In Doha

I'm in Doha waiting for my flight to Atlanta to take off. 15 hours from now I will be in Atlanta! Thanks for all the comments people made.

At the barber shop

Chai

Hanuman

Delhi

I wrote the below yesterday but haven't been able to get it to upload from my phone. The hotel I am staying in has computers for guests, so I'll give it a shot on the computer. I can't get the photo to attach on the PC, either.

I arrived here yesterday evening. I am staying in a hotel called Bloomrooms very near the New Delhi railway station and a ten minute walk from Pahar Gunj, an area known for cheap lodging for backpackers. My room is small but well designed and has everything I need until I leave for home in a week.

This morning I walked to the Red Fort, which took about an hour. The man at the desk of the hotel wasn't able to help with directions because he said it was too far away to walk there. On the way to the fort I chanced on a huge mosque whose name I am too lazy to look up right now. The fort was interesting but the British destroyed a lot of the old buildings to build barracks. They did leave several of the Shah's buildings standing, though, including the one in the photo.

If I had my way I would fly home tomorrow, but I chose my flight months ago based on the flight being as direct to Atlanta as I could find. It is the inaugural flight for Qatar Airlines directly from Delhi to Atlanta, with, of course, a layover in Doha. I'll use my time in Delhi seeing sights and enjoying the variety of restaurants. I ate in one today, Haldirams, that said they have a branch in Atlanta!

Still in Varanasi

Two evenings ago I went to the nightly ceremony held at the main ghat. It was a full moon and there were thousands of people attending, most of them in a good mood. It was quite the spectacle, with amplified music, singing, smoke and fire. The picture is of the fire part. When I arrived there was already a large crowd seated and standing on the ghats (steps). I stood pretty close to the action so I could take photos. First there was a man singing and his song was played through speakers that echoed. His song sounded like a combination of Shpongle and Dead Can Dance - terrific stuff. That was just the warm up, though, for five men who sang, blew conch shells, waved censers, and finally saluted with the fire holders you can see in the photo. What a show. It's all to worship/honor the Ganges and they do it every night.

Earlier in the day I chanced upon a procession that included a marching band, little girls in fancy clothes in a horse-drawn carriage, a wagon with a big array of speakers a la the latest Mad Max movie, a crowd of drummers that brought tears to my eyes they were so good (really - my eyes got misty from the emotion of it) and a lot of people dancing to the beat. This all took place on the road to the main ghats, which is always really crowded even without a procession. I am glad I decided to spend several days here.

What I have done mostly is walk and get lost in the alleys of the old city. Some of the alleys are no more than three feet wide but most are six to eight feet across. They all seem really narrow when there is a big cow or bull standing in them. It is difficult to decide whether to try to squeeze by the head or the tail. I usually choose the tail because it doesn't have horns. There are monkeys, too, but they are usually overhead. There are also motorbikes that one has to make way for. If I had my way the motorbikes would not be allowed in the alleys. The riders are invariably rude and blow their horns just about constantly. It is quite the sight to see three or four motorbikes coming from opposite directions trying to get by each other and the people who happen to be in the alleys too.

Tomorrow I will go to Delhi, the last city before I go home.

Shrine

I am always curious about what makes a particular tree worthy of having a shrine. I have asked and gotten vague answers. Maybe a little research is in order. I liked this shrine and put some flowers I bought on it. The ones I bought are not in this photo, though.

Varanasi

The picture shows some boats on what the Indians call the Gunga and we call the Ganges. It's toward the end of the dry season and the river is low, but it's still a pretty big river. I got here a couple of days ago, but the first day I went to Sarnath in the morning with a couple of other people who were staying at the same guesthouse I am in.
Sarnath is one of four key sites related to the life of the Buddha. It is where he found his first followers and where he gave his first teaching. Laurie and I visited Sarnath when we were here in 1999 and I visited in 1971. I considered going to Kushinagar, where he died, but I decided not to do that this trip - I'm being lazy regarding getting around by any means but flying.

Sarnath was on my first morning here, but the evening I arrived I walked toward the ghats, which are the steps lining the Varanasi side of the Gunga, but I didn't make it quite that far. I thought walking was crazy in other places I've been on this trip but Varanasi takes the prize. No sidewalks, lots of cow pies, constant horn blowing and a complete disregard for pedestrians by anyone with any kind of wheeled vehicle. I am slowly getting used to it and haven't had my toes run over yet.

Today I walked to the northern part of the ghats and then walked south as far as the main part of the ghats goes, which is roughly a mile. It was around a hundred degrees but that didn't feel so bad compared to the seven hours I spent walking in heat that approached 115 degrees in Khajuraho. After I reached the end of the ghats I turned around and walked back, partly on the road but mostly through the alleys that make up much of the old part of the city.

