2011 on Dan Tasse dot com

Trivandrum is hot but reasonable

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:53:00 +0000

Right, so Trivandrum, or Thiruvananthapuram, the biggest city in Kerala. It is pretty clean and reasonable. There were some things to do, so we did them:

a zoo (you can tell it’s an owl because it has a face like a dosa)

The famous Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. This recently became the richest temple in the world, after they discovered secret underground rooms full of treasure a few months ago. We non-Hindus were not allowed in.

Also, a planetarium, a couple art museums, milkshakes named after Arabian cities, and movies. We saw Shahrukh Khan in and as “Don 2”. It was exactly what we expected and hoped.

This may not sound particularly exciting, but Trivandrum has been the first city that’s big enough to have these sorts of things to do, but not all full of people trying to take tourists’ money. Besides trying to walk down the street (difficult anywhere in India), there has been a remarkably low amount of hassle. You might say the hassle has been very less.

Here is how reasonable Trivandrum is. I wanted to get a lightweight short-sleeved shirt for all the hot weather I’ll be traveling through. I went to a Khadi (woven cotton) shop and found one on the rack. The salesman helped me find the right color and size. The prices were fixed, no haggling, and the shop had a 30% sale on everything. I wore it out of the shop, immediately ripped it on a trash can, then got it fixed by a kind tailor, who wouldn’t even let me pay him.

On a train, wearing my new shirt. (The guys next to me were playing with my phone.)

I’ll deal with all the perils of modernization (megamalls! Brahminization of tribal religions! face-whitening commercials!) later, and just say for now that Trivandrum was pretty nice.

Let's talk about Kerala food.

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:49:00 +0000

In Kerala there is some food that is popular throughout all of South India, and there is some food that is unique to Kerala.

For breakfast throughout South India, you can have:

Dosa. This might be the most popular thing. It is like a big crepe made of rice and lentil flour. One common type of dosa is "Masala Dosa". This is a dosa filled with a spicy vegetable-potato mix. Sometimes it's a flat triangle shape, and sometimes it looks like a giant burrito.
Dosa variation #1: Rava Dosa. This is made with wheat flour. It's not quite so flat.
Dosa variation #2: Paper Dosa. This is made with rice and lentil flour again, but it is very flat and therefore huge in diameter. If you were a small child, and very hungry, you might conceivably eat a dosa that is bigger than you.
Dosa variation #3: Butter Dosa. Also known as "ghee roast" (which sounds awful), this is just a plain dosa with butter. Surprisingly, it doesn't taste super greasy.
Idli. This is a steamed cake made of rice and lentil flour. The consistency is like a birthday cake but chewier. You usually get two or three of them.
Vada. This is a fried savory doughnut made of rice and lentil flour. You usually get one or two, with something else. Idli and vada is a good choice.
Uttapam. This is a big pancakey thing made of (surprise) rice and lentil flour. It's often mixed with vegetables or onions. Kind of reminds me of Japanese okonomiyaki, which is a great food.

All of the above are served with sambar (a spicy soup) and coconut chutney. You use your bready thing of choice to soak up the sambar and chutney.

For breakfast in Kerala, you can also have:

Appam. This is kind of a catch-all term for foods made with plain rice flour. If you order just "appam", though, you'll usually get a sort of pancakey thing that is thin and light, maybe with a fluffy chewy center. Often served with coconut milk and vegetable stew.
Idiappam. This is rice noodles made into a cake, and served like appam. Often served with "Tengapa", or coconut milk.

That is a lot of breakfast choices, isn’t it? South Indian breakfast is the best. You can eat these things for other meals too.

For lunch, you can have a thali, also just called a “meal”. You sit down, they bring you a big banana leaf, scoop a mountain of rice on it, and serve about 9 different things with it. Some of the ones I’ve had are:

sambar. You will probably get a lot of sambar; it's kind of the main thing you put on your rice.
dal (lentils)
rasam. This is a very thin spicy tangy soupy thing. It's often served after sambar. First you have rice and sambar, then rice and rasam. It is just like that only.
curd (yogurt), or a thin curd-based sauce
beans
vegetables
a mix of chopped coconut and stuff
Indian pickled something
papadum (a crispy cracker)
payasam, a sweet rice pudding like kheer

Other things you can eat for lunch or dinner:

Kothukozhi (the zh is pronounced like an r), a chicken dish in a thick dark sauce.
Fish masala or fish curry. I'd heard the fish was supposed to be awesome here, but it's not been particularly special. Perhaps I am spoiled after Bengal.
Porotta, which is kind of like Paratha, but less oily and more layered and therefore strictly better.
Biriyani, rice and things.

Most restaurants are about the same. This is a good thing; they're all great.

Maybe I should only travel goal-oriented

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:45:00 +0000

An interesting internet person I follow named Josh Whiton wrote a short bit about travel. He talks about his friend who loves to travel anywhere, just because it’s new, while Josh likes to travel with a goal. It’s a personality difference; she cares about new experiences and relationships, while he cares more about progressing towards goals.

“This doesn’t mean getting in and out, all business no play, without stopping to take it all in, mix with locals, or let some current of life sweep him away. But it does mean all that happens against a backdrop of some mission, even if it changes along the way.”

This resonates with me. Maybe I’m just not wired to enjoy anything just because it’s new. (food is an exception.) I’ve thought it was a bit neurotic, like I can’t “switch off” and relax, but maybe it’s just a thing I need to learn to work with, and I ought to orient my travels, short and long, around certain goals.

Merry Christmas, and an update from Kerala

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:36:00 +0000

After Bangalore, I took my last overnight bus in India to Kochi, Kerala, to meet up with Ram and Nicole. Kerala is a skinny little state on the southwest coast of India. It feels kind of like Florida. There are some Dutch and Portuguese influences due to trade and colonization.

Dead Dutch people

Kerala food has lots of coconuts, which is great. Kerala is a pretty well-developed state, the most literate in India, the most English-speaking, and about evenly split between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians.

Christmas-decorated traffic circle

We saw some big Chinese fishing nets that work using physics:

We spent Christmas Eve at midnight at the cathedral. Then, for Christmas, we went to a Jain temple. There was a square with some pigeons. You could feed them. That was fun.

Then on Boxing Day, to finish off our Christmas experience, we also went to a synagogue, one of about three in all of India. The synagogue is in Jew Town. Which street is it on? Jew Street.

Now we’re in Trivandrum, or Thiruvananthapuram if you prefer. We’ll be here for about 4 days total. It seems like quite the modern city. But more about Trivandrum later.

This is my last week in India. I can’t say I’m particularly glad or particularly upset. I can say that I’m having fun traveling this week, largely because Ram and Nicole are great fun to travel with.

I got it figured out, I got it figured out

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:55:00 +0000

“When a person says, in a foreign place, “I feel right at home here,” he is making a statement about the nature of travel, not in the texture of the place he is in. I don’t belittle this sort of travel, which I regard as Traveling As A Version Of Being At Home; but it is wrong to mistake it as the sort of travel that allows a person to make discoveries.” - Paul Theroux

So travel may be a journey to “find a city, find myself a city to live in.” I think a year ago I was bullish on this prospect; I thought there might be oases of urban prosperity like Seattle the whole world around. I pictured myself hunkering down in, I dunno, Amritsar, and trying to make some work as if I were at home. Hang out in 10 different homes over 10 months, make myself an insider in 10 different places, and thus broaden my life while keeping some depth.

Now I’m not so sure! I think there are a couple cities in India I could live in, and only with some stress. Dharamsala comes to mind first, Darjeeling second, and Bangalore third. The first two are romantic pipe dreams where I awaken to mountain vistas and Buddhist chants, churn out some code for a few hours, eat a delicious meal or three, and occasionally go for a hike. But I already get cranky when I can’t work well; daily internet/power/water cuts, lack of computer parts within twelve hours’ drive, and the slow Indian pace of life would drive me nuts. And let’s not kid ourselves; there’s not a big market for computer scientists in Dharamsala.

As another option, I could head for a tech hub like Bangalore. That’d bring a big IT job market and infrastructure, but I’d have to accept all the soul crushing of the Silicon Valley tech world times twelve. Suburban office megaplexes, huge commutes, and no walkability make Dan a dull boy.

We haven’t even mentioned monsoons or cockroaches! I think India is not a place I want to live in.

Not the ultimate point of my trip (travel is about changing yourself in reaction to places, not molding places to fit you or discarding them otherwise), but nice to know.

Bangalore more

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:27:00 +0000

Continuing the string of people in Bangalore being awesome, I couchsurfed with an awesome Bangalorean (/Bihari) named Siddharth, who showed me even more all around the city, including this temple with a giant bull (Nandi, Shiva’s ride) carved all out of one piece of rock.

you can kind of see him in the back there

Food in Bangalore is great, because they take the food from South India plus everywhere else. Siddharth kindly treated me to a Butter Dosa (or should I say, “Better Dosa”, hey?), the best Biryani, and Idli/Vada, which I will eat all the time.

Drinks in Bangalore are great, because South India likes coffee. The standard is black coffee, brewed overnight into this super-concentrated coffee sludge, then diluted with milk and sugar, in a tiny shot glass. Yeah, it’s a bastardization and tastes like a Starbucks concoction, but it’s tasty and small. Also, Cafe Coffee Day started here, which means they have The Best CCD:

Single origin coffees! Single origin coffees from all over the world, including India! I had a french press from a plantation in Karnataka. Not life-changing, but if I paid $4 for it in Seattle, I’d be happy.

Bangalore is glitzy.

This is UB City, a shiny shopping mall. Why am I here?

Tech boom means there’s lots of money here. Lots of money means shiny stores and status symbols; people wear brand name clothes and ogle cars. (Once, driving with Moin and driver Ram, we passed a Rolls Royce. Moin: “Wow, a Rolls Royce.” Ram: “Yeah, that belongs to so-and-so, a friend of Vijay Mallya.” Not just celebrity gossip, celebrity car gossip!) Sometimes prices creep up into American territory.

However, it also means it’s a city I can understand how to spend time in. There are pubs (which close at 11:30 by law, but whatever) and coffeeshops, movie theaters and art galleries. Alternative weekly magazines. One microbrewery. There are almost even neighborhoods; most are plastered with malls, but there are hints of real new modern culture developing.

And there are a couple parks. Lalbagh botanical garden:

Not actually a lawn jockey, but a monkey wearing clothes. Is this racist?

Anyway. Bangalore is neat. I feel almost as much at home here as anywhere. Still impossibly unwalkable, and there are some cultural issues (like celebrity car gossip), but then, you have those anywhere. And besides, am I traveling in order to match up each city against some criteria and judge how good they are, or how much I’d like them, or how much I’d like to live there?

Finding home again in Bangalore

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:48:00 +0000

So after a train trip in which I didn’t sleep, thanks to some coffee-fueled mania, I arrived in Bangalore at 7AM. Dawn must be the best time to be in Indian cities. There are so few people around, and those who are around are so friendly. (Not that I dislike people, but my ideal density is somewhat lower than that in most Indian metropolises.) There are even slightly fewer cars.

Sari shops at 7am

Coffee truck. Guys, coffee truck. How is this not everywhere in the pacific northwest? Coffee truck!

Famous parliament building blah blah

Big city park etc

Bike rental station: awesome. However, they should also work on the fact that cycling on Bangalore streets is a little suicidal. (Ironically, of course, more cycling would help.)

Speaking of dawn, I connected with Dawn Shaikh, a friend of a friend from Google. She, her husband Moin, and their daughters Aneesa and Amara have moved from Seattle to Bangalore for the year. (more on their adventures here.) It was so interesting to talk with them about life as a Googler in Google Bangalore, as American professionals in Bangalore, as IT professionals in India, as students in Indian international schools, as Americans in Bangalore, and as Americans in India. Interesting and refreshing; sometimes I feel like a crazyman here. (both among Indians and travelers.) Plus, they put me up at their place, made some great food, showed me around their town, the whole deal. Really made me feel at home.

The next day, I met up with Thierry (another Googler) and his wife Shika, who were kind enough to host me for a night also. Stuff happens late in this town, so after work (8ish) we went for dinner nearby. Great talking with them too; in these two days, I’ve learned more about what it’s like to live and work here than in the previous two months.

I saw my first Christmas tree at the Shaikhs’ house, and my second at Google Bangalore. Lunch at the office was Christmas lunch, with a big roast bird, western salads and sides, and Christmasey desserts. (Plus Indian food for people who prefer it. Like me.) Santa Claus came around handing out little presents. So, a few dashes of Christmas: a little like home also. Even a few horrible Christmas songs! Friggin’ “Last Christmas”…

And finally, and this is weird, I got a big jolt of being back in the mother ship at Google. I realized how much I miss the culture where everyone is brilliant, everyone is optimistic, everyone is techy, everyone is working on sort of the same thing, and everything runs pretty smoothly. Plus the insider feeling from talking about Google things with Googlers. So it goes! You cannot have your career and eat it too! It’s a good feeling to have, though, to have left on good terms and to look forward to possibly working there again.

So thank you Google, thank you Christmasey things, but mostly thank you to the Shaikhs and Thierry and Shika. It’s nice to feel a bit at home again.

Later I think I will wax philosophical on what it means to feel at home while you’re traveling, but I am tired right now.

What's the purpose of this trip?

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:02:00 +0000

That may be a silly question, like “what is the meaning of life?” What I’m trying to get at is, if I’m sick of sightseeing (and I am), how can I make this trip into the best trip that it can be? If my goal of “seeing a bunch of places” gets worn out, (and after the lovely interlude coming soon where I hang out with family and friends for about two months) what’s next?

As with life in general, I think an easy way to answer this question is to find a purpose. So… what purpose can I find?

Some points I’m thinking about:

I think I'll be in Iran in February or March, and I'd like to end somewhere that is kind of close to home.
Some places in Europe might be nice to visit, because I know a few people there, but just touristing in Europe is not appealing.
I had this idea to go to Ukraine because I have a little bit of ancestry there maybe, but I don't actually know any people there, so it'd just be to sort of soak up a bit of ancestral culture.
Some places in South America might be nice to visit, because I can speak Spanish okay and speaking the language helps so much in allowing you to find something to do besides touristing.
Some other places like Central Asia might be nice to visit, but I don't really have any reason to go there.
I don't actually have much of an urge to go to the rest of the world right now! Feels strange.

So I'm thinking (and I am loath to say this because it might turn out to be silly) that a good purpose might be to bicycle across Europe. Start in Turkey in March, end in the Netherlands in June; about 90 days for 1600 miles is only 17 miles a day. Ride the warm weather back north. My primary task would be to get myself from point A to point B; touristing is secondary.

It sort of appeals to me. We’ll see.

The only pun I can make out of boulders and hippies involves "getting stoned" so I'll skip that

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:22:00 +0000

Hampi is alternately amazing and just nice. The amazing parts are when you walk up a hill and are surrounded by Jurassic Parkesque (or Mordorian) piles of boulders everywhere, or when you’re climbing on some rocks and see yet another 500-year-old building. Or when you rent scooters or bicycles to see these things. Two wheels, yes!

View from the Hanuman temple on the North (Virupapur Gaddi) side of the river. Go to this place; it is great.

It’s not that I know or am deeply interested in the history of each individual temple; it’s just the sort of otherworldly atmosphere here in general.

The nice parts are when it’s dark and you retire to the tourist village of Virepapur Gaddi (across the river from the “main drag” of Hampi Bazaar). I guess Hampi is next on the hippie circuit after Goa, so there are lots of folks just hanging out. My guesthouse has no power between 11am and 6pm, or after 10pm, and right now it has no running water, but hey, no worries. There are lots of mosquitos, but on the plus side I get my first experience with Odomos and mosquito nets. (both are wonderful; I have no bites.)

This cute fellow kept my bathroom clean

Some guesthouses have movies or musicians or bonfires. It’s a pretty nice environment to relax for a few days. I wonder what it’s like for the people running these places.

The only distressing moment happened when I was talking to a diehard Ron Paul/Ayn Rand/uncontrolled-free-markets supporter, and I didn’t know what to say. Guess I am way out of touch with politics.

Practical info: you can stay in Hampi Bazaar (maybe half Indian tourists, half white) or Virupapur Gaddi (aka the “other side” of the river, mostly white tourists, more hippie, more relaxed). Your choice will determine where you spend sunsets and evenings, as the ferry stops at 6pm. Both are good; I think there’s more going on on the Virupapur Gaddi side. I stayed in the Sai Plaza guesthouse, which was low on amenities (no hot water, sometimes no water at all, sporadic electricity) and a bit high budget at Rs500, but clean and had a good atmosphere. But there are a ton of guesthouses on both sides. Every restaurant serves four hundred different types of food, none are that good. It’s frustratingly difficult to find South Indian food here. There is no ATM (since they bulldozed the main street in 2011). You can rent bicycles/motor-scooters everywhere for 40/150 rupees.

It occurs to me that fewer things stand out now

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:21:00 +0000

So I got on the train in Jaipur, found out that 2AC is really just like 3AC with slightly fewer people, talked with my fellow passengers, played a game that involved singing a song that starts with the last letter of the last song, shared their dinner, tried an “almond milk” that was just cow milk with sugar and chunks of almond, got off the train 32 hours later in Guntakal, and took three buses to Hampi via Bellary and Hospet, stopping for an amazing breakfast of idlis and vadas. This trip segment feels like the kind of thing that would have absolutely fascinated me a while ago; now it’s just another trip.

Sometimes I’ll read an article about how traveling makes you feel like a child again. Maybe after you travel in the same country for a while, you’re not like a child any more. Taking an overnight train used to involve a lot of mental effort: how do I find my seat? how do I make the bed? should I eat dinner before I get on? Now it involves only a couple thoughts: get to the station on time, get off on time. The rest is automatic.

This is fine. I guess it means there’s less confusion and less wonder. I guess now is when the trip can deepen a little bit and one can get more in depth into… what?… instead of gawking at all the surface differences all the time. So I guess I’m not sure what to do with this. But it’s fine.

Jaipur! Argh!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:48:00 +0000

What is wrong with this place! It has all the walkability of New Delhi, my hotel is a few km from everything, tuk-tuk drivers are incessant and awful, and the primary pastime seems to be shopping or spending a few bucks to see sights you don’t care about. I guess there are some pretty buildings.

