Tue, 22 Nov 2005
Pimp my Tuk-tuk
So today I wanted to escape the confines of the hotel. So after my normal wakeup and exercise time in the hotel gym, I showered up and decided to wander off the hotel grounds.
I grabbed the nearest autorickshaw, which is their name for a Thai tuk-tuk. The driver of mine had done his up in quite a fancy manner. He had put a velour type of header on the inside of the canopy with a pretty cool pattern. There was also the custom mirrors and some custom seat work. There was also a pic of some popular actress on the inside of the canopy as well- so I could stare at her if I didn't want to stare at the traffic. The best part was the kickin' stereo system, which the driver promptly cranked up with the most recent wicked rad' bumpin hindi tunez. Boo ya. Pimp my Tuk-tuk. Como se dice 'enchulame la maquina' en hindi? Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pics. I wound up going to this mall/department store and wandered around for a while. I didn't buy anything though. I did like the "food court" area at the top of the mall. I just followed the people up there- it seemed to be pretty popular. I grabbed a really nice kebab-n-roti combo plate. Afterwards I just wandered around the neighborhood for a while. It's a little dicey walking in the street though with all the traffic, so I just tried to walk in the middle of a crowd, if there was one. A different autorickshaw took me back to the hotel, it wasn't as tricked-out as the first. By now though it was the early afternoon and there was much more traffic on the road. I felt like I was going to pass out when we were at any stoplight- the pollution is that bad. Now I know why other Indian cities are trying to get the autorickshaws to replace their two-stroke motors w/ four-stroke CNG. I think getting the busses to do that would help a bunch too. But all in all I was glad I got to get out and see some of the city, even if it was the parts of town around the mall as it were. It was good to be out in the sun again- even if I did get a massive headache and respitory problems from the smog. Don't get me wrong- I'm not bitchin' I'm just trying to paint an accurate picture of what it's like here. The smog really makes an impression- and I thought Mexico DF had a lot of pollution. . . . I guess now that I have my sinuses back (hopefully it's not just temporary) I'm more aware of this. Well, I'm off to the office in a bit. I'm working over Thanksgiving, but I'm going to try to have a group dinner on Thursday. Yesterday I asked the team to confer amongst themselves and pick a restaurant. They emailed me back saying we were going to The Olive Garden. Fortunately I found out later that it's an Indian restaurant and has nothing to do with The Olive Garden in the US. Wheeee.22 Nov 03:55 | /travel/india | 0 comment(s)
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