I spent my first day in Mumbai aimlessley wandering. I happened upon a quiet horse racing track that was covered by fields of overgrown grasses. This was a momentary breath of fresh air and cleanliness in a city that for the first day felt unbelievably dirty. I quickly realized that dirt is just simply another natural, earthly ingredient and that filth is the result of high concentrations of human beings in one place. Whether it is visible out on the street or swept up and placed into a landfill, it is the side affect of human growth and over population worldwide. The streets of Bombay are packed with people, some sleeping, some bathing, some trying to sell old trinkits, some talking, some watching dusty local cricket matches, and some just passing the time in the shade.

Walking around late at night, the streets were quiet but there were still people everywhere. There were no sounds except from the dense families of birds roosting in the trees that produced a solid conversational cloud of sound that hovered above the street like a low lying mist, draping itself over the still bodies sprawled upon every available surface, including inside of taxi cabs, on steps, or lined up side by side like sardines ready to be canned upon the sidewalk.

After walking around the race track I found a place where people were allowed to walk and exercise. In the center of the walking path there was an equestrian school for amateur riders. I watched them for a while, being that they were probably from the Indian elite, the sons and daughters of business people and politicians. The horses were beautiful and well groomed. After riding the young person guide his or her horse over to a pasture and sit in the grass holding its reins while it nibbled at the sparse clumps of grass that was once a full pasture.

The winding streets of Mumbai occupy the division between the decrepid architecture of the generations past British Colonial occupation. When I stood and looked up at the peaks of the buildings and into the heavily birded tree branches this place could be just like any other city. When looking up and away from the activity on the street, what makes a place unique becomes hard to readily distinguish.

This place has been well seasoned in time. Human life, animal life, and arboreal life, brought in contrast with the slow erosion of concrete, stone buildings and walls; the architectural reminder of the human hands short life span. There are stories written into the streaked stains that cascade down the facades of buildings, the rusted iron and copper deer run trails of water from the sky down on to the endless expanse of blackened Terra Cotta tiles patched with tar and paper. Nothing is hidden here. What goes on behind closed doors, and the things that go unspoken are all out on display.

Bangkok

So, I am in Bangkok at the moment waiting for my flight to Mumbai. I am going to change the way I have been handling this blog. So far, I have only been posting pictures and not much writing. I have been having trouble focusing, creating coherent words from my visually, and emotionally diverse surroundings. As still frames from my own line of sight I hope that they impart as a whole group, a veiled expression of the things that I have not been able to truly articulate through words.
As a challenge to simplify my focus, I have sent my computer back home and then serendipidously had my ipod stolen the on the same day. so here I am purged from the digital realm copying notes from my notebook which I now carry with me everywhere.
Tonight I am going to the Lang Krasuang night market which is just under a kilometer from where I am staying. The market is more of a shanty town along the river that extends itself onto the street at night where people sell anything that they think is worth selling. The other day I walked through during the day and there were only a few people selling amulets and used tools. To sooth the issue of having my digital music collection go missing I bought a used tape recorder for only about a dollar, and so this evening I am on the hunt for old cassettes. the other day I got an old collection of 90's MTV dance hits, its been pretty good listening except it is hard to get into the dancing mood because of the oppressive heat, which does not only radiate from the sky.

This is the snout of a shark. I met up with the "singapore extreme foods dinner group" a crew of locals and visitors that choose a different restaurant every friday night to try a new Singaporean delicacy. The night that I happened to meet up with them it was steamed sharks head. The only place that I could find anything that resembled meat was behind the eyeballs. the rest of it was a cartilaginous mass covered in a delicious sweet soy based sauce sprinkled with tons of roasted garlic. Along with the sharks head we ate some delicious freshly skinned frog legs and huge plate of fresh tofu!

Singapore day and night

Singapore has great lighting at night. I have not been able to capture a picture of it yet, but the first thing that caught my attention upon arrival was a huge building that looked like a ship on stilts projecting huge green laser beams and beams of white light across the whole city. This happens night after night, sometimes when I look up in between buildings in the downtown or china town area I can see a criss crossing network of light beams that creates the illusion of being caught in a net. Although strange in effect, it is ultra sci-fi. I look forward to seeing my cage of light appear above me as I walk down the streets alone at night.