Hip Hop

After see the Taj Mahal yesterday, Ice Cube's Today Was A Good Day kept ringing in my ears. But even at the Taj, there are scammers. A father-son duo stood near the Jawab, on the right of the Taj, and directed tourists on the best places to take photos of the Taj. Of course, they then demanded money after completing their seemingly helpful deed.

I sat next to the 10 year old son and kindly berated him. "You and your father are running a scam?" He shook his head in agreement and replied yes, for to come across as agreeable than having an idea of what I was saying. "You know talking to you is like talking to a door." At one point, he pointed behind us and asked, "You know movie picture, James Bond?" I didn't know what that meant. I asked, "Is James Bond back there now or something." His father strolled past and answered, "He is trying to tell you they shot scene of James Bond movie, Octopussy, from there." I said, "So what? I don't give a fuck about James Bond. This is the Taj Mahal!" Building to a crescendo and enunciating the last two words slowly for affect.

The rickshaw drivers and shopkeepers like to scream, "Hey! Hey! Whoa!"as you walk by. I scream back, "Hip Hop Hooray, Ho! Hey! Ho!" While I was walking around, singing Skee-Lo's I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller, it occured to me that it would be a great prelude to If I Were a Rich Man. I even have a tune Tevye can sing for I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller. The other thing I think about when I walk by people pestering me and I ignore them is Common Sense's The Questions: "'Cause you recognize me, yo, I got to speak?"

As I've mentioned, the Taj Plaza had bugs. I'm in a new hotel now and they wanted me to take my clothes out, put them on the dirty ledge, so the sun could kill any potential bugs that got into my bag. Forget the thought that the sun will somehow kill bugs- won't that make sure there are bugs on my clothes? I was willing to keep my closed bag out in the sun, if the heat would kill them, but they wanted me to take it out. I didn't understand the logic. In any event, I got my way.