months ago, killed 40 people. bomb was set by indian muslims). He helped people get into the taxis to go to hospital. In the newspaper months ago I read a quote from some guy saying the same exact thing--I'll bet this is the same guy. Gate of India isn't as crowded or dense as I would have thought.

Its near where I'm staying. I thought it would be a really downtown feeling area, but all of Mumbai feels like a little rural town that just got way out of hand. And also near to us are really expensive ($350) hotels, exclusive restaraunts. This is Bollywood, center of the biggest movie industry in the world. Underworld dons, people of unimaginable wealth. Even the middle class in India have servants. When you are rich here, you are living like a Maharishi. Of course if you are a Maharishi you are already living like that, but you might also be renting out your palace to people like me ($15 a night).

People are really very friendly, but the touts and the begging is insistent beyond anything you can imagine. Last night I had this guy trying to sell me a drum. After two blocks of saying no, I decide I do at least want to know how much so I can get one later. 700Rs ($16) No way. How much you want to spend ? I'm not going to buy it, it doesn't matter. 500 400 ... after 10 blocks of not even showing the slightest hesitation in my "NO" he goes down to 100Rs ($2.50), he's saying he really needs to sell something so he can home. even the other guy (there's always another one also hanging on) "play with it, then give it to indian child". its really a nice little drum, really tonal. okay, i buy it. he should leave me then. several more blocks, he stops to try to give me a lesson. and then he starts trying to upsell me to the bigger drum ! gah !!! NOOOOOO!

We are walking ATMs for them, and they know it. But its important to give money to beggars who need it, but not encourage begging (especially children). Especially not to reward brutal pestering. When I walk outside I have to brace myself for every 4 seconds being offered something.

And then there's people like Mahindra who I met this morning several times. He walked 10 blocks to find me an open internet place, and a really good cheap one. He's been all over being a guide in India, had a NY girlfriend. Great guy to talk to. And he's just helping me out.

People come up to help me out all the time, tell me a good place to go to. Not wanting anything. (but this east african guy helped me out and I was happy to give him some rupees to get breakfast).

Norman left for Goa at 3pm. He has a nice house in Kerala (more south, more chilled out), I might stop by in 3 or 4 months.

I stayed the night here. Way more expensive than any place else in India. Crappy room, crappy shower.

Drinking chai on the street; and tonight 17 hours on a train to Delhi and get up into the Himalayas before winter sets in. I'll come back to the south when it cools off.