Beers and Board Members

What are the chances of running into a board member of the Denmark Fair Trade organization?

High chance if you are me and drinking beer on the rooftop of my hotel.

I met David on the Friday night and had him at Ladli yesterday morning filming all three locations so he can do a presentation to the Fair Trade operators in Denmark when he gets back mid April.

Crazy...........

David is also going to try and help approval and funding process for membership into the India Fair Trade and then International organization.

It's a long application process with a lot of stuff to put into place........but all is looking good so far.

I've got to drink beer more often.

Activists and Me

There are loads of Westerners here in India trying to make the world a better place.

It's tough..........but I think a few of them really can make a difference!

My Poor Feet

My feet will never be clean again.

I so badly need a pedicure.

Earrings and Me

I decided to model one of Oystein's designs today.

Bright silver dangling earrings.

I was wearing my paint clothes all day so wearing dangling earrings sure looked great with my baseball cap full of paint.

You Need To Meditate

I have no idea how to paint.

Oystein does.

He is the young Norwegian guy that is volunteering at the same place I am....teaches jewelry design to the girls.

Oystein speaks five languages and has a Masters in International Business. He is also a hippie.

Last night we started to paint the office...which should of taken 3 hours. It took us 3 hours just to do half of it. Oystein likes to talk about changing the world. All stuff he has no control over.

It's 9 pm.......I'm hungry...tired.......and bitchy.

He tells me I need to meditate.

I tell him that we need to finish painting and he needs to stop talking.

It took us another three hours....but we finished painting tonight.

This also included the time it took me to look over his resume and his cover letter to a job he just applied to.

United Nations.

I butchered his application.

Scaring the Indians

It's been one week since our volunteer meeting.

Since then:

• I've taken over one guy's computer...he has the card reader and access to the organization main email address.
• Rearranged and painted the main sales office.

I've also gotten approval to have the boys sew 100 bags...some for the volunteers and a few to sell.

I'm really scaring all the Indians I work with.

They keep saying 'tomorrow...tomorrow...'

I keep saying 'no...now'.

I don't think they know what 'now' is...but they are learning.

And....getting out of my way.

Paint & Curtain Shopping In India

I've decided that the money I wanted to donate to the organization be spent in something that I can see being put to use.

This happens to be in paint and curtains.

Paint that you mix in water.

Curtains that I had to go with 3 other people in the organization to go buy.

It's a miracle anything gets done in the country.

Indian Movies Once Again

Black & White. Great movie.

I went with Candace and our new friend Gareth.

I was translating.

The French

I'm hanging around with two young french people and it's so funny on how 'French' they are.

Example: Candace can not get some of the 'Holi' colors out of her hair. It's turned her blonde highlights red and pink. This has been a major disaster for her.

I went to a beauty salon with her on the Sunday and she was told that they had to process the color a certain way to have it look the way she wanted. Candace wanted it done another way. Of course the salon would only do it their way. I had to pull her away from the counter while she was still arguing about the process and why they could not do it her way.

So so French.

You have to just laugh.

Color Thieves

The Holi festival was last Saturday and seeing as I was told to stay inside.....I didn't want to so I started to venture down the road to see what was happening.

I got as far as the street right in front of the hotel and had about 8 little kids stop and ask me if I wanted to play Holi.

'Sure' I say.....excited that I had some new little friends.

Within 2 seconds they stole my packages of powder color in my pockets and ran away laughing.

Little brats.

I then started to think that I should perhaps just stay at the hotel.

I wondered upstairs to the rooftop restaurant and had fun with all the tourists that were also warned to stay inside.

The hotel staff were throwing powder paint on us and then some of the tourists also ventured out to purchase some paint. Within minutes any 'virgin' tourist was completly covered as well.

Loads of fun!

Illegal Beer

My hotel does not have a liquor license.

You can however purchase beer for 100 rupees.

Cash.

No records anywhere.

Friends Come & Go

My friend Helen left last night to do a tour with Gecko's. She comes back in 18 days.

I've been hanging around with two new friends.

Candace and Paul. Both from France.

