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May 24th, 2008 Mumbai, India

May 24th – 2008

Today I really didn’t do a whole lot. Unfortunately I was up bright and early since Rahul’s mom awoke at like 730am, and since we all sleep in the same room, that meant I was up that early as well. She naturally gets up early because of her job. She is the principal of a government school in her hometown in eastern india. Apparently she explained to me it is a school for bad children, she has 600 in total so it is hard at times to manage. Anyway, for most of the day we all just tried to stay cool in the apartment, watched a lot of tv and cricket, chatted. At one point we all left to get lunch from the place I ate dinner at the first night in Mumbai. It is a thali style place which basically means all you can eat of whatever they serve. They provide bread, dali, rice and a dish. Again the food was very nice, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

After lunch it was back to the apartment. At this point Rahul’s parents were getting restless and wanted to go out and see some stuff in Bombay. I didn’t blame them if I had sat on a train for 30 hours i’d want to do something also. But Rahul explained to them that it was very hot out and that the heat would bother them a lot. They are not used to this heat as their hometown is slightly cooler but significantly less humid. Also in their nice home they have air conditioning, refrigeration and other amenities Rahul’s apartment does not.

At around 630pm after watching the Chennai Super Kings almost come back from an impossible 212 run target set by the Royals we all went to Juhu beach. It was about a 30 minute ride in the rickshaw and by the time we got there it was nice and cool and dark. Thousands of people were out on the beach enjoying the summer night. We walked around, took some quality photos and I walked in to the water ankle deep. This water is the Arabian Sea. I know I said the other day that the body of water was the Indian ocean but I think that is on another side of the country, east coast of india perhaps. Anyway at one point Rahul’s mom wanted to go in the water, nobody else wanted to go with her so I said that I would accompany her to the water. As it turns out she had not been in a sea, ocean whatever since 1978! Back then she was on a geological tour and had the opportunity then to do so. I told her it would be my pleasure. We didn’t hold hands or anything but it was something nice to do.

On the way home Rahul stopped at Globus mall to meet his friend. I went back to the apartment to change before going out. This would be my first night out in Mumbai and I was very excited. Since Rahul’s parents were here he couldn’t really go out with me so I was on my own to make the night something special and boy was it ever. After he took me in to this bar called Temptation both he and his friend left. His friend had to do some work and Rahul was nervous his parents were getting angry with him, so he went back to the apartment. I got a big bottle of Kingfisher beer, sat at the end of the bar and watched Mumbai play Delhi in cricket. This was a much anticipated match where if Mumbai would win they would go on to the semi final of the season tournament. Unfortunately they lost at the very end but only a few runs. The crowd was disappointed as this rivalry is huge in India.

Eventually the person sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me. His name was Sahir and I cannot pronounce or spell his girlfriend’s name. After two more big bottles of beer he asked if I wanted to go out with them to other places in Mumbai. I said absolutely, and then he informed me that I would probably have to pay an entrance fee to get in since I was a single. They charge stags more than couples for whatever reason I am not sure. The first place we went too was nearby the first bar. It was pretty cool, we got some drink tickets with our entrance fee that I paid for. I hadn’t spent a lot of money yet in India and since I was staying for free at the apartment I figured a one night splurge would be fine and boy was it ever. After another beer, a whiskey and a tequilla shot, Sahir asked if I wanted to go somewhere else. I said fine lets hit it. This place was back at Juhu beach at the uber exclusive club at the JW Marriot. This time I paid a much steeper entrance fee and even the asshole at the door would not drop the price, even though I told him I had traveled thousands of miles just to go to this club. We again got some drink tickets equivalent to the entrance fee, the only problem is that the drinks are so expensive you really don’t get much. One weird thing happened. I noticed that Sahir immediately grabbed my drink card worth 1000 rupees more than his. At this moment I felt like I had been suckered in some way. I did notice them ordering more beers than I was drinking. I switched over to whiskey and coke for the rest of the night but Rahul explained to me later on that night that mine drinks were probably much more expensive than his.

At the end of the night I stumbled back home. They dropped me off at Globus mall, I called Rahul who luckily found me wondering around the wrong direction from his apartment. It was around 330am and there were so many rats around eating up the garbage it was so gross. They were not your garden variety rat but huge suckers. Once I got home I tried to be as quiet as possible since everyone was sleeping, I said a quick prayer to the porcelain g-ds and passed out.



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