Still Waiting for Visa, Diving into Iranian Politics, and a lot of free time!

(Will have to upload pictures later, internet connection too slow here to upload them)

Instead of going into a day by day scenerio, I will give a general overview since so much time has passed. First off, the Pakistani embassy people are driving me crazy. I think I developed some grey hairs because of their run around. 3 times to the Embassy without any luck saying they still didn't receive the invitation letter that was sent 3 days prior. They say it takes time for it to come from the fax upstairs to downstairs and it's still not downstairs... wtf?? Then go upstairs and check Oskol. So they told me to call instead of me spending time and money to get to the Embassy. So the next day I call and first thing they say, "We are busy, call back in 15 mins." I call back in 15 minutes and they tell me to call back in 30. When i finally get through they say they still don't have it and to try to have them email. Anyways, after days of calling and getting similar responses they finally received the letter, but it's of no use because it says that i'm going for business purposes and I said I'm going for a wedding. Well damn, now I'm screwed and need them to call the embassy to fix it with them. I'm sure they will get the same run around and I will probably not be going to Pakistan. WTH, it's not like I'm trying to get in because I want to take away their jobs and live there, who the hell wants to go live in Pakistan?

Due to the days I've been waiting to get through to the embassy I've been keeping myself busy with my cousins, friends, and reading/contemplating.

With my Cousin Payam and my aunt and Grandma, we went on a small trip to Jamkaran and Qom. In Jamkaran their is a very nice masjid built after a respectible scholar received word from Imam Mahdi himself to build a masjid there. There we read the special prayers and headed to Qom where we were invited by Harate Masoome (sister of Imam Reza) for lunch. So Payam is the religious one and worker, Poorya is the sports one and into poetry and Erfani stuff, and Sepehr who I only saw for a bit hangs out with the movie stars since his sister is a famous actor in Iran. So with Poorya we went and played some tennis, ping pong, and had some interesting conversations. His sister Porshad beat me at Takhte (backgammon) and I still owe her some Ice Cream lol. My other cousin Elham is pregnant with a baby boy :) I got to see her for a bit as well as we were helping Momani (great-grandma) move into a new place.

So with the friends I hung out with Erfan a lot at his office where he will share his dislike of Iranian government. What's funny is that he and his co-workers believe most people are against the Iranian government, but when I hang out with my other friends (that I met through Majid) they have a different perspective and believe that most people are for the Iranian Government and behind Khomenaei. I hung out with Maisam alot as well who I met through Majid. He is a funny guy and we went together to Imam Zadeh Saleh then Darband for chai and hookah. Then another day we met up with around 12 people, 6 guys and 6 girls, at the park and hung out together with no problem. Then we all went out for snacks before we split up and the girls went home because it was getting dark. But us guys stayed up and went to a place sorta like Darband on the outskirts of Tehran where we had a great time eating dinner, singing, joking, hookah and chai of course lol. We hung out till 2 AM. I found it interesting that amist all the joking and everything one of the friends gets up and goes to do his prayers. I felt a little bad that I left my prayers for after getting home.

I found the different perspectives of the Government of Iran to be interesting since in the States I find a lot more people who are against the Iranian Government and want to see it changed, and they believe that most the people are against the Government as well. But here it is different, there are some against the government but for the most part from what I see is that they are for the government but find difficiencies and errors that the government has made like any government in the world. So my interest in this aspect led me to become a reporter of sorts, video taping and asking questions of the people. Their are some funny moments like my Grandpa that said all the dissenting voices and those against the government should be hung (he was kidding, i think). And my Grandma goes off on the women who are not respecting the Islamic System and don't wear proper hijab. Then there are the people like Erfan who wants to see the whole system come down.

Since I've had a lot of free time I have been reading a lot and sometimes can't sleep since the weather is very hot here and my Grandma doesn't like turning on the AC. I read a whole book about Nelson Mandela which I really enjoyed. Did you know that after he couldn't achieve his goals through non-violent means that he said that we must fight fire with fire... and valued the revolutionary approach of Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara, thus learning guerilla warfare but was caught soon after (many people believe that the U.S is responsible for helping capture this revolutionary who fought aparthied). After his release and coming to power he forgave all those that went against him, even the judge that imprisoned him for 25+ years and he had tea with the wife of the person who created the Aparthied system in the first place. What a man. Then I am re-reading Ali Shariati's book Man and Islam, such a good book that I recommend to all. Also have been reading my philosophy book to learn about the different philosophers and their beliefs.