Candace is studying law and Paul is studying political stuff.

They are here to translate some sort of documents into the French language.

All volunteer work.

Math & Me

I need to get better with my multiplication skills.

There is one girl at the school that rocks with her seven's and eight's.

I just PRETEND that I'm wrong.

Drums and Power

I'm across the street using this really old computer as the ones in our hotel are not working.

There are drums beating loudly outside due to the festival.

I'm trying to rush my typing fingers as the power goes out in this area everyday for 2 hours.

It's hard to think and type with the offbeat loud drums.

Only ten minutes to go.

Back to Meetings

Seeing as there is no volunteer co-ordinator at the organization, I had to put my two cents in and get one going.

I had a meeting with the existing volunteers (10) and we came up with projects that needed to be taken care of.

We will be working on the following while I'm here:

• developing a volunteer in-take/welcome kit with all kinds of help/tips for the volunteer
• painting & updating some of the main working/selling areas
• developing a one page bio on each of the girls/boys for the volunteer teachers
• commencing a program where the volunteer updates what has been taught so the next volunteer can just keep going from those learnings
• application to the fair trade forum-india and later for international membership
• pictures/email thank you's to the groups that come visit the vocational school
• all sorts of creative idea's....postcards...new style earring with natural products and so much more!

How can you tell that I'm missing part of being me.

Fair Trade & Me

I'm working on getting the organization I'm volunteering with approved with the fair trade association.

It's going to be a very long and detailed process.

Bead Buyer

I spent the morning on Monday being a ceramic bead buyer at a wholesaler place.

This was one of my 'sundry' tasks at the organization I volunteer with.

Very interesting task.

There are loads of tourists that come to this particular city in India to purchase all sorts of precious stones and jewelry pieces for their businesses.

Indian Festivals

It's Holi festival here in Northern India. Festival of Colors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

I've been warned to stay inside as the locals get a bit insane partying today.

Part of this festival includes the 'Elephant Festival' which we all went to see yesterday at the stadium.

It was amazing seeing all 40+ of them all decorated up.

The camels, horses and ox's all looked super small next to the huge elephants.

Indian Interneting

It's interesting to see that today is Saturday March 22nd........10:30 am.

My blog is posting Friday's date.

Only in India.

Indian Trims

I went for a hair cut & color on Monday. Style 'n' Scissors.....500 rupees for color application and 300 rupees for a cut.

My hair needed a small TRIM so I asked the stylist to give me one.

He spoke some English....so I thought he understood.

He didn't. I left with several inches less hair.

It was also one of the most uncomfortable hair appointments I've ever had.

I had several guys just sit and STARE the whole time I was in the salon.

I felt like I was at the zoo.

Me being the main attraction.

As You Like

Common sayings here......

"As you like..."

"As you wish......"

Alrighty then.

Dancing, Dancing & More Dancing

Last Saturday I went to a club just down the road from my Hotel with Helen.

1,000 rupees cover for a 'couple'. Single boys cannot go into a club alone...they need to be with a girl. Girls can go in with another girl.

The cover charge gives you coupons worth 700 rupees for drinks. The drinks ranged from 200 rupees for a small beer to 450 rupees for a vodka. Very expensive.

Music was very interesting. Some very old stuff and some new.

This club was not as 'modern' as the one I went to in Kolkata.

Last night we went out again. This time with Shakere and his friend. Shakere is Helen's little cabana boy as I call him.

We went to two different clubs...staying out until 4 am.

Drinks were cheap last night.

Dinner Date

On Thursday night a few of us were invited to the Directors house for dinner.

Sheldon, Sue, Helen, Sheila and myself made our way to the house with tuk tuk's.

The Mr & Mrs have two boys. One is in journalism school in Mumbai and the other boy is married with a newborn that live with the Mr & Mrs.

Dinner was southern Indian food. Yummy. We ate just with the Mr.

I'm not sure when or where the others ate.

Attention Spans

My first day at the school was a bit misleading in that it looked like there was some sort of structure in the day.

There isn't.

