Bugs!

After our return from Goa we were all feeling a bit of the India blues. Its like graduating college all over again and realizing its time to get back into the real world. And to make things even more interesting I decided it was time get sick in India.

One night after dinner down in the lobby I began to feel a bit twisted inside. Being hard headed I decided to brush it of as a stomach ache and avoid throwing up at all costs. I have a problem with throwing up even if its completely necessary which may be why the next symptoms followed. That night I began to regret my decision but for some reason it was too late. Now I couldn't barf if I wanted to and nothing seemed want to come out the other end either. (I hope your enjoying these details.) After a long night of no sleep and confusion I decided to get up and resume work as normal, but that didn't last. As soon as i got downstairs to get in the car my boss took one look at me and sent me back to my room. By this time I had a fever and was feeling an extreme case of the full body aches. Needless to say I ate nothing for the entire day and by night I was getting a visit from the local doctor. She came to my room and inspected me before sending a driver off to the pharmacy to pick up a subscription of antibiotics. For an incredible ten bucks I had enough medicine to treat my fever and body aches and stomach symptoms for the next five days. The best part about it is that it worked and by the next morning I was on my way back to good health. It took about a week to fully get over the bug but that was just perfect timing cuz it was time to start filming again....too bad all the other guys were about to experience the same thing...

India: WEEK TWO part 2.

After some hesitation, and then a game of follow the leader the four of us slowly drove our jetskis into the center of the huge tanker. Wow! I must say that that is an experience I won't soon forget. The inside of the old rusted ship seemed erie and dangerous (which I am sure it was) but had the four of us in complete kid mode. The deck above was falling apart and there were huge chunk of rusted metal hanging just a few feet above our heads. The 50 yard area quickly filled up with smoke from the skis. All the while I was just waiting for someone to come screaming from above telling us to leave. they never did. Grins on our faces and jetskis on idle, we did our best to take some photographs and after cruising in circles for a good ten minutes we made our way back out into the sea. Once we returned the jetskis, high on life, we made our way to the SATURDAY NIGHT MARKET!

The saturday night market is the single most interesting thing I have ever experienced in my life. One might say that being 25, that doesnt seem so incredible but I have been lucky enough to carry a bag full of experiences at a very young age. The market is a sort of festival, flea market, outdoor barbecue, boozefest that goes on every saturday for some 8 months of the year. People from literally all around the world bring their families and trades or goods to live in Goa for the tourist season and make enough money to survive until doing it again next year. The market is huge and easily covers four football fields with shacks and selling stations offering everything from tea and spices to leather coats and fancy shawls. The only rule is that there are no rules. This hippiesh feeling of escaping the world around you and celebrating life seemed present for everyone in attendance. There were dreadlocked men from poland and bald young mothers from Russia all sharing beers, street snacks, and smiles til four in the morning.I even think I saw Crocadile Dundee with a sloppy drunken women trying to dance in front of the music stage. Every race and religion mixed amongst the thousands of people gathered at the market to bargain and enjoy live music from the reggae bands. There were fire dancers, crystal ball jugglers, bellydancers and lots of salesmen. The market is all about the bargain and its hard bargaining when prices are so cheap but the dealing is half of the fun. The only thing that doesnt have a negotiable price at the market is BEER. So we made sure to pay full price for the beer and spent the next 3 hours making sure we hit every stall in search of real saffron, local teas, bed sheets, shawls and clothes. By the end of the night we were exhausted and had truly realized one of the most beautiful things about India. Its Markets...

India: WEEK TWO part 1.

The second week of our time in India took us to a small state south of Maharastra called Goa. Goa is one of India's leading tourist attractions and is sort of the Hawaii of India. It was controlled by the Portuguese up until the 1940'sWhen we arrived after the hour long flight from Mumbai we were a bit surprised that it didnt look or smell much better than Mumbai but had been referred to as a very beautiful place. As we drove the second hour from the airport to our hotel we began to slowly change our minds. The view was covered in green and surrounded by water and we could immediately tell that it was nowhere near as heavily populated as Bombay. It was almost like being in an oceanside town in Mexico. There were still signs of poverty but nothing close to that of Mumbai. Out here people seemed to live off the land and sea in a pretty efficient manner.