Iran??? Yup, I came to the Mother Country!!!

I know it wasn’t scheduled or on the list, but hey, what’s another country on the list? So as I was at Rohit’s house in New Delhi deciding on what to do next, I came to the split decision between Goa, India or Tehran Iran. Goa is a beautiful place and is more of a touristy area filled with exciting restaurants, exotic beaches, and any drugs you want to get you to your spiritual destination lol. Then there is Iran, the home country and another opportunity in my struggle to obtain a visa for Pakistan. I decided upon Iran and bought my ticket that night, the next flight leaves the next morning at 4:30 AM.

So I didn’t sleep all night as I spoke with Ali Jamali to secure a taxi for when I arrive, and I was off to Iran without anyone knowing. I remembered how to get to my Grandmothers house and they were very surprised when they found out I am at their doorstep. I love surprising people :) After a little while I started feeling really sick and threw-up. I was afraid I got malaria because I was bitten by some mosquitoes the night before at Rohit’s place. So I slept the whole day and all night and Alhamdullilah in the morning I felt much better. Family is so awesome to be around, brings back all the old memories and smiles. My cousin Payam found out I was there so he came over and we went to Borg-e-Milad which is the 5^th highest communication tower in the world. Afterwards I bought some nice kabob and gosht (chicken) and we had a nice family dinner.

The next day was the B-day of Imam Ali so me and my aunts went to Can, a really religious town where there are 5 Imam Zadeh (burial sites of family members of the Imams). The area was all still rural-like and wouldn’t allow it to become urbanized like the rest of Tehran which gave it it’s own authentic beauty. The people were in the streets celebrating Imam Ali’s B-day by clapping with the loud poetic music, giving out sweets and juice to people passing by, and blowing Esfand smoke all over the streets (a smoke that has religious values against the evil eye). At each of the Imam Zadeh burial sites were also other burials of people from that area, with specialized area for those who died in the Iran/Iraq war. Here people gave away sweets and juice as well and prayed for the souls of those who lost their lives.

6/17 – Today was pretty crazy. Majid (my Iranian friend from 2 years ago) picked me up and took me out with his friends. He has a brand new car but drove it as if he was invincible. First we went to a park but didn’t stay for long, so we headed to the Shah’s old palace which is now a coffee/hookah shop. We chilled there a bit, eating sweets and joking around. We had planned to go to the movies but left a little late, but Majid thinking he is superman was determined to make it on time. We flew across Tehran finally making it to the theatre but the parking was backed up badly, so we decided to head to another theatre. We made it to the 2^nd theatre but all the tickets were sold out till midnight. So we headed to another theatre where on the way he ran out of gas. Luckily we weren’t far from a gas station (which are not as available as they are in the states) so we pushed the car till he reached the gas station. So after pumping some gas we made it to the theatre where we watched a funny movie called “Voorod-e- Agaiyun Mamnoo” (No male entrance). It was super funny and we had a good time watching. Afterwards it was getting late so we decided to head home, but on the way Mr. Majid superman over-relied on his tires to stop quickly, but they ended up sliding and we crashed into a car in front of us. Thank God we were not going that fast, the car in front didn’t really have anything wrong with it and they took off, but Majid’s front end of his new car was messed up, but still ran. So he drove good after that and took me home and went on his way. Hopefully he learned his lesson and wont drive like a maniac, but from what I hear that’s the 3^rd accident in the last year so I don’t know.

6/18 – Next I took the taxi to the Pakistan Embassy. I had a bad experience because taxi took me to the Afghanistan Embassy and dropped me off, so I had to find another taxi to take me to Pakistan Embassy – when I went back to the taxi service they wouldn’t give me back my money. Anyways, the Pakistan embassy said they can give me a visa but required me to bring in some extra forms and needed a davit-name (invitation letter) from the family in Pakistan that I will be staying with. I got the information and forwarded it to Dannesh so once he completes that I can go again and get my visa Inshallah. From here I went to my cousin Poorya’s house. He is studying Erfan and plays the guitar, and for work he teaches people how to play guitar and gives tennis lessons. At night I got to see the rest of the family and have dinner with all of them.

6/19 – I got the address to my aunt Nasrin’s house (Payam’s mom), and found my way there via bus and asking around. Then at night me and Payam went swimming and I spent the night there.

