Delhi Sandwiches

Things are good here in India - Delhi is kind of a weird city. All of the cheap hotels (mine included) are in this particular district, Paraganj or something - anyway, the whole area is FULL of hippies, ha - I really loath hippies and this place is chock-a-block with them. Just lots of people with dreadlocks, tattoos, hippie clothes - there was this one guy, clearly a Westerner, probably from California, dressed like a Buddhist monk (what is this, Halloween?) asking me for "alms, man" Alms?! What?! You can go back to San Diego and get a freakin' job, my man! Hah, anyway, lots of reject westerners walking around - I guess hippies really love India.
Aside from that things are cool - I went and checked out a big mosque in town and the Red Fort yesterday, two historical sites of interest, then took an auto-rickshaw over to the embassy which was fun. I love having the blue embassy ID badge, it's like "I'm sorry sir, you have to go arou...oh, oh you have a badge, go right in!" Ha, so, the embassy was in a nicer part of town, not quite as big as the Cairo embassy but the same idea, the people were nice, good setup. My language call went fine, I was a little rusty with my standard Arabic but it was OK.
Another funny thing happened yesterday, I was traveling from the tourist-y area to the mosque via human-rickshaw, like, a bicycle with a passenger seat attached, and my rickshaw nailed this guy walking on the street, we were probably going around 7 or 8 miles per hour. Anyway, the guy was clearly not happy and was apparently a 'somebody' and ordered my rickshaw driver off the rickshaw. So, while the guy we hit is crossing the street and climbing into this massive tow truck to tell his cop buddy, my rickshaw driver gets back on the rickshaw and starts booking it! Peace out! The only problem is, there's tons of traffic and he can't really book it, the best he can do is get a five or ten car lead on the tow truck, which starts to follow us through the same choking traffic in hot pursuit.
So, there I am, on the back of this thing - my rickshaw driver keeps looking back, looking very worried, checking on the status of the tow truck. When the tow truck was about 10 or 15 car lengths behind us I quickly paid the guy and jumped out - he was relieved to be rid of the ridiculous westerner in the yellow shirt, I'm sure I made him all-too-easy to spot. So, I stand on the street corner and watch the tow truck go by, they had clearly lost my guy in the intersection, that's good - the cop was eyeing me like, "what the heck?! Why did you get out?!" Oh well, ha, glad my driver got away.

That's the latest from al-Hind, flying out to Bangkok in a few days, definitely ready, the device is set to detonate in 49 hours, I think it's going to be a real buzzkill for these hippies, he he he...

Srinagar Shenannigans

I arrived in Srinagar, Kashmir today, it's a funky place, little bit about it below. It was too bad, the Bombay Bar was closed for renovations when I was there, I ended up having a drink by the pool, that'll have to do. Nice to get out of Mumbai, the flight wasn't much fun at 5:45 in the morning, I was standing at the back of the check-in line and these two guys made to get in front of me, not anyone else, just me, ha, so I'm like, "Uhhhh, HELLO!" haha, they tried to pull the "I don't understand" card, I pulled the walk in front of them card. I was definitely getting cranky haha. People do sell a lot of pot / hasheesh around here, it's not legal, but it's all over for the traveling crowd.
So, the Kashmir trip, I managed to get some sleep on the plane, ate a little breakfast, and descended through the massive outlying mountains (covered in snow, totally awesome) of the Himalaya range. The town lies in a valley, the valley is ringed by these huge-o mountains covered in snow, so, today the valley was blanketed in fog, it was awesome, the snow cropped mountians jut out of the fog, making it look a bit like water / islands. We descended down through the fog and touched down about thirty seconds later on a plateau, it was funny, there was about a half mile to go to the ground, flaps up, gear down, then all of the sudden the plateau comes up and BOOM we land, ha, it would definitely be a bad short landing.
Srinagar's airport, and the city itself, for that matter, is heavily militarized. They've had some trouble with insurgents coming over from Pakistan, separatist type guys. The airport has about 50 hardened aircraft bunkers, sandbagged troop positions, a serious looking perimeter wall, etc. The city has a few troops w/ (definitely loaded) GUL machine guns every 10 feet or so, armored personnel carriers, sandbagged bunkers at intersections / important buildings, ha, crazy. I wouldn't be here if I felt it wasn't safe, nothing has happened here for more than a year and the insurgents are targeting the gov't / hindus, score one for the American Catholics! Yeah, so, it is safe, no worries.
Upon arrival I hooked up with the owner of a houseboat waiting outside to snag arrivees, I hadn't previously set one up but this guy's was pretty good, Srinagar is famous for these houseboats built by the Brits 70 or 80 years ago. The local mayor at the time wouldn't let them buy land, so they built their houses on the big lake, Dal, with all the amenities, etc. Most of these have now been converted into floating hotels, mine's pretty nice, hot water, cheap, at about $12 / night, I'm waiting for the catch, these guys can be pretty slimy.
That's the word from Kashmir, the net cafe's got some rockin' 80's pop going, American cultural INVASION!!!!

