11-29-09 New Delhi India: 2323 hrs. In the lobby of the hotel. The room is small and it started getting to me, so I moved down here. I have been here for a few days. I leave in the morning. The last couple days in Kolkata were good, I did a lot of walking, found my way to the Hooghly River and checked out how people live there. I walked all over the place. It was good but I am finding New Delhi to be more interesting.
For the last two days, I have been driving all over the place with a man named Chauhan. He is a taxi driver and we made a deal for a couple of days of driving around. He’s knows the city like the back of his hand and his English is pretty good. I know this sounds lame but my main interest in coming to this city was to check out the old part of town and to check out the Yamuna River. It’s one of the most polluted rivers in the world. I had Chauhan take me there. We went over two of the major bridges and tried to find locations to look around but it seems that the powers that be don’t want people with cameras to get too close to this river. Signs on the bridges said that cameras are forbidden. I tried to get down to the banks at one point but a cop caught me and sent me back. I walked over an old bridge and took photos and notes from there. It’s too bad that there’s so much farming happening next to the river because all that water is going right into all that food.
I spent all day today in the old part of town. It was incredible. At one point, I saw all these people gathered in a circle, so I went over to check out what was happening. They were slaughtering a cow and everyone had gathered to watch the animal bleed out. A lot of blood came out of that animal. I was walking down a street that miraculously didn’t have a thousand people on it and saw what looked like two men sleeping on the sidewalk. I went over to them and immediately, one of the men had that look of death. Many of you have been around a dead body, there’s something in the face that you never forget. This man had that happening. He was also covered in flies. I took some pictures of him and watched him very closely to see if there was any movement. I think I saw some slight movement in his chest, like a breath being taken. I hope for the best.
There are not many traffic lights in India. Cars just go into intersections like there’s no one there. A lot of beeping and near misses but that seems to be the way they like it. Personally, I am sick of it!
I came back here as soon as the sun was too low to shoot any more. It’s been a good trip so far. Still have a ways to go. India is a very interesting place, I don’t think I will ever understand it all that well but I am getting my head around it a little better the second time around. The first time I came here was an overload. It’s more different than any different place I have ever been.
Now, below, you see the dates for the first leg of the US tour. There will be two different legs, weeks apart. I have to go to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa between the two US legs. SO . . . if you don’t see your state listed, hang in there, I will hopefully be in range on the next leg. The tour will be very long and hopefully I will get to all the places where the is the smallest amount of interest. As you know, I do the best I can to get out there.
Dates for the first North American leg of the FREQUENT FLYER TOUR are as follows:
DATE CITY VENUE
Wed. Feb. 17 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
Thu. Feb. 18 Phoenix, AZ Marquee
Fri. Feb. 19 Albuquerque, NM Kimo Theater
Sat. Feb. 20 El Paso, TX El Paso High School
Sun. Feb. 21 Oklahoma City, OK Diamond Ballroom
Tue. Feb. 23 Houston, TX House of Blues
Wed. Feb. 24 Dallas, TX Lakewood Theater
Thu. Feb. 25 Little Rock, AR Juanita’s
Fri. Feb. 26 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
Sat. Feb. 27 Birmingham, AL Workplay Theater
Sun. Feb. 28 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
Tue. Mar. 2 Clearwater, FL Capitol
Wed. Mar. 3 Fort Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Thu. Mar. 4 Orlando, FL House of Blues
Fri. Mar. 5 Charleston, SC Music Hall
Sat. Mar. 6 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
Sun. Mar. 7 Richmond, VA The National
Tue. Mar. 9 Washington, DC Birchmere
Wed. Mar. 10 Washington, DC Birchmere
Thu. Mar. 11 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
Fri. Mar. 12 New York, NY Irving Plaza
Sat. Mar. 13 New York, NY Irving Plaza
Sun. Mar. 14 Tarrytown, NY Tarrytown Music Hall
Tue. Mar. 16 Bayshore, NY Boulton Center
Wed. Mar. 17 Somerville, MA Somerville Theater
Thu. Mar. 18 Portland, ME Space 538
Fri. Mar. 19 Halifax, NS Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
Sat. Mar. 20 Moncton, NB Capitol Theatre
Mon. Mar. 22 Montreal, QC Le National
Tue. Mar. 23 Ottawa, ON Bronson Centre
Wed. Mar. 24 Kingston, ON Sydenham St. United Church
Thu. Mar. 25 Kitchener, ON Conrad Centre
Fri. Mar. 26 Toronto, ON Queen Elizabeth
Sat. Mar. 27 Syracuse, NY Westcott Theater
Sun. Mar. 28 Ithaca, NY Castaways
Tue. Mar. 30 State College, PA State Theater
Wed. Mar. 31 Pittsburgh, PA Hazlett Theater
Thu. Apr. 1 Kent, OH Kent Stage
Fri. Apr. 2 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion
Sat., Apr. 3 Newport, KY Historic Southgate House
Sun. Apr. 4 Lexington, KY Buster’s
Mon. Apr. 5 Bloomington, IN Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Wed. Apr. 7 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
Thu., Apr. 8 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom
Fri. Apr. 9 Madison, WI Barrymore Theater
Hopefully, these dates all correct. If we get updates, find errors, we will correct them. As dates come in from whatever continent, we will post them as soon as they confirm.
I have to get my pack going. The longer these trips last, the easier it is for me to lose things so I have to pack slowly and keep looking around for things that may have dropped, so I better get on it. Thanks for reading this. Henry