My home stay is nice, with friendly owners. The woman of the couple who own it prepares breakfast and will provide lunch and dinner on request. My room is comfortable and quiet at night. The only downside is that it takes me roughly half an hour to get to the old part of the city, which is the most interesting part.

I stopped in a shop called Blue Lassi to, naturally, get a lassi. While I was waiting for my drink a funeral procession walked by on their way to the burning ghats. The alleys are really narrow, so the corpse was carried a few feet away from me. That was different.

I just took a break from writing to walk up the street to pick up a shirt I had altered by a tailor. It was supposed to be ready but wasn't so I ordered some veg chow mein from the hole in the wall place next to the tailor's shop. The four chairs that they had were all taken so I sat on the ledge in front of the"restaurant". The chow mein was pretty good but the wind was blowing dust around and I stopped eating when the food started getting crunchy. I enjoy eating really cheap food sometimes - the plate of chow mein cost 30 rupees, which is about 40 or 45 cents.

Khajuraho

I spent the day walking around in Khajuraho. It is really hot here - I drank over four liters of water. Tomorrow I will fly to Varanasi and plan to stay there for a week or so.

Victoria Memorial

I spent my last morning in Kolkata walking to the Victoria Memorial. Huge structure, to say the least. I didn't pay to enter the building, just paid ten rupees to be able to walk the grounds. The park surrounding the memorial is popular with couples on Sunday mornings (maybe other times, too, but I don't know).

I spent the night in the New Delhi airport. Expensive but I didn't have to leave the building and just woke up, got the included breakfast, and walked to the security line. No hassles.

I will be in Khajuraho this afternoon and tomorrow, then it's on to Varanasi.

Old building

Tollygunge Cemetery

Wandering in Kolkata

This photo shows a view from the top of the Sunflower Guest House, which is where I am staying. I made a reservation by email just before Laur and I left the States; I asked for a quiet room away from the lift (elevator) and that's what they gave me.

A quiet room is a treasure in this city because the noise from traffic, or rather car and motorcycle horns, is way more than I remembered. I am getting used to it but it is still jarring to be walking across a street and have the car right in front of you sound its horn. Not a polite little beep either, but a long harsh blast.

Today I just walked around and took in the atmosphere of the old part of the city. I started out by visiting McDonald's, where I had a veg McMuffin and real coffee, which was what I was really after. I went to Hogg Market but not a lot was going on there at nine am. Then I joined the throngs on the sidewalks in the older part of town. The sidewalks were all lined with makeshift shops, mostly selling clothes. I saw only three or four other tourists the whole time which meant I attracted a lot of attention. Most of it was good natured and easy to deal with.

Kolkata used to be the capital of British India and still has a lot of old buildings from that era. I didn't try to figure out what I was seeing but was fascinated by the decay. It's a wonder some of the buildings are still standing they are so decrepit. Then there's the bird's nest of wires leading into every building. Some of it looks like something out of a steam punk novel.

I have one more day in Kolkata then on Sunday evening I will fly to the Delhi airport, where I will spend the night. Monday I'll fly to Khajuraho. Then it's on to Varanasi, where I plan to spend most of the remainder of my time in India. I have been in a lot of places during the past couple of weeks and I want to stay put for a while.

Grave photo

Grave

I am sitting on the wall that encloses Dad's grave. I had a little difficultly finding the grave, but it is still here. It is farther back in the cemetery than I remembered and has a fairly big tree right in front of it that I don't remember being there in 2001, which was the last time I was here.
I put four small roses on the gravestone and cut down the bush that had been allowed to grow right in front of the stone. The lettering is still cut into the gravestone but the black resin or whatever it was that used to make the writing stand out is almost completely gone. I am really glad I saw the gravestone the way it was in 1999 and 2001.
There are a lot of empty incense boxes in the cemetery and I brought in a full one in addition to the roses. I burned 15 sticks of incense and they are all burned out now. I am listening to what Laurie and I call a "for real" bird, but I think the folks here call it a whippoorwill. The call sounds like the bird is saying "for real, for real".
I'll try to get a photo or two posted soon.

7/11

If you look closely at this photo you can see two 7/11 signs. They are for two different stores. There was a third one just beyond the range of my phone's camera. I walked around this block and there were five 7/11 stores available without having to cross a street. Really handy if you need something they sell.

I ate supper at a street stall for one dollar, very good curry, nice and spicy. This was after spending the afternoon walking around just enjoying being in Bangkok. I saw the flower market and watched people setting up for the night market. I went back to the hotel before the market really got going. When they say "night market" in Bangkok, that's what they mean. It is not aimed at tourists but at locals. At 7:30 a lot of the stalls were still being set up. In Luang Prabang the night market closed up by 8:30 or so.

