Day Dos

Last night was the beginning of Diwali, which is the Hindu Festival of Lights... an enormous deal in India, like our Christmas or New Years. There were fireworks constantly, people are CRAZY, there are lights strung up all over the place, strands of marigolds hanging from every rickshaw, taxi, shop window and bicycle, and markets thrown up on every conceivable street corner. We looked at a few more apartments yesterday. (Right now it's 630 am Friday.) Saw some really cool places but nothing is quite right yet. We'll find something, I'm sure of it. Because of the holiday, it will be difficult to see places until Monday though... which is kinda ok with me because spending hours on end walking around in this heat is not something that my spoiled little body is used to! We also went to the sea yesterday, walked around in a park with our friend Imam, who has been helping us and our constant companion since we arrived at the airport (an absolute GODSEND, honestly ... and fabulously out and gay ... looove him). We climbed the hill and got a good view of the city of Mumbai. It is HUGE, much bigger than I realized ... much bigger than Manhattan. I looked across the bay and it looked to me like 2 Manhattan Islands, one beyond the other and shrouded in fog/humidity/pollution haze. Oh. And people staaaaaaaaaare at us. There are very few white blondes here (many fewer than there were in Tokyo) and people are NOT subtle about that fact. They kinda follow behind us. Cars/trucks slam on their brakes to stare at us, beggars flock around us... it's quite the experience. Tonight we are heading to South Mumbai for the full-on celebration ... it will be like 4th of July fireworks to the bazillionth degree. I hope to have much more interesting photos to share after that!