random thoughts

I think I’ll put off talking about sightseeing day 2 and share a few random thoughts:
1. Just when I start to get frustrated by India (the honking, the sheer number of people, etc) something happens to make me appreciate the uniqueness of the country. This weekend I saw something totally new and random. There were stands along the street in Mumbai where people were buying juice, it was where the juice came from that had me puzzled. There were these big sticks (see photo - and hooray, I managed to upload a photo!), looked like really skinny bamboo that were being cranked through, well, a crank. They would fall apart and this juice would come out. I was fascinated and highly puzzled. So I took at photo and asked someone what it was. Turns out it is sugar cane and the ‘juice’ is essentially sugar water. Fascinating. Kind of like the worlds first sports drink. I was not brave enough to buy it though, it looked kind of weird.
2. I am not a hat person, never have been. It isn’t that I’m vain or anything, I just have a really big head, literally, so I have a super hard time finding hats that fit. But when I decided to come here I realized I should probably get a hat, so I slowely crutched into REI (with help from my parents) and found two good hats. One of which has a super big visor, isn’t that beautiful, but has served me well. I forgot it on Sunday and thought, oh well, how much of a difference can it really make. Turns out it makes a HUGE difference. I was only outside for about ½ the day, most of which was in the shade, and I was absolutely wrecked when I was done and had a headache for the rest of the day. Moral of the story: if you are coming to India; bring a hat, and if you forget it at the hotel, turn around and go back.
3. I forgot the funniest part of the story yesterday. So, on the ferry back as we are approaching the city I noticed people in the water. There were these guys, maybe about 15 or 20 of them swimming. As our boat got closer they grabbed on to the side of the boat (there were tires lining the side of the boat that they could grab) and they road along with us for a while. One of them even climbed up onto the boat and them jumped back in. Not sure if it was just for fun or what but as they were riding along with us one of them lost his shorts!