Or.............maybe there is but I have yet to figure out what is going on.

On Thursday two other volunteers that have been working on English with the girls came back from a short vacation. Emily and Anna are sisters that have volunteered for over 2 months. They tried to fill me in on what is going on.

Basically you ....."do whatever..... everyday is different".

Nice.

I was going to go and help the two of them finish painting the Ganga house (where the girls sleep).....but changed my mind when they told me that they had picked up lice from the girls there. Great.

I think I'll stick to trying to teach some English and math.

Sarita & Kamlesh

There are two young girls...Sarita who is 19 and Kamlesh who is 20 .....that work with the girls at Ladli. They are the teachers at the school.

The 'school' is one big area that is divided only by the students circle around the teacher. This means that you can easily hear and see what is going on next to you.

I found that whenever I was running my sessions next to Sarita & Kamlesh(they teach together) they would often stop what they were teaching (usually Hindi) and participate in my class.

They both love math and learning English.

On Friday I spent some time with them by helping them read.

They were both so happy and excited.

I love it when I see people that truly want to get better at something.

Try It Again

It was so easy taking the bus that first afternoon back to my hotel that I thought I'd try it again.

My morning experience was not that easy.

First of all I had to cross the street to get to the ride side of where I needed to go. As mentioned numerous times in my blog...crossing the street here in India can get you killed. There are cars everywhere....PLUS...camels, horses, elephants, bikes and just about anything else that can kill you if you don't move fast enough.

I thought my best opportunity would be to try and cross where the policeman directs traffic. Nope. I ended up following someone as they ran across the street.

Next was trying to figure out what the bus stop looked like. Very difficult...but I figured it out after all these guys I asked just kept pointing to something that looked like a headstone you would use at the cemetery. Great.

Several buses drove by and none of them stopped for me. Every tuk-tuk and rickshaw guy did...but no bus. I finally got some guy that barely understood me to wave the bus over. No problem. Interesting.

The bus was full of guys who just stared at me when I got on. Lovely.

I should comment that the bus I take are more like shuttle buses back home. Small. They have a driver and a guy that stands at the open door taking payments and telling the driver when to stop.

These buses get very full so it makes it very difficult to look out the window to see when to get off. Of course I missed my stop and then had to take a rickshaw to where I needed to be.

I had to try this again and on Friday I managed to cross the street by holding on to an Indian womens hand while she ran across the street....I found that this method works best for me.

I also managed to wave my own bus over to stop for me. No help from any man.

AND.........I got off at the right stop.

Life is good.

Indian Buses and Me

I was told to take the bus to get me home from the volunteer centre.

"Don't take tuk-tuk. Too expensive."

Yes it is. 45/50 rupees compared to the 5/ rupees on taking the bus.

One of the guys walked me to the street and just loads me on the first bus that shows up....he yelled '8.....GO'. I hopped on....or rather squished my way in.

I had absolutely no idea where I was going...other than what they had written on a piece of paper for me. I handed it to someone on the bus......who just kept passing it to someone that could read it and then I get this nodding of the head that they would help.

I kept a look out for the nod.

I got it after a lot of stops and stares.....both men and female.

Happy to get off but still having no idea where I was...but knowing I was close.

The side streets are really smelly...mostly of piss from the guys who pee everywhere...so I had to walk on the street trying to not get run over.

With my handy hotel business card and my luck of finding someone that could read, I made it home safe and sound.

I love taking the bus!

Sewing Machines and Boys

I asked Rupendra...the office manager of Ladli if I could go see what the boys did during the day.

Next thing you know, I'm sitting on the back of his motorcycle whipping down busy Amjer road. He of course is wearing a helmet. I'm not. Passengers do not need helmets. Drivers do...as they get fined if they don't.

After about 15 minutes we pull up to this spot with the Ladli sign.

The boys are also taught how to make jewellery here...but they mainly make all these other cool items that need a sewing machine. They have about 8 old black sewing machines...the kind that went out of style in the western world years ago... that they use to teach the boys how to sew.

Sewing is huge here in India. You only see men doing it. Tailors everywhere.

