March 2008

These last three days have been spent soaking up the cleanliness and tranquility. I´m off to Asuncion, Paraguay on Tuesday, and the Asuncion that I remember from twenty years ago was anything but clean and quiet. I hope to be surprised, but I doubt it.

Boy, did I have a weird flashback today. I took the 9 a.m. passenger boat across the water to go over to Colonia for the next few days, and I´m sitting in the boat, sort of scanning between watching the water, and watching the Argentinian travel movie on the T.V. and there I am on television!

When I said that Semana Santa was a bad time to do business here, I had no idea the extent of it. It´s like the neutron bomb went off, and the buildings and all are still intact, but there are no people. Just by luck when I called the Patagonian sheepskin people, I actually got a guy in the bodega to answer, but he said that he didn´t know anything about the business part, and to call back on Tuesday. It´s going to be a busy Tuesday, what with the Paraguayan visa, sheepskin, and maybe talking to shippers.

Being in B. A. now feels like being in Paris during August- the city is deserted except for the tourists, and a lot of stuff is closed. Well, maybe a slight exageration, but that´s what it feels like. I made the mistake, although there really would have been no other way to do it, of arriving to Argentina during Easter week. This is like the final fling for summer, the last hurrah, and everyone takes to the road, and gets out of town, or if you´re an out- of- towner, you come to the Capital.

This has been a whirlwind last four days, I can't believe that I'm leaving Istanbul already, early tomorrow morning. The ground-glass feeling in my stomach also really wore me out, but today I stopped taking medicine, and the pain stopped as well, so here's hoping.

This will be short, this keyboard at least has english letters on it, but the keys are so sticky tht everything has to be hit twice, and I want to see the Twirling Dervishes tonight, yes, it is touristy, but I've never seen them live before. I just came out of a nargol or water pipe cafe, mostly I went in to get warm, it was packed, and each pipe has it's own little bed of coals, so there was a lot of heat.

If we define ourselves by our possessions, then I am definitely getting a make-over. I'm going to be on my 4th pair of sunglasses so far this trip. Two pair broke (I don't understand, one pair was even Prada, albeit the $5 Pradas) and I've lost the latest pair. I might squint it out until I get to Istanbul Duty Free and spring for something that actually screens out UV and doesn't distort everything.

Last night's hotel accommodations were an experience. I stayed in an old haveli which more or less had never been fully remodeled. It was at the north end of the lake, next to the last washing ghat. My room hung out over the lake, with a lakeview sleeping alcove, miniscule private balcony, tall ceilings, and lots of room.

My waiter just told me that it would be about 5 more minutes until the paneer tikka was ready. I told him, don't worry, I've already waited a year for this - he got the joke, he remembered me from last year. I'm at my favorite lake view roof top restaurant in my favorite Indian city, about to have my favorite Indian meal - paneer tikka- at the best place for paneer tikka in town. Throw in a drop dead sunset view, and it more than compensates for any inconvenience, annoyance, or physical discomfort that India might dish out.

Last night while lying in bed, ruminating over the day, I came to the conclusion that the clothes order should have been a no-brainer, if we can work out the logistics. In Nepal, the neo-hippy clothes are all pretty much baggy, shapeless, sad looking tie-dye. But what I saw yesterday in Delhi, it's the 1960's paisley meets Pucci, Gucci, Peter Max, and then throw in Lily Pulitzer On Acid.