Travels in Thailand #1 - 2007.01

Time to get caught up.

On to Thailand! After my passport fiasco, I finally got to Thailand two days later. Lisa had done all the heavy lifting on the India visas, so I was able to just enjoy my time there without a care.

Surprisingly, Thailand does look a lot like this. I crossed many a monster bridge druing my travels. They are generally very cordial. But watch out for the trolls and billy goats. 'Gruff' is putting it mildly.


In Thailand, they love the king. His picture is everywhere and it is a crime to say nasty things about him. Thais are very proud of their government and their history of independence. Thailand is the only country in the region that did not fall under the control of outside powers in the past. Keep up the good work, King.


And if you do say nasty things about the king, they send these two fellows to ask your to reconsider. Normally, they hang out at the big beautiful temple in the heart of Bangkok.


These guys have a tougher job. They hold up the temple and I believe, in Thai cosmology, hold up the world. your face might turn blue under such a load, too.


Lisa and I went up to Chiang Mai, the ancient capital of Thailand. This is at a temple we found on a hike.


There's Lisa trying to commune with nature while I point a camera at her.

Travels in Thailand #2 - 2007.01

In Chiang Mai...

...Lisa and I saw strange floating lights. A fiery phoenix? Too small. A plane? Too erratic. It fit the definition--it was a UFO. We were perplexed by this for a day or so until we saw Area 51 for ourselves. For a few baht, you too could launch a glowing balloon. We were soothed...until we saw that Spock-eared goblin laughing at us from the cockpit. Then again, that might have been a dream.


I guess the Spock-eared pilot was just a funny-looking tourist.

One of our favorite adventures in Thailand was Monk Chat. At a monastery in Chiang Mai, people can visit and talk with the monks. It helps them practice their English and gave us some insights into their lives. It was a strange experience--there was this odd Englishman who gave the impression of being the monks overseer. He kept babbling on about his own study of Buddhism, but we just wanted to talk to the monks. There is a bit of disagreement amongst Buddhist about how to do it correctly. Some maintain that Thai Buddhism is the purest form, while Tibetan Buddhists think Thai Buddhism is doesn't go far enough and is too focused on only achieving your own enlightenment. After a while, we were able to speak to a 23-year old monk from Cambodia who told us about his life as a young tough before he came to the monastery. It seems like his practice had had a great impact on his life. The place had a peaceful air about it and we enjoyed the chance to look into their world.

One afternoon, Lisa and I rented scooters and explored the area outside Chiang Mai. We stumbled across a lot of soldiers marching around down country lanes. They were fierce-looking from a distance, but gave us smiles as we approached. Further down the lane, we came across this lovely creature. I think it's an elephant. We don't really have them in Kentucky and I didn't have my field guide handy. I do know that it is definitely not a panda.


On a trip to Thailand a year earlier I sat down for a beer on a warm evening and met these two lovely people along with a Scots couple. They kept ordering more and more drinks. This is what my memory of that night looks like. Vacationing in Thailand is like that sometimes.

Nice people, great food, good times.


So, if you have some time, stop by Thailand and enjoy the flowers.

Adventures in India #1 - Jaipur - 2007.01

After a week in Thailand filled with great food, Chiang beer, water taxi rides, and overnight trains that don't turn off the lights, we moved on to India.

We arrived at the airport and took a cab to the area near the train station in Delhi since we would be leaving the next day. Our crafty cab driver insisted he didn't know our hotel but would be happy to bring us to a comfortable inn for the night. he friends greeted us warmly, but we really wanted to get to the hotel we had booked. After all, it was only 100 meters down the road. He gets an 'A' for effort, but no commission tonight.

Like many neighborhoods near the train station ours was hardly picturesque. We happily rolled out of Delhi on our way to Jaipur to meet Carl & Heather. They had been travelling for months after finishing with Peace Corps. We had a little mishap at the station as I was sure our car was #2. We pushed in to find a jumbo sardine can stuffed with people. I began to dread our 9-hour ride. Luckily, we were in the wrong car. After a bit of shoving and grunting, we got our and made our way to a more spacious car.


Outside the Delhi slums, the landscape turns pretty. Here's the final pic of the day as night descends.


Jaipur was all hustle and bustle like Delhi, but much more manageable and much prettier (prettier than the train station area for sure). It is called the 'Pink City' because of the great deal they got on pink paint. Traditionally in Jaipur, the houses are painted a beautiful pale pink.


Just above the street filled with motorcycles, you can find a cool turban to cover you head. I'm not really sure why they are on that balcony.


We spent the morning exploring a huge observatory built a long time ago. There were all sorts of devices to track the stars. The big one you see in a giant sundial. Below it is a huge bowl with hours and minutes marked off.


This is the reason Jaipur is where it is--a perfect site for a fort to defend the city from outsiders and to remind the locals of who runs the place.