First glances

Wow, is India a strange place, ha. Some of my initial observations:
The entire city has this weird smell I can't place, maybe Daytona?
It's hot and humid as hell, which I like, plus lots of greenery, nice palm trees, etc.
There's the constant din of the city, auto-rickshaws, people (everywhere), music, bollywood movies blaring forth from British-era TV's.
Not being able to use Arabic and understand people sucks, it really makes me realize how sweet that was. My Hindi is coming, slowly, how are you, I'm fine, those kinds of things.
India, at least Mumbai, is far poorer and more crowded than Egypt, at least on initial impression. My EgyptAir 747 screamed over a mile of two of solid slums, right up to the runway, unbelievable. People have made homes along all the roads out of whatever's available, bits of tin, sheet metal, random pieces of wood, it's a bit depressing. These are along the road and there are often apartment blocks built behind them, presumably by the Brits, that are in a state of utter decay, it's amazing.
Anyway, things are good, my hotel is passable, I'm working on getting a mobile line set up, and I should be able to amuse myself for the next few days in this mess of a city.

Update to previous post

So, my English amigo, Ben, wasn't too lucky after trying out all these delicious local foods, chk out his email below, 12 hour train ride to Goa:
Hi Dave, Great to meet you too amongst the Bombay slums. That invitation for sunny london is always there should you be tempted to come over for a few pints and a footy match. Hope you didnt get hit with a dodgy belly like I did last night - I had 12 hours on a train toilet - fotunately no rats, but there were plnty of roaches to keep me company. Look forward to catching up soon, ben

Oh well, thats the way the curry crumbles, er er er

Reality Tours Mumbai (Bombay) April 8

Today has been an excellent day, I woke up at 2am to a rat trying to eat it's way through my air conditioner into my room, went back to sleep armed with my guitar nearby, and got a lazy start around eleven am. From there I hit the "Reality Tours" office, a cramped, airless building (like most of Bombay) above a food store. This company offers tours of Mumbai's slum, Daharavi, the biggest in Asia. It was certainly an eye-opening experience, but was a bit different than I had anticipated. As a little background, the slum lies about 10km north of Mumbai's city center and covers an area of about 0.7 sq miles. Around a million people pack into two story homes built from cardboard, scrap metal, wood, burlap, and whatever other building materials were available. The area has about 1,000 different industries, ranging from pottery to the manufacture of plastic-shredding machines. Daharvi's separated along religious lines, this section is Muslim, this section is Hindu, no hostility, but after deadly riots in the 90's, the two sects divided up the slum. My tour was run by Shuni, a 30 or so year old Indian who grew up north of Mumbai. The company is co-managed by an Indian, Krishna, and Chris, a Brit. They work to promote education within the slum and pump some money into the local economy. At around 2pm some fellow Westerners and I set off into the slum, winding around shops that cut tiny bits of plastic scavenged from the garbage, sorted them by color, and melted them for re-distribution. From there to a residential district of the slum, extremely narrow walkways, just big enough for two people to pass by each other, where thousands have built their homes. The ground is a mix of concrete slab, bits of wood, sewage, water of questionable composition, and trash. While trying to catch up to the tour group in one such alley I had the fortune of stepping through a hole in the concrete slab, plunging my foot into water (I hope) and scraping my hand on the wall (cleanish). Up to date on my shots, no open wounds, so that's good, ha, one of my new balances is a bit off though. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent wandering the residential district of the slum, seeing the school run by the tour company, and checking out the pottery district. The kids at the school were eager to practice their English with us foreigners, I to practice my Hindi with them, which was immediately assailed with laughter. I did, however, manage to pick up a few words in Urdu, which sounds a lot like Arabic. Hmmm... Emerged from the slum and caught the nearby train home to Colaba district with a few friends from the tour. Hit a great restaurant downtown, chicken coconut curry, life is good, and cheap, very cheap. Grabbed a beer at their hotel's terrace, then more delicious food (chicken tikka and more curry, plus delicious, charcoal fired bread), then a beer at a very local place, ha, traded stories, and called it a night.

Anyway, chk out the link below...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/travel/09heads.html