Tuesday, 1997-06-17         Trip Report #8

I've been taking taxis recently (the cars, not the "autos"), and
some drivers ask "do you want AC?"  [Air Conditioning] 
Something triggered a suspicion ... so I finally asked: does it cost
extra?  Yep.
The taxis have a 1-hour minimum "rental" ... quite a sweet deal for them!

I'd been warned ahead of time that in India people have the habit
of wagging their heads from side-to-side to indicate "yes" or "okay".
Still ... the first few times I saw it, I still thought people were
indicating "no".

My hotel now has new carpeting ... just like the old stuff, but cleaner :)  
It's been made specifically for the hotel, as the lines/curves in the
pattern exactly match the floor, even to where the pillars are located.

More on honking horns ... I actually saw a "don't honk sign"!  (It was
ignored.)  Some of the two-wheelers & autos have very strange horns ...
some sound like a goose.  From the hotel grounds, it sounds like
there's a barnyard on the other side of the wall, where the road is.
Today, I discovered that a few cars have *extremely* loud horns,
perhaps in the 90 to 100 db range ... loud enough that my ears hurt
after they honked.

Miscellaneous items from the local paper:

   - http://www.khatami.com  
      Not only does the president-elect of Iran have a web page,
      but he uses frames!  And scrolling text (in English ... the rest
      of the page is in Persian)  (They used Netscape Gold to create
      the web page ... hmmm ... I wonder if it was the free version? :)

   - U.S. speeds up visa process for Indians who want to come to the U.S.
   for work.  Apparently, we've cut the time from a mere 3 or 4 months
   down to a rapid three weeks!  The opinion here is that U.S. businesses
   have put pressure on the U.S. embassy to speed things up so they
   can import help for the Year2000 problem!

   - Calvin & Hobbes and Far Side still alive!  At least, in the paper
   I get.  The copies are sufficiently blurry that you can't read the
   copyright dates.

I went to Pizza Hut for lunch yesterday.  Here are the toppings you
can choose from: 

   VEG: Cheese, Black Olives, Jalapenos, Onion, Mushroom, Capsicum,
	Tomato, Pineapple, Baby Corn, Eggplant, Sweet Corn, 
	Sun-dried Tomatoes, Asparagus.
        Prices: 10 rupee, 20, 30

   Non-VEG: Ham, Chicken Plain, Chicken Hot 'n' Spicy, Chicken Tikka,
	Chicken Tandoori, Chicken Franker [chicken hot dog slices],
	Lamb Plain, Lamb Korma.
        Prices: 20, 30, 40

Prices:
		    Regular (1),  Medium (2-3),  Large (3-4 people)
   cheese only:       60              100           160
   veggie supreme:    90              145           240
   meat lovers:      110              175           290

--

SS