The place we stayed and filmed at was a small village of old portuguese homes that were located only 5 minutes from the Arabian Sea. The place was quiet and had a nice relaxing feel to it other than the unbeatable burn from the sun. The combo of heat and moisture meant that everyday was going to be sunburned and sweaty. The cold water that trickled from the showers was an incredible yet unexpected relief. The first day we filmed for ten hours and then tried a local shack called calamari for dinner by the sea. I had a couple cold beers and a delicious local crab the size of a full frisbee. It was the biggest crab I had ever seen and the guys all nodded in agreement as the chef brought it out live for me to see before cooking it. In the mornings myself and a couple of the other guys would go on an amazing 3 mile trail run before work along the fort that had been left behind by the portuguese long ago. The view was incredible and the fact that we were running on the edge of cliffs gave us that early morning thrill that only mother nature can offer. After work for the rest of the week we tried Italian food, Traditional Goan cuisine, and lots of local seafood. Everyday we worked hard in the sun and finished the evening off with a beer and a full belly. Goa felt like a vacation from the big city and on our first day off we treated it as just that.

We all suited up and went down to the beach where we enjoyed a splash in the sea and then proceeded towards the jet skis. Its a known fact amongst the stunt community that engines and speed are a guaranteed good time when working on a location. So with that in mind we rented four jet skis and headed for the waves. We took a cruise around a small peninsula to get a better view of the old forts that we'd been running through and saw huge mansions that lined the forest covered shore. Then came the experience of a lifetime. On the way back we noticed a humongous cargo carrier that had probably been shored a long time ago. The four of us flew through the water to go and take a peak. When we arrived the ship seemed abandoned and incredibly big. The thing was probably 300 feet from front to back and twenty to thirty feet high. As we cruised around to the other side our adventurous eyes noticed that the ships side had been torn through by years of rust erosion, and the holes were just large enough to fit a jet ski in...

India: WEEK ONE PART 2

the rest of the week went by quickly. Everyday I rehearsed wire moves that my character would be doing and at night I began to explore the three different restaurants in my hotel with the other stunt guys. We have an indian food place, an asian food place and then we have a mixed buffet with all of the above and more. The asian food place has become the favorite thanks to its great chef and American sized portions, but only three choices gets old quick. By the end of the week I was ready for a change and thats just what we got...

India: WEEK ONE PART 1

So I got a little busy. The first week of work was an experience to say the least. We traveled to the set in an area of Mumbai called "Film City." It's sort of the Indian version of the Warner Bros Studio Lot where all your favorite Bollywood films are shot. Wait til you see the pictures. The studio lot looks like a city of abandoned warehouses that are home to locals and the packs of dogs that live off the scraps of Bollywood film crews. These dusty old caves are where I was to spend most of the next two months in India.

Week one consisted of 30-45 min. journeys to and from Film City, lots of picture taking and hanging in a harness for most of my days. Along with learning names, our job was to prepare and rehearse for the shooting days ahead. The local stunt team was present and had become a group of guys that I truly enjoyed for the most part. I spent most of my time rehearsing wire moves that either myself or the actor would have to perform "on the day" for the cameras. The first day of work we were all a bit apprehensive about the catered lunch so we did the American thing and ordered subway. In retrospect, that was probably less safe than the catered food seeing how we had no idea what that subway even looked like. So the next two days we indulged in the spicy bliss of KFC crispy chicken buckets and corn on the cob. It was good but not the healthiest of cuisine which is why by the end of the week we were dining with the local Indians on who knows what and rice with a side of Naan(bread). It was actually pretty delicious in comparison to the subway and fried chicken. By then end of the week I'd learned a few things including the name of my favorite driver Jabbar Khan. He is a pleasant but quiet man who tries to help answer my every question about Mumbai, even though he speaks very little english. He helped me remember why I love this job. I was getting to freerun and flip around on wires, learn from some of the best stuntmen and riggers in the business, and explore the Indian culture along side them...

