day 11

Woke up nice and early. After the usual waiting for a very long time for Adam to complete his ablutions (what does he do in there?), we went across the street for coffee then went to work.

Yet more CD reviews: good thing I like doing them. Thelonious Monk and Peter Frampton this time along with a healthy dose of Whitesnake. (Whitesnake's early album = quite good. Surpising.)

Went for my usual lunch at Beijing Bites - roast chicken with vegetables this time. I love Chinese roast chicken with its usual little hint of sesame flavor. This was served in a curry sauce and was pretty darn good. Unfortunately the usual communication errors meant I got a soup I did not want, but this was resolved. Mostly.

I grabbed a rickshaw home and the driver took me on quite possible the longest route ever - a pretty impressive feat. I was exhuasted and took a brief nap, trying to blank out the sound of the dogs outside (success!) then woke and went for yet another walk. Walking down the street in India is a much more dangerous and exciting process then in other countries - sort of like playing Frogger in all too real-life. You have to develop nerves of absolute steel unless you plan to spend the majority of your life standing like a frightened deer on parking islands - one must learn to simply walk into traffic and pray. I'm getting better at this.

After a decent dinner of caulifower and daal (I passed on the egg curry. Eggs terrify me.), we all set out for The Beach, the aforementioned silly theme dance club of a few nights before. Wednesday was Ladies Night, which meant we members of the fairer sex got to drink free free free. I immediately cashed in my chips for a nice whiskey and hung out.

I proved to be pretty popular that night, cadging free drinks (that I didn't even need) off a guy hanging out at the bar and bouncing between seemingly everyone present, including some fetching guys from Cameroon and a guy who's apparantly a club events coordinator. (Good to know!) Christian desired another whiskey and I told her I'd obtain one: true to my word, I returned with a free one in under ten minutes. I should start timing myself.

Aforementioned events coordinator invited us to an afterparty, and although the others declined, James, Christian and I decided hey what the hell let's go. (I justify these things by calling them cultural experiences.) The event coordinators buddy, Manu (I think) drove us in his rather swank car, although he kept on calling me "Fame" insead of "Faine." "Seriously, it's Faine, not fame." "Ah, but you will be famous someday!" "For what? Being irriating?" etc etc all

We stopped at an extremely nice house belonging to one of their friends, waiting carefully outside for the cops to leave. (Apparantly they like to spend their time collecting bribes from partiers rather then stopping crimes. One is more lucrative.) We went in and I, being me I guess, immediately began to mingle. Someone poured me an extremely generous Smirnoff which I pretended to drink (I go so far and no further), talking to almost everyone present. Most of the Indians had California connections, went to school there, or were going to school there, and they immediately lit up when I said I was from near San Francisco. I found out one particular guy (who was wandering around shirtless in a top hat and going HELLYOO) stays at the Clift Hotel, right across from the Adagio, where we always stay in San Francisco. Bizarre.

In any case, following my dad's eternal command to Collect Business Cards At All Costs, I racked up a nice collection and put down everyone's numbers - I now know who to call if I am in the mood for some wacky hijinks in Bangalore now. Christian was feeling poorly, and we left around 3 AM in a taxi, which was air conditioned and civilized. I think I am done with the damn autorickshaws.