Mumbai, India

I've said it before but I'm going to say it again: nobody in the world travels with more luggage than Indians. If you don't believe me go to LAX and see for yourself. There was an article in The Hindu about the Indian tennis (or some sport) team arriving in New Zealand for a tournament, and there were no luggage porters available so they were forced to suffer the indignity of carrying their own luggage. The Indians regarded this is a grave insult that nobody in New Zealand would carry their luggage and really felt slighted that they had to do it themselves. There was a big color picture of them pushing their gigantic suitcases with luggage carts. Mumbai is surprisingly beautiful. There are these guys that walk in the streets carrying bowls of some kind of orangish powder who accost you and want to through it on you, saying that it's for "good luck." I've never heard of these guys but I just instinctually know that they are bad news. When the first one came up to me I didn't even think twice about bruskly throwing up my hand, saying no in a firm voice and walking away quickly. He followed me, so I started walking very fast acting like I knew what I was doing and where I was going. He relented. Then while still walking fast another one came up to me, but this guy gave up very quickly. I learned a lot in Cairo, and the third world better not try to fuck with me. On a lighter note, although food in India is excellent, they ruin every sort of beverage imaginable with massive quantities of milk. I noticed while working at Ralphs that Indians consume more milk than anybody else, and now I know why. They put it in everything. While I came to like tea in the Middle East, here it's adulterated with milk. So is coffee. Ordering tea or coffee gets you something that looks like hot chocolate.