So I'm on vacation here. Our work schedule (2:30PM-11PM) allows for all but the most extreme laziness in the morning. Our drivers usually arrive roughly 30 minutes before we have to leave, without fail, every day; they just sit in solitude waiting for us. Apparently, the tip we give them (600-1000 RS/week) nearly doubles their annual salary.

I see poverty all around me, but I have yet to experience not scoffing at the price of any item. The exception is the half-empty pack of cigarettes one shop keep tried to sell Kristina for only a slight discount off the sticker price. I've decided I'm going to pay for the laundry service in the hotel because it comes out to roughly a buck a shirt or pair of pants, and they iron each item way nicer than I ever could. They also go the extra mile and hang everything up in your closet too, which I really appreciate. Before, I left, when I found out I had a dishwasher in the apartment, I felt it would be prudent to ask if it was a machine, or a person. I was told it was a machine. I do have a dishwasher, but the housekeeper does all my dishes every day. So I actually do have a dish-washer. The housekeeper also finds some way to organize/fold/neaten nearly every item in my apartment every day. I'm going to be RUINED when I get back to the states. Hey Mom, will you iron and hang my shirts for 2 bucks a piece?

We do however, barter with the auto-rickshaw drivers anytime we take one (which is nearly every trip around town except to and from work). They usually come out asking 10-15 times the fair price of a ride, and we negotiate it down to roughly 4-5 times the price of the ride. That is of course, unless you get lucky and get an honest (or should I say stupid) driver who will turn the meter on. Someone recommended using the threat of calling a police officer over when a driver won't use the meter, since not turning it on is illegal, but the only way to get a police officer to enforce the law, is to pay him some money. In India, the wheels of justice always need a little grease.

Driving in India can be likened to a game of Asteroids, except you have no missiles to shoot at the cars/trucks/buses/motorcycles/rickshaws/bicycles/people on foot rocketing at you from all directions. Traffic lights are optional, stop signs non-existent, the sidewalks are built at least a foot of the ground so they can't be driven on. The only thing keeping everything delicately strung together is a deafening symphony of horn honking and lots hand waving. Yet our driver insists India has one of the lowest accident rates in the world. What lines on the road?

On the way to Mumbai last weekend there was some old dude who couldn't walk, sitting indian style, slowly shuffling himself across a major intersection with his hands. This is completely normal. I also have seen naked children running around barefoot (that is redundant) in construction zones, and the other night I saw a man shaped like a pumpkin, literally a uniform circumference, sitting on the ground begging for money.

In the last week we have been swarmed by beggars at least once. You get used to this really quickly and get over your sorrow once you learn that they have to deliver any money they receive to the gangsters that are pimping them out to the streets. I have a video of Kristina being swarmed on Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai at dusk which I'll post later. This beach was a crazy place...thousands of people littered across the sand and the surf. It looked like a big beach party - but this is just how it is all the time. We stopped at a 5-star hotel right off the beach and actually spend roughly $45-50 bucks a person on dinner. This was probably the fanciest, most gourmet meal I've ever had in my life though, and would easily fetch upwards of $200 in NYC. Earlier in the day we took a boat ride out to Elephant Island, hiked up a two-hundred year-old staircase to see a 1200 year-old temple built inside the top of the island. Really cool. This island also had wild monkeys. One of the greatest things I saw was one of these monkeys chilling in a tree eating a corn-on-the-cob, and holding the corn-on-the-cob like a human would.

Now I'm going to continue my vacation by smoking some "shisha" on the balcony. Not what you think, that's illegal!!!!!!!

Business Class/First Night

To begin with - the drinks were free at the President's lounge, which the business class ticket Alliance paid for granted access to. I discovered this upon receiving a strange look accompanied with the words "no charge" when trying to pay for the cocktail I ordered. In the lounge, we met a guy who was flying to Mumbai working as a tobacco prevention policy consultant for the Gates Foundation who was also taking advantage of the free drinks - this is what Gates & Buffett are doing with their money. Still sounds like a cool job, get paid to fly around and tell other people what to do.

Business Class passengers board first.

IFE: Hundreds of movies, HBO-on-demand, video games, thousands of songs. Top shelf liquor - all free.

The Menu: Warm roasted nuts and spicy Indian snack mix followed by Smoked, peppered Atlantic salmon accompanied by salmon roulade with cream cheese and creamed horseradish. Fresh field greens, romaine and Belgian endive with cherry tomato, goat cheese and pecans w/ creamy chutney dressing accompanied by freshly baked assorted rolls and bread with butter including paneer naan, tandoori flatbread with mild creamy cheese and matar parathas, fried flatbread with green peas. The main course consists of herb-cursted halibut and char-grilled shrimp with pieces of lobster meat in a lobster sauce with stewed artichoke hearts and fine green beans. The main course is followed by select American and imported cheeses, fresh seasoned fruit, assorted gourmet crackers and bread, served with Port wine. Dessert consists of vanilla ice cream with choice of toppings or galub jamun, friend milk and cheese dumplings in flavored syrup.

Go to sleep and wake up to a glass of orange juice, a cup of coffee followed up by fresh strawberries, pineapple, grapes and mellon with yogurt. Warm cinnamon rolls and croissants with butter and strawberry preserves. Mushroom omelette with broccoli potato gratin and cherry tomatoes.

Mumbai airport was no big deal - looks like JFK with different people walking the halls. There were a few mosquitoes and I was paranoid for a few minutes. Clearing customs and collecting our baggage was no problem. Our driver was waiting patiently for us outside holding a sign with our names written on it. The other big difference was the palm trees everywhere. Our driver spoke no English - the extent of our conversation on the 3.5 hr drive to Pune in some sort of a Toyota SUV was a sneeze, a god bless you, and what could have been a thank you and there was also a request for some Indian radio which he responded to by turning on a TV and putting on one of the Saw movies w/ subtitles.

I saw a few crazy things on the highway linking Mumbai & Pune. Lot's of broken down trucks just sitting on the side of the road, several of them had a small child tinkering around under the side of it trying to fix it, or spending then night there, not sure. I saw a motorcycle riding the wrong way down the highway - this road was similar to the Bruckner Expy let's say in that it was 3-lanes in each direction w/ a divider, and in crappy condition. There were also lot's of crazy shanties/shacks/shops all along the sides of the roads we were driving along which looked very interesting.

We entered the Oakwood compound where we are staying and were greeted by a posse of servants who snatched up our luggage in a courteous fervor. We walked in through the front doors and were approached by a waiter with a big smile and two complimentary tropical beverages for us. Our two other colleagues Mike and Jennie came bounding down the stairs when we got up to our rooms and we proceeded to get completely hammered on a local brew - Kingfisher - until 5:30 in the morning.

I can't believe I'm in India.

My apartment has two flat screen TV's, its not huge, but its very posh, I'll post some pictures later when I hook up the camera I bought today for 15K RS. The place is totally stocked with any sort of house-ware/cooking item you could possibly need, good quality stuff from the looks of it too.

I saw two camels today, moving right along with traffic. My apartment is on the 7th and top floor situated next to some construction project, an apartment or office building that is basically a skeleton structure, so I can see right through it and beyond. Today I noticed there is a family (at least one family) of "slum dogs" living in this half-baked building. I saw the mother washing some clothes outside and the little ones running around barefoot, playing with an empty Coke can. Then I walk back inside from my balcony and eat some of the fresh fruit that was waiting for me when I got here.

Going to drink more Kingfishers then go to a restaurant on the roof of a hotel downtown.