I watched boat traffic on the Chao Phraya for a while and tried to get a decent shot of a long boat. I don't think any of the shots I took are good, though. Informative rather than artsy.

Now it's off to Kolkata for at least a couple of days. I am not sure after that, but probably to Khajuraho then to Varanasi. Maybe in the reverse order.

Street sign

I tried to publish this the other day but I don't think it went through. This was near my hotel in Vientiane.

Young monks

These are the kids at the reclining Buddha. Their teacher is to the right, behind the monk with his hand on his hip.

Ayutthaya

I got up early this morning and caught a taxi to the train station. I went in the very helpful ticket office they provide just for tourists and paid two dollars (sixty-five baht) for a second class ticket to Ayutthaya. My ticket was for the seven o'clock train, car eight, seat seven. We pulled out of the station at eight thirty.
To reach the part of town where most tourists stay, one walks out of the Ayutthaya train station, crosses the street and walks up a little lane to the river. The fare for the ferry is five baht and the boat runs to and fro all day. There is a regular bridge just down the road, but the ferry saves steps and is a lot more fun.

I found my hotel and left my luggage there while I walked around looking for a placeto eat. When I returned from lunch, they let me check in. I was tired from getting up early and from walking in the heat, so I took a nap. When I got up I rented a bicycle from the hotel and rode off to see the sights.

Around six hundred years ago Ayutthaya was a powerful city and there are ruins scattered over an area covering several miles. I must admit I was not very impressed by what I saw but it was pleasant enough pedaling around in the 100 degree heat. I experienced a first for me. I overtook an elephant on the road. It was unusual riding past an animal that big, but much better than dealing with a barking dog or something. The elephant was giving some tourists a ride.

The trouble with reclining Buddhas is that I always have trouble getting a good place photo of the whole figure. I doubt it will show up on Blogger, but there is a pigeon on the head of this figure. While I was visiting this image, a group of young monks showed up to pay their respects. They were maybe ten years old and were with an older monk, who taught them what to do and say. The older monk seemed really nice and was good with the kids.

I will head back to Bangkok in the morning for my last day in Thailand and SE Asia for this trip.

You can't make this stuff up

I arrived in Bangkok today, found my hotel, then walked to the amulet market. I remembered this shop from previous visits and was browsing their wares when I realized I was looking at Bugs Bunny standing between the Buddha and Christ. There were many, many little bronze images, almost all of religious figures, but only one cartoon character in the bunch. Why Bugs rated a place on the shelf is beyond me and I didn't try to ask. And people wonder why I travel.

More temples and more

Most of the hotels on this trip have provided some sort of breakfast. In fact, I can't remember one that didn't include breakfast. Some have been much better than others, with the three that stand out being the one in Taiwan on the first night of the trip and the two in Java.
I am in a fifteen dollar per night place called the Vientiane Star. Decent sized room with a queen size bed plus a single bed and an efficient, quiet air conditioner. The bathroom is like most hotels in this price range, with the shower in the open. Functional, but the bathroom floor gets wet when one takes a shower. The hotel in Luang Prabang was thirty-five dollars a night and the shower there sprayed the whole bathroom and part of the floor in the bedroom almost every time I showered - the bathroom door wouldn't close all the way and the shower head had a mind of its own.
Washing is on my mind because I just washed my hat for the second time today, along with the neck pad on my camera strap. I washed my feet, too. It's amazing how filthy they get when I wear flip flops all day. Sorry if all this is too much information, but I was thinking as I started this post about how easy it is to spend an hour or two just doing little chores like washing clothes or sorting stuff in my pack.l
I ate breakfast with an American man named Eddie (I think) who lives in Bangkok. He spent fifteen years living in Kashmir helping to manage an orphanage and searching the mountains for precious stones. I didn't quite catch why he left Kashmir except that he got flesh-eating bacteria in one of his feet and it sounded like that happened due to some altercation. Now he cuts stones he found in India and takes them to the States to sell every few months.
He told me the coral in the Tibetan ring my grandfather bought near Tibet was almost certainly from the Mediterranean Sea near Italy. I was surprised because I always thought it was from Tibet since Tibet used to be under the sea. I looked it up, though, and he knows what he is talking about. So, the ring is Tibetan but the coral in it is Italian.
After breakfast I went to Pha That Luang, which is billed as the top Buddhist site in Laos. Supposedly, Ashoka sent an emissary to Laos around 300 BC with the breastbone of Buddha and that was the origen of the temple. It has been damaged and rebuilt several times since. For such an important temple, it is not very ornate or particularly big and my 70 cent entry fee didn't get me in the base of the stupa. It always galls me when I am charged a fee to visit a religious site, but I guess they have to raise money for paint and electricity to keep the place up.
I much more enjoyed seeing the big reclining Buddha near Pha That Luang and even more than that a pavilion with newish looking paintings depicting the life of the Buddha. I was surprised to find I could follow most of the story. I didn't realize I remembered that much of it. I realized later in the day that it would have been a good place to do a photosphere. Oh, well.
After that I went to Wat Si Saket, a two hundred year old temple. I will post a picture I took there separately - I have trouble attaching photos after I have started a post. I couldn't take photos in the Wat itself - there were many notices warning against that, including threats of being arrested for disregarding the rules.
Last night I met a young American man, his young son and an older guy from New Zealand. I saw them again today and this time the American had his infant daughter with him as well. They had spent the day today working on the motor bike with sidecar the American owns. I don't know where they plan to go on the bike. Interesting group, though. The American (Alec) is a long hair and his kids are named Rabbit and Sparrow. Friendly guy, full of energy.
There is a bustling night market near my hotel and I walked from one end to the other this evening. They sell mostly western style clothes and cellphone cases, but there are a few stalls with tourist attracting trinkets.
I stopped by a convenience store on the way back to the hotel to buy drinking water and when I came out there was an older (about my age) American man with a woman who I think was American, too. He was quite forcefully asking a couple of men for a dollar for beer. I have seen expat beggars before and always wonder about their stories. If they are so broke they have to beg, how did they get to Laos? How and where are they living? It is always sad to see that.

