So hoist up the John Bs sail

India. First Cochin, then an overnight in Mumbai (Bombay to most of us – they changed the name in 1996 and the rest of the world didn’t pay attention. I still say Bombay.)

I nearly wrote a post after my day in Cochin, but I decided to give India another chance. Perhaps Bombay will be more… I don’t know. Or less… something. I don’t want to say too much because I could easily insult an entire country… but I have never been in a place where more people have behaved in such a horrid, disgusting manner toward foreigners. About 33% of those people we’ve run across have not been at LEAST aggressively opportunistic about trying to cheat you out of some money – not to mention those who simply are quite physically aggressive as they are begging. I wrote a big long entry detailing the shouting matches over the course of the day with the cab driver who wouldn’t take us where we wanted to go after a point because he didn’t get kickbacks from those places… the groups of young boys who physically accosted my friend Lindsey (after the cabbie had done so to my friend Hillary)… the fistfight between cabdrivers outside the port over $1… and the redemption of the day at a restaurant called “Khyber” where I ate my weight in Naan breads. It all seemed so dull, so I’ll list pros and cons of the day:

PROS:

I had a monkey on my head.

I was in Ghandi’s house.

The giant city laundry, acres of… laundry, in the middle of a city of 15 million people.

The whole cast plus some shoppies and others went out to dinner at a place called Khyber where Corinne bought me dinner as partial “payment” for helping her with her video demo reel.

The cab driver Mallorie, Corinne, and I had for the evening – Raj.

CONS:

The cab driver Hillary, Lindsey, Rosie and I had all day – Johnny.

The fact that I never saw the Calaba art district thanks to Johnny.

… lots of things attributable to Johnny, except maybe the plus that I had a number of shouting matches with a cab driver in India who repeatedly tried to cheat and mislead us.

Anyway… we’re headed to Muscat, Oman, now. I have only recently realized how close I am going to Iran. Look at your maps, folks – see how close I’m going to the Original Middle Eastern Bad Guys. ™

I’m not entirely happy about that, but we’ll… see how that goes. I will go on record as saying that I do not wish to go to Iran.

By the way, I'm supposed to say... Luis, if you’re reading this, write your girlfriend! Corinne misses you!

Pics: Outside the Jain Temple . Read carefully. There is a monkey on my head, and a red dot on my forehead... I don't know what either of them mean.
My "Omega" James Bond watch is still going strong.
Acres and acres of laundry. This is really more interesting (and disgusting) than it sounds.