I mainly came to see this, the Jantar Mantar. It was an observatory. This thing you see here is the world’s largest sundial.

A scattering of other observatorial implements.

The Albert Hall. I wonder how many holes it takes to fill it.

I don’t know what this building is, but it’s kind of cool.

Crowning moment:

Me: Do you know the Krishna Palace hotel?

Tuk-tuk driver: (reads card, realizes it’s a few km away) Okay.

Me: How much?

Driver: Fifty dollars.

Me: Fifty rupees? Okay. (this journey is worth about 50-100 rupees.)

Driver: No. Fifty dollars.

Sir, screw you, and it’s taking a bit of self restraint for me to avoid saying “and screw your city.”

Well! I leave in a few hours on a long long trip to Hampi. Wish me luck!

Iran travel risks and Fan Death

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:09:00 +0000

Fan Death is a Korean idea. Some Koreans think that sleeping with a fan on can kill you, either through asphyxiation or hypothermia. I bring it up not because it’s silly, but because it’s something that some people fear (aided by the media), while others can’t imagine it being scary.

EDIT: a much better example is skydiving. Statistically not risky, though it seems risky, because jumping out of a plane!

So here I’d like to address some of the possible fears associated with Iran travel, and either refute them or reduce them to a risk that I’m already taking. Instead of general fear of Iran, let’s concentrate on what it is that we’re afraid of.

What could go wrong?

Petty crime, getting my things stolen or whatever. I have no reason to believe this is more likely in Iran than in other places, like India.
Violent crime. Again, this is no more likely in Iran than elsewhere.
Getting caught up in a protest or something. Well, of course I won't be trying to find anything like this; the trouble would be if I stumble into one. Iran is the first place where I'll have a guide, who will know the situation on the ground and help me avoid stumbling into one. (compare to India where there are people protesting stuff all the time.)
Iranian government harassing me. I wouldn't be hearing so much "Iran is safe" if there were a possibility that the government would harass me. Unlike those hikers a few months ago, I won't be going near borders or away from my guide. I won't take photos of official things. And again, there's a guide whose job it is to keep me safe.
US government harassing me on re-entry; one two sites reporting no problems, or a little badgering but nothing serious.
US government harassing me somewhere down the road (e.g. on a "terrorist watch list"). The only reason I have to believe that this would happen is due to someone I haven't met, whose words I've heard only secondhand via a rather exaggerated email.

Other general fears:

There's a travel warning by the State Department for Iran. But then, there's also one for Kenya, the Philippines, Israel, and Mexico, as well as travel alerts for India, Nepal, Bhutan, India again, and Thailand. I've traveled under State Department alerts before, during the Red Shirt protests in Thailand; the violence was in one part of Bangkok but the alert went for the whole country. They're a bit... broad.
There's no embassy. Right. The Swiss embassy foreign interests section can handle some cases, and for the rest... well, I've never needed an embassy through 3 months of travel so far, nor ever in the past, so what are the odds I'd need one now? Again, tell me what will go wrong.

Other things that might allay your fears:

Rick Steves: "I have never felt a more friendly welcome because I was an American." (skip the politics if you'd like; the point I'm trying to make here is, Iranians were friendly to him.)
Traveling to Iran as Americans: all you need to know
Lonely Planet is cool with it.
Even USA Today says that "with commonsense precautions, the American tourist may enjoy a deeply fulfilling trip to this nation."
Travel blog: "Some parts of it require you to leave your comfort zone and it can sometimes be quite tough for female travellers, but the people are very friendly and the sights are nothing short of spectacular."
"Fortunately, or unfortunately, Iranians love other people, specially the westerners !"
"Tell all Americans we love them"
Even from a rabbi: "I am now more convinced than ever that we in the West harbor egregiously stereotypical assumptions about this country – and that we harbor them at our mutual peril."
Is Iran dangerous for Westerners?
Iran for Westerners?
Do people really travel to Iran?

Anyway, my point is that I'm not going on some daring trip on a calculated risk because it'll be awesome dude; I'm going on a non-risky trip.

And so I'm asking, if you can provide some evidence that travel to Iran is dangerous, please do. Tell me what I should be afraid of, and provide evidence as to why. The caveat is that this evidence must be fact-based, not vague warnings or what-if worries. If there's no evidence, we might just be arguing about fan death here. (EDIT: or skydiving.)

Don't think too hard about "filling time"; or, I'm going to Hampi.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:46:00 +0000

Honestly. When in your life do you have the problem of a few extra days with no obligations other than “get from resort town A to resort town B and keep yourself relatively entertained in the meantime”?

I'm going to Jaipur tomorrow night, arriving on the morning of December 13. On Dec 24 I meet Ram and Nicole in Cochin. Here is a map of how far that is. In a car, it's 2385 km; that's 1482 miles. Googling tells me that that is the same as the distance between Phoenix and Missouri, or between Kansas City and Calexico, California.

(ponder for a moment the weirdness of googling "2385 km" and getting "the distance between Kansas City, MO and Calexico, CA." It's like Jeopardy.)

Ages ago, I booked a ticket on the Jaipur-Bangalore express train on Dec 14. This still seems to be approximately the best route, and trains get booked far in advance (especially now with every single tourist going to Kerala), so this still seems to be my best chance to actually get south.

But of course I don't have to take it all the way to Bangalore, and indeed, I think I won't. See, if I get off 7 hours before Bangalore, in Guntakal, I can catch a bus for a few hours to Hampi. Hampi looks like a magical city of ruins that I had ignored because I didn't think I'd be bumming around in Karnataka state. I'll be there about Dec. 16-18.

And then I'll head on down to Bangalore for Dec 19-23, to experience big city life in India one more time. I'm excited about this too, after pretty good times in Kolkata. Big cities in India can be awful, but they also can offer opportunities to meet up with Couchsurfers and other actual people who aren't trying to sell you stuff. Plus, Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India, the "pub city" of India, and I guess they grow coffee nearby, so it's basically the Seattle of India, right? Right.

So. Time filled. Let's see some ruins and stuff.

My camel had a name (it was Papaya)

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:25:00 +0000

but that didn’t stop us from singing this around a campfire.

One popular thing to do in Jaisalmer is to ride a camel in the desert. It is kinda the main thing to do in Jaisalmer. Everyone and his brother will take you in the desert on camels. I booked a trip through Ganesh Travels, which is listed in the Lonely Planet, but for good reason: they deliver honest quality tours for a good price and no BS. Seriously, at $13/day, going on a camel safari is cheaper than not going on a camel safari. Highly recommended.

Good things that were good:

Scrubby desert

Dunes! Did a couple of awesome dives and flips. Am still pulling sand out of my ears.

The other folks on my tour! This is me, Rob, and Joe, posing for our album cover. (we’d be named the Ambassadors of Morocco, but Joe’s old band already has that name.) There were 8 people in our group, and I’m sorry to have missed the others in photos. Great mix of people from UK, France, Holland, Germany, and China. It’s really the people who make the trip, and our group was no exception.

Also not pictured: our guides, Mr. Khan and Selim. They were wonderful too. Managing 8 tourists and 8 camels cannot be an easy task, especially when you’re also setting up camp, cooking three meals, arranging mattresses and blankets, and building fires. And the language barrier was low enough that we could actually communicate sometimes as humans, not just customers.

Sunsets. Nights. All these things in nature, where I am not used to being. To quote the travel agent, Sebastian, at Ganesh Travels: “And you can sleep under the stars. Ohh, so beautiful!”

The camels! Riding was actually not bad, when we were walking. A little bouncy but you get used to it. Kind of calming, really. When we trotted a little bit, that’s when it got tough. I don’t know how camel riders ride fast for long distances. I really don’t know how camel riders have children.

’s about it for now. One of the better experiences I’ve had here in India. Otherwise I’m in Jaisalmer, which is pretty much a tourist town, with pretty heavy tourist-hustle, but it features this incredible fort.

Inside the fort, if you can get away from touts and find a nice place to watch the sunset, it’s actually peaceful!

Practical tips about Jaisalmer: I stayed in the Artist Hotel, which was clean enough, had some plumbing issues, but friendly, and a ways north of the fort, for Rs300. Inside the fort, look for Kuku’s Coffeeshop (near Hari Om Jewelers) and meet Deepu, as he is a friendly guy who can help you do whatever you need without getting conned. The Desert Eves Restaurant inside the fort is a nice place to sit for a while and use wi-fi on a rooftop.

Oh, one more thing: maybe not Iran

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:58:00 +0000

When I’ve been telling people about my route, they always comment on Bhutan (enthusiastically) and Iran (somewhat less so).

My reasons, it is now clear to me, were twofold: about 20% to get the word out that Iranians are normal reasonable good people too, and about 80% to have the satisfaction of “proving”, to a few relatives, that Iranians are normal reasonable good people too. So I’ve got about 20% of a good reason to go. (also to see amazing buildings history food and all the other stuff; so 1.2 good reasons to go.)

Unfortunately, there are a number of good reasons for me not to go to Iran, and note that “terrorists will kill you” is not one of them.

It'd cost me about $1200, not counting airfare, for the group tour I picked (you have to go with a group or a guide)
It's a group tour
It's a sightseeing tour
A lot of shenanigans like "you can't bring laptops in the country" and "there are no ATMs" make planning a bit difficult
Recent embassy stormings are less than awesome for tourists I guess
And here is the new one: I heard that, apparently, going to Iran puts you directly on the US Terrorist Watch List? And your family too? For the record, our government is nuts. But while there's honor in organized civil disobedience, there's little honor in helping yourself get screwed by the system.

Thoughts? (I mean, besides my family; their thoughts I already know :)

And hello, and goodbye again

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

I’m going out to the desert. For a camel safari, tomorrow. Someone remind me, never talk to a travel agent when I’m high on caffeine.
But seriously, though, should be cool. They seem like good guides, there’s a good mix of folks going, and in a town full of camel safari operators, they advertise as “probably the best in town.” I’m sold.
See you in 3 days!

"A guest is like God"

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:45:00 +0000

or so the saying goes. My friends Hemant and Gaurav (each, independently) told me of this Indian saying, and indeed, they believe it. Again, their mom and they put me up for a couple days, attending to my every need, and then some. Plus, we saw some stuff around Delhi, had some whiskey, saw a dirty picture, watched some cricket, you know. Ate delicious food, thanks to Mrs. Mohan. Skyped with my family, after some hilarious MacGyvering the internet on both ends. (Many thanks to the Kumars for helping this happen.)

(okay, okay. it’s a Hindi film called “Dirty Picture,” about an actress in the 80’s. Mildly scandalous by Bollywood standards, not scandalous by Hollywood standards. Mildly confusing by English-speaking standards. For some reason I thought Hindi films might sometimes have subtitles?)

I met up with Satti, a co-worker of my mother’s who works in Noida. We had some delicious kebabs of all kinds.

KEBAB INTERLUDE

Someday I will understand what “kebab” means, but that day is not today. Growing up, “kebab” was only used in “shish kebab”, and it meant we put pieces of chicken and peppers on a skewer and grilled them. In Europe, “kebab” meant “doner kebab”, a sandwich with slices of roasted meat. Beloved by us inexperienced foreigners, especially after some beers; I may or may not have memorably sang “K is for Kebab” in a Cookie Monster voice at one point. Today, at the Kebab Factory (a fine place, despite the fact that if your restaurant is named “factory”, you’re doing it wrong), we were served a very nicely soft textured patty of spiced meat, a chicken leg, a fried bit of fish, a piece of boneless chicken, and a sausage link. And they were all “kebab”?!

END KEBAB INTERLUDE

Anyway, he generously took me to lunch and then to see his office, despite the fact that he is surely a much busier man than I!

And then I bid a sad goodbye to Delhi. Rather, I bid a sad goodbye to the people I know in Delhi. I’m not all too choked up about the city itself; it must be the least walkable place on the planet, and the suburbs are worse. (and yes, walkability is the only thing that matters; discuss.) I got to the train station an hour early, so I decided to walk back to the famous Chandni Chowk, and I’ll agree with William Dalrymple’s assessment that it’s become a rather crummy place.

But right, the people I know in Delhi. I am quite bowled over by their kindness. I can only hope to host them in the US someday and return the favor; a distant possibility perhaps, but the offer is indeed open!

Safety Nets

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:43:00 +0000

Back on the net! Here come all the blogs, starting with a thought I’ve been having:

I’ve got a lot of safety nets, right? Safety net 1 is my savings: if something bad happens, I can throw money at it until it goes away. Safety net 2 is also monetary, I guess: my job. Or, if I’m unemployed, like now, it’s my ability to get a job. Tangled with that is safety net 3: people I know professionally who might know someone who knows someone who could help me get a job. I guess you could say my “network”. Failing all that, there’s safety net 4: my skills and resume. I could get a job writing software at any old place. And if all these fail, I have a lot of family and friends, who could probably help me out for a time if I really needed it.

So I was reading “Revolution 2020” by Chetan Bhagat. I guess he’s a popular paperback author. The writing wasn’t great, but as a window to parts of India, it was fascinating. He describes the life of Gopal, an average guy from Varanasi whose family has some problems. Gopal’s mother died years ago, his father inherited some land but his uncle tried to legally wrangle it away, and his father is even having health problems too. So Gopal’s father puts his hope in Gopal becoming an engineer.

There are two national exams for engineering schools: the AIEEE (to get into NIT, the National Institute of Technology), and IIT-JEE (to get into the world-famous India Institute of Technology). IIT is more prestigious, but even NIT is tough. After the one-shot exam, all >1 million aspiring engineering students are ranked, and if you get in the top 30k, you can get into NIT. So 3% “pass”.

Gopal’s rank is about 50k. So his father uses the last of his savings to send Gopal to a coaching school in Kota, where Gopal spends the next year studying, so he can take the one-shot exams again. This is like year-long full-time SAT classes, but more pressure. You have to get yourself into the top 3% of students; 97% of you are guaranteed to fail. Furthermore, there are varying levels of quality and prestige among the coaching schools, so the schools have entrance exams. There are even coaching classes for those.

Why go through all this? Because he has no safety nets. If he doesn’t pass these exams, which 97% of students must fail, he’s got no chance! At one point, he jokes about running through his options: exile to the mountains or a hard life of manual labor. (spoiler alert: he finds option 3, a life of shady business, and later has a moral crisis because of it. I said it’s not a great book.)

Now, the safety nets come with a slight cost, while traveling: to quote Pulp, when I’m “lying in bed at night, watching roaches climb the walls, I can call my daddy and he can stop it all”, and as a result, I can’t really relate to most people. I can’t understand why (for example) it’d be reasonable to keep trudging through a job you dislike, because I haven’t felt the icy stomach flops from falling through all the safety nets. But nor do I desire to; having the essentials taken care of allows you to focus on the “better things” in life, whatever your definition of “better things” is.

And so I guess there is the crux of it. If you were looking for a Thanksgiving post, here it is. (it’s not late, it’s just, time zones, y’know?) I’m thankful for my safety nets. And traveling through India, a land of few safety nets, has made me more so.

I remember reading that it's impossible to like Kolkata; you must love it or hate it

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:12:00 +0000

Moment-to-moment, that’s true. I’ve had very few moments of liking Kolkata. I’ve had a lot of love moments and a lot of hate moments.

The love moments:

meeting up with the Kolkata Couchsurfing community. Even though I couldn’t actually find any available hosts, I got a chance to talk with a bunch of cool people. A lot of young folks and a lot of men, although a few women and older people too. One, Avik, even invited me and another CSer to dinner (which was a great time, and delicious); another CSer, Ratnish, invited a bunch of us to his house for some board games, including Taboo. Now, Taboo is great, but kudos to the Indians, Germans, Austrians, and others there who had English as a second language! That would be tough. And I got to play chess with another, Prithvi. Good folks all.
meeting a couple of Australian folks who run a travel business and just bought a house in north Kolkata. They’ve lived here for 16 years, but they go back to Australia for the summer and monsoon season. (Summer sounds awful: over 100 degrees and humid, constantly.) Then they come back to find mold on their walls. They have running water for a few hours a day; they store it in a tank that effectively gives them running water for the rest of the day. But this tank has a hose which they have to remove at night, because otherwise the rat will chew through it. Sometimes stores are closed (like today!) because of strikes. The most recent one is because of supermarkets: the government’s making some deals to allow Wal-mart, Carrefour, etc to set up shops in India, and there is a complicated issue. (which I would love to talk about sometime, incidentally.)

Their business is Kali Travel Home at traveleastindia.com or traveleastindia at gmail. Highly recommended! They do walking tours and coordinate cooking classes with locals, as well as a bunch of other stuff on their website.

seeing everything in one day, courtesy of a motorcycle tour by a guy named Sukant.

Park street cemetery: neat overgrown/crumbling atmosphere.

The Great Banyan! It is all one tree!

Flower market. Spices too.

“Now we are going to the Garbage Mountain! … There is the start of it.” “Where? There? No…” “Yes! It is five kilometers long!” This was actually fascinating. Fifty years’ worth of garbage. I don’t know if you can see any people in that photo for scale, but it is immense. Meanwhile, everything gets sorted out: glass bottles, plastic bags, scraps of foil, colored plastic, etc. As we rode past it, we saw all these little piles of one type of thing which would get recycled. I imagine every American city has multiple Garbage Mountains, but we never see them, and we recycle a lot less. What can we learn from Kolkata? Well, I don’t know: all this recycling requires an army of people climbing on top of that mountain, picking through all the junk.

(again, more photos if you click the “photos” link above.)

If that’s a thing you’d like to do, check out Tour de Sunderbans.

Kolkata is nicely navigable and walkable, especially the central bits.
Bengali food is so good all the time. Kathi rolls for snacks, delicious fish curries of pomfret and ilish for meals, shondesh and mishti doi for dessert. Anyone want to open up a Bengali/Nepali restaurant with me?