I was just soooooo happy to arrive in one piece after the motorcycle ride!

Sink or Swim

I found myself just hanging out on Monday with Sheldon & Sue...the retired Canadian couple from Manitoba who came out last year to help out with Ladli. Sue is a retired CIBC employee....a very small world it is!

I went with them to the Laxmi location....a 10 minute walk from the hotel. This location was started up just 4 months ago and has yet to have real structure. The girls still live on the street....I think one of them is a child prostitute.

I didn't do much other than just listen to what the experts had to say (Sheldon & Sue). The girls are all over you......mostly just playing with my hair. They are all pretty dirty. I hope none of them have lice.

Yesterday was my first day at Sodala. I actually thought I would just be 'job shadowing' with the two teachers....Sarita & Kamlesh...........but I was wrong.

Here I am sitting on the floor watching the girls set up their little desks (those plastic foot stools). I also take one and take out my recently purchased notebook and new pink pencil.

I notice the girls form a semi circle around me and start looking at me.

Oh Oh....am I supposed to be doing something?

I ask Kamlesh...the teacher....who barely speaks or understands English.

She tells me....."you start...you teach."

Great. I hadn't even thought about what I would be doing..

I had the girls write down their names in English....after I had one of them try to translate what I wanted for me.

My students: Anita (13), Tannu (13), Suman (12), Usha (10), Manju (12), Kavita (12), Sunita (13) and Fujana (14).

They all helped each other with the spelling and writing down of their names.

I had absolutely no idea what level they were at...so I started with some basic stuff....A, B,C's and what words they knew that started with each letter. A few. Good I'm thinking.

I was so lucky to have Anita in the class as she translated what I was saying.

Having no idea on how long I was supposed to 'teach' .... I ask Kamlesh and she tells me to 'change...now you teach math'.

MATH????

Good thing I rock at math. The girls loved that. We spent time adding and subtracting.

They all cheated.

I couldn't.

I had no calculator and had to really add up the stuff I put on the white board.

Like I said...good thing I rock at math.

My New Home

I'm living at a new hotel in Jaipur. 550 rupees a night.

http://www.hotelpearlpalace.com/

Nice friendly place owned by a Sikh.

I'm running into all the religions in this part of the world.

So far my experience has been with Buddist's, Muslim's, Hindu's, Catholic's and now Sikh's.

Is there anything left I should try to find?

Back to Bella

I'm back to using my name of 'Bella' as most of the locals have a hard time pronouncing my full name.

This will make my volunteer work....that I start on Monday March 10th....so much easier with all the kids I will be working with.

The organization I will be working with is called I-India....care, love and development for the street children of Jaipur.

www.i-indiaonline.com

My role will be to help teach the girls english as well as some fundraising/marketing of the organization.

Bella is very excited.

Red Airplanes

Another red airline...this one called Kingfisher.

Direct flight from Goa to Jaipur. 2 hr flight. 4,930 rupees ($125.00)

This flight was awesome!

I had a great meal and headsets included.

Who would of thought you still get this sort of service on such short cheap flights.

Only in India!!

Bye Bye Goa

I was so lucky to have found the room I did while staying in Goa!

Bye Bye my cute Portuguese/Indian family...Manuel & Mercian.

Tailors & Me

After enjoying a terrorist movie at the cinema's, I walked over to the Pink City markets to see all the craziness.

I was with Helen the girl I met at Ladli's.

We ended up at one of those little shops that sells panjabi outfits. It took us several hours to have them understand what style and colors we wanted. Pretty entertaining time.

They called us 'difficult'.

Well...........if Helen wants PINK shades and they bring us BROWNS would you not comment that you don't want that color?

I ended up just ordering the pants...after the price went up for both the top and pants. I thought full price was 600 rupees...when in fact it was 950 rupees.

I paid 300 rupees just for the pants....which I tried to pick up this afternoon.

They are too short.

Am I surprized?

Nope. This is India.

Miscommunication is what the tailor told me.

I have to return to pick up the 'altered' pants.

This is India.

