Delhi

The strangest experience of the past week - in fact up there on my list of weirdest ever experiences - came when I signed up for an Ayurvedic massage. I chose something a bit different, and I knew it involved feet, expecting something along the lines of the guy walking on me a bit. What I didn't expect was an hour and a half of a guy rubbing hot oil all over my body with his feet. To be honest it was quite good, but I don't recommend it to anyone with a foot aversion...

Spent the last week in Cochin in Southern India with my mum and little sister. It was great to see them again, although a bit of a strange change of gear and mindset from my independent travelling. Now I'm with Delhi with my mum (sister's gone back to prep for exams) and tomorrow I go to the Taj Mahal, before enrolling on Sunday in my meditation course. This lasts ten days, in a temple, and has strict rules. Men and women are separate, and there is no alcohol, tobacco etc. The day runs from 4am till 9pm (great for a non-morning person like me), and consits of meditating, eating, and meditating. With some meditating in between. And I can't speak to anyone apart from the instructors. For ten days. Somehow I don't think I'll be allowed to blog either, so you'll find out how it was when I finish!

My big break in Bollywood?

Just come back from a really nice evening on Chowpatty beach. It was busy with locals - I was the only non-Indian I saw - and I enjoyed some great food and a very violent but much needed massage.

Another highlight of the past few days started with: "Would you like to be an extra in a Bollywood movie?". An offer too good to refuse! Seems the receptionist at my hostel has a sideline scouting Westerners. So I was taken to the studio, an hour's train ride across town, with three other travellers. When we got there, the director looked at me strangely, then took aside the guy and started whispered to him, gesturing towards me. I wondered why she was whispering: it's not as if I would understand Hindi. Then I was told I couldn't take part, as I didn't look enough like a foreigner! The director needed some convincing that I wasn't Indian, but that didn't help (curse my Middle Eastern good looks!). I hung around anyway to watch the filming, which was quite fun; except the "Bollywood movie" turned out to be a fairly boring advert for Western Union. Not a single dancing girl in sight. Later found out that another two travellers went to be "extras in a Bollywood movie" and it turned out to be handing out energy drinks for a product launch!

Haven't had much luck with animals either. In my first 2 days here, I got dumped on by two pigeons, and physically assaulted by quite a large monkey. It started snarling at me, after a peanut brittle I was holding. It got annoyed when I put it in my bag, and jumped at me, grabbing my arm with both hands; then started snarling again and baring its teeth. I finally got rid of it by throwing an empty wrapper which kept it busy.

On Friday night I went to a synagogue that I had discovered near my hostel, and promptly got invited to Friday night dinner at the rabbi's house. I love it that you can go to almost any synagogue around the world, introduce yourself as a visiting jew, and get an invitation.

I'm really enjoying Mumbai. It's a bit of a hectic city... especially on the local trains. Getting on and off is a bit like running with the bulls, and they're so crowded that people are hanging out of all the doors and even sitting on the roofs. The tube is tame in comparison. The architecture here is amazing and some of the locals are really nice. On Thursday I got chatting to a guy working in an art gallery, and yesterday he took me out for the day to a village just outside Mumbai, and a nearby quiet beach. He even tried to pay for everything for me! Another good moment was this morning, watching locals playing cricket (which has the same place in Indian life as football in English life) in a 'maidan' - a large green, flanked by palm trees and encircled by busy roads with beautiful colonial era gothic buildings rising around them. Also great is the food here - if you like the 'Indian' food you get in England or elsewhere, it aint nothing on the food here! Not succumbed to eating rice and curry with my hands yet though...