The hate moments:

beggars. Well, now I know, ignore them all, just as you ignore all touts. You are even allowed to do such absurd things as hard-core shunning them, yelling “no” or “chalo!” (“go away!”), ditching them, or pretending not to speak English.
on that note, Kolkata is terrifying! Not because I ever felt unsafe, really, but because you’re surrounded by countless examples of “there but for the grace of God…” I guess a few roaches here and there is a fact of life. I can’t imagine running a house, like those Australian folks.
the tourism zone (including the internet cafes) is more soul-crushing than most. I trust a Kolkata tourist-businessman less than I can throw him.
I am tired! My travel gumption is fading, and I cannot seem to recharge. Being in a big city is nice, but it’s also tough in its own way. I was planning to spend next week in Delhi, but I think instead I will spend a few days and then go to Rajasthan. (in retrospect, I should have planned to stay a couple weeks, because meeting the same people a few times is nice.)

So yes, love and hate. If you take the average, though, I’d say overall I like Kolkata.

Hotels in India

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:22:00 +0000

I’ve had a request for some info about these, so I started taking pictures.

Zero dollars (your donation): At the Vipassana retreat center in Dehradun. Two beds. Attached bathroom with spiders. Wake up call at 4:30am. If you’re here for a retreat, you’re probably not fussed about these things.

Also zero dollars (or by donation): the Golden Temple in Amritsar. An adventure.

Also zero dollars: Mr. Singh’s guesthouse in Amritsar. Had a swimming pool and free dance shows, took an hour to get to town, and had running water sometimes.

Four dollars. Haldwani. Well, it was late, and this room was indoors. Even had a (filthy) attached bathroom. One roach sighted.

Six dollars: Mahendranagar, Nepal. Again, just a place to exist for a few hours. No bugs!

Six dollars: Bhojbasa, Gangotri, Uttarakhand, India. Almost froze for eighteen hours and developed a weird scratch/rash (that thankfully just went away), but it included meals and a wonderful sunrise.

Seven dollars: Hotel Divya in Rishikesh. Functional and clean, big building so I didn’t meet anyone there, but it worked.

Ten dollars: Tansen, Nepal, at the Gauri Shankar guest house. There may have been a little bit of inflation, as it was the one place that every guidebook and person pointed us to. Low on amenities, no hot water, but clean and central.

Ten dollars: Mandap Hotel in Pokhara. There are four thousand hotels in Pokhara, and they all cost $10. Shop around, and push back on “service charges”. It had wifi (like all of Pokhara), the showers were hot sometimes (never sure when), and it wasn’t very conducive to meeting people.

Ten dollars: one hotel in Nainital that was kind of chilly and had a couple of spiders.

Twelve dollars: another hotel in Nainital that was better but had no windows.

Sixteen dollars: Sunflower Guest House in Kolkata. Though it’s listed as $15 on their website; haggle. A basic but clean room with hot water (out of the faucet, not the shower, so you have to bucket it), and I’ve only spotted two tiny roaches in four days. I think that’s good enough. The place is surrounded by other hotels that cost less, but I was a bit scared coming into Kolkata, as the only comment I’d heard about Kolkata lodging was “I got bedbugs.”

Also sixteen dollars: house boat in Kashmir. sigh Kashmir! What is wrong with this place. So the price was quoted to me on the phone (reluctantly) as $10-20. I thought that meant $10 without meals or $20 with. But then I was rather forcefully served meals. So when I went to pay, I figured I’d pay somewhere between 10 and 20. But then this guy tried to tell me $10 was for the other boat, and this boat was $30. Or $50. Or something. I got him down to $16, and he said “are you happy with this price?” and I said sure. Note: “are you happy with this price?” means “I am taking you so hard that I actually feel kind of bad”, and therefore the answer is always no.

Eighteen dollars: Revolver guest house in Darjeeling. It’s Beatles themed. Dad will be sorry to know that my room was “Paul”. It was also maybe 50 degrees at night: Darjeeling is not a town of widespread central heating. But the folks at Revolver tried their best with an electric blanket, heavy other blankets, and a kerosene space heater if you want.

Twenty dollars: I think that was their recommended donation at the Santosh Puri Ashram near Haridwar. Included meals, tea, a beautiful garden and all, daily puja services and yoga classes, and internet in the library. Bathroom next door.

Two hundred and forty dollars: all manner of nice places in Bhutan!

What have I learned from this?

it is hard to look at a room and tell, on the spot, whether it's good enough, because there are so many things you have to remember. It would be useful to develop a checklist of what I need in a room. It'd be something like this, in order from most to least important: no bugs, clean looking (to increase likelihood of no bugs), running water, friendly/haimish, good location, hot water (if in a cold location), wi-fi, towel, laundry service. And I'd draw the line after "running water". But then, there are always surprises: is it good enough if it has all those things but also a big hole to the outside in the bathroom wall?
Haimishness is a very hard quality to determine. Things that help include a nice communal area that people actually want to hang out in, low price (meaning more backpackers who want to meet up), general comfort, friendly hosts, and a good number of rooms but not too many. Siddharth Guest House in Dharamsala and the Gangs-Shun Homestay in Leh spring to mind as good examples. Revolver had the ingredients to be haimish (central room with the only wi-fi connection), but only 5 rooms, so nobody was ever around. The Santosh Puri ashram was pretty haimish; sometimes people didn't leave all day. The Sunflower, Mandap, and my hotels in Bhutan were not at all haimish, nor were the junky spots in Haldwani or Mahendranagar. Maybe haimishness clusters at the center of the price range. But either way, it's really hard to tell, whether you book online (look at photos I guess?), on the phone ("um, is your hotel friendly?"), or in person (unless you see a bunch of folks hanging around). Someone should make a list of friendly hotels. Cancel that; hotel reviews should say how friendly the place is.
I think $10 is the knee of the curve, amenities-wise. You don't gain much by going above $10, until you go way above $10. But you gain a lot as you get up to $10.
That said, prices go up in big cities and some resort towns.

EDIT: comments disabled due to spammers.

No excess luxury, no excess hardship

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:05:00 +0000

That’s been my motto so far, in life in general but particularly in traveling. If I blew through savings a little more, I could live like a bit of a king here in India. Or, I could do as some hardcore folks I’ve met have done, and scrape by on $4/day or arrive in India with $130 to my name.

But excess luxury, in addition to eating your money faster, makes things less Haimish. (more) (and a lot of thoughts about this; maybe I’ll post more later.) And excess hardship, in addition to being difficult, feels pretentious, like slumming.

Among backpackers/young travelers, I notice a lot of scorn for excess luxury, but not much scorn, and indeed some admiration, for excess hardship. There’s this idea that suffering will lead to a more rewarding experience, or a more “real” one, or something. I mean, it can, right, but it doesn’t necessarily. “I sometimes wonder if it’s necessary to admire such self-punishers as… the average mountaineer or Vendee Cup entrant.” I am right near a lot of places I could sleep for under $5. But then if I got bedbugs because I didn’t want to splurge for the $15 place that I’m currently in, I don’t think it’d be rewarding or enriching. (I could be wrong. And I’m not being sarcstic.)

Here’s another option: admire travelers if they’re doing a very meaningful trip, not a very difficult one. I know a guy who’s on a quest around the world to eventually meet this counter-cultural French filmmaker in Paris. That’s cool. I know a guy who just biked from England to Nepal. That’s cool too. But it’s not because he suffered a lot along the way; it’s because he must have really wanted to make this trip, and really enjoyed it, to deal with all that suffering along the way.

Yeah, okay, Gorkhaland, that actually makes pretty good sense.

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:40:00 +0000

I’ve spent the last five days in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, a couple of towns up in northern West Bengal. West Bengal is a big state that also includes Kolkata. But these hilly places up north feel more like Nepal than India. For example, when you walk past a taxi driver, and he says “Hello, taxi?” and you say “No thanks”, the conversation ends there. Also, momos everywhere.

So the local people, a mix of Nepali, Bhutanese, Sikkimese (Sikkim is a tiny Indian state just north of Darjeeling), and Indians, form this mix that’s sort of Indian, but really not very West-Bengali at all. And they want to become an independent state, called Gorkhaland. Now it’s kind of low-key, you just see some signs around, but I guess they had serious protests a couple years ago.

Anyway, I liked it. It was freezing cold at night (50 degrees inside), but I liked it. I’m developing a medium-to-strong preference for mountains over flat places in India, cold places over hot places, and small cities over big cities, so long as they’re big enough to have some culture (read: something to do).

You may know it for the tea. They have like 84 tea plantations. I got to tour one; here is some tea drying.

There is a zoo that is actually pretty good. It has red pandas. These are the cutest dudes ever. There’s an attached mountaineering museum that I had to flee because a couple schoolkids asked me for a photo, and soon I was swarmed by the whole class. Nevertheless, the museum was neat: stuff from Everest and Makalu exhibitions, and the grave of Tenzing Norgay (along with Edmund Hillary, first to climb Everest).

And a “moon bear”. This guy has a double chin.

There is also a “toy train”. Technically it runs all the way to Siliguri, about 70km away, but it’s dang slow, so the thing to do is a “joy ride”- a 7km round trip in two hours. It’s a pretty ride, and it’s kind of neat because it’s a still-running steam train.

Anyway, yeah, Darjeeling, good place. I guess there are some arts going on too, and a coffeeshop/gallery that I could never quite find, and some cool hotels (mine was called “Revolver”, it was Beatles themed, and it was great), and exactly one pub (“Joey’s Pub”). The latter is perfect, because it means if you want to go meet some other travelers (or otherwise-unoccupied Indians), there is one place to go.

Kalimpong was nice but uneventful. I met up with a friend of a friend named Bappa, and he took me around the city for an evening and a morning. It’s small; good for nature or something, not a lot to do. Bappa was a cool guy though. We drank Nepali beer and listened to American music in a Chinese restaurant called “King Thai”. We met one of his friends, who runs Kalimpong Tours & Travels (kalimpongtravels at yahoo) and he seemed pretty honest, so there’s a recommendation for you.

In other news, I continue to grow a moustache. I’ve got a “worst moustache” competition with Rob going, and I guess a “best moustache” one going with my dad; I’m pretty sure I’ve got a lock on one of those. So if you want, feel free to donate. It makes my hair grow faster.

Orange Picko

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:10:00 +0000

(My current couple days: Darjeeling->Kalimpong->New Jalpaiguri (now)->Kolkata (overnight train). I’ll get back to the photos soon enough, but I haven’t been able to connect my computer to some fast internet.)

Travel is full of so many absolutely perfect moments. Not in that they’re super fun or exciting or feel-good, but in that they feel like scenes from a particularly well-directed movie.

So I’m in Darjeeling, and Darjeeling tea, right? so I’m going to visit a tea plantation. The closest one to town seems to be “Happy Valley Tea Plantation” so I follow the road until I think I find it, walk down an unofficial-looking path, and meet an unofficial-looking oldish Indian lady. She asks if I’m here to learn about tea. Well, sure, I guess. I walk with her and her young daughters to her house. I ask how old her daughters are, just to make conversation, and she says “14. Too young.” which makes no sense because there are two of them, the older one is eight years old, tops, and too young for what? This gives you an idea of how much language barrier we’re dealing with.

She sits me down in a room filled with antique furniture, stuffed animals, and my god wall to wall kitsch. I think she doesn’t know Precious Moments dolls exist, because if she did, there’d be an infestation. She sets out some dry loose teas and gives her little sales pitch. This is not without some charm: lines like “What makes Happy Valley tea the best? It’s the Happy.” are delivered with a little gleam in her eye, like she really believes it. It’s quite cute, really.

After a while, she goes into the specifics of Darjeeling tea, which is really what I’m there for. With some relish, she explains the beloved SFTGFOP1 acronym, starting with a singsong recitation: “Super fine tippy golden flowery orange pekoe, number 1!” and continuing: “S is for super, because it’s picked in the first time of the year.” False, this term is “first flush.” “F is for flowering, because the tea flower is in there also.” False, I think. Wait, where did “fine” go? “T for tippy!” pointing to the tip of the leaf. “G is for golden, because the tea is golden.” Maybe. “F for flowering,” (again) “and O for orange, because the tea is orange.” False; check wikipedia if you’re interested. “and P for picko. Because we’re picking the leaves!” I don’t even know what “pekoe” means, but it’s not that.

At this point, three Argentinian backpackers walk in. She directs them to seats, motioning one to a chair that’s already occupied by a giant pink teddy bear: “You sit there, with Pinky.” They just want to drink a cup of famous Darjeeling tea. After finding out that she’s charging fifty entire rupees ($1) for the tea and the lesson, and looking askance at me sipping said tea, they mumble among themselves, make some noise about how that’s too expensive, and walk out.

There’s an uncomfortable silence, because these cheap bastards just walked out on one of those experiences that you don’t walk out on for a damn dollar. Sure, she was selling us something, but she invited us into her home, and you’re going to get a good cup of tea, and I mean you got to sit with Pinky– anyway, she and I sit looking not at each other, sort of avoiding eye contact, and then she turns to me with a sad smile and delivers the line that made my whole week:

“You know, they just don’t know quality.”

About Gross National Happiness

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:39:00 +0000

Bhutan famously has a policy of “Gross National Happiness”, meaning that they aim to maximize happiness instead of profit/GDP. How well does this work?

Well, right now, it’s pretty good. Bhutan seems to be doing well. They have low (nonexistent) crime, 100% hydro power, low pollution, pretty good education I think. Tourism is pulling in some decent money, but it’s not swallowing their culture. I asked a couple Bhutanese folks “what are the big problems you see facing Bhutan?” and they said “well, the roads are not very good.”

But then, they only have 700,000 people. It’s easy to avoid all the problems that come from too many people when you don’t have too many people.

Some of the policies they’ve implemented are promising: the sustainable and clean hydro power, the cultural survival (folks still wear the national gho/kira clothing widely, buildings look good), the resistance of tobacco (sale is allowed but highly taxed, smoking in public is officially prohibited). Some of the policies seem immature: they don’t have any slaughterhouses in the country, so they import their meat. It’s on the way to sustainable vegetarianism, I guess, but it’s kind of a weak philosophical dodge. And some of their problems are probably just hidden from me. I read Beyond the Sky and the Earth, in which the author describes her life in a rural Bhutanese village, and it’s worlds away from Thimphu: tapeworm and giardia, clashes with ethnic Nepalese and widespread sexism.

So I guess (in my humble expert political opinion) I’d look at Bhutan the same way I’d look at a startup with a motto of “Don’t be evil”: it’s untested and not guaranteed, but has as good a chance as any to succeed.

Bhutanese Food

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:29:00 +0000

Bhutan’s mountainous, so their food is meaty. There are potatoes and cheese too. But the distinctive part is the chilies. There are chilies in everything. They’re not super spicy, as hot peppers go, but they’re ubiquitous. Their most famous dish, Ema Datsi, is just chilies in cheese. I’ve had meals of ema datsi, beef with chilies and cheese, pork with radish and chilies, soup with chilies, and pickled chili paste on the side.

If that sounds terrible, never fear, and if that sounds great, read on. The trick about Bhutanese food is that you won’t get any by default. For each meal, you’re herded into the tourist room, and all you white people are served a sumptuous buffet of vaguely-Asian dishes. Stir fried vegetables, some beef or chicken, noodles, maybe fried rice or momos. Meanwhile, your guide and driver are in the other room, eating their everyday (delicious) Bhutanese food! I guess they figure that tourists will want the more familiar stuff. So the secret is, if you want Bhutanese food, ask your guide if you can eat with them. It’s an unusual request, I guess, so be very clear (“yes, I actually do want to eat Bhutanese food, like the kind you’re eating, and yes, I like spicy food”), and they’ll let you. It’s more fun too, especially if you’re alone. Eating alone in an empty room is weird.

Anyway, more about the food: they sometimes drink butter tea, like the Tibetans, and sometimes buttermilk (whey). They eat a lot of red rice, which is short grain and only a little sticky. They use the whole animal: dishes like pigs’ feet show up sometimes. Dried meat and dried fish are popular as well. And they eat a lot. “We Bhutanese are good in eating! Not so good in working,” laughed one guide. I have to disagree about the working, but it’s true that I often found myself quite stuffed.

Bhutan part 2: more than just gurus and flying tigers

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 08:16:00 +0000

After my five days in Bhutan, I was as exhausted as my bank account. Sightseeing in the mornings, traveling in the afternoons, and then whatever we wished in the evenings.

First, the sightseeing: alternately awesome and kind of boring. As usual. I always forget this about traveling, but sightseeing is great if you’re already interested in what you’re seeing, but if not, you may spend time trying to convince yourself that you’re interested in things, which is a bit painful. Nevertheless, I’m glad we did all that sightseeing, because if I’m in Bhutan for 120 hours, I want to see as much as possible, and some sites ended up being unexpectedly cool.

For example: the National Library (shelves and shelves of Buddhist prayer scrolls, and the world’s biggest book), the Takin Sanctuary (odd looking beasts), Chhimi Lakhang (fertility temple, with strange blessings, more on that later), and the 108 Chortens (cool atmosphere, especially in the fog).

The world’s biggest book is just called “Bhutan”.

According to legend, “Divine Madman” Drukpa Kunley ate a goat and a cow, and then stuck the goat’s head on the cow’s body, creating the Takin.

I guess Chorten is a synonym for Stupa. This is the Bhutanese style.

Some other sites we saw: Drukgyel Dzong, the National Memorial Chorten, a big Buddha on a hill, Kyichu Lakhang, and the huge Punakha Dzong.

Punakha: former capital of Bhutan! The Bhutanese royal wedding happened there just last month!

Second, traveling: longer than it seems. We drove only about 3 hours per day, but as Bhutan is all valleys connected by mountain passes, it’s mostly winding mountain roads. And I guess driving at night is rather unsafe, so we arrived at the next day’s destination every day at around 3.

Thought About Bhutan Tourism #1: their tourism industry is geared for old people and group tours. I guess if you sightsee in the morning, drive until 3:00, then you’re done for the day. But it left us time for…

Third, the evenings: so, I don’t know what to do in the evening in Bhutan. Hell, I don’t know what to do in the evening anywhere. Especially if there’s someone else trying to make sure that I’m having a good time. I mean, I like to walk around cities, and I like to read books. Luckily, RK (my guide) knows people everywhere. In Paro we played snooker; in Punakha we played snooker, had some drinks, and went dancing until the club closed at midnight; and in Phuentsholing we celebrated his cousin’s birthday (including some snooker).

