cow eats book, young beachdweller indignant...

So its been two weeks in India and so far here is a quick round up of some important things i have learned.

• No one wants to just talk to you. They want your money or your commission (99% of the time)
• Compassion and patience go much farther than anger and rudeness
• Problems ran away from will always find you
• I have some of the most wonderful people in the world to call my friends and family
• Just because you buy a train ticket does not necessarily mean you have a seat on a train in India
• Apple pie in India will give you Diarrhoea
• If you feed a cow in India it will not leave you alone and may try to eat your book...

I was minding my own business today when a lovely indian gentleman asked if I would like a cinnamon bun or a croissant. Heck yes i did! I paid the man and gave him a generous 10 rupee tip for his keen sense of what foods i may wish to snack on. Returning to the last 30 pages of the epic 1000 page Indian odyssey that is Shantaram a shadow loomed over me. Assuming it was the man trying to sell me another tasty snack i told him that one was enough. The shadow persisted so i rose my head to see a bulbous bovine head staring back at me. I smiled at it and thought to myself 'only in India' and gave the cow a piece of my bun. It failed to see it (cows are worshipped here but i think not for their intelligence) so i forced it into its mouth. I was immediately covered in cow goo. I went to wash my hands in the ocean finishing the last piece of the delicious pastry when i heard a crowd laughing. Turning to see what was so funny i was a bit disappointed to see the laughs were at my expense... The ingrate was chewing on my book which was undoubtedly scented delightfully with cinnamon...

I rushed over, pulled the book from his mouth and beseeched him to move on. This encouraged further laughing. Eventually i encouraged the cow to leave me be but not before a thick globule of sandy drool landed squarely on my iPod.

BAHHHH, oh well i saw a similar situation later on with a young lady but the cow was eating her sarong...

Going to Mumbai tonight, ready to take that city on for a second time. After that i think i shall move on to udaipur. Hope all is well!