“Somewhat” Incredible India!

Well as I finished the Beatles show tonight, and made my way to the bar I wondered what I should do with my extra hour and a half of time. We are heading toward Dubai from India, and it’s time for yet another time change, I figured I should write down a few thoughts before I forget them.
So as some of you know I have a friend that lives in Mumbai, India that I used to work with on Carnival about 9 years ago. We lost touch over the years as our emails changed, but thanks to Facebook we have found each other again. I was supposed to see him last November when the ship was going to India, but a few terrorists put a stop to that plan. I arranged via email when we would meet.
When I finally could get off the ship, we had boat drill, captains meeting, and liferaft training, I made a quick call to see if he was on his way and with in minutes we were talking like the years were nothing.
As I waited for him to arrive I started to notice all of the taxis and the poor people begging for money. The taxis are black and yellow just like you see in the movies.
We headed off toward his place to catch up for a few hours before I had to be back on board for a rehearsal.
On the way to his place he asked if I wanted to go out to eat or have something at his place. I didn’t care, so he called a place he knows and had delivery waiting for us when we arrived. His place is a good 45-minute drive from the ship depending on traffic.
I also meet his new girlfriend on the drive. She was a very nice Indian girl (as opposed to someone from outside India, like his ex-wife) I don’t recall her name [sorry] but I do know that she works for Chase bank.
After showing him some photos of the past few years, we had a very nice lunch. I don’t know what it was called but it was a favorite of theirs. A very mild curry, kind of sweet with a little spice, rice, chicken and a bit of potato.
After we finished lunch we headed out into the neighborhood for the main goal of the day, besides seeing each other, to get a baby blanket for my niece’s baptism. We went to a few baby stores and finally found what I liked. Then I changed money at a western union, and got the blanket. I think my sister will be very happy.
He didn’t want to drive back to the ship so he ordered me a air-conditioned taxi (they are blue not black and yellow, and have digital meters). We then took a tok tok or rickshaw, don’t remember what they called it back to his place to wait for the taxi.
I had to be back on the ship to get ready for an Indian Folkloric show. I won’t go into much about the show.
I had wanted to get back together with my friend but for some reason he couldn’t do anything, I didn’t really want to know. I did ask him if he could get together the next day, he would see what was going on and email me.
The next morning I had another rehearsal, for our production show this time, and then was able to get off the ship (we were in port for two days). Anyway after some convincing by his girlfriend that we hadn’t seen each other in years, and it would years before we see each other again, he drove across town to see me.
He took me to a very nice Chinese buffet type place that he used to work at. Kind of like a Mongolian Grill that we have in the USA, but more like a stir fry. It was very nice. We then walked around and saw the Gate of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel. This is the hotel that got attacked.
We said our goodbyes and I headed back to the ship. Good By India.