Which brings me to Thought About Bhutan Tourism #2: their tourism industry is geared for old people, but it’s actually a great place for young people to travel (… if you can afford it). Your guide will probably be a young guy, so you’ll be able to relate a bit. And if he’s as cool as RK, he may welcome you into his social life for a few days. I met a few of his friends, lost a lot of snooker, had some good conversations, and (of course) will remember them much longer than I remember the chortens and dzongs.

Finally, a couple more photos of interest:

To quote RK, “Well, there’s a lot of dicks there.” I guess Drukpa Kunley’s symbol is, well, a dick, so people paint them on their houses to invoke his protection.

We stayed one night at a hotel at Dochula pass. Awesome views. (but 10,000 ft, and I got a little altitude-sick.)

Almost forgot about the plane ride from Kathmandu to Paro. Not too often can you look out your window and see Himalayas. (and our propeller, which apparently works by hurling boomerangs at the ground. camera tricks!)

Bhutan part 1, or, I could call you from India for an entire day and I'd still spend less than I am spending here but I think it's worth it

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:56:00 +0000

Bhutan costs $240/day. $200 plus $40 extra because I’m alone. That’s $10/hour, or about 16 cents per minute I am alive in Bhutan. Most fellow travelers have viewed me with a mixture of confusion, awe, and backpacker scorn (as they could live for a month on $240) when I told them I’m going to Bhutan. It’s about as opposite of Thamel as you can get while still being 7000 feet above sea level.

I hate to lead off talking about money, but it really shapes the experience here. $200/day is mandatory for everyone, but for that $200, they put you up in style. This place feels like it is my own private resort. It smells sweet like the Rockies, but there are even fewer cars on the road. I, however, have a car and a driver AND a guide. The mattresses are a good six inches thick and I have not one but two towels. When it’s mealtime, they bring out like 8 plates of food, not at all expecting us to come close to finishing them.

Yeah, it’s pretty weird. Not just because I’m a kid who doesn’t require or deserve this luxury, or because I feel like I really have to make every minute count, but also because what the hell can my guide and I talk about all day? I can’t be together with my best friends 24/7, let alone a relative stranger.

However, it’s also pretty awesome. My guide is cool: he’s a 24 year old named Rinchen (goes by “R.K.”), so we can kind of get along and understand each other a bit, despite the dual weirdnesses of being from another country and me hiring him. Last night in Paro we had a beer with his friend and went to play snooker.

Side note: snooker is like pool for masochists. First, the table is about 14 times the size. There are 7 colored balls and 15 red ones, and your job is to pocket a red ball (1 point), and then on your next shot, pocket a colored ball for more points. However, there are numerous penalties. Pocket the cue ball: minus four. Miss all the balls: minus four. Hit (or pocket) a colored ball first before pocketing a red ball: minus at least four. Hit or pocket a ball you weren’t aiming for: minus, again, at least four. Oh, and if you mess up, your fellow players can decide to let you “try again”, for a chance to lose four more points. I think I finished one game at -33.

And today, we went to Taktsang, the Tiger’s Nest, the coolest monastery ever. Halfway-around-the-world mission accomplished!

It’s a hike to get there, about 2-3 hours and 2400 feet uphill. In a land that costs $200/day, there are still a handful of tourists flocking to this Tiger’s Nest, but they are all older and richer than I, so I savored for once being the fittest guy on the trail. Well, besides R.K., of course, who set a blazing pace. Anyway, enough talk, more photos.

R.K. and me

Guru Rinpoche (aka Padmasambhava) flew to the cave at Taktsang on the back of a tiger, hence the name. Here, a descendant of that tiger?

I’m in Thimphu now, the capital and biggest city, with 200,000 people. (“2 million”, in Bhutanese terms. Bhutanese “million” = Indian lakh = 100,000) It’s thoroughly pleasant! The buildings all look super nice, in a traditional Bhutanese way. It’s clean. The only ugly things are international, like the few gas stations. Bhutanese speak excellent English. And, importantly, coffeeshops abound. Sadly, I won’t have a chance to settle in and hang out here, because being in Bhutan is more expensive than a 24/7 Thai massage.

Nepali food

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:55:00 +0000

… is great. I was surprised; I didn’t know there was much to it. It’s often sold as “daal bhat”, which means you get rice and some stuff, like an Indian thali. That “stuff” can just be some spinach, some dal, and some vegetable curry, but that “stuff” can also be quite complex:

Alu tusi achaar, a “salad” that looked to me more like potatoes and cucumbers in a yogurt sauce. I love yogurt sauces.
Alu chhwon, a soupy thing with potatoes
Gundruk achaar, a fermented spinach pickle
Sandeko, a generic term that means something like “spicy”, so you could get “bhatmas sandeko” (spicy beans), or chickpeas or potatoes or meat
Dhindo/Dhedo, a buckwheat paste/dough that replaces your rice, looks like hell, and tastes great.

I think the first couple dishes are more Newari style, the last couple more Thakali style, where I think Newari and Thakali are popular sub-regions of Nepali food. Anyway, it all tends to be spicy, sometimes sour, and generally healthy tasting. I very much want to make some of it.

A personal connection is worth a lot

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Couchsurfing is occasionally a little awkward, occasionally frustrating, but often it opens doors you couldn’t find otherwise.

A guy named Kamal messaged me out of the blue when he saw that I’d logged in from Nepal. He offered to meet me and show me the orphanage that he started. A couple other guys had made similar offers, but he seemed the most reasonable.

Aside: there’s this weird phenomenon where people from other countries just… do the internet differently. I mean, my friend Flora borrowed my computer to log in to Facebook, and when she went to Facebook, of course I was already logged in, and the first thing on my news feed was a post from an Indian guy I’d met once: a fashion photo of a guy in his underwear. I mean, okay. Or another guy I met once posted on my wall a series of photos entitled “LIVE LIKE A LEGEND AND DIE LIKE A WARRIOR”. This isn’t even a language barrier issue, it’s just… y’know, lengthy disclaimer about cultural relativism and all, but some people do the internet wrong.

Anyway, Kamal seemed like a good guy, and so Flora and I met up with him, and made a plan to see his orphanage later that day. We took a taxi to the outskirts of town, then took his motorcycle from there (3 on a motorcycle is illegal within the city). We ended up at a big manor-like house in a quite pretty suburbanish setting.

The only photo I thought to take before it got dark

It’s a nice house, but just big enough for hostel-dorm-style bunkbed housing for the 35 kids who live there. There’s an outdoor picnic table area for eating and studying, a kitchen, a couple extra rooms for Kamal and his wife, an office, and a room for volunteers. It’s a squeeze, but it fits. Kamal explained that they had only 22 kids, but then his brother (who was also running an orphanage) died, and his orphanage’s 13 kids had nowhere to go, so Kamal took them on too.

Worse, their place is a year into a non-extendable 3-year lease. After that, Kamal shrugged, they have to move. (y’know, to another 35-person house.) Furthermore, the kids are each supported by $250/year donors, but as they enter college, costs go way up. So of course they’re raising money for everything: money for the kids who are going to college, money for general day to day expenses, and $75k for a permanent building. They’re selling personalized bricks at $75 each to donors, which seems like not a bad plan.

So, okay, so I met them. And of course I’d like to do something. I don’t know what, right now, so it’s a little confusing. But making this connection is a start, I think. Now, if I want to go volunteer in a Nepali orphanage for a day/week/month sometime, I can call them up. If I have a few extra bucks, I can buy a brick. If I want to organize a drive for donations, I know exactly where the money would be going, instead of throwing cash at a big organization.

Furthermore, if you want to do any of these things, well, now you can too. You and I both have a connection to an organization that’s not big and bureaucratic, and not actually some scam by a shady guy in a back alley. It’s a start.

Oh, and here they are.

I might be going off the grid again.

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:49:00 +0000

Tomorrow I head to Bhutan for 5 days, Nov. 14-18. I don’t know what my internet situation will be like, but I imagine it’ll be sparse, as the Internet was only introduced in 1999. Catch you on the 19th!

I'm feeling rejuvenated in Kathmandu and I think it's the big city effect

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:56:00 +0000

I heard a great talk by Ethan Zuckerman at CHI 2011 which touched on the benefits of cities. He talked about how in Industrial Revolution England, people flocked to the cities even though life was terribly short (life expectancy something stupid like 28) and generally terrible. Why would they give up their country lives for the disease, starvation, and grinding industrial awfulness of the city? Because it kept them from being bored.

Yes, I’m back in a big city, and it is not boring! Not that I’ve been particularly bored staring at mountain lakes or the Himalayas. But there’s so much more to do in a big city, stuff beyond the six sites that the Indian Tourism Board has declared are worth doing. There’s enough to do that I can decide what I want to do and then go do it. People to meet. Places to go. Famous things to scoff at.

Durbar Square

Boudhnath Stupa

I only have had two days here, and today I am visiting the orphanage run by a fellow I met on Couchsurfing, so really kind of one day here.

Good things:

Bouda: the place where the stupa is. It’s about 5km from the city center, but if I were to come here again, I’d stay there I think. It’s Buddhist and kind of peaceful, and it has a nice european-feeling square.

Thamel: tourist central. It is easy when anything you need or want is 5 minutes away, tops. Also, there are good cafes/bars/places to hang out here. It might get old after a while, but I’m not here for a while.

Paknajol: where I’m staying, one street away from Thamel, in a pretty good place called the Nirvana Peace Home. Quiet and still central.

The food: Amazing Nepali and Tibetan everywhere you look. Still gonna post about Nepali food someday.

The weather: Right now it is 60’s-70’s and cloudy. I guess it never gets above 90ish or below 30ish.

People: the other travelers I’ve met have been cool. There are at least a few active Couchsurfers here. And I don’t know many Nepali people in person, but based on my interactions with them, (gross generalization warning) I find them a bit more laid back and approachable than Indians.

Overall, I think this is the first place I’ve been that I could actually live.

Bad things:

Pollution: Some people wear face masks; that is disconcerting.

Disconnect: This is not how Nepal is. But that’s not a problem with Kathmandu. Any big city is a world apart from the poor villages around.

Traffic: Okay fine, yes indeed we are in an Asian big city.

Pashupatinath, the holiest Hindu place in Nepal. They cremate bodies here, like in Varanasi.

“Garden of Dreams”- a nice garden with a $2 entry fee. (some of the tourist sites are rather expensive.)

Thamel

Asan Tole neighborhood. I heard Cat Stevens wrote “Kathmandu” around here somewhere. I imagine it has changed since his day.

Competition!

David Headley and the Indian Government, you've cost me three days of my life

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:32:00 +0000

I want to be sure I can re-enter India after Bhutan. There’s this “two-month rule” where if you exit India on a multiple-entry tourist visa, you have to wait 2 months to re-enter. Unless you’re an actual tourist, in which case there’s an exception, but I want to be sure.

3 PM yesterday: arrive in Kathmandu, go to Indian embassy, and I’m told it’s closed. (Guru Nanak’s birthday! 2% of India is Sikh. This would be like US embassies being closed on Rosh Hashanah. Whatever.)

9 AM: arrive at Indian embassy. It opens at 9:30; I am smart! … The doors open at 8:30, and people have been lining up since 7. I am dumb.

9:15 AM: I find the right form to fill out. Needs some photocopies. I run outside to the photocopy business right there.

9:30 AM: I realize I need to take a number. The machine asks “tourist visa or transit?” Err, neither; re-entry permit. Tourist, I guess. “First visit, or have you already filled in the telex form?” Uh. I choose both. I receive numbers A48 and C37.

Notice the long time gap here. We have three queues: A, C, and F, and there is one person processing them all. This would be like 150 people showing up at a restaurant at once, and there’s one waiter and one cook.

2:30 PM: C37 is called. I give him the forms and pay 900 rupees (y’know, because), and am told to return at 5 PM to pick up my passport.

5 PM: “Wait here, 15 minutes.”

5:30 PM: I get my passport back, and yes, there is a stamp! “Permission is granted to re-enter India (single entry). Registration required within 14 days of arrival.” Awesome. All my plans are not ruined!

Now, I wasn’t actually so honked off by all this. All in all, I had a pleasant day: talked with some fellow travelers/waiters-in-line, read some of Shantaram, went to a lovely coffeeshop, and even got to explore some Kathmandu in between. But I’d like to adopt a honked-off tone for a minute to talk about terrorism.

The two-month-rule was instituted after American national David Headley did some bombs in Mumbai, after going to and from Pakistan frequently on his tourist visa. The bombs did terrible damage, to be sure! But look at this damage: I’ve spent at least 2 days researching and scouting around Nainital to make sure I’d be okay, and I lost today also. Three days. Plus however long it takes to register after I get back to India. How many tourists are affected by this rule? India has 5 million foreign tourists/year. Say 2% want to re-enter, so 100k re-entering tourists. Say that most are only half as anal/stupid as me, so they waste 2 days each. Indian Government, by instituting this rule, you’ve killed 200,000 person-days. That’s ~550 person-years. … Basically, you’ve wasted about seven tourists’ lives. Add to that the administrative overhead, and it maybe doubles. So Headley and his goons killed 164 people, but you’ve added 14 more. This is not the way to fight terrorism.

Okay, that’s all. Really, not a bad day. And I can sleep a little easier knowing I won’t end up in Bhutan-India-border-limbo (and lose all my meeting-up-with-friends plans after Bhutan) in a week. Tomorrow, I’ll go see some Kathmandu.

Beats a Pokhara in the eye

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:23:00 +0000

Pokhara’s a fine town. It’s all tourism, but that’s still fine. I think it’s mostly fine because the kind of tourists that go there are the ones who trek around the Annapurna circuit, so they’re largely nice enough folks. I met a few single serving friends, folks I’d talk to at dinner or something, but nobody I hung out with over a couple days. I think part of that was because my guesthouse was not the most social place. (someone needs to figure out a way you can tell “how friendly” a guesthouse is, how much people hang around there. how much it’s solo travelers or folks looking to meet up vs. couples/families/people who don’t need any friends right now. and “go there and look at all of the guesthouses” is not an answer.)

I ate some great food. Pokhara's Lakeside is a little like Bangkok's Khao San Road: tons of tourism, insane little world apart from its enclosing country, and I want to eat everything. (and Thamel in Kathmandu is even more so.) As I've said, the Nepali coffee is good. There are two separate coffee shops that say "a proper coffee shop"; they are both great. And Nepali food is great, although that deserves another post.

I spent some time planning and some time sightseeing. I really need to remember that general sightseeing saps me fast. I can hit up maybe two, three "general interest" things in a city before I stop caring.

But anyway, I went to Devi's Falls, which is a kinda neat waterfall surrounded by way too many tacky souvenir shops.

I went to the Mountaineering Museum, which is not a very good museum. Some gear from great mountaineers, and a lot of dusty posters with too many words. Nevertheless, I love a good list, so I liked looking at lists of the tallest mountains and different ethnic groups, both inside Nepal and outside Nepal in other mountainous regions.

One ethnic group: the Pun Magar. Beej and Julie, I barely resisted emailing this to you.

No, I cannot!

Finally, and most spectacularly, I did that trip up to Sarangkot, where I didn't see any mountains, but I also went up to the World Peace Pagoda/Shanti Stupa, where I did see some mountains.

The pointiest one is Machapuchhare. I like that one.

I won't say "burned out" but at least feeling a little toasty.

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:11:00 +0000

I think the best evidence that I’m burning out is that I’m losing my sense of humor. I made a wrong turn on my bike today, ending up through poor Pokhara neighborhoods, and I didn’t notice anything around me, just wondered “when can I get back to tourist haven Lakeside?” My sandal broke on the way, and I cursed. Kids bother me. I bought a snack from a street vendor and a kid just walked up and held out his hand. Nobody (beggar or shopkeeper) takes no for an answer; you have to hardcore shun. And I find this all depressing, not whimsical or even tolerable. I just want to hide all day in a German Bakery with a cup of Nepali organic coffee and copious wi-fi. (these are all ubiquitous here.)

I’m not catastrophizing, though. Most likely I am just a bit burned out, and even when I’m “resting”, I’m getting up at 5 AM to see a sunrise or trucking it to some place I don’t even care about, so I’m not recharging anything. I’ve still got a few days in Kathmandu to try actually taking it easy; perhaps that will help.

If I were to catastrophize, I might wonder why my ventures are less frequently to random unexplored places, and more frequently to whatever tourist attraction I read about. Why I’m not even tough enough to subject myself to the rigors of a guided trek. Why, to put it most succinctly, why I am not Henry Rollins. But this would be foolish, like a beginning piano student wondering why he’s not Mozart. I am where I am, continually learning, and that is fine.

Unrelatedly, a couple of my favorite travel bloggers are in Iran. Here’s why they decided to go there. It’s a lot like my reasoning, actually.

Searching for inspiration in West Bengal

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:21:00 +0000

I’m in Nepal now, in a few days I’ll be in Bhutan, and then I’ll arrive in India again on November 19, at the Phuentsholing/Jaigaon border. I’ve got about a month before my next planned trip, on Dec 11 to Jaipur; I want to spend some time around Delhi to meet up with some friends. Which still leaves me with a couple weeks free. Well, first I’ll go to Darjeeling, because I’m almost sick of mountain resort towns but not quite yet, and I like tea.

So what to do for about a week and a half? I imagine West Bengal is full of wonders, I know it’s full of delicious tea and fish, but nothing’s sticking out in my mind, and Atlas Obscura, travel blogs, and even Lonely Planet shows few obvious choices. Some options I can gather:

chill out in the hill stations around Darjeeling for a couple weeks. Meh. As I said, I’m almost sick of mountain resort towns. (tough life, right?)
do a trek around Darjeeling. Looks like I could do some good trekking in 4 or 6 days. This assumes that I could find some gear; particularly shoes, a sleeping bag, and another layer.
go up to Sikkim. I think this is not ideal because it is colder, farther (it looks small on the map, but it’s mountainous so travel is slow), and it’d require more planning. Plus that September earthquake- I guess major roads are open but I don’t really know the situation.
motor it back to Delhi. Surprisingly, I could get an overnight train from New Jalpaiguri to Delhi, no problem. But it’s not often you’re in West Bengal, and I’d like to explore somewhere new.
go somewhere between Darjeeling and Delhi. But where? I’ve been to Bodh Gaya, Varanasi, and Agra, done the tourist thing there, and don’t feel an urge to go back.
go south of Kolkata. To… a beach? I don’t like beaches.
go some places between Darjeeling and Kolkata. But where? Santiniketan is the only cool place I know, and I hate to be a white guy going “meh”, but meh.
head down to Kolkata (Calcutta). I’ve been there before and not loved it, but I had only one day and no research about the city. Looks like Couchsurfing is relatively active there. And they have the Great Banyan nearby, and something called “Science City.” Yes.

