nathan
Feb 24th, 2009
Feb 24th, 2009
India: The Promise of Awesome
Not much time to write at the moment, but I am in India.
Brief highlights from the last 16 hours:
- The taxi ride from the airport was the best taxi ride I’ve had in my life. It absolutely got me excited. A swirl of people, shit-box cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, horns, stores, walkers, sitters, standers, bright saris, colors, chaos, wind in my face, and grit blowing into my eyes. I like chaos. Eye grit builds character. (Or that’s what I’ll tell my son one day when he bitches about it.)
- People sleep in the stairwell of the building my hotel is in – in fact, they sleep everywhere. Sidewalks are a popular option. I nearly stepped on several people last night while walking on the sidesleep.
- Within walking around for one hour this morning, I was offered several “Slumdog Millionaire” tours. “Sir, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ tour? See where they make movie! Slums. Washing clothes.” I’m not sure why he said “washing clothes,” but he did. I said “no” and then he offered me drugs. (Sidenote: That movie is all over the papers here today after it’s big Oscar round-up last night.)
- On this walk I also saw a tall, could-be-Aussie tourist with a big backpack blow up at a beggar kid, hurling a string of expletives at him and nearly slugging him. That would be a 6′ 4″, 185 guy and a 45 pound kid. That he nearly hit.
- You can still see some broken windows at the Taj Hotel, one site of the November terror attacks. I went in to check out the lavish lobby and had to go through two different metal detectors. They have an x-ray machine that luggage must go through.
- The first food I ate was street food. Stomach bugs be damned! Things close early here, so the only place I could find for food at 11:45 pm was a guy cooking omlettes on the street with the standard noisy blowtorch-under-a-metal-plate cooker. I paid 20 cents for the delicious omlette, and I think I might have overpaid.
- The second food was Chicken Some-Green-Sauce Masalla, which blew my favorite Indianapolis Indian buffet out of the water. And that’s a statement, because the Indian Buffet kicks ass. It cost me $1 for the food, tea, an drink. And that’s probably expensive by India standards.
Mumbai is going to be awesome. And a bit insane.
More later. Time to go explore!
Washing clothes… it has to be either the spot in the movie where the kids mom is washing their clothes amongst a bunch of other people in a small wet hole in the ground.
Or, it could be a hole just like the one in the movie.
I’m gonna bet on ‘option B’ for this tour.
On the ironic side, if you haven’t seen the movie, the kids pretend to be ‘tour guides’ to make money. So… pretty awesome.
Yeah – but I’m not wasting my time with this unless the hole is the exact same hole. I demand authenticity.
(Side note: I’ve seen the movie multiple times, love it, and will probably figure out a scheme to attempt marriage with the actress that plays Latika before I leave this country. I’m doing myself and my future beautiful children that I would probably only have if she was my wife a disservice if I don’t at least attempt it.)
It would be awesome if you learned some basic cooking while you are there. Of course, you’d have to show me what you’ve learned when you visit here!
i could really go for a 20 cent street omelet right about now
Jokes on you chaiwalla. Latika lit out for the States. You’re on your own.
yoga?