6/20 – I got ahold of Erfan, a long time friend of Shannon (my sister for all those who do not know), and I came to his office where I was able to access Facebook and update this blog… yay. Anyways, I am just waiting to finish up the paperwork to bring to the Pakistan Embassy then maybe I will be able to head to Shiraz or Isfahan before attending Dannesh’s wedding in Karachi. Regarding Iran, it is much better and cleaner than when I came 2 years ago… TII - This Is Iran.

Monsoons, Taj Mahal, and Final Goodbyes to GAP friends

6/9 – As our tour is coming to an end, we get long hours upon the bus to contemplate everything we saw for the last week and a half. The poverty, the simple lives, the humbleness of the common Indian, and the unfortunate opportunities they don’t get to have depending on to which caste system and in which location they are born. A girl born in the little village of Ranakpur or Jojawar will probably work alongside her family with very basic schooling, then will be married off around the age of 15 or 16 and live her life with the husband who probably learned the family trade and continues to same business. But in the states we have opportunities to do so much with our lives. I respect the simple lives these people leave but I also would like the opportunity to choose my own path and desires. That’s why I’m changing my own career plans to try to help the people with no opportunities to have those opportunities in the future.

So today we are on our way from Jaipur towards Bharatpur where we went to the Galta Gi Temple – Otherwise known as the Monkey Temple because it is filled with monkeys and you can actually hand feed them, but watch out for the babies, if you get too close the mother will attack you. Next we went to the ancient ruins of the Abhaneri Step Wall which is amazing to see… they have zigzagging steps going down 20 meters deep, and the temple is filled with little cave rooms with Hindu god carvings. This place was beautiful to say the least and seemed like something out of National Geographic. We finally landed in the small town of Bharatpur and after just settling in we were hit by a Monsoon, it was really nice actually because it helped cool down the very hot temperatures. So in the midst of the monsoon some of us actually went swimming in their pool.

6/10 – I just finished reading “Man and Islam” by Dr. Ali Shariati. It’s a small book but tons of good information and I love his style of teaching. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone, no matter what religion or politics.

So today we left to Agra which houses the famous Taj Mahal. We will see the Taj tomorrow but will have a lot of sites to see today. On the bus journey we learned about the Mughal emperor that is well regarded by the Hindu’s, Akbar the Great, because he didn’t force Islam on the people and created his own teaching called Deen-e-Elahe which stresses that everyone is equal in the eyes of God. So the next site we went to go see what Fatehpur Sikri which was built by Akbar the Great. As his story goes, he had two wives, 1 Muslim and 1 Christian but neither bore him any sons. He was going to go to war with a city that was under his rule due to their negligence of paying taxes, but the night before they came to him offering him peace with a marriage of the head of the city’s daughter. Akbar the Great agreed and married the Hindu wife which he loved very much, and she was blessed by a Muslim priest at this site and ended up getting pregnant and bore Akbar the Great his first son. So in honor to this priest he shifted his whole empire to this site and built this site called Fatehpur Sikri which embraces the architecture of all three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. There are not many places where you will see this combination of architecture.

Another place we visited that was also built by Akbar the Great is called Agra Fort or Red Fort since it made mainly out of Red Sandstone. This place was huge and is still used today by the Indian Military. From here we visited the Mini Taj Mahal which houses the graves of his Hindu wife’s family.

After this visit most of us were pretty beat, so we finally checked into our hotel in Agra and some of us found the hookah bar across the street :)

6/11 – Our tour guide was very smart, we woke up at 4 AM so we can be at the Taj Mahal bright and early by 5 AM right when they open. So we were like the first people entering and basically had the place to ourselves, nice and empty and stunningly beautiful. It was amazing to see such a structure up close… the White Marble and decor of the best colorful stones found (ruby’s, sapphires, etc.). So the Taj Mahal (which means crown palace) was built by Shah Jahan who was the grandson of Akbar the Great. His wife (Mumtaz Mahal) as she was passing asked him to not remarry and to build something in honor of their love that will last ages, he agreed and spent much of his money on this building out of his love for his wife. After his 3^rd son killed off the first two sons to be next in-line as Emperor, he then imprisoned his father for not strictly following Islamic code (Our tour guide says this son is probably one of the original wahabbis). Shah Jahan was imprisoned a km away from the Taj but his window didn’t give him access to see it directly, so he positioned a mirror outside the window in which he could see the Palace and that is what he spent the rest of his life doing. The Taj Mahal is most beautiful at night. The white marble used is the 2^nd best after the diamond, and it is translucent. Our guide put a flashlight to the material and you can see it glow… so when it’s a full moon the place glows with beauty.

