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October 09, 2006
monday.
a series of pointless observations.
dengue fever epidemic spreads with increasing velocity in delhi. that is awesome news for an uninoculated traveller in india. then again, north korea just tested a nuke, which prolly makes it safer to be here than in the west. i find myself hoping delhi is bff with pyongyang.
best thing so far today: great hotel breakfast starring onion, coconut and coriander chutneys with south indian fried bread type things. AND kickass bacon. mental note: request doggy sack.
worst thing so far today: office coffee was so intense that it remained black with its volume of cream poured into it. well, that's the good part. the bad part is it was Kill Kill Kill Stupid Foreigner Jape #1: the cream curdled solid on impact. well, the little pot of coffee did have a sticker on it that said "decauction". was that a warning?
and i guess if that is the worst thing today, that's still pretty good.
everyone's friendly and helpful, and nobody's gotten (visibly) upset about my gaffes. i mean, there's the I Make You Repeat Business friendly of taxi drivers, and then there's The World Makes A Bit More Sense If We're Cool With Each Other type friendliness. generally the vibe with people is great, apart from how i decided to fire my driver (aka get someone else next time) as i got sick of his trying to arrange all sorts of trips with him for "little extra cost".
also, he just took me shopping without me asking. fucking sheraton appointed driver swerved to (prolly his friend's) shop going "oh! seasonal sale!", i was like "you want to go check something out? go, knock yourself out" and then dude just stood by car. i checked out the shop (carpets and sofas, basically) and came out empty-handed, which worried him. he was all, "what happened, sir?" ... and yet, i can't start reprimanding my driver. i should, but that'd make me feel too much like, i don't know, england?
but yeah this feels like I'm back somewhere I've already been. maybe it's because all foreign countries, you know, look the same for a boy from the boons. or, maybe it's because it's because...
appendix A. table of déjà vu elements.
| Kuwait city | Chennai | |
| Temperature | Hot as all hell | Hot as most of hell |
| Station | Cubicle(!) on the 8th floor in archetypal technology company | Cubicle(!!) on the 8th floor in archetypal technology company |
| Coffee acquisition | Someone brings you almost what you want, when they want | Someone brings you almost what you want, when they want* |
| I am surrounded by | Indian techies | Indian techies |
| Quality of hotel | Disproportionate | Ludicrous |
| Best food around | Awesome Indian, cheap | Awesome Indian, cheap |
* but luckily, the coffee dude here has this sense of togetherness. i mean, dude just looks like he's doing his job. in fact i think one of the guys here was just being helpful. maybe he's the CEO. meanwhile last year, the gentleman in charge of coffee logistics in my arabic control group had a heartbreaking air of having been repeatedly whacked over the head over his life, hard. then again, the milk in the coffee he brought was never off. ok, call that a tie.
so, as as everyone tells me (and a few people have shouted from a passing bus) the chennai beach is the 2nd longest in asia, which i'll want to see then. but my hotel driver tried to pull Kill Kill Kill Stupid Foreigner Jape #2: they say it has special sand, special silicone sand, that filters the seawater and makes the ground moisture drinkable 10 meters inland from where the waves stop. suuuuure.
also in the learn-something-every-day column, me and my mega-helpful liaison officer got mutually baffled over lunch: he tried to figure out how to explain to a foreigner that chennai does not have a 'downtown' really, and i was trying to wrap my european brain around the idea that a city somehow does not have a heat-focus point / high street / CBD next to the square with the church.
in finnish traffic, everything works most of the time because people observe rules. in indian traffic, everything works most of the time because people observe people. WAY too much, even. i am actually typing this in the back of a gridlocked cab, and people shuttling past in packed rickshaws (usually hundreds at a time) all look at me and grin.
something about this trip is doing my head in.
Posted by matti at October 9, 2006 05:37 PM