Another Bollywood Movie

Yesterday afternoon was spent walking to the Raj Mandir Cinema for another Bollywood movie.

Black & White....a Hindi movie based on a suicide bomber trying to blow up the Red Fort in Delhi.

All 3 major religions played a large part of the movie.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/moviereview/2845987.cms

The terrorist sure was a cutie pie.

A or I

I'm back to a spot that is the India in my dreams.

Jaipur.

Do you say JAipur and stress the A?

Or do you day JaIpur and stress the I?

I've asked a few different people and get different responses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur

Kids and Me

I had heard about an organization that does work with street children here in Goa, so I went on a mission to find them when I got back from Mumbai.

Onthe Saturday while walking on the beach, I see all these kids playing with a ball in the water. They seemed to have supervision by a few guys in the same t-shirts. As I got closer, I noticed it was the organization I was going to look for.

I stopped to talk to Maurizio....a retired football coach......Italian....living in London.... who has been coming to India the last 9 years and volunteering for El Shaddai Street Child Rescue.

He tells me that I won't be able to help out as I need a police check, however, I could stop by the Calangute day care centre to play with the kids for an hour or two.

Great I'm thinking...something to do other than just go to the beach :)

I spent a good hour on Monday looking for this daycare. No luck. I sent an email and after I got the instructions, went there yesterday morning.

In the one hour I was there, I had one little girl try to put my hair into two pony tails...OUCH! A little boy grab my hand after he had wiped his nose and had snot all over his hands.....EEEWWW! And several kids jumping on me when I was sitting on the floor playing cars with them....OW!

Kids are crazy.

I left them with a donation...and I purchased a water tank (500 rupees) for their new Lighthouse project in Panjim.

http://www.childrescue.net/

Reading Magic

I've missed reading books.... so this time on the beach has been great!

I was going to give one of my books to Thao the guy on the beach that has been like my cabana boy. He speaks broken english, so I thought a book would be great for him.

He tells me he can't read or write........and not just english.

Thao is 32 years old and makes his living on the beach.

I'm so lucky to be writing this right now.

And you are so lucky to able to read it.

My Cousin Frank

He so funny.

Stop Bugging Me # 2

No I do not want a pashmina shawl.

No I do not want a pashmina shawl.

No I do not want a pashmina shawl.

No I do not want a pashmina shawl.

Stop Bugging Me

No I do not want a taxi.

No I do not want a taxi.

No I do not want a taxi.

No I do not want a taxi.

Confusing People

The more I learn about the Indian people, the more I am confused.

It's not okay for the women to wear their swimwear into the water...but it's okay for them to jump in fully clothed with their beautiful sari's or jeans on.

The men do not want anyone 'looking' at their women.

The men on the other hand are fine going in the water with their underwear.

I guess it's okay for anyone to look at the packages these guys have.

Missing Mirrors

I'm missing those long mirrors that you can see all of you.

You know the kind....the ones that give you an idea if you are going out dressed like a freak.

I can only see my forehead on my very small mirror placed very high in my room.

Forget about seeing any of me in the very small bathroom mirror.

I wonder what I look like.

Top Spots

My Travel Agent...Heather....photocopied all the top spots I should be going to in India.

I did make it to the following:

• The Backwaters of Kerala
• Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai
• Jaipur
• Jaisalmer
• Jodhpur
• Pushkar
• Udaipur
• The Taj Mahal in Agra
• The Ghats of Varanasi
• The Marble Palace in Kolkata

The one spot that would be pretty cool would be the Darjeeling Highlands in West Bengal.

Tech Junkie

I was reading the paper the other day and found this article on being a chronic tech junkie.......