From here we packed up our stuff and headed back to New Delhi, and along the way I caught our tour guide Govind with his pants down :) Peeing outdoors is very common in India by the men, they will pee almost anywhere. It’s sad to see all the trash everywhere as well. You would think with all the values of humility towards animals and all they would at least try to keep their streets and towns clean, but that’s not the case and they litter everywhere.

Next we had our sad moments where we said goodbye to our two very nice and funny bus drivers, Mr. Singh and Hardeep (who I call the Great Khali b/c he is big and always wears the Great Khali t-shirt).

Then we had our Goodbye dinner with the rest of the tour people, exchanged emails and everything, and went back to the hotel. I will miss them all and had a great time with all of them, hopefully will see them in the future. Well, I’m still going to remain in India for another 2 weeks, then hopefully if I can get into Pakistan for Dannesh’s wedding, then onto Egypt where I will hit up another wedding with my Salma from VivaPalestina :)

Cricket, Weddings, and a real life Bollywood story

For all those interested in seeing the crazy video of the guy who almost pops his eye out of his socket then stabs himself through his neck that i posted about earlier, I Uploaded the video onto youtube, check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsgqZjlDFlk

6/4 – Today we got to ride the local train. Even though it had no A.C., the cool thing is that you can hang outside the doors and get the wind blowing in your face. I had a great time with that and we saw monkeys along the way but I ended up losing one of my sandals which made me really sad. So our tour guide Govind was having stomach aches and a person on the train who was selling vegetables suddenly became a doctor and started using some eastern medical practice which actually worked and helped relieve Govind’s stomach pains. After one stop we took our nice A.C bus and headed away towards the small town of Jojawar. We arrived in the very small town which only had 1 hotel called the Castle since it was used as a castle in its previous life. There I was able to go to the small street shops and get some new sandals. I saw a group of kids playing some cricket so I joined in and ended up hitting a home run and their ball went flying to God knows where. They were sad and I ended up paying the kids 4 rupees for a new ball the next day. As we were walking around the small town we come to a group of 20 or so people, dressed a little more fashioned than the rest (everyone dresses in really colors). Then we figure out that the young dressed up boy is actually getting married to the young girl who is being covered by her mother from the white people who approached them. They must have been no more than 7 years of age, and everyone wanted to take pictures but the mother started freaking out because this tradition is illegal in India and they can get into a lot of trouble for this type of arranged marriage. So we left knowing it was rude to stay an bother them even though the boy who was getting married seemed to enjoy our presence. Also, we noticed that the boys father had a red turban which indicated that this is a marriage from the lowest caste system, the Untouchables.

6/5 – We left the little city and went off to Pushkar which is where in the Hindu’s believe the world started. The god Brahma started the world in Pushkar but since he had 2 wives that he tried to hide and they both divorced him, he is not to be prayed to anywhere else so Pushkar houses the only Brahma temple in the world. Oh Brahma, you naughty god you.

As we were stuck in agonizing traffic for hours, our tour guide Govind started telling us about his marriage, which sounded more like a bollywood movie. He went into a lot of detail about how he didn’t even meet her and fell in love… and when he received her picture he started dreaming about her, dancing with her picture, singing to her picture, hhahaha, it was comedy and I couldn’t believe he was telling us these details. They went through the whole process and almost finished but it came down to the dowry (in which the woman’s family must give to the man’s family), and it was toppled there since the woman’s family couldn’t afford what Govind’s family was asking. Govind got mad, calling up his parents saying that they want money more than seeing their child in love. So they finally agreed upon a lower dowry payment and the marriage went through. Now he is happily married with a 2 year old son.

We finally making it to Pushkar and after checking in we went on a nice camel ride. After that we had dinner with a nice local family on their rooftop where they cooked all different types of Indian food for us. We had to eat like the Indians, with our hands. Was a little nasty and gross at first but then you just get used to it and start to appreciate their eating style. As we were on the rooftop, we heard a party going on down the street and the family told us about a wedding that was going on… so what do we do?? We went and crashed the wedding and started dancing and everything, it was super fun but we were super underdressed and soon kicked out lol. Oh, and the most popular song that has been playing everywhere we went is Shiela Ki Javoni – I’m too sexy for you… it’s a funny song so and I ended up downloading it.

