India

My second visit to Delhi has been much more comfortable. I am staying with an American friend, Mark, whom I met in Mussoorie. He is one of those amazingly generous people, who is quick to open his home to visitors. Right now he is actually in Sri Lanka for work, but has [...]

I arrived Tuesday morning in Amritsar, which is in the North of Punjab, some 27km from the Pakistan border. Again I took a night train, but ended up with an uncomfortabe bed, so I didn’t sleep well. When I did awaken, the train was already stopped in Amritsar. In a panic I [...]

I’m frustrated, and decided that my journal has had nothing but good things so far, so I’ll share something that didn’t work out. Let me start by saying that I’m mostly frustrated with myself.
I decided to go to the border today. Every day before sunset there is a big ceremony, for which hundreds [...]

I already talked some about the Golden Temple, but I feel the need to make a few more observations. It is the most alive place of worship I have ever seen. I have been to many cathedrals in Europe, and a mosque or two, and when services aren’t going on, they are just [...]

Jasdip asked me to write something about my gastronomic adventures here in India. When I first arrived I was extremely cautious. I was paranoid to eat something that would make me sick. My first venture away from hotel food was with the freshly prepared fried food one finds everywhere at small chaat [...]

On Sunday I left Amritsar to come back up into the mountains to McLeod Ganj. Originally a British hill station, it is now the home-way-from-home of the Dalai Lama, and of a sizeable Tibetan community. The town is quite small, and full of western tourists and Budhist monks. It is interesting to [...]

Thursday:
I awoke early this morning, as I have tended to do since arriving in McLeod Ganj. My room was very cold, so I stayed under the covers with my hot-water bottle. Finally I mustered the nerve to face the day, and went down to order a chai. I drank my tea on [...]

When I first arrived in India, I was hesitant to ask people to let me take their picture. I didn’t want to be the ugly tourist and treat them as objects. If I did decide to take a picture I would ask permission. Most often the response I get is very positive, [...]

Last week His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet returned from a trip to Japan. This brought the possibility of a public audience. So many people want to meet him, that a private audience is near impossible. The small community of foreign visitors was buzzing the prospect of meeting him.

On Saturday, a group of six of us went for a trek up the mountain above McLeod to a scenic spot called Triund. It was a nine kilometer hike which brought us up from 1900 meters here in town up to 2800 meters. The group consisted of three German women, two Americans Raj [...]