Fancy temple, second try.

A different sunset over the Mekong

Vientiane is on the Mekong, too, and my hotel is again near the river. This time, though, there is a quarter mile wide flood plain between the river and the promenade on the edge of the city. Reminds me a bit of Iquitos.

Things I saw this morning

Bowls of live cicadas with their wings clipped, being sold for food.

Women at the market wearing drop dead gorgeous hand woven skirts.

A cute little girl being told by her father to say "sabaidee" (Hello) to me.

A very old man sitting on the sidewalk tuning his two stringed fiddle-like instrument that he plays to solicit money. Some might call him a beggar, some a busker.

Two Lao people already in the tuk tuk I hoped to take to the airport and the driver stopping anyway and picking me up. I don't know where they were going, but we came to the airport first.

A shelf in a shop here at the airport displaying figures of copulating couples directly under a shelf of Buddha figures.

A display of dragons that were standing on their hind legs. The only other ones in that pose I can remember were from Oaxaca.

Luang Prabang

I have been here in Laos for two days, staying in the Lao Lu Lodge. When I walk out of the hotel gate into the lane and look right, I can see the Mekong River. Even this far north it is a big river.

Luang Prabang, or at least the old city, is a World Heritage site. That means buses and trucks are not allowed on the streets. It is a peaceful place to walk around viewing the sights. The sights consist of some old buildings and a bunch of wats.

Each morning at dawn monks walk through the streets receiving alms. The procession has become a tourist attraction, which would be OK if people kept their distance. They don't, though, and get right in the monk's faces to take photos.

Speaking of, I've been visiting wats and just walking the streets, taking photos. I really enjoy walking around with a camera and being able to photograph at will. It's a popular hobby and lots of other people enjoy it too.

Tomorrow I will go to Vientiane for a couple of days.

Wat roof

Fried worms

This is for Sharon, who likes me to sing the song about eating worms.

Siem Reap

I did not see much of Siem Reap during my visit, just a few blocks near my hotel. I stayed in the I Lodge, which is on the edge of the main tourist area of restaurants and shops. There is a night market, lots of bars and restaurants and many shops selling trinkets.
I saw groups of Chinese tourists come to the tourist area on, what else, tour buses. They were tourists seeing tourists. Kind of like the summer of 1969 when people would drive from out of town to midtown Atlanta to see the hippies.
It rained yesterday and that cooled things off for about twenty minutes. My hotel room was on the third floor and I had a little balcony looking over the back of a school building and a really narrow alley. I was on the balcony looking down at a roof two floors below and watched a rat walk over the roof.
I liked the hotel. I had AC, a clean bed and hot water in the shower. Breakfast was included and the room was $15 per night. The air conditioner was a bit noisy and it dripped water on the floor, but it cooled the room.
My Angkor pass was good for only three days, so I went out this morning to take a walk. I mostly stood near a busy intersection and took photos of traffic. I got a shot of a family of four all riding one motorcycle. They didn't have any pigs or chickens on board, though.
This was the first place I have been in a long time where the hotel rules posted on the door in my room specifically forbade prostitution. I assumed they didn't want the guests bringing in prostitutes. When I went out every evening for supper, men offered to procure women (and once, a boy) for me. I showed the first one my wedding ring but that didn't faze him. I just ignored them after that. I didn't get those offers in Bali, even when walking by myself in the evening. I guess it's a Siem Reap thing.