• Email. If you check your email three times an hour, you are officially lonely. If you check it out six times an hour, you're officially a cyber addict. After a point, the obsessive-compulsive behaviour can even make you a bit depressed because you end up looking at a blank inbox half the time.
• Not only friends are networked to you. Various social network sites have made you Mr or Mrs popular. A sure sign of a cyber addict or a tech junkie is someone who has 200 plus friends on their Facebook account.
• Your language itself is changing. Lol is lots of laugher, brb is be right back. It might mean you are keeping up with the times, but in reality it could be making you more emotionally disconnected than ever.
• You don't meet people unless they are strangers. Another sure sign of cyber addiction is when you start feeling less and less inhibited meeting strangers through these networks and find even less time for you real friends.
• Inter-passivity. Are you voraciously downloading more games, songs, video clips, etc., than you will ever consume in one lifetime, leave alone a year? With the internet comes a wide range of options, but if all you're doing is downloading without even having the time to enjoy it, then you're engaging in inter-passivity.
• Re-assurance. A lot of cyber-obsessive behaviour could be about wanting emotional re-assurance say experts. We like to feel loved, wanted, cherished.Those myriad virtual gifts and virtual cards, and the free cocktails, and what have you have been created to make you feel special.
  

Most Famous Product

In the world is.................

COCA-COLA!!!!

EVERYONE knows what that is.

No need to know any English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola

I HATE Mosquitoes

I'm covered in bites!

I wonder if soaking in bug spray is harmful to your health.

Good thing I'm taking Malaria tablets.

Almost Current

I can't believe I'm almost up to date on my blog!

Almost........

Missing People

Last night I wanted to hear some friendly voices so I made a few phone calls from one of those pay phone booths.

I didn't get great reception for Canada.

If I had been smart, I would of brought my cell phone from London ....a gift from a friend while I was there.....and just purchased a SIM card. All the Brits seem to be doing this.

Dummy me.

My Own Private Beach

Well not really.... as it's full of British couples.......but at least there are no creepy Indian boys bugging me!

Baga Beach. .......Cookies Shack.

The beach chair and umbrella comes with your ordering some food and drinks.

It's about a 20 minute walk from Calangute Beach area.

I like it!

A to Z of India

A list compiled one day on the train when I was bored. I asked for some feedback from my fellow travellers. On going list.

A........
Amazing, Awesome, Ambassadors, Art, Agra

B......
Backwaters, Beer, Beggars, Beaches, Bikes, Bus, Boats, Backpackers, Brahma's, Bindi's, Bollywood, Bangels, Books, Beautiful

C......
Cows, Curry, Colorful, Chai, Candels, Cremations, Cold, Camels, Cockroaches, Coconuts, Cats, Crazy, Calm, Cooking

D....
Dogs, Dirty, Dusty, Diarrhea, Dancing, Desert, Donkey, Delhi

E.....
Elephants, Elegant

F....
Filthy, Flowers, Forts

G....
Goats, Ghats, Garbage, Geese, Ganesh, Guys, Goa, Ganges

H....
Horns, Hot, Hindi, Henna, Hampi

I....
Intrepid, Inspirational

J.....
Jewelry

K.....
Kingfisher, Kerala, Kolkata

L....
Lumps, Lionel, Loud, Learning

M....
Masala, Mice, Mosquitoes, Music, Maharaji, Moustaches, Monkeys, Monks, Mangos, Motorcycles

N....
Noise

O....
Outstanding, OM, Ox

P.....
Pakistan, Palaces, Priests, Peaceful, Post Office, Pooja

Q....

R....
Roti's, Rice Patties, Pain, Rooftops, Rickshaws, Rats

S....
Spices, Shaji, Sari, Spititual, Shiva, Smoky, Staring, Sunsets, Silk

T....
Tuk Tuks, Temples, Tej, Taj, Trains, Tours, Touching, Tailors

U....
Unusual

V.....
Varanasi, Varkala

W....
Wanker, Westerners, Walks, Warriors

X.....
Xraordinary

Y.....
Yoga

Z....

British Invasion In Goa

The Brits are everywhere here.

Goa India is their beach holiday destination.

It took me awhile to 'get it'......as I always think of India in a different way.

Definitely not a beach destination like our Mexico, Hawaii and the Caribbean spots.

Very odd.

Cool Cars

You see some pretty cool taxi cabs here in India.

White or black ones.

Some have the clutch right on the steering wheel.

