Checking out/checking in

We checked out of the Hotel Chetak yesterday & into the ninth floor at the Anugraha. We have a great view of the city, the park, and most importantly, the Institute. My room directly overlooks the asana building. View pictures will be on my next post.

The OBYoga water bottle was here. We’ll probably go back to the Chetak for chai and “toast butter jam”.

After checkin, we went (for the 3rd time) to the Ambience Hotel for a combination lunch/dinner.

Here’s Sharon, Kathleen (you probably don’t recognize her without her rhino face mask) and me at the Ambience.

View from the driver’s seat…

A fine machine, indeed. The pollution here is so bad that, especially when you’re in a rickshaw amidst the heaviest of traffic, you need to pull something up over your face. Even then, and after doubling the scarf, the pollution is overpowering.

We got “taken” for a ride yesterday… Kathleen and I flagged down a driver and asked to be taken to “Good Luck Choke.” A “choke” is an Indian version of a round-about intersection. When we got in, there was already an Indian girl in the back seat (there’s barely enough room for 3), so we squeezed in. He told us “30 rupees.” Ok, even though 2 days ago it only cost 22 rupees … This rickshaw driver was the worst (or best?) driver so far. He was really good at maneuvering through traffic (that’s good), but insane about it (that’s bad). I have no idea how we made it to our destination without hitting someone or something – riding in a rickshaw is most comparable to riding a bumper car, only there’s no bumping (I hope). He took this other person to her destination first, which was way far out of the way, then dropped us off at some busy intersection, pointed and said “Good Luck Choke that way.” AND he said “60 rupees.” NO way (even though 1 rupee is only .017 to one US dollar). We ended up paying him 40 and then ended up walking four blocks to get to our destination.

More motorcycles. They’re everywhere.

Merchants here seem to specialize in only one item. So if you need to purchase several items, you need to go to several different shops which are all about the size of my walk-in closet, with stuff packed inside. None of the merchandise is marked for price, so they randomly charge whatever they want.

Strictly flip flops.