India: DAY TWO! PART2

After returning from the Hotel I decided to do what many of the locals do on a semi clear Mumbai evening. So I grabbed my Camera bag and headed down to catch the sunset on the Arabian Sea. As I walked passed the bamboo supported shacks tattered with laundry and the local pissing hole, I began to get that out of place feeling again. But after a few deep breaths of the urine, excrement, and sea water mixture I decided to truck on. Down by the water I could see people sitting on the rocks in pairs and small groups. As I got closer to them I decide to sit down and sort of blend in before I took my camera out and started snapping away. That was my way of trying to be respectful I guess. I picked out the perfect boulder on the mound facing the city and sat down for a bit to observe my surroundings. It was calm down on the rocks and seemed much different than in the city, like most waterfronts do, even though the city is not at all far from this one. For me it became the type of place you would want to go to for a nice outdoor nap, but I just wasn't that comfortable yet. As I watched, more and more people began to arrive for the sunset viewing. You must know that personal space is not respected in India which is the cause for some discomfort for us westerners. At one point a group of three boys sat down next to me as close we would in a movie theatre. They sat with me for at least twenty minutes and did not speak the entire time. It was odd to me that young boys here behave like men, and just wish to relax and watch the sun go down after a hard day of work. Once they left I hopped up from my rock and made my way through the jagged terrain to go and snap some photos of the shoreline.

On my way down an Indian boy named Khan, about 15 yrs. old approached me and said "Hello, my name is Khan. What is your name." Then he and his 3 friends had a laugh at my expense as I responded with my own name and introduction. The reason they laughed is because "My name is Khan" is a very famous Indian movie that has just recently been released here. The star of the film is Sharuk Khan, who is like the Brad Pit of India but with the power and money of Oprah Winfrey. So when "Khan" played his little joke on the foreigner, I too had a laugh. Little did the boys know that I am here to be the stunt double for that very same actor in his new blockbuster film.

As I thought of how funny the coincidence was I kept taking photos of the land, the sea, and occasionally the people. As I made my way back up the rocks to the hotel my new friend Khan approached me with his friend Tazim and asked me to snap a photo of them. I placed them along the shore so that I could see Mumbai behind them and took a photo of the two. After I showed them the photo they asked me to go back with them to take more of their group of friends but I wasn't fully sure that they were trustworthy yet. How could I be? After all I didn't even know his real name...

India: DAY TWO! PART 1

The next day seemed to be a blur of catching up with sleep that my neighbor on the plane wouldn't allow me, another oh so delicious sandwich, and a trip to go and check out a different hotel. The Taj was awesome but we were given a decision to either stay there and take the hour and twenty minute commute to and from the Studio where we'd be filming, or we could move to this newer, not so nice hotel and be only 5 minutes away from work every day for the next two months. At first it was an appealing offer. Hell, as a stuntman being offered a choice in hotels is an experience itself, seeing how we usually are the expendables. So after an always interesting ride down into the city we eventually arrived at what I would call a Palace. A Gaudy ten story gated building that hangs right above the edge of the nearby Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Which, to be honest, I was very enticed by after hearing that its home to Cobras, Jaguars, Monkeys, and other wild creatures. I mean come on. It sounds like a free trip to the zoo, just without the fences between all of God's lovely creatures. Whats to be afraid of? Only 60 people a year are killed by Jaguars in that forrest. If you flipped the equation around I bet that Jaguar would have a lot less chance of surviving if it came to the city wouldn't it? Okay, enough justifying my urge to explore ridiculously dangerous situations. Back to the Imperial Palace.

As we drove through the guard gates all the doubts we'd had about the quality of this hotel went down the drain. Everyone seemed a bit more upbeat about making the move. The entrance was decorated with huge paintings, statues and gold wherever you could randomly place it. The art, at first glance was, a half assed attempt to recreate some of Italy's famous work, but better than what my hand could produce. As we began to follow our guide to check out the rooms, the pool area, and the one restaurant that we'd have to commit to eating at for the next two months, we began to notice the differences. Some hotels are really nice, like the Taj. Some hotels are decent, and then there's the Imperial palace. A place that reminded me of what it feels like to learn a magic trick. You get slowly drawn into the magic until the moment that you understand how its done, leaving you frustrated that you fell for that in the first place. No offense to the hard working people that spend their days servicing rooms and caring for customers, but the Palace was no palace at all. Although decorated nicely and very spacious, the rooms smelled like elderly homes, and had the small popping of electricity as it moved from the walls into the air conditioners and tv's. The pool water was the color of the air outside and the restaurant just didn't have what it takes. Needless to say we hopped back in our cars and spent a lovely hour and twenty minute ride back to the Taj...