Maya meets sunyata

Namaskar!
 
   Yes, i am safe, still healthy, and in Mumbai, India. Going through a little bit of shock, but keeping my sanity.
 
 (Side note: as I write this email, there is a fellow looking over my shoulder reading this email. Not that i really care or anything...I began abolishing spacial boudaries when the plane landed. Just thought id let you all know)

  Hmmmm....The flight was fantastic! I had 3 large, cooooosh seats to myself, plus (get this) blankets and pillows! Most airlines stopped giving out blankets and pillows due to flu transmission concerns....even though Continental flies to many areas in Asia and S/C America, apparently Swine Flu is less of a concern than comfort. Regardless, I was excited to see them. Like Frontier, each seat had a personal television, but unlike Frontier each touch screen television was loaded with 355 movies, 65 television shows, 16 video games, a remote control for the video games, and music. The served breakfast, dinner, and snacks, which we had a choice of spicey (very sniffley nose spicey, actually) vegetarian India food or "American food." And the meals were seriously delicious. really wierd.

  Between the airport and New Bengal Hotel (an Islamic Bangledeshi hotel where I am staying), the cab drove through a few shanti towns and along side encampments of those not fortunate enough to have found the materials/space to join the shanti town. People were sleeping everywhere: on the highway medians, in traffic lanes, and on top of eachother in piles. Anywhere walkable is sleepable. From where I am staying and what I have seen, the poverty and trash is inescapable. The air is thick and the aromas are curious and hard to describe. Definitely an overwhelmingly musky amalgam of incense, sweat, fried food, and traffic. 180 degrees from the fragrances costa rica. The food, however, is incredible. I dont think I will be loosing weight at all. i have dined at two restaurants thus far, and have paid about 3.50 for both meals combined. Both menus had between 75-125 items on them, most of which were completely mysterious to me. I can not tell you what I had at the first "hotel" (restaurants are mostly labeled as "hotels" here),other than it was a very spicey and colorful mixture of vegetables with hot, pickled mango. At the second, for breakfast, I had Idli Vada- which is a mash of fermented lentils and rice that is either steamed or fried in the shape of a doughnut and served with sambar and coconut chutney- and an Uttapam dosa- which was a rice flour pancake- and 3 cups of chai (each cup measured about 1/4 cup).
The food is the incontestable highlight.
 
   As for the rest of the day, I will be taking a ferry to Elephanta island which is an island of caves and carvings of Shiva (god of destruction) dating back to 600 A.D., then visiting the Taj Palace and Taj Presidente Hotels . i seemed to arrive near a holiday called Ganesha Chatipurthi or something. I guess they create large effigies to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and blesser of journies, give offerings and recieve darshan (blessings) from the pot-bellied elephant god, then dump the effigies into the ocean.

   I love you all. Mom, Dad, and Cody, I will call when I unearth the puzzle to doing so. Due to the difference in time zones, this will be either very late at night or very early in the morning, as India is 12:50 hours ahead of Mountain time and 15:30 hours ahead of Hawaiian time.
 
Khuda Hafiz  (goodbye in urdu)
Namaskaar (in hindi)
 
xoxoxoxoxoxo
Kell