It looks like a gangster car with all the people in it looking like their heads are hitting the roof.

Ambassadors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan_Ambassador

Ugly Flight Attendants

I've not seen such unattractive flight attendants as I have here on the local airlines.

Not sure what this is all about..........but.........pretty scary.

Indian Movies

I'm not sure if I blogged about going to see one movie already here in India.

The movie was called 'Sunday'. We all went with Tej. It was a very fancy theatre. You purchase your tickets beforehand and have pre-assigned seats. There is even an intermission.

It's a pretty big deal going to the movies here.....too bad the movie sucked.

Well......I went to another movie in Mumbai and it was a great movie!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhaa_Akbar


I had to ask two guys near us what was going on...as the movie was in Hindi and no subtitles......they were Ethiopians....but one understood the language.

The movie cost us 70 rupees each for the lower level. Regal Theatre.

It started at 9 pm and ended at 1 am.

Fantastic love story!

Great People

I really don't know much about Gandhi's work.....but I purchased his autobiography and hope to learn more.

I like some of his thinking.......

"You must become the change you want to see".

Big City Day

I spent a few days in Mumbai with Jo in a pretty pricey hotel.

The room was nothing exciting...but the service sure was!

We spent the first night walking over to the India Gate...which was just down the road from our hotel. From there we took a 30 minute boat harbour cruise for 50 rupees.

All the folks on the boat were Indian tourists....no Westerners.

The first thing I noticed was the boat had no life jackets.. ...and for whatever reason this didn't bother me as much as it would of when I first got to India.

What is happening to me????????

Dinner was at Leopold's Cafe...made famous by the Shantaram book I'm in the process of reading. We also made a pit stop at McDonald's for me. No Big Mac...but I had my fries fix!

The next day was packed full with sightseeing......all by walking or taking the train. Jo was our navigator.

• Chowpatty Beach area...where I stopped at a REAL Levi's store and purchased a t-shirt.
• Crawfoot Market...where I was able to purchase my PEAS once again!
• Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat...Mumbai's municipal laundry where 5,000 men use rows of open-air troughs to beat the dirt out of the thousands of kilograms of soiled clothes brought from all over the city each day.
• National Gallery of Modern Art....closed for exhibition change.
• Taj Mahal Hotel....just down the road from us. High tea was 750 rupees...plus tax and tip....eeks! I decided to pass on this.
• Mani Bhavan Gandi Museum......I bought his autobiography book there.

When we got back to our hotel, we had a note from Leland and Jim to meet them for dinner.

Wow! We know some people in the big city........

After dinner, Jo and I went to see a movie.

A great full day in Mumbai!

Weight Scales in India

You can weigh yourself often in India.

Several spots have weight scales right in their establishments...but most of the time you will see some guy sitting on the street with one of those home weight scales in front of him.

It usually costs up to 5 rupees to weigh yourself.

The weight varies quite a bit from one scale to another.

So far in several weeks I have varied up to 7 kgs.

I liked my weight in Mumbai the best!

Movie Star Me

So I'm in Mumbai the other day and did NOT get asked to be an extra for a Bollywod movie when Jo and I were wondering down the street AND Jo did get asked!

I was pissed.

Could it be my age? Could it be I'm not white enough?

I was super pissed.

This didn't last long as I was asked several times the next day by different 'scouts' if I wanted to be an extra.

I was so happy!

Of course I said NO to working one full day for 500 rupees and free food.

Yes or No

The Indians have this funny way of saying yes in a non verbal way.

Westerners usually nod up and down when saying yes or approving something.

The Indians move their head sideways.

For Westerner this means no.

Here it means yes.

It's very hard to register when we are used to it meaning something totally different.

Bizarro.

Beach Baby

I'm back in Goa. Calangute Beach.

I'm staying at this Portuguese families home....Golden Beach Lane Mercian Gallery.

My room is costing me 400 rupees a day. Huge bed. Fridge. TV. Kitchen area with sink and a bathroom just outside the room.

A very local spot...just down the road from the beach.

My neighbours are pigs.

Real ones.