Actually, maybe the best is #2 + #8. A week visiting/trekking around Darjeeling, and a weekish in Calcutta, meeting some folks and digging a little deeper into a fascinating city. Thanks for helping me decide, blog! (of course, I am open to other suggestions, if you have them.)

So, approximate dates for the rest of my India travels:

Darjeeling Nov 19-26

Kolkata Nov 26-Dec 3

Delhi Dec 3-11

Jaipur Dec 11-14

Jaipur-Bangalore Train Dec 14-16 (41 hours, indeed!)

Bangalore Dec 16-19

Coimbatore Dec 20

Kerala Dec 21-Jan 2

Mountain Bikers, could you explain this sport to me?

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:45:00 +0000

I was feeling a little low on testosterone, so I decided let’s do something tough! Mountain biking! Now there is a manly thing to do.

Start at Lakeside, climb up to Sarangkot, ride over a dirt and rocky road to Naudanda, then back along the main paved road to Lakeside. 12 miles each way. And I had a pretty good Trek mountain bike (rented for the princely sum of $12). No problem.

And it was no problem! Well, the climb to Sarangkot was difficult. I don’t remember a hill that I’ve had to get off my bike and catch my breath more than once. This one, maybe five times. It ascends about 800 meters, or 2500 feet, in a couple miles. And it wasn’t even clear to see any views at the top!

But otherwise, no problem. Well, okay the road from Sarangkot to about Kasikot was difficult, mostly because I’m not used to mountain biking, and here’s where I’m curious to know what real mountain bikers think. I mean, the trail was half rocks, from baseball to breadloaf sized, and half puddles. You just plow through, right? And that’s part of the thrill, because you’re going over rocks? That’s fun enough, I guess, but I kept worrying I’d hit one at the wrong angle, or a puddle would be deeper than expected. I’m not in it for adrenaline; I kinda just want to ride bikes in the woods.

But, y’know, no injuries, and I even got into the rock stomping a bit, so no problem! Well, except when there was a problem.

Road construction + heavy rains = walking my bike most of the way from Kasikot to Naudanda. A small child was also going to Naudanda. He walked along with me, and sometime he had to wait for me to catch up.

But from Naudanda, there really was no problem. The ride back was a dream: 12 miles, all nicely paved, and all downhill.

Overall, nice views, good weather, and dang it felt good to be on two wheels again. Plus, 100% more tough. I kind of like this mountain biking thing. If you want to ride bikes in the woods sometime, let me know!

Pokhara: back to being a tourist among many, and therefore a bag of money.

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:39:00 +0000

Today, I biked around a few towns near Pokhara. Kids flocked to my bicycle, all shouting “hello” or “namaste”, which is a little annoying after a while but fine. Some of them started asking “Can I ride your bike?” and I said no, because it’s not even mine, and I don’t think even I can ride it safely. And as the day progressed, kids started asking stuff that made me feel worse.

“Youspen?” Excuse me? “Supen?” What? “A school pen?” Oh. No.

“Hello! Give me sweets!” Er, no.

“Give me your bike!” What?

“Do you read English?” Yes. He produces a notebook containing a written plea for money for their school.

“Hello. Give money.” uuuuuuuugggghhh. There are so many things wrong here. You can’t blame the kids; they’re kids! So whose fault is this? The other people who gave them money? The parents who don’t teach their kids that asking random strangers for money is wrong? Whoever it is that put the parents in such a position that they don’t teach their kids that asking random strangers for money is wrong? The general sources of all poverty in this world?

Pokhara, meanwhile, is easy, relatively pricey, and I keep running into minor weasels. For example:

Hotel guy: Hello, just a question, can you move your room tomorrow morning, to one just above, same quality also?

Me: Uh, okay.

Hotel guy: Just because we have a group with three people, and that room also has two beds, same room. [my room has a double and a twin. yes, it’s silly for me to have 3 people’s worth of beds. I don’t understand how moving me to another room with 2 beds fixes it.]

Me: Okay.

Hotel guy: So at maybe 8, 9 o’clock tomorrow?

Me: Well, I’ll be going to the Peace Pagoda to catch the sunrise, and I don’t know when I’ll be back. Can I move now?

Hotel guy: Oh, well, someone is there now.

Me: Okay. Well, maybe later in the morning, that is also fine, 9 or 10 o’clock?

Hotel guy: Okay.

Me: Hey, by the way, I meant to ask you about the price. I was quoted 800 rupees ($10), but then told there was a 10% service charge, and I just don’t feel good about paying for that. [truth.]

Hotel guy: [anticipating my request] No no no, you see, right now this is a good price.

Me: See, because, the hotel next door, the Hotel Plaza, they gave me a price of 700, with no charge. [also true. And the Blue Heaven two doors down is a palace, for 800. And they both have 24hr hot water, as does every other 800-rupee hotel. And they’re not weaseley. I am overpaying by a couple bucks; enough to rankle me, not enough to actually make me pack up all my stuff and switch.]

Hotel guy: No, not possible.

Me: Okay, okay.

Hotel guy: So it is okay, no need to switch rooms, you go to the Peace Pagoda tomorrow, no problem.

Me: Uh, well I can switch if necessary-

Hotel guy: No, no problem, I just remembered I had a couple other rooms, this room and that room and three beds something something

Me: Okay.

Or:

Me: Do you have laundry service?

Other Hotel Guy: Yes, sure. 100 rupees per kilo.

Me: So I can give you my clothes and have them washed by tomorrow?

OHG: Well, maybe tomorrow, maybe next day, depends on weather. We dry them in the sun, so if it is cloudy maybe not tomorrow.

Me: But there are a bunch of spots on the street offering 3-hour laundry. How do they do that, a machine?

OHG: Yes, well sometimes they just say they have a machine and then they actually don’t.

Me: Uh, okay. What? So they give you your clothes wet?

[OHG is nodding, smiling, moving on to another conversation topic.]

[Also, OHG is full of crap. The 3-hour laundry places work just fine. Except that one weighed my one change of clothes and tried to charge me for 3kg. I knew that was wrong, as all my stuff together is about 10 lbs, or 4.5kg. I grabbed his spring scale and noticed that the zero point is at 2kg. God!]

Tansen, Nepal: while we're making European comparisons, let's call this the little Bruges

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:55:00 +0000

because it’s old, pretty, labyrinthine, and there’s not a lot to do there but it’s worth stopping anyway. Just outside the town, there are woods, Hanuman, and an awesome view you can walk to in about a half hour.

Microsoft interviewer: “How would you move Mt. Fuji?” Best answer: “Ask Hanuman to do it.”

Listen, when I keep saying places are the prettiest places ever, just ignore me. At the end of the trip, I’ll let you know what’s actually the prettiest place ever.

The road to Pokhara

Not much to say; I only had a day there, and spent most of it walking around looking at nice places. Eating Newari food, which includes a few interesting dishes. A few fellow traveler friends and I went to find a coffee plantation. The map said it was there, but no luck, so we just ended up going for a walk.

Which helped me realize: I really like trying to find something. Especially if it’s a bit silly, and especially if it’s someone else’s goal. I don’t even care if we find it. Hey, anything you’d like me to find and photograph or something in Nepal, India, Cambodia, etc?

"Just one picture!"

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:45:00 +0000

In Indian places that are not full of white people, but are still rich enough that people have cameras, people might ask to take a photo of you. This happened to me first in Amritsar, a couple times in Gangotri, and then a lot in Nainital.

First thought: Sure, whatever!

Second thought: Wait, this is weird. Imagine if I went up to a poor guy making shoes, thought “hey look, a real Indian”, and asked for a picture. That’d be sure to make him feel self-conscious at best, exploited at worst. (granted, there are people who make their living doing this. I don’t know how they do it unexploitively. anyway, they’re not me.) They’re taking a picture of me not because of who I am, but because of what I represent.

Third thought: This is not the same at all as taking a photo of a poor shoemaker (or beggar, or whatever), because the power/class dynamic is in the other direction. The poor shoemaker photo is like if some rich high-roller with a Rolex and a Rolls Royce rolled up to your office while you’re working and asked for a photo of you at your computer: weird. But when an Indian asks for your photo because you’re white, it’s like asking a celebrity for a photo. And it’s always nice when celebrities take photos or sign autographs freely, so I should do the same. Further, I will also ask for photos with them; then I will get lots of interesting photos with real Indians.

Fourth thought: I actually don’t care about having photos with people I’ve never met. Drop that last bit.

Fifth thought: Sometimes this is actually a nice interaction. I’ve had friendly young couples ask politely, I’ve had three giggling 12-year-olds completely stoked to have a picture with me, I’ve met cool dudes with good hats.

Finally, I’ve asked for a photo with an Indian only once, to get a photo with this guy.

(afterwards, of course they wanted these photos also. happy to oblige.)

Last Epic Bus Trip day 2: Mahendranagar-Limbo-Tansen

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:41:00 +0000

Got on a bus at 5am. Changed buses at 4pm. Got off a bus at 7pm. Really, it was not all so grim: they were all local buses, sure, which means they’re tiny and packed, but the conductor put tall confused me in the front seat (“You sit here. Legs.”) so I could stretch out a bit until it got super-packed. The road was mostly flat. A nice Belgian girl named Laura joined the bus at one point. And I listened to the newish album from Big Boi (of Outkast), which is really good. (on my phone, I mean. I needed a break from blaring Bollywood.)

The scenery was surprisingly sleepy. Straight, foggy, and nondescript for hours. It was like something from a movie: our hero drives on through a fog until the fog lifts and he’s in bizarro world. (actually, I was thinking, and trying not to think, Silent Hill.) It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t really pleasant either.

Made it to the small “romantic medieval town” (thanks, Lonely Planet) of Tansen. Only 4 hours from Pokhara now, but I think I’ll stay here for a day. It looks nice.

Mahendranagar is dim.

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:40:00 +0000

Day one of the last epic bus trip (knock on wood) is complete. I went from Nainital to Haldwani to Banbasa, crossed the border to Nepal, and continued to Mahendranagar. I thought this would only take a few hours; it’s tiny on the map. But I started at 9am and didn’t arrive until 6pm.

I’m in Mahendranagar. There is not much light anywhere. Signs are not lit up; I had to ask around to find a hotel, any hotel. I wish I could bottle and sell the feeling of relief that happens when you go from “where am I going to sleep in a couple hours?” to “here is a place that is warm enough and likely without bugs big or small.”

Still, this is the kind of place that makes me want to get going as soon as possible.

Nainital: the other other Switzerland

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000

(I swear, on the list of “things Indians sweat pretty hard”, Switzerland has got to be up there with Volvos. Nainital is I think the third place I’ve heard described as “little Switzerland”.)

Nainital used to be a British hill station, which is to say, rich white people fled to here every year when the weather got hot. It’s mainly a few roads around a lake. It’s upscale and very nice.

I whiled away a couple days here, although I did spend a lot of that time in Internet cafes trying to figure out the visa/two-month-rule situation. Still, I did take in a couple of the attractions, including boating on the lake and the cable car up to Snow View. From Snow View, appropriately enough, you can see the Himalayas. And shoot BB guns.

It’s kinda tacky too, but on the plus side you can explore new worlds of street food including Bhel Puri, roasted peanuts, and “American-style” corn. You can go bowling, listen to a Nepalese rock band on the street, or eat dinner at a Chandni-Chowk-themed restaurant because you already miss Delhi. You can also do some day hiking, horseback riding, pilgrimages, or golf, though I didn’t have time to do any of these.

That's not bureaucracy, this is bureaucracy.

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:48:00 +0000

This post is long and frustrating and legalese. I won’t be offended if you skip it.

I want to go to Nepal and Bhutan from Nov 2-18, then return to India until Jan 2. The problem is that my visa is a 10-year multiple entry visa, valid for up to 6 months at a time, but there's this new "2 month rule" saying that if I leave India, I can't re-enter for 2 months. (this is because of some recent terrorist who was going back and forth to Pakistan, scouting terror sites.)

However, there's a clause in the "2 month rule" which says that travel to neighboring countries for tourism and then re-entering within 2 months, as I'm doing, is fine. However, I want to be sure I can get back into India.

(Note that there is another clause that says that re-entering in 2 months is fine for anyone, if there's a death in the family or emergency or something. This requires FRRO registration, and is not the clause I'm looking at.)

Official site:

The actual law (as of March 9, 2011) is here.

Unofficial officialish sites:

This site says a permit is not required if you carry an itinerary and ticket bookings. You can get authorization at the port of entry (i.e. the Nepal border) or the India embassy in Nepal.

This site says the same thing.

People's experiences online:

This epic thread has over 2200 posts. I'll start from the most recent. At about 2280-2289, people are basically restating the law, as I understand it. #2267 had no problems. Going back a few pages, seems like nobody actually has experience here, just lots of speculation about the law.

This person had gotten the permit and didn't need it. Someone else here had no problem. The officer told him he had wasted his time getting the permit.

This guy had no problems.

This person said two people had recently done it.

One responder (uselessbaba) here had done it last year.

This guy bribed a guard. Not condoning this, but it happened.

I’m omitting a couple threads where people just heard about stuff. “I heard people got turned away” and “I heard people got back in no problem” are not useful answers.

I’ve not found any threads where someone is actually visiting neighboring countries for tourism and are getting turned away.

So things seem pretty positive on the internet, but I don't want to risk this. Whom can I contact?

"Foreigners holding tourist visas, who after initial entry into India plan to visit another country largely on account of neighbourhood tourism related travel and re-enter India before finally exiting, may be permitted two or three entries, as the case may be, by the Indian Missions/Posts subject to their submission of a detailed itinerary and supporting documentation (ticket bookings)."

What's an Indian Mission/Post? I read further, and the law talks about the FRRO/FRO (Foreigner's Regional Registration Office/Foreigner Registration Officer), so I check the FRRO website, which is useless, except that it has a string of phone numbers. I call them all:

26711384 says visas are at 26711443.

26711443 is a fax.

26195530 answers “FRRO Delhi, dial an extension or wait for an operator”, but whether I wait or dial extension 302, no answer ever.

26192634, ext 142 is always busy. (or has long beeps; I assume that means “busy”.)

26171944, ext 141 is the same.

26711384 again (because at least I talked to a human) tells me to call 26107940, ext 302.

26107940, ext 302 is busy a couple times, then answers “FRRO Delhi, dial an extension or wait for an operator” and there is no answer.

I give up for now.

I talk to Keith at Sonapani, a seasoned part-time expat, who advises me that the Ministry of Home Affairs (on Mansingh Road in Delhi) is actually the one I want. The MHA is huge, but I find this list of contact info for the Foreigners’ Division. I’m in the process of calling them all today. So far:

Anil Goswami’s office (23094927) has advised me to call GVV Sharma (23383075).

Anuj Sharma’s office (23389286) has advised me to call Vinod Kumar (23381374). 23381374 is listed as PV Sivaraman’s number, not Vinod Kumar’s.

Vinod Kumar’s number (23073645) is a fax machine.

PV Sivaraman’s office (23381374) didn’t really know what I was talking about, and said I had to come to Delhi to get the permission to re-enter within two months, but I think that means if I’m under the “emergency” clause, which I’m not. Then he gave me some other number, 23382989, and hung up.

GVV Sharma hasn’t responded.

So. What to do? Well, the Bhutan trip and plane ticket ($1448) is already paid, so skipping it and staying in India for all 4 months is a really bad option. Nobody's been unsuccessful returning to India. The letter of the law would say that I'm fine. I'm going over land borders, which seem more likely to be friendly. I'll go to the embassy in Kathmandu to see if I can get anything in writing. But still, but still...

… wait! Finally got through to Mr. G.V.V. Sharma, and he knew what I was talking about. And his response was reasonable: contact your local FRO in Nainital. Where? In the SP. The SP? The Suvendra Police. Err, okay.

I ask the internet cafe owner if he knows where the SP is. The SP? The Suvendra Police. Well, just walk out this way. Okay. I find a police station. “Hello sir, can we help you?” Well, I have a tourist visa, I mean a multiple entry tourist visa, and there’s this two month… “Sorry, we can’t help you here.” My heart sank as I feared he’d send me to Delhi, but: “Just go to the SSP.” Where is it? “Across the way. You know Tallital? Just ask there.” Tallital is 1km away. Great!

After asking a couple of folks and climbing a big hill, I find the SSP: the Superintendant of Police. Superintendant, right. At least I didn’t go in there asking for Mr. Suvendra.

I ask for the FRO, and am directed to a side office where a young lady is sitting. For some reason, this is surprising. “Hello. Um… are you the FRO?” Yes, this is his office. I explain my whole story and she tells me that, because I’m on a tourist visa, I can go wherever, I don’t have to register with them. (I guess if you’re on a work/student/etc visa, you have to register there if you leave/enter the country. Eep!) I explain that there is actually this two month rule for tourists, handing her the printout of the rule (booyah), and can I have something in writing? She says no, no permission is required. Argh argh, I still want something to fall back on if the immigration officer is having a bad day.

I ask, “Can I have the phone number of this office then?” She replies, “Sure. Can I have yours?” Uh, okay. What just happened here? I mean, she is kind of cute. No no, this is India, that is not what just happened here.

But everything clicks a little bit as she explains that when it says “Get permission at the Indian mission/post”, that means the border post. Explain my situation as I leave India, and somehow get permission to re-enter. And if I have any problems, I can call her. Excellent.

So! Tomorrow: Nepal, here we go!

Halloween, as it happened.

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 06:08:00 +0000

or, "one major holiday this week isn't enough", or, "yes, I've been a bit homesick, thanks"

So my friend Victoria (from Seattle, from Couchsurfing) is studying abroad in rural India. She and 11 other students are here in Uttarakhand taking two classes about development, social issues, environmental issues, gender issues, and probably even more issues. Then they'll be working with a local NGO for a month.