6/6 – Today we woke up at 4AM to go for a hike up to Savitri Temple where we got to see the sunrise along with a large group of monkeys. Afterwards we went to go check out the only Brahma Temple in the world. We got a chance to travel around the Bazaar where I got to witness a cow stealing a bag of food from a vendor and eat it right there on the street, nobody did anything lol. That night we celebrate our cool group and had music and fireworks… ending the party by jumping in the pool and chicken fighting, I was teamed up with Govind and we beat any competitors.

6/7 – We next left to Jaipur which is a big city like Delhi. Immediately we were engrossed with the smog and pollution which made the heat even worse. We went to the market area and the people were very pushy even grabbing us to take us into their stores. After dinner we just came back to the hotel and relaxed.

6/8 – Today we went to Amber Palace and rode elephants up the mountain to the Palace. The ride was not bad but at least I can cross off riding an elephant from my list of things I have to do before I die. The Palace was built by the Mugal Emperor Akbar the Great, and the Palace has both Muslim and Hindu architecture b/c one of his 12 wives was a Hindu. Then at night we went to watch a Bollywood hit movie at the oldest theatre in Jaipur known as the Raj Mandir. The movie was called “Ready” and starred Salman Khan. It was suc a funny movie even though I didn’t understand 90% of what they were saying. The fighting scenes were all fake, and my favorite part was when the bad guys were rollin 20 cars deep coming towards Salman’s character, and he is all chilled and relaxed and I guess he gets the urge to pee, so he turns around and starts to pee on a haystack, the whole movie then cuts out and the headlines read “Pee Break.” This was the movie’s intermission haha. People got up and went out and took their bathroom break and got popcorn before returning and the movie continuing. It was like “If Salman Khan pee’s, then we all must pee.” Anyways, that’s all for now. In 2 more days I will be going to Taj Mahal :) can’t wait!!!

Here's a pic of a lil girl in Jaipur selling little balloons to try to make money for her family, please keep all these poor people in your prayers.

Village safari, Udaipur festival, diarrhea, and bargaining lessons

6/1 – Woke up at 4 AM with Jeeps waiting for us to take us to the rural areas in India. The roads were all rough dirt roads, I had a blast riding on the back, reminds me of off-roading with Reza and Ahmad back in the day. So we met with 3 different village-type of families and was able to see what they do for work and see how they live.

1. The first of families we went to visit was in a Muslim pottery community. They lived very pious lives, nothing extravagant, no cars, no washer or dryer, the woman milked the goat, and one of the children were asleep in an outside cot when we arrived early in the morning. Iqbal Khan greeted us as we showed up, and we noticed the display of pottery all around, from water bowls to elephants to Hindu gods. He showed us how to make pottery using methods that do not require any electricity. It was really interesting and I ended up buying a little clay lamp from him.
2. The second family we visited was from a Vishnoy community. Vishnoy is a religion in which they live by 29 principles, they are environmentalists, women must wear colorful clothing, and they must be farmers and live very simple lives. Many years ago when the British came to cut down the trees in a part of India where Vishnoy’s were, they protested by hugging trees. The British didn’t care and killed them along with the trees, and thousands of Vishnoys were killed in this way. Another educational lesson I learned about the Vishnoys was how they wanted a new generation of stronger/better looking Vishnoys. Since their community provided food to each other a lot of people who joined the religion were the poor and darker Indians. So one of their leaders made a rule and hired a big, strong, and handsome Indian to come to their community. He was paid to have sex with the women of the religion so they could procreate stronger and better looking children. So if the husband of this women came home and saw that this person was in their home they would not enter until the hired man left. The twist though is that after 15 years the man is to be killed because they wouldn’t know who his children are and he cannot have sex with his own daughter. When the 15^th year came the man did what probably any of us would do, he ran away. What a life huh? You get paid to have all the sex you want with any woman you want but you are to be killed after 15 years. Anyways, back to the family. When we met with them they had an OPIUM ceremony where we got to drink opium water. I was given some pure opium to taste, it was very very bitter… but I felt very happy and strong afterwards, lol j/k.
3. The 3^rd family we visited were called Pujabiti’s. They are a co op of a little over 100 weavers who live BPL – below poverty line – so they are subsidized by the Government. They showed us how they weave carpets and we got to participate in the weaving process.

