Hey everyone, my name is Kenji, and this is my first post. I was too lazy to set up my own account, so I'm writing through Jackie's.


A lot has happened since I first arrived here in bombay, I arrived 2 nights ago at 10 PM. On the flight over, I had to kind of mentally prepare myself, because I hadn't been expecting to arrive in India by myself- I expected Jackie to be there with me, which she wasn't. I got all my stuff off of baggage claim and walk out the airport to find a dirt road with trash and rubble lining the side of the road. I get into a taxi which is REALLY sketchy, because there are like 30 dirty dudes waiting there in the general viscinity of their cars. So I sit in the cab fo 5 minuets in the back seat until finally the cab driver and this other dude sitting next to him start taking me to the hotel. Now my mom told me that the hotel was only 2 minutes away from the airport. After about 10 minutes in the taxi I started getting scared and asked how much longer it would be. He pulls over because he thinks I'm trying to buy cigarettes on the side of the street. He kept giving hand signals like he was smoking something, and I kept saying, "no, no." It's really scary because you are sitting in the taxi with all of your luggage and the driver doesn't speak a word of english, and your fate is resting in his hands.
He finally delivered me to the hotel, and I check in and everything was alright. The hotel was kind of expensive, but it was fairly nice. That night I went to bed at about 11, and woke up at about 3:30 a.m. with nothing to do. I started doing pushups and listening to music, and doing anything to pass the time. The next morning I woke up, ate breakfast, and attempted to go to the ATM. I stood there, trying to cross the highway for about 5 minutes, until finally I just followed some of the Indian people across. I don't know if you know, but the traffic here is crazy. I have a few pictures that I'll upload later.
After going to the ATM, this random taxi driver gives me his card, and tells me to find him if I want to go somewhere. Note that there are stray dogs and cows and dirty sheep on the side of the road, along with poor people just sitting there. As I was going back to my room, Jackie called right while I was still in the lobby, and told me I should go and explore Bombay. So I went and the taxi driver ended up being a really nice guy and showed me the sites all around Bombay. I went to a place where they handwash all of these clothes in these cement wells (kind of). I went to gateway of India, which is kind of like the Arc d'Triomphe, but right on the edge of the water, I don't know how else to describe it. I went along this promenade which they call the Queens Necklace, because at night time the street lights look like a necklace, lighting up the harbor. Yesterday evening I took it easy because I was jetlagged, and Jackie came at 2:30 in the morning, smelling like a horse's ass. She looked like she had been in a hippie festival for three weeks without showering, wearing these tie dye pajama pants. I never got back to bed after she came, so I woke her up early this morning.
After getting hustled out of 10 bucks for breakfast, we went off to find a cheaper hotel. The hotel was hard to find, because it was on the second floor of this not so clean street, with a little tiny doorway which led to the stairs. The hotel room is reasonable for the price, but when the price is $5 per person a night, that's not saying much. The shower doesn't really work, and is quite grimy, and the beds are alright...I guess.
Once we got settled in the hotel, Jackie got a phone from this little vendor on the side of the street who kept trying to force feed us coffee, which I would not have drank for 50 bucks, but which Jackie sipped and complemented. Next we went and bought some Indian clothes. They kept giving me shirts that were too small, and I felt like I was going to tear them just by putting them on. After about 4 or 5 shirts they finally gave me one the right size, and I bought a shirt and two bottoms. Next we went to lunch, passing a market place that lined the street with all of these little stands, selling sunglasses, watches, clothes, drums (which was kind of weird), and leather stuff. I bought a watch because there aren't any clocks around. We went to lunch which was nice, and went to this dirty train station place where I almost lost my lunch. We bought tickets for Delhi tomorrow. Then we went to this Muslim temple thing, which is a five minute walk out off the shore. The dirty water kept splashing us on our way there, battering us with water that was full of grime and brown murk. The temple was pretty cool, although girls had to go in a separate entrance and weren't allowed to go into the temple, because they are considered inferior. On the way back, Jackie and I had a big debate about how educated women in our society don't have as many responsibilities in our culture. After about 10 minutes she finally conceded the point.
From there we walked along the water for about 10 minutes, and made it back to this internet cafe which is about 2 minutes away from our place. We are both sweaty, grimy, and disgusting, and are about to go take showers.

Tomorrow we are going on a 19 hour train ride to Delhi, leaving at 4:40 p.m. Our plan is to wake up early, take a ferry to this place called Elephant Island which is supposed to be really cool, come back, and go on the train. Hopefully this train ride will be better than my last train ride with other Indian people (I'm referencing my Euro trip).

Hope you are all well, check in later, and please write about the happenings back home.