They're at a place called Sonapani. I guess people vacation there sometimes; there are some little bungalows. It's about the prettiest place ever.

It's also way the heck out there. To get there from Delhi, you take a train to Haldwani or Kathgodam (6hrs), then a bus to Nainital (2hrs), which is a resort town big enough to have a Cafe Coffee Day. Then you take a bus/share-taxi to Bhowali (30min), which is big enough to have a couple restaurants and hotels. Then you take another bus that is headed toward Mauna, but you get off at the Satkhol Ashram in Sitla (2hrs). Sitla has a store. Then you walk about 45 minutes to Sonapani. They walk 1 1/2 hours to and from school every day. But I suppose I should let her tell you about it herself on her own blog.

She invited me to visit this weekend. Worked for me. It also happened to be Halloween. Costume parts, you'd imagine, are in short supply, but that didn't deter anyone at Sonapani.

Victoria and her roommates Erin and Rachel improvised nature-inspired costumes. (Unicorns are part of nature, right?) I should mention that Erin's got poems all over herself, as she is (wait for it) a poetree. Pun pan!

Meanwhile, I took the easy solution of joining the sari brigade.

However, I was outdone by the two couples running the show, Casey (professor) and Sage, and Keith (program coordinator) and Chiku, who all went as each other. Awesome.

Hooray for Keith (I think it was his doing): we carved pumpkins. (Pac-man by yours truly.) And bobbed for apples. (sorry, didn't get any photos of this one.) Throw in a bit of Rum & Thums Up, and you have undoubtedly the best Halloween party in all of Uttarakhand. More photos in Picasa.

The next day I sat in on their class, checked out their experimental farm, and moseyed back to Nainital. They're right back to work, writing midterm essays due Thursday. I am super impressed that they're doing soil analysis and water spring tracking at the same point in life when I was studying at a pretty normal university, marveling at how the Dutch have a slightly sillier language and slightly better beer, and blundering my way around Europe.

But even more, I'm thankful to them (and particularly Victoria) for inviting me to join them for a taste of home. Until about now, I didn't know how much I'd miss being in an environment where Fleet Foxes is common knowledge, we all miss Victrola/Vivace/Bluebird/Mighty-O/Stumbling Monk, you can talk about Gandhi without mincing words, and well Bananagrams. Exactly what I needed. Thanks again, and good luck to you all with your midterms, internships, and not getting pneumonia or bit by a viper!

Mountains beyond mountains: Gurgaon

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:58:00 +0000

I’m glad I finally got a few photos of Gurgaon! Since the first time I visited, this city outside Delhi really… well, “charmed” isn’t right, nor “transfixed”… well, it intrigued me. It’s modern and only modern, like something you’d see in Thailand or Singapore but you might not think of in India. But tech is booming, and with money comes development, and India goes big and not home.

It’s built on a big flat area, which makes every building seem all the bigger.

The streets are wide, to make room for everyone's new Maruti, Toyota (the new SUV model is popular), or Honda.

“Over there are maybe six or seven malls”, said Gaurav. Each one looks like four spaceships glued together.

And the apartment buildings! Epic! Monoliths of housing rising from the earth, stretching as far as the eye can see.

I guess this happens in places like Bangkok too, but it’s city everywhere there, so the contrast is not so stark.

But not everyone is living the high-rise flashy Batman lifestyle. My friends Hemant, Mohan, and Ama live in Maruti Kunj, a colony built by the Maruti company maybe 20 years ago. It’s on the outside of Gurgaon, and actually rather peaceful.

I guess the attitudes there are a bit more conservative (and more than America; e.g. maybe it would be bad form for a guy to be seen talking to a girl. and we think it’s hard to meet people here!) Hey, away from the city, can’t get anywhere without a car, conservative thinking, peaceful, good schools: it’s a suburb!

Diwali, as it happened

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:38:00 +0000

I’ve been talking too much. Here are some pictures of Diwali. First, lights, and I should mention that all the photos that look good were taken by Gaurav, a quite skilled photographer:

Lighting the diyas (mini oil lamps) around the house and balcony

Some lights around the neighborhood

![](/images/itenseaslad/2011/img_20111025_192041.jpg)

Next, fireworks:

Gaurav insisted on getting this photo. Expecto patronus!

Friends:

A bunch of neighbors. Hemant on the right.

![](/images/itenseaslad/2011/img_20111027_143035.jpg)

Me and Gaurav, as I was leaving.

I meant to get a photo of us all, but Hemant and his mother were napping as we left. I'll be back in December. Now I'm in pleasant vacation town Nainital, and getting here was a bit of an adventure, including successfully running to catch a train, almost getting invited to someone's party, listening to music because I was just too worn out from socializing, and sleeping in the nut low of hotels in Haldwani. But I'm here, no worries, and will hang out today before heading to my friend Victoria's school tomorrow!

Happy Diwali!

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:09:00 +0000

Especially to my Indian friends: hope you have a great Diwali, and that Lakshmi visits while you are awake!

I’m at the Gurgaon home of my friends Hemant, Gaurav, and their mother Ama. They are the kindest kindest hosts; my every need or want is answered, and then some, and the only chore I’ve been allowed to help with is making wicks for the diyas, the ceremonial Diwali oil lamps. Plus, cooking lessons: Ama (an excellent cook) has been teaching me paranthas and chapatis, and I keep nosing my way into the kitchen to find out more.

Anyway, Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Way back when, the god Rama’s wife Sita was stolen by the demon Ravanna, who took her to south India. So Rama came down and trashed Ravanna, creating the festival of Dussehra, which happened 20 days ago. Then he returned home to Ayodhya in north India 20 days later, creating Diwali. Also, Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, got into this holiday somehow: she’s supposed to visit during the day, so don’t sleep too much, because you might miss her. You light the diyas oil lamps, you put christmas lights on your house, you shoot off fireworks in the street, you go to puja (prayer ceremony) at the temple. Two days before Diwali is Dhanteras, a popular day to buy things. Also you’re supposed to clean your house thoroughly, and trade in your old dishes for new ones, and hoo boy, now that I wikipedia it, it turns out there are a lot of different reasons and customs for Diwali.

Photos and more descriptions to follow!

Stay at an ashram: check

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:38:00 +0000

Do some yoga: check

Bathe in the Ganges: check

Sing Hare Krishna: check (well, technically we've been singing other chants here, but I sang Hare Krishna at Bhojbasa. check.)

Chill the heck out and catch up on internets: also check.

The last couple of days have been nice. I've been at the Santosh Puri Ashram near Haridwar. What's an ashram? I'm not sure, but it seems to be a temple, guesthouse, and yoga school rolled into one. This one has meals, yoga classes (hatha, pranayama, and ashtanga have happened since I've been here), and daily aarti/puja/prayer ceremonies. It's run by a lady sadhu (holy person) named Mata-ji, and she and the rest of the staff are super friendly and great.

The place looks like this:

And I've gotten a chance to explore Haridwar a bit. It's been called the Indian Rishikesh, or rather that Rishikesh is the foreigners' Haridwar. It's on the Ganges, people like to take baths, and it's holy. (the Kumbh Mela was here last year! I met someone who went!) It's also crowded and dusty. But it has some interesting things, including the Mansa Devi temple on a hill (it's really a temple complex, with bookstores, cafes, and big cage walls around so you don't fall out), a big statue of Shiva, and a couple of great lassi/kulfi shops. Ask someone for recommendations.

Bed hard, knees hurt, I'm done!

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:42:00 +0000

So I did a 10-day Buddhist Vipassana meditation class led by S. N. Goenka.

Vipassana means something like "insight." It's a word often used in the Theravada tradition (though it's in Mahayana too). Theravada is kinda the South Asian kind of Buddhism, as opposed to the Tibetan Mahayana/Vajrayana kind or Japanese/Chinese Zen or other Mahayana traditions. Vipassana meditation aims to develop not only concentration, but also fundamental wisdom: the knowledge at the deepest level that all things are impermanent and only exist dependent on other things.

S. N. Goenka is a very successful Vipassana teacher. He's started a bunch of meditation centers around the world with a standard 10-day program to introduce people to Vipassana meditation. He's from Burma, and got popular in India.

How was the retreat? In a word: tough.

I've posted the daily schedule before. Here's how it actually worked:

4 AM: wake up gong and guy walking around with bell. My roommate Nick turns on the light so the bell guy thinks we're awake and doesn't pound on our door.
4:20 AM: second wake up gong, actually wake up and trudge to meditation hall
4:30 AM: meditation
5:45 AM: Goenka starts chanting. After about day 3 I learned to leave the meditation hall at about 5:30 and go back to sleep some more.
6:30 AM: breakfast and go back and sleep more
8 AM: meditation
9 AM: meditation
11 AM: lunch and go back and sleep more
1 PM: meditation
2:30 PM: meditation
4 PM: meditation
5 PM: tea and snacks
6 PM: meditation
7 PM: dhamma talk
8:30 PM: meditation
9 PM: ask the teacher questions or go sleep

How did I survive?

Physically: they weren’t sticklers about posture, for the most part. (not that it would matter if they were; there’s only so much my body can do.) Still, there was a lot of knee and back pain. Work with it; it’s a sensation like anything else…

Mentally: it was exhausting! Just concentrating for all that time. And the knowledge that it would be 10 days long; days 6 and 7 were tough. I was kinda wiped by about day 8 or 9 and tuned out a bit.

The food: simple but mostly good. Breakfast was fruit, bean sprouts, some grain dish (porridge, cornmeal, idlis), milk, and tea. Lunch was curd, rice, dal, chapati, and a vegetable dish. Tea was served with fruit and rice krispies. I think it’s true that eating less helps you meditate better. Or at least concentrate.

I unfortunately discovered, I think, bitter melon, and now there might be an Indian food I don't like. Well, give it time.

The center: pretty! In the woods, half hour outside Dehradun.

The lodging: Simple concrete room with attached bath.

Basic but good. Except:

The spiders: Big old dudes! Usually about 2-3" wingspan, most with small bodies. I got used to them surprisingly quickly. There were a couple fat dudes, and they still make my blood run cold. But every room was equipped with two spiders. Ours only came out at night, and they hung out in the bathroom (thank god). Sometimes we would kill them, but they would come back the next day. Reincarnation!

The meditation hall: nice enough. Big room.

Two spiders in the supply room. I did 90% of my meditation here; a couple times I escaped to my room to meditate, and once I tried the pagoda. The pagoda is a building full of tiny meditation cells. Nothing in each room but a cushion. Really rather nice. But I never went back after the first time; my cell had two spiders.

The actual content of the class: It was pretty good. First you learn Anapana meditation, which involves just concentrating on your breath. Then you learn Vipassana meditation, which (in Goenka’s method) involves scanning your body, becoming aware of physical sensations, and developing equanimity towards them. Don’t react, don’t say “this sensation is good and this one is bad”, just observe it and note that it’s impermanent and is not you. I’ve blogged more about it on my other blog, if you’re interested in all the Buddhism and philosophy and stuff.

The odd thing was that all the dhamma talks and instructions before/after each meditation session were done by Goenka himself, by video and audio tape. It felt a little like a meditation factory; you come here, you do the technique, no quibbling, no questions. Well, you could ask questions, but they were answered by an assistant teacher who was not awesome at answering questions. As it was a beginners’ class, that was mostly fine, except:

Goenka chanting. This guy has a voice like a Gregorian monk getting slowly run over by a gravel truck. When they turned on the tape for the first time, and “buh-duh-guh-duh-buh-guuuuhhhhhhhh” blared over the speakers, my first thought was that the speed was too low. My second thought was that we were listening to a guy die. And they played this not only for five minutes at the beginning/end of each class, but also for friggin’ 45 minutes each morning. AND over a loudspeaker while we’re trying to nap after breakfast. Mr. Goenka, if complete silence is important to develop deep concentration, why are we listening to you chant some incomprehensible Pali every day? Which reminds me:

Noble Silence: as in previous retreats, we weren’t supposed to talk (incl sign language etc) for the first 9 days. This is actually not very hard. But it was really great on the 10th day when we got to talk, and actually meet some of our fellow meditators whom we’ve been seeing for a week and a half! Here are some of them:

Overall: No fireworks, but I’m glad I’ve done it. I feel pretty good now. And I’m sure it’s helped my meditation practice.

Signing off now...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:37:00 +0000

Right, well, I’m going to do this retreat thing now. Again, it’s at the Dhamma Salila Vipassana center in Dehradun, the website is dhamma.org, if you’re interested.

About equal parts excited and worried. Well, with some curiosity too, because as far as I know I can’t meditate for more than a couple hours per day, so how will I adjust to meditating for very many hours a day? I guess we will see!

No blogging, email, or phone during the retreat, so I’ll see you in 10 days! Y’know, unless I levitate into the air, shoot rays of light out of my head, and vanish into a puff of Nirvana.

I am so done with 12+ hour bus days

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 07:25:00 +0000

… at least until Nepal. Eesh. I’ve made it to Rishikesh and found a very adequate hotel room. I plan to sleep a lot and clean up a bit. (freezing cold and tired -> no showers or laundry in Gangotri.) Catching up on internet before I go off the grid again.

There are high and low points to travel, particularly solo travel, and yesterday was not a high point. It’s eased a bit by the fact that the next few weeks will likely be easier, in terms of amount of traveling.

I’m in Rishikesh now. It seems pleasant enough. Definitely Indian, with all the honking and heat, and definitely a tourist spot, with all the laundry, wi-fi, and German Bakeries. I’m getting old and cranky, as I’m gladder that it’s a tourist spot than that it’s an Indian spot. (or I’ve just been traveling too much).

There are two nice foot bridges over the Ganges. Here you can see one.

Bringing the "pilgrimages for religions I don't really believe in" count to 3

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 06:08:00 +0000

Trek from Gangotri to Gaumukh completed! (“Hike” to Americans; not talking about Klingons here, despite some of these names)

What is it: Gangotri is a town with an important Hindu temple. It’s one of the Char Dham pilgrimage sites. I guess it’s kind of holy. Gaumukh is the glacier that feeds the Ganges. I guess it’s kind of holy too. The trek between them is pretty easy and very pretty.

Description: so it’s 18km each way (11.2mi), and the elevation goes from 3400-4255m (11200-13900ft). The first 9 km is an easy walk. Next 5 km is a harder walk. Most people (incl I) stop overnight at the 14km mark, at Bhojbasa. The 4km from Bhojbasa to Gaumukh is mostly easy, but the last 1km is clambering over rocks.

Some pictures so you can see what I’m talking about:

Evening puja at Gangotri temple the night before starting the walk

There were only a couple of shaky log bridges.

(those couple tents and buildings are Bhojbasa)

That’s the glacier. It’s actually rather smaller than I’d imagine, or at least, what we could see was rather small. I guess it’s receded literally kilometers in the last century. I don’t know what this means, but it can’t be good.

(this might be a good time to mention I take slightly more photos than I blog. They’re all up at my picasa site.)

What’s foremost in my mind after this trek:

This might be the first time I’ve liked hiking better than camping. Usually the hiking is kind of a necessary evil and camping is fun. But this time, the trail was easy and I was really just enjoying walking. Plus:
Bhojbasa was so cold! It was The Coldest! From about 2pm on, it was nonstop coldsville! I wore all my clothes, climbed under a heavy blanket at 6pm and hardly emerged until sunrise, and still ended up huddled around the cook’s kerosene stove trying to keep my hands warm. I slept about half the night, and spent the rest of the night wishing time would pass more quickly, and wondering if I should check what time it is or not. (on the plus side, though, this frozen night did provide one of the most vivid lucid dreams I’ve ever had.)
Don’t wear barefoot-style walking shoes on a 22-mile mountain trek. Why would you do that.
I’ve kinda gone it alone on this Gangotri trip. I mean, I’m friendly and talking with folks, but I was really enjoying hiking by myself. Of course, some of each is good.
The type of challenge on this trip has been really energizing. Something about the combined cultural, social, and physical challenges has kept me thinking “wake up, you have great things to do!” Everything is novel; every experience is something I want to write down or photograph. I must figure out some way to get this sort of challenge into my everyday life when I settle down again.
I wear a beanie now. Beanies are cool.

Indian Bureaucracy, Continued

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:13:00 +0000

(post from three days ago; it’ll take a day to catch up)

9:50AM: we (me and Ulrieke, an Austrian lady who’s in the same boat) show up at permit office to meet the kind young lady. I’ll call her Aarti, because I think we later found out that was her name. Nobody there.

10:10: still nobody there. A soldier guy says a bunch of stuff that we think means “go to Gangotri”. An Israeli backpacker mentions that he saw a lady on the walk up who said she could get him the permit. I speculate that this is our gal. We set off to find her again.

10:15: stop by… her house? Two other girls come out, and say that the girl we’re looking for went to the temple. Stop back in maybe a couple hours. I think her name is Aarti, although, that’s the word for some prayer ceremony, right? So maybe we actually asked what she was doing. Regardless, if I have reason to refer to her again, I’ll call her Aarti.

10:20: consult with wise guesthouse owner Deependar. He suggests we go on to Gangotri to get the permit there. Seems more reasonable than waiting two, four, twelve hours for Aarti. We momentarily ignore the fact that everyone on the internet says you cannot get the permit in Gangotri. Meanwhile, two other Australian ladies, Barbara and Julianne, have hired a taxi to a town near Gangotri. We hop in to share costs.

3:30: arrive in Gangotri. The inevitable swarm of touts ensues. I forget that sometimes the swarm of touts can actually help you accomplish things you need to accomplish, things that you couldn’t possibly accomplish on your own, like finding a permit. Ulrieke exhibits more trust/naivete/smartness and listens to a tout, who requests us to join him at 5:30pm for the permit. They’re available at 5:30, but not now? Curious. And suspect.

4:00: try to get some food and fail. I guess if they don’t have chapatis, your request for a thali will get dropped on the floor. This is not relevant to the permit tale, except that I am very hungry.

4:45: randomly run into Ulrike and Tout (I swear, tomorrow I will learn his name), who are going for the permit now. Wait in line for a half hour. Other interesting fact about this permit: you have to write a statement that says “I am going to Gaumukh at my own risk. Forest Service will not be responsible for any mishappening.” I pity the poor French girl who was trying to understand the Indian guy telling her to write the word “mishappening.”