Next we took a long bus ride to the Ranakput Jain Temple. It was very artistic, but I wasn’t that excitied because my stomach was giving me problems. I would have diarrhea for the next couple of days, and just getting better now. Ya, they told us that around 60% of the people who come to India would get some kind of sickness, out of our group it’s around 80% so far. Our tour guide actually had to get a substitute for 2 days because he got really bad diarrhea. That night our tour guide got a little drunk and started singing, next thing we know the hotel people brought out a little sound system so we were taught how to dance Indian Bollywood style... super funny.

6/2 – Woke us early from our jungle resort, it was really cool hearing the animals in the morning and I saw a family of monkeys all traveling through our area and hop into the trees. We took off in the bus again. Since we were in the middle of nowhere we saw many rural families tending to their farms and animals. We stopped our bus as we saw a man irrigating water. He used a cow to turn a wheel which was used as a pulley to operate a wheel that brought up water from the well. As we were watching we some kids ran up and were so excited to see us, they were so nice and gave us some of their fruit that they picked from the nearby trees. Here's a picture of a village woman with her child, i thought you you might enjoy to see the beauty we witness daily:

Afterwards we made our way to Kumbhalgarh Fort which has the 2^nd longest wall in the world, the 1^st being the Great wall of China. We reached Udaipur and went to a Rajastan cultural show… They had some tribal dancing sword fight, it was interesting. The dance by the ladies was very nice. Then there was some lady that danced with 10 water pots on her head, that was cool. Afterwards we had dinner on the lake overlooking the Royal Palace, was super beautiful. We met a guy name Adi who came with us to the hookah bar, then took us cruising in his Jeep that he uses to go hunting with. It was interesting to hear his crazy stories.

6/3 – Today we went to the Shiva Temple where people prayed to their idol gods. Pray to Ghanesh for good luck, pray to the monkey/human god for power and prosperity, pray to Lakshmi for wealth… I forgot which god it is, but a lot of the funny guys said they pray to the god that had thousands of women. Afterwards we went shopping and I got a good lesson in bargaining from the 60 year old lady that is in our group, the energetic Judy. I thought I was good at bargaining because I was cut throat and willing to walk away if I didn’t get what I wanted, but she did this whole routine of being super nice and just saying she couldn’t pay the amount they wanted until they went down to the amount she wanted… it was amazing actually cause she would get something down from 400 rupees to 85 rupees. After shopping and getting some cold coffee, we went to the Kings Palace in Udaipur which is the 2^nd largest Palace in India. We were about to pass out from exhaustion because the Palace was so big and the heat was a killer.

After eating dinner and relaxing, we were refreshed and went to the lake and on the way back there was a festival going on with fireworks and everything. The others left back to the hotel but I stayed to check it out. It was a little crazy. A blindfolded man hopped around on 1 leg, in his other leg he had a knife between his toes. Another man lies on the ground with a cut up banana: 2 on his knee caps, 2 on his nipples, and 2 on his eyes. The blindfolded man with sounds of drums in the background would hop around, feel where the other guy is, then stick the knife right into the banana, barely missing and stabbing the guy. The last piece of banana on the guys’ right eye I think went through the banana and nicked the top of the guys eyelid. Thank God it didn’t go through and stab him in the eye. Next there were other performances, people spitting fire, sword dancing, and more ghetto fireworks, some even messed up and burst early, sending the fireworks straight at the crowd, one which barely missed me.

On my way home I saw a barber shop, and I needed a haircut anyways so I went in. They knew right away I was a foreigner. I asked the price and they said 60 rupees, which is like $1.50… so I was in. Getting the haircut was unique… the guy was talking to me and we were having a good time… suddenly he’s talking about some hair treatment and stuff… I didn’t pay too much attention cause I was getting a face massage and it was feeling soooo good. I notice I’m staying there longer than usual, getting a full-on facial, head massage, some special treatment in my hair. The whole thing ended up taking 2 hours. I knew that it probably wouldn’t be 60 rupees because he did some extra stuff… but he never told me the price… so when I asked at the end finally how much it would be, he gave me a price of 1,300 rupees!!! I was like WTF, that’s like $30. He said some stuff about using special ointments that cost a lot and blah blah… And I was like crap, I just got played. I told him that he should’ve told me the price before doing that, and he started talking and I just paid and left really mad. It was now around 11 PM and I was walking the dark streets so pissed off that I passed my hotel without even noticing. After asking for direction I found my way back. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, and you learn from everything. At least the diarrhea is over.