After a couple of days walking around Bangalore I flew up to Delhi yesterday on SpiceJet airlines. What a great name for an airlines. Unfortunately there was nothing spicy about the flight, especially not the food or drinks which were not complimentary. I did want to ask the stewardesses if they were technically known as the Spice Girls, but I got the sense they wouldn’t find the humor in that.
And what is up with Indian children and babies? They cry and whine louder, longer and harder than any other babies I’ve ever seen. On the flight to India last week and on this flight there were a couple that just didn’t stop the whole flight. And the parents are just laughing, almost egging them on. Come on people, you can do better than that. Even the locals on the plane were getting irritated so it wasn’t just me.
Sort of coincidentally, I met up with my friend Anton yesterday here in Delhi. I met Anton on the Camino earlier this year and he’s traveling on his way to Nepal now. I sent him an email the other day from Bangalore telling him I was going to be in Delhi and not only was he there, but his hotel was next door to mine! We walked around Delhi for a while and then continued on our mission since my birthday on the Camino: to find a place, any place where we can smoke a hookah. We’ve had no luck. But finally last night we found a place: Mocha. It’s a middle-Eastern restaurant in some way far away neighborhood here called The Defence Colony. But, as luck would have it, three days ago they passed a no-smoking ban all across India. And so no more hookah either. Which now makes it two places that I’ve been in when they passed the no smoking law, the first being back in 1998 in California, the one that started it all.
It was really cool seeing Anton, seeing someone I walked with a lot on the Camino. He’s also on a one way ticket out here, kind of playing it by ear as he travels. He left for Varanasi this morning and we plan on meeting up in Nepal in early November and hiking the Annapurna circuit. This is the same circuit Kevin is going to do next week. And in attempt to boost his blog’s Google Page Rank I will link you to his blog which is definitely worth a read, especially the list of things he learned on the Camino. http://kwiggen.wordpress.com/
I’ll try and post pics once I find a computer with a usb connection. I didn’t know they made computers anymore that didn’t have them. Actually mine does seem to have it but they’ve covered it with tape which probably means it’s not a good idea to try and use it. That’s what any good engineer would advise.
a meal with basil 
ha thanks for the shoutout.
Hope to have some Nepal posts on there but with little Internet they all might come at the end. 🙂