This is the "Wind Palace" where the prince and his posse spent their days. It's a breezy place full of windows and decorations. The women of the house didn't get out much, so they used the windows to get a peek at the world outside. See, they're doing it now.

Adventures in India #2 - Pushkar - 2007.01

After Jaipur and our strange strange hostel keeper Mr. Tickle, it was on to Pushkar, a pilgrimage site for Hindus ever since Vishnu appeared as a boar near the lake. Upon entering this little town, we were given flowers and invited to the lake to make a small offering of flowers and receive a blessing from the local Brahmin. It started out nicely with pleasant words, flowers, a smudge of tikka on the brow. Blessings for ancesters and family were invoked as the cool breeze floated off the lake. He tied a red string around my wrist and was happy that I had shown respect for this holy city. What a lovely town, I thought. How warm a welcome we received!

"How about a donation," the holy man asked. I offered to leave some money in the nearby donation box. No good. He suggested I give him $50. I offered 20 rupees, significantly less. "We are not beggars!" He scowled. "How about $30," he demanded, his partner coming closer to try to intimidate me. The glow of the blessing wore off as he took back his red string and sent me off. Indeed they were not beggars, they were con men.

To Lisa, Carl, and Heather's surprise I twice more accepted flowers. I thanked the person and told them I would put them in lake later. Each time they demanded a donation and when that failed, they asked for their flowers back. Also, some passing ladies grabbed my hand and began to apply henna. How nice until a moment later I realized that this, too, would come at a price. With Carl's help, I pulled away. A high five later, Carl shared my smudgy henna palm. We decided Pushy Pushkar was not so holy a place after all.


Our hostel was a lovely place with secret beers smuggled in for thirsty travellers and their own special lassis. We spent the morning hiking up to the old temple and found many kids wanting to be our guides. It was so strange coming from China to see packs of little kids everywhere.


In the afternoon, we wandered around the whole city and found this seller's beautiful piles of tikka powder. Heather bought a little set of stamps to put lovely designs on your skin, but I don't know how anyone could use this much powder in a lifetime.


A final taste of Pushkar--in this holy lake, we saw the stranges thing. A fish surged to the surface of the water and attacked a bird as big as a duck. The struggle continued for a minute as the fish finally subdued the bird. It was an omen--get out of Pushkar.

Adventures in India #3 - Bundi - 2007.01

** 2007 family
We moved on to my favorite stop in India, a little town off the main tourist line called Bundi. We stayed with a family that runs a small hostel that is taking over their house. Aptly named Pinky, the daughter front and center, took care of us with boundless joy and laughter.


Bundi is a nice town full of interesting little streets.


If you need a new pot, this is the place to come.


and if you need to hire a band, head down this street. This little car comes with as many band members as you'd like


the local castle has two kinds of monkeys, playful little families...


...and red-painted monkey deities. This is Hanuman, the monkey god.


Other wildlife include the black-breasted Hei Yu, also known as the common Carl.


Here's the old castle where the prince lived.


Knock Knock.

Who's there?

Elephant.

Elephant? Go away. Don't you see the anti-elephant spikes? You're as bad as the Jehovah's Witnesses.


This is where the townsfolk live, open to door-to-door elephant salesmen.


But don't stay too long or you might end up like this.

Adventures in India #4 - Palitana/Diu - 2007.01

Another day, another city. We tried our luck with another holy city, this time Palitana. Jain pilgrims come here to worship. Jains are a special sect that try to live their lives as pure souls and seek to do no harm to other living things. They are strict vegetarians who even carefully sift flour for little critters to spare their lives. On the pilgrimage, they usually wear white. Some, especially pure pilgrims make the climb up thousands of steps in their birthday suit. If you can't make the climb, these guys will carry you up. Some little kids wanted to carry our things up, Lisa agreed after knocking an outrageous price down to size. After all, it was just a little bag offered to give the kid a few coins. Well, her mother or boss or somebody didn't agree and a lengthy confusion erupted.


At the top of the mountain are hundreds, thousands of small temples. Temple-building brings merit to Jains that do it, so the number of temples grows each year. Some of these are new, some are hundreds of years old. This truly seemed like a holy place. Pilgrims were happy to tell us about the place and their practice. Aside from the challenging hike up and down the mountain, and the labor discord, it was a relaxing day.


After a short time in Ahmedabad that included a crazy matinée in the local dialect, sickness, foul streets and the crummiest place I've ever stayed, we moved on to the former Portuguese colony of Diu. Blue seas bursting with yummy fish awaited us.


This sad little clown made me laugh every day in Diu.


The island was a wonderful place to relax and recover from all our travels over India. One day, we discovered the shipbuilding quarter of Diu.

At our final stop before leaving India, we saw this building, whatever it is.



So long India. I hardly knew ya.