5:30: get the permit, for tomorrow. No problem.

The morals of the story: as of now, you can get the Gaumukh permit in Gangotri. (maybe because it’s a festival in Uttarkashi?) Also, the smaller the city, the more touts are actually helpful, and the more confusion is just confusion, not bamboozlement.

Anyway, current status:

room is infested only with gnats (those are gnats, right? not mosquitos? they must be. no mosquitos up here at 10000 feet. and they don’t look like mosquitos. oh god please be gnats.)
room also has only a trickle of running water. But it’s okay! Gangotri is cool of climate, so I’m not gross.
apparently Ulrieke’s guide/porter will also be guiding me tomorrow. and packing me a lunch! how nice.
wallet has 1400 rupees: 600 for the permit and 800 to last me for two days and nights, until I can get back to the nearest ATM, five hours away in Uttarkashi. Oops.
wallet also has US$160; turns out US dollars are accepted everywhere, if at a poor exchange rate. Things always work out.
not altitude sick!

Indian Bureaucracy At Its Finest

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:56:00 +0000

I want to do this short trek from Gangotri town to Gaumukh glacier (where the Ganges starts) on Oct 6-7. But you have to get a permit to do so. I called and they said “sure, just come to our office in Uttarkashi.” My guesthouse operator here, Deependar, told me the same thing.

Of course, when I show up here on the 4th at 4:30pm, Deependar realizes I have to get to that office right quick. It closes at 5, and the next two days are a holiday. So I hoof it over there, to be told, by a kind but overworked and frazzled young lady, “Sorry, October 6th and 7th are full.” “Really? There’s no way?” “No, 6th and 7th are booked. Next day is the 8th.” (8th-9th will not do; I must be in Dehradun on the morning of the 10th.)

I fill out the form anyway. I think they requested my passport number, father’s name, blood type, bank account PIN, and name of first crush. When I get to the front of the line, I apologize profusely for keeping her past 5pm, explain my story, and then find out that I need a photocopy of my passport and visa. (the nearest photocopy machine is 3km away, and I am not making this up) She says “can you come tomorrow?” I say “oh, it’s not a holiday tomorrow?” She says, “just come tomorrow, say, 10am?” I agree, reluctantly, because I’m thinking I’ll get this permit for the 8th that’ll be kind of useless anyway.

One last time, “So the 6th and the 7th are full?” Pause. She flips through her book, which is full of pages and pages of dates and names, eventually hitting the Oct 6 page, which is clearly full. Pause. “Well, come tomorrow and I think I can arrange.”

On the up side, I get +1 Constitution for being tough

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:17:00 +0000

On the down side, why do I keep taking these huge stupid bus trips?

Last night/day (McLeod Ganj - Dehradun - Uttarkashi) might have been the second easiest 16+ hour bus trip I’ve taken so far. But I reached a new high: over 20 hours, from 7:30pm last night until about 4pm today.

New questions answered:

how can I best ride the Scrambler to minimize stomach pain? (I think it’s better to hold on and fight it, not let yourself get tossed around.)
is “deep fried white bread sandwich” actually the only food choice I’m going to get for the next four hours? (yep.)
when the girl in front of me has exercised her full reclining powers (as is her right) but the girl in back of me has politely asked me not to recline as it leaves her no room for her knees, do I: a. snap back that of course we are all facing the same problem due to this ridiculous bus design, b. ask the girl in front to avoid reclining herself, or c. apologize and suffer in silence? (c. sigh.)
why do I get all grimy? (it’s just road dust mixed with sweat! which leads to:)
when do I get to quit riding buses and start riding AC trains? (answer: after this Gangotri trip, when I start going to slightly less mountainous places. as for riding AC3, I guess I am getting old, but feeling and smelling not-awful is nice- after all, I wouldn’t ride smoking cars. I’ll have to ride a couple in Sleeper (cheapest) class just for the experience, though.)

Last thoughts about McLeod

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:54:00 +0000

The Tushita Meditation Center has great summaries after the Dalai Lama’s talks! They are much more accessible and modern. I got more out of 1 hour of that than I did of 4 hours of HH. But then, I guess people who are studying here do really enjoy HH.

But then, Tibetan Buddhism seems very very philosophical. Particularly the Gelugpa school. (I think it’s the biggest school. The Dalai Lama is from the Gelugpa school.) I guess monks often study Buddhist philosophy for 15-20 years. And then meditate for 15-20 years!

A bit more practical stuff:

My guesthouse, the Sidharth, is great. 500rs, friendly, and a little bit off the main drag.

I like the Moon Peak Thali restaurant too- it feels like something that would be new and trendy in the US. The Ashoka Restaurant is recommended by my friend Earl, who’s lived here for years. (but really, if you’re spending time trying to find the best restaurant around here, just stop and walk into the first place you find. They’re all good.)

To plan travel things, Milap at Summit Travels (in both McLeod and Bhagsu) was friendly and helpful.

This is the only map that seemed even a little bit accurate:

Also, as I’ve mentioned, in McLeod you can indeed have a fine coffee.

Unrelated to McLeod: I’ve been gone for a month, which made me reflect a little bit, although the only thing that’s worth saying is some stuff about my stuff. Updated my stuff page.

Okay, leaving tonight on epic quest for Gangotri! Looks like this:

Tonight: bus to Rishikesh

Oct 4: bus to Uttarkashi

Oct 5: bus to Gangotri

Oct 6: hike up to Gaumukh glacier, stay in Bhojbasa town guest house

Oct 7: hike back to Gangotri

Oct 8: bus to Rishikesh

Oct 9: hang out in Rishikesh

Oct 10: bus to Dehradun, start meditation class

(of course, this is also on my calendar)

Dan's Guide to McLeod Ganj

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 10:22:00 +0000

Waterfalls: there is the one I posted about earlier, which is very cool! There is also this other waterfall that is also neat, at Bhagsu, which is much easier to get to.

If you keep walking up, though, way past where it looks like the end of the path, and follow the signs to the Shiva Cafe, well, you will get there. I guess it is rather a stoner hotspot, but it is cool regardless because it’s so hidden away. Someone recommended this to me, and I can’t for the life of me remember who! Sorry about that, but thanks, whoever it was!

- Speaking of Bhagsu: you will likely meet lots of Israelis here. I guess this is a thing. Israelis, after they finish military service or university, tend to come to India for a few months. Dharamsala is a hotspot, but instead of McLeod Ganj, they head to the nearby towns of Bhagsu or Dharamkot. Nobody’s sure why it ends up so segregated- we expect it’s something in the guidebooks, or maybe lots of friend recommendations. It’s a bit of a bum deal for them; McLeod is nicer.

Coffee: There is quite a lot of this, compared to the rest of India. Always get espresso drinks, or you might get instant or (at best) crummy drip. Americano quality is about the same across town. Coffee Talk wins for pretty good cappuccinos and very good homemade bread. Moon Peak also has a nice atmosphere. Both have free wifi.
Tibetan food: there are a bunch of Tibetan places; all good. Gakye on Jogiwara Rd. is exceptionally popular for some reason- maybe it’s in the guidebooks? At any rate, it’s tasty: vegetable dishes for lunch/dinner, and a huge bowl of muesli, fruit, and yogurt for breakfast.See also: momo stands across the town are always good.
Indian food: actually tougher to find, particularly an Indian restaurant that is not dead empty. Taste of India on Jogiwara Rd. is particularly great. Also take their cooking class; it is 2 days, 3 hrs each, you learn to make a lot of things, and the teacher is quite helpful at answering questions. Not hands-on, but I think I like it better this way, as you’re not going to master stuff anyway. Some recipes if you’d like.
Beer: at bars or beer stores, you have your choice of various Generic Asian Lagers, often in “regular” or “strong” forms, and always in 650ml (22oz) bottles. I personally recommend the “regular” (up to 5%), although some friends argue that the “strong” has more taste. It doesn’t really matter; you’ll probably only want one.
Huge piles of rocks in the road: look out for this.
Mist and rain: every day it starts out sunny and nice. By about noon, it decides to either get misty for the rest of the day or downpour super hard for an hour and then get nice again. Both ways are nice.

Finally: You will likely see this guy handing out fliers about a show he’s doing. He’s called “Lion Man.” He does an hour-long show in which he tells the story of his escape from Tibet, sings songs, and dances. I can say no more about it than: you must go to this show.Okay, I will offer a bit of explanation: he is part traditional calm Tibet, part whirling dervish, and part Gil Mantera’s Party Dream. Repeat, you must go to this show.

OMGHHDL

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:29:00 +0000

First day of teachings today! I got to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama for about four seconds as he walked into and out of the temple. It’s not really made for big talks- there’s this inner temple, and then most people are sitting outside, watching the simulcast on TVs or (in our case) nothing. But I’m getting ahead of myself- let me explain a few things that will be handy if you too are going to see the Dalai Lama’s teachings.

you have to register a day or three in advance, at the Dalai Lama’s office on Bhagsu road. Done!
stake out your seat the night before, and put a sign with your name on it. I didn’t do this; luckily, some friends did, and they had space for me. We had a bench! That was rare.
if you want a good seat, go early! The talks started at 9:30; I was planning to roll up at 9. Instead, I arrived at 7, and luckily so; there was a long line for security.
I’m not sure if it’s worth trying to get a good seat, as you probably won’t be able to see HHDL anyway, as I mentioned.
bring: FM radio for translations (available around town for ~170rs), headphones, a cup, a cushion, a bottle of water, and your pass (from the registration).
don’t bring your cell phone or camera; they won’t be allowed in.
also don’t bring: food, especially fruit or crinkly wrapped things. Monkeys descend upon you like a SWAT team. Two friends literally got punched by a monkey (did not win a free ipod) before a bunch of us scared them away. Because a bite means many hospital visits and rabies shots, they’re scary little buggers! Ram and Julie: you know this, of course.
when the monks come around with butter tea and Tibetan bread, enjoy! You brought a cup, right?
when the monks come around with stacks of 100-rupee bills, those are not for you. They are for other monks. Haven’t figured this one out yet.

As for the content of the talks themselves, YMMV. The first session was kind of an intro to Buddhism, comparison to other religions, etc, and as such I thought it was a pretty good talk, though I didn’t get much out of it. The other sessions are about “In Praise of the Dhammadhatu” by Nagarjuna, and like most ancient Buddhist texts, I don’t get it. I can never tell whether it’s all super simple, or whether it’s insanely over my head. Like this:

While it’s blended with the milk,

Butter’s essence appears not.

Likewise, in the affliction’s mix,

Dharmadhatu is not seen.

So Dharmadhatu is some clear-mind state within us. And so this verse is saying, we all have enlightenment within us, but we don’t realize it, because we have all this other stuff clouding it. Okay, fine. But then the next 5 verses say the same thing. Why all the flowery language? This is simple! Right?

Or else it’s so incredibly complex that I am totally lost.

Either way, funny moment: HHDL asked the Taiwanese group who requested these teachings, “is Taoism a theistic religion or not?” Nobody knew. That pretty much sums up what I know about Taoism too.

A taste of McLeod Ganj

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:58:00 +0000

Today and yesterday have been pretty dismal, involving hours of internet cafes, writing essays for grad school fellowships. Glad I had the time open! Turns out I had a bit of work to do. It also turns out that internet fritzing out for 20 minutes while I’m writing grad school essays in Google Docs makes me want to die a lot. To compensate, here’s a bit of silliness.

Special pricing for dead communist dictators

I’m not sure why this strikes me as funny

Y’know, just in a temple, y’know, just around. (the down staircase is a snake!)

it’s made of almonds, flour, sugar, and rare t-bone steak

PSA: Trust no one in tourist Delhi

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:54:00 +0000

So I’ve talked to at least a dozen travelers about Delhi, and everyone has the same story. Their flight went in there, they had about a day there, they stayed in Paharganj, and they hated it. In addition:

everyone got taken to a shady Delhi tourist office
everyone had their shady Delhi tourist office tell them lies and try to get them to book package trips to Kashmir (one tried to tell me the roads to Leh were closed)
everyone had someone try to scam them on train tickets
everyone had at least one dishonest tuk-tuk driver

So, tips for first-timers:

don’t go to any tourist offices in Delhi
if anyone tells you anything that doesn’t sound quite right, confirm it with someone who’s not in tourist Delhi/Paharganj
do not book package trips in tourist offices in Delhi, particularly to Kashmir
book your transit out ahead of time if possible (I used redbus.in successfully; I guess cleartrip.com is good for trains)
spending money here is like gambling: don’t spend any money you can’t afford to just throw away
get out of there as soon as possible

Despite your fears, it’s not at all true that everyone in India is a liar and trying to take your money. But I think it is true in Paharganj.

The Dalai Lama has a famous speech about "never give up."

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Here it is. But it’s nonsense. Sometimes giving up is exactly the right thing.

2 free days in McLeod Ganj, before the teachings by HHDL himself. Beautiful scenery, and a motorcycle rental shop just out of town. Wonderful! I grab my sunglasses and head down.

I was just trying to convince my friend Jay that anyone can motorcycle, given two things: a light bike (preferably an automatic scooter/moped), and good roads. Leh has been pretty good for both (Bajaj Pulsar 150 on mostly good pavement), and Chiang Mai was amazing (Honda scooter on US-quality pavement). McLeod Ganj is… the other direction. The shop only had oldish heavy Royal Enfield Bullet 350’s. And the main road from McLeod to Dharamsala is kinda rough, but the back way, where this shop is, is really quite mental. The good parts look rather like this.

I would post photos of the bad parts, but Mom and Dad are probably already freaked the heck out.

And so, after laying down the bike twice on the way down, I decided to ignore the Dalai Lama, cut my losses, and probably save my life. Think I’ll go back and sit in a coffeeshop, apply to grad school, and scrupulously avoid extrapolating this incident into a bigger story about myself.

(on the way back, I awkwardly walk into a tea shop containing only a couple having a very intense conversation. sigh it’s a day.)

EDIT: this evening I met a guy who rode one of those same Royal Enfield Bullet 350s from Manali to Leh to Kashmir to Dharamsala. Inspiring! Maybe someday…

Also, I forgot to send out waves of gratitude for the ~6 people who helped me pick up my bike, pull it out of a roadside ditch, get it started, etc. along the rather short way. Thank you thank you thank you!

How to mail a package overseas from India

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:20:00 +0000

or at least from McLeod Ganj:

1. Get it packed. This is important, and the most fun part of the process. Shops around town advertise parcel packing; go to one and a guy will cut and stitch a cloth wrapper for your box. His precision will be remarkable. Then he will seal it a few times with a wax seal. Write your destination (and your return address, i.e. your guesthouse here, even though this doesn't make any sense because if it gets returned you will not be here) on the cloth in a magic marker.

2. Get a customs form. I got one from the printing shop next to the post office. I have no idea where you get it if you're not in McLeod Ganj where there's a printing shop next to the post office.

3. Get two copies of your passport and visa. The printing shop is good for this too.

4. Wait in line and pay about 1 rupee per gram. (this may have been a coincidence, but it was about spot on in my case. really, of course, you just pay what they tell you. there are alternatives like fedex and dhl, but they're a little more expensive.)

5. Hope that it's before 1pm. It closes at 1pm. You can imagine there is not much leeway.

Cricket: not actually totally insane

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:08:00 +0000

Thanks to my friend Marty, I’ve learned about how this cryptic pastime actually works, and it’s not really that hard!

Okay, so there’s a few varieties: 20/20, 50/50, or a multi-day “test match.” The test match is more complicated, so I’ll focus on 20/20 or 50/50. That number refers to the number of “overs” you get, and 1 over = 6 bowls (1 bowl = 1 “pitch”, for baseball fans). So in a 20/20 match, each team gets 120 bowls.

There are two wickets in the field. The batter stands in front of one wicket, another guy on the batter’s team stands in front of the other wicket, and the bowler bowls to the batter.

if the bowl hits the wicket, the batter is out, and that's a big deal. So the batter hits almost all of the bowls.
if the bowl is wide or otherwise bad (like a "ball" in baseball), it's a redo and the batter's team gets 1 point. So that's rare.
if the batter hits it:

if it's caught on a fly, the batter is out. So the batter usually doesn't try to hit it up in the air.
if it goes outside the boundary around the field in any direction on a fly, that's a "six", meaning the batter gets 6 points.
similarly, if it goes outside the boundary on a bounce, that's a "four".
otherwise, the batter and the other guy run back and forth between the two wickets as many times as they want. But if the fielding team gets the ball to the wicket and the batters aren't on base, the batter is out. So they usually run pretty conservatively. Usually a hit results in 0 runs or 1 run, and sometimes 2.

Anyway, so the bowling team keeps bowling until either all the overs are finished, or until all the batters are out. (which is why getting out is a big deal: after 11 outs, your team is done!) I guess technically that completes an "inning", and sometimes there are multiple innings in a game, but I don't quite understand this either.

This means that generally one team scores as much as possible, and then the other team gets a chance to match. That's kind of cool.

Why is this in my travel blog? Because I got to see the Dharamsala cricket stadium yesterday.

So that was neat.

(also, okay, I take back what I said about cricket not being insane)

Okay, enough talk, back to a good story with photos

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:32:00 +0000

Here is what McLeod Ganj looks like:

As I mentioned, you can walk to amazing places from McLeod Ganj! Let me tell you about one. There is a popular waterfall at Bhagsu; this is not it. This is Waterfall #2, on the road to Triund, branching off at Guna temple. It is a bit of a hike: we left around 9am and got back around 4pm, exhausted. First we walked through places like this:

You can imagine that signs for a “waterfall cafe” were met with a bit of disbelief:

Anyway, we kept walking and eventually made it to this:

Fellow hiker Talia

Jackie: I’m not in this photo, am I?

But it’s okay because then they got this one of me:

And, believe it or not, the Waterfall Cafe finally did materialize. They must carry all their food (and drinks!) for an hour each morning. Mad!

Future plans: now I've really done it.

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:20:00 +0000

Now until October 4: in McLeod Ganj

October 4-10: trip to Gangotri, on my friend Gaurav’s suggestion. It’ll be a lot of travel: overnight bus to Rishikesh, long bus to Uttarkashi, short bus to Gangotri, 2-day hike to/from the Gaumukh glacier, then a long bus back to Dehradun.

October 21-23: hang out in Rishikesh for a couple days

October 24-26: back to near-Delhi to celebrate Diwali with the Mohans. (thanks to them for inviting me!)

Which leaves a gap from October 10-21, doesn’t it. Well, I’ve just signed up for a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat in Dehradun.

The organization (it’s legit; internationally known and recommended by my Seattle Buddhist friends)

The daily schedule during the retreat:

4:00 am Morning wake-up bell

4:30-6:30 am Meditate in the hall or in your room

6:30-8:00 am Breakfast break

8:00-9:00 am Group meditation in the hall

9:00-11:00 am Meditate in the hall or in your room according to the teacher’s instructions

11:00-12:00 noon Lunch break

12noon-1:00 pm Rest and interviews with the teacher

1:00-2:30 pm Meditate in the hall or in your room

2:30-3:30 pm Group meditation in the hall

3:30-5:00 pm Meditate in the hall or in your own room according to the teacher’s instructions

5:00-6:00 pm Tea break

6:00-7:00 pm Group meditation in the hall

7:00-8:15 pm Teacher’s Discourse in the hall

8:15-9:00 pm Group meditation in the hall

9:00-9:30 pm Question time in the hall

9:30 pm Retire to your own room–Lights out

Yikes! But this is it, this is an actual substantial retreat. It’ll be a test, for sure. But I think I can do it, and I like how it’s all practice with little talking. I don’t imagine I’ll go through it and not make progress. Well, wish me luck!

McLeod Ganj: Damn, It's Nice!

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:58:00 +0000

Dharamsala is a name you may have heard of: the HQ of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, plus a tourist hotspot. Really, all the action is in McLeod Ganj, which is maybe 10km outside Dharamsala. I guess Dharamsala proper is big, cranky, and dusty, but I wouldn’t know, as I’ve been in McLeod.

Life here is reasonable. It’s a pleasant temperature all the time, kind of damp and misty, but pretty as all get-out. You can actually get coffee here, and you can even go to a coffeeshop that has wifi. (I’m kinda convinced that this is a cornerstone of every good place to live.) There are classes to learn all sorts of things, from yoga to music to cooking to jewelry making. Plus, there is good food all over the place, it’s hilly, and it’s full of white people from all over. It’s rather like Seattle.

(okay, there’s a difference: the coffee’s no good. Oh, and the Tibetan government thing. Also we’re in India. People are super friendly; you can make friends just talking to them. And the number of roads is in the single digits, and you can walk to really breathtaking places from your house.)

But the similarities lull me back into old routines. Wake up whenever, lounge around drinking coffee and reading stuff all day, using perhaps too much internet. Sometimes even join some friends for a beer at night. It’s been a good break so far from my quick travel schedule, and I feel rather like myself again.

The difference between these routines and the rest of the month of September has been profound. I’ve had no coffee and almost no alcohol until I got here. I’ve slept early and awakened early, eaten almost no meat, even eaten few desserts or unhealthy foods. Internet has been an hour every couple days, not multiple hours in a day. In short, I’ve lived really a rather virtuous September. And it’s been easy, due to environmental factors: no social pressure to indulge in anything. I’ve enjoyed the chance to try life without all my old mini-vices.

You’d think this line of thought is going somewhere, but really, I’m not sure which way I like it better.

I'm dumb, but still, nothing works

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:35:00 +0000

Some things that have failed to work today:

Picasa 3.0 on linux (doesn't sign in)
Picasa's web uploader (froze after 6 pictures as my laptop's battery was dying)
The internet, in Internet Cafe #1
Internet Cafe #2's fax machine
Blogger, right now. It's not loading the text box to enter text. I've been composing in Notepad.
India Rail's website (not even to book tickets, just to see if they exist!)
Finding the post office. I'm staying on Post Office Road. I walk up and down the length of Post Office Road to get everywhere. I cannot find the post office.
The receiving fax machine at Dehradun Vipassana meditation center
The phone at the Dehradun Vipassana meditation center
Information on how to apply for a permit to visit the Gaurmakh glacier on the internet
The receiving fax machine at the Dehradun Forest Office (where I guess you actually should apply for said permit)
The phone at the Dehradun Forest Office
The phone at the Uttarkashi Forest Office
The travel agency I was going to use to book all this (closed)

... okay, that's not quite everything. I guess it's enough of "everything" to be frustrating? And while 7-14 can be explained by the fact that it's Sunday (duh), 1-6 are due at least in part to the fact that the internet does not work, which is much more frustrating than I'd have thought.

Also, another problem is that sometimes you get cascading chains of failures. Like “I need to buy a bus ticket. Okay, this guy doesn’t have the right tickets. This guy either. Okay, now this guy does- but I’m low on cash. Have to go to an ATM. The ATM is broken. The other ATM has a long line.” If everything works 95% of the time, then you can do a series of 8 errands in 8 errands’ time, or at worst 9 errands’ time. But if that number goes down to say 50%, then it’ll take 8+4+2+1=15 errands’ time.

But I have plenty of time, which means the only problem is that I’m frustrated, mostly because it’s tantalizingly similar to my regular life here. Hmm. Maybe that deserves a bit more thought.

EDIT: 15. Google Maps crashes Firefox 4.0 beta 9 on this WinXP machine with who-knows-what installed.

Amritsar: actually quite a lot of "huh?!"

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:03:00 +0000

I mean that in the most wonderful, appreciative way, though. It’s a curious and friendly place! Besides the Golden Temple, here are some reasons why it is so droll:

the Wagah border ceremony. Every day India and Pakistan close the gate between their two countries with much fanfare. It is part pep rally (cheers and shouts, mostly something like “Hindustan Zindabad!” and “Joo-la joo-lay Pakistan!”), part dance party (but only for the Indian ladies it seems?), and part, well, ceremony. Soldiers with big hats walk very briskly and then kick their legs high and stomp their feet.

India side: big deal!

Pakistan side: not such a big deal

the friendliness of the people. This is not “huh?!” so much as “thanks!” A high-school-aged guy named Tarun saw me on the street and just stopped to see if I was all right, then asked for my email and later emailed me to make sure. And then there was Shahjahan M.V. (nickname: Shaju) and his English language school: he saw me in an internet cafe, then invited me to stop by his shop and talk with his students, so I did.

Shahju, Mr. Khan, and me

Dramatic pose

If you’re in Amritsar, look them up, and go talk with them as well! It was fun to talk with the students, and they sure appreciated it. It’s called “Brainstormers”, they’re near the bus stand, and you can reach Shaju at shaju_mv2007 at the rate of yahoo.co.in, or 9814947937. (“at the rate of” = Hinglish for “@”)

(they invited me to join them for lunch. they asked what I like for lunch, “rice?” I said that I generally preferred breads, thinking y’know, like chapati. hilariously, they arranged sandwiches of white bread and jelly, thinking that I’d prefer such western food. d’oh.)

The place I stayed, with couchsurfer Narinderjit. Here’s where it was:

and here’s what it looked like:

So Mr. Singh was very friendly. I guess this was his family’s home, he rented it out as a guesthouse, and then he also used it to host couchsurfers, while he stayed at his son’s place in the city. Meanwhile, a staff of non-English-speakers kept up the place and ran it as a restaurant/“canteen”. People would come there for parties.

Also, through a curious government arrangement, a group of 5 dancers plus a DJ would come there to perform a Bhangra show every night.

This was a little odd when the audience consisted almost entirely of me and Mr. Singh. But it was fun to watch.

If you’re a couchsurfer, do look up Mr. Narinderjit Singh in Amritsar. He’s not hard to find; he’s one of about three real hosts there. On the down side, his place is about 10km outside the city (10 rupee shared auto-rickshaws are common, but it’s still 30 min rickshaw + 30 min walk to get to the city), water can be sporadic, and sometimes parties last too late at night. But on the up side, he’s friendly and it’s a nice place otherwise. Did I mention the swimming pools?

Punjabi food: great! I guess their specialty is dairy products, and you can indeed get paneer a million ways, and their own special lassis. (they tasted like normal lassis to me, with occasional chunks; like thin, sweet cottage cheese.) Also there is “Kulcha”, which is like the idealized form of paratha: hotter, crispier, more flavorful, and served with chickpeas.
the only downside: the heat. I guess this is not Amritsar or Punjab’s fault, just that lowlands India is pretty intolerable for much of the year. Every day, somehow, I’d end up sweaty, grimy, and with black gunk in my hair. I couldn’t wash clothes fast enough. Eww!

Fortunately, now I’m in McLeod Ganj (by Dharamsala) and everything is wonderful. It’s hilly and beautiful, maybe 70-some degrees, and easy in most of the ways that India often isn’t. Every guesthouse looks pretty good, every restaurant looks pretty good, few touts. Some may call it “touristy”, and it is that indeed, but that’s okay (and maybe I’ll go on about this in the future). But! I should not spend all day on the internet, so that’s all for now.

Want to adventure somewhere in Southeast Asia?

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:04:00 +0000

So I’ve got a couple unexpected free weeks, like late December, early January. I’ll be in India in December and have to get to Australia by January 18.

Want to join me for some particular adventure in this part of the world that you've always been meaning to make?

Or, have you been somewhere around here and have ideas for what I should do?

(FWIW, the first thing that comes to mind is go to Angkor Wat and then up to northern Thailand and motorbike in Mae Hong Son. But I sorta did that a couple years ago, so I'm open to suggestions.)

Some things I had just assumed were true that are actually untrue

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:31:00 +0000

if you have a water heater, and you turn on the hot water faucet, hot water will come out
if you turn on any water faucet, some water will come out
the electricity is either working or not, with no intermediate states
surely in a densely populated place like India, you can’t be farther than an hour from internet
and you can’t get internet on your phone for just $2
you certainly can’t fit 8 9 10 11 12 13 people in a tuk-tuk
air conditioning is an unnecessary luxury
just driving in a car won’t make you filthy
everyone will of course realize that broadcasting prayers over loudspeakers is a terrible idea, especially early in the morning
it is possible that there might be bad Indian food

One Night at the Golden Temple

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:50:00 +0000

11pm: arrive in Amritsar, exhausted from a day of travel.

12am: make it to the Golden Temple, put my shoes and bag away, get a mandatory head-covering, wash my feet, go inside. Everyone’s just sleeping all over the place. So I do too. The floor is hard, but it’s peaceful! Ah, no need to worry about some guesthouse; I can just get some sleep.

1:10am: “Your eyeglasses, you should be careful, someone might steal them. And watch your pockets too.”

1:15am: “Wake up! We have to wash the floor. Here, take a bucket, you can join and enjoy the work. If you feel bad, don’t do. Take and enjoy!” (two minutes pass, in which 50 other people and I wash the floor by throwing buckets of water everywhere) “There! You have taken two buckets. Did you enjoy? Where are you from? Ah, America. There, everyone is businessman, working for money.” (I think to protest, but before I can get a word in:) “In America, you will not find like this.” (True enough.) “Would you like a cup of tea?”

4:30am: “Wake up! (something in Punjabi)” I notice a sizable, but kind of sputtering and dumb, fireworks display. Why are there fireworks? “Oh, it is not fireworks. Sometimes when the wires get rubbed off and are too close together there are sparks.” At this point there are prayers in full swing, but I find some other people sleeping and figure I can still join them.

5:30am: I am awakened once again. Now at least it’s dawn. I figure that’s as good as it’s going to get. A nice fellow about my age named Lakhwend befriends me. He was thrown out of his house for wanting to marry a New Zealand girl. He has literally the clothes on his back. He makes a few bucks teaching English (he is Indian, but his English is fluent); last week, his wages were stolen by a pickpocket. Dang. I find out he was the one that warned me.

6:00am: we get tea and some kind of corn chip things; as free as the place to sleep.

8:00am: I get a meal of rice, dal, and chapatis; also free.

9:00am: I check out the inside of the temple. The Guru Granth Sahib, the holiest Sikh book is there! (I think.) I am given a sweet mashed snack at the end.

10:00am: I contact a couchsurfer named Narinderjit. He owns an awesome farm guesthouse that he lets couchsurfers stay at. There are two swimming pools. I nap, swim, wash clothes, and relax the rest of the day.

A couple thoughts that have been brewing in India

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:09:00 +0000

Where are all the women? I have had one interaction with an Indian woman that went beyond a couple of words, and that was at the meditation center in Ladakh. Not that they’re never around, but they’re always cooking or something, and never interacting with travelers. It’s too bad!
Everyone’s life is so hard. I mean, of course, right? But I’m not just talking about the one-armed beggar or the ostracized widow. Everyone! Everyone’s life! You go down the road and there are people literally breaking rocks! Cycle-rickshaw guys pounding it all day in million-degree heat! Construction guys, cooks, army guys just sweating all day, making pennies! And then you take a bus and it breaks down, and some guys fix it. Meanwhile someone else is huddling over a fried snack cart, making 10 rupees at a time. Everyone’s life is so hard!
Some people just want to get out. Signs advertise “New Zealand study visa”, “Make it to Canada in 6-10 months”. Some people I talk to say that they really want to go to the US, just to study, or to work. Working is best; they can send home so much money. I say this with the utmost respect for India: I can’t blame them (see thought #2).

Kashmir final roundup

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:07:00 +0000

I went to three places in Kashmir. I’ve told a bit about Srinagar, a bit about Pahalgam, and not much about Gulmarg. More about each:

Staying on a houseboat in Srinagar is kind of nice. It’s a houseboat! So that’s cool. Also, you are treated like royalty, or at least I (and this other traveler I met, Francesco) was.

You can go on a ride around the lake. This is rather nice, and only a couple hundred rupees. I will not make any “I’m on a boat” jokes.

There are some sights in Srinagar too, like the Jama Masjid, which is a big mosque, and the Shahi Hamdan Masjid, which is a more interesting mosque. It looks almost Japanese.

(not pictured: the carpet factory I was taken to next. not kidding. it was hard to explain to the salesman on how many levels it would be ridiculous for me to buy a carpet. on the up side, I know how handmade carpets are made now. it is insane.)

Pahalgam I’ve already talked about.
Gulmarg is another nice resort town. In the winter you can ski there! It is one of about two places in India you can ski. Actually, it looks like it’d be a great place to ski: only a couple lifts, but a ton of area, and the gondola goes very high. In the summer you can ride a pony.

I will not make any “I’m on a horse” jokes.

Looking down from Khilanmarg, looking up at… Allopathri?

Ghulam Mohammed was my guide this time. I swear, he and Rasul were the only guys I felt I could trust in Kashmir.

Kashmir food is great. It’s kind of meaty- a lot of “mutton”, which I think means goat here? Or maybe lamb. Rogan Josh is a famous dish I had heard of. Kashmiri kebab is I guess a kind of sausage. There’s a yogurt mint sauce I really liked. They drink a kind of spiced green tea called Kahwa. Anyway, a lot of the food is nicely medium-spicy, perfect level for my tastebuds.
Next I moved on to Amritsar, via Jammu. This ride was about 14 hours long, in two parts. The ride from Srinagar to Jammu felt like the Scrambler. I was stuck in a back seat. I am glad I’m not going on so many more long rides very soon. (Jammu to Amritsar was nice and easy though.)

If I had to go to Kashmir again, I think I’d just go Gulmarg-Pahalgam, and maybe Sonamarg. Well, Srinagar is nice for one night on a boat. Really, I would decide why I’m there (trekking?) and just do that. It’s pretty, but tricky to get around and not so friendly, if you’re just looking for a place to go that’s pretty.

A few things in Srinagar

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:04:00 +0000

In Srinagar, there is the Dal Lake. There are houseboats on it. I am staying in one now.

There are also Mughal gardens, like this one. They are very symmetrical.

Anyway, so when we left off I was in Pahalgam. The next morning I was going to hike more but it rained, so we went back to Srinagar. Then today I went to Gulmarg. Pictures of all this will be coming up. Tomorrow I’m on another long bus to Amritsar via Jammu; I actually am looking forward to getting out of Kashmir. It’s pretty but expensive (burn rate ~$75/day, but that was because I booked this driver half-accidentally) and kind of isolated. My phone doesn’t work, the internet cafes are few and far between, I don’t know how to meet other travelers, and I have to ask my houseboat operator whenever I want to go to land. In addition, everyone wants to plan your whole trip for you, and this is frustrating. When I ask “how do you do X?” the answer is always “okay, I’ll do X for you.” (and then ask you to pay for it after it’s done.) Finally, everyone’s always asking for more money, tips, etc; welcome to touristy parts of India, I guess.

It has not been awesome! But there have been awesome parts. More later about those.

I have felt like a couple of different people yesterday.

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:37:00 +0000

First: I’m a dumb tourist. After Altaf (travel agent, part-time model) and Faisal (guesthouse operator, master trekker) spent all of yesterday telling me I should go trekking, I finally agreed to a 3-day trip for 8000 rupees, or about $160. This was supposed to be a 2-day 1-night trip in Pahalgam, and then a day trip to Gulmarg. As I handed over my money, I realized that you can always pay more later, but you can never pay less. Still, I did want to do some trekking, and everyone in Srinagar sells these package deals, so maybe this was the best way I could do it. And $160 and 3 days is relatively low risk.

Second: I Am Sir Oracle (and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark). Part of the $160 deal was a share-taxi to these places. But another guy canceled, so I have the driver and car to myself. I mean, I could be like “hey Fayaz, drive over there” and he would. Yet we have no normal-people communication due to the language barrier. So that’s weird. Being Sir Oracle is a little uncomfortable.

Third: I’m a dumb tourist. We arrived in Pahalgam, there’s no indication of what we should be doing. I thought Altaf said we would meet up with a couple of other travelers and hike up to a hut where we’re going to stay the night, but Fayaz the driver has brought me to some guesthouse, the owners of which are now telling me the price of some rooms. Dammit, let me call Altaf. Nope, number’s disconnected. Let me call Faisal. He tells me everything is fine, and why am I wasting time talking to him, there’s not much time left in the day! Well. Feeling bamboozled, I argue a bit, and call Faisal back.

Fourth: I Am Sir Oracle. Turns out they’ll pay everything, afterward. Err, okay? So yes! Let’s go hiking! I will hire a guard from among the locals (with the help of Imran, a young Pahalgam travel agent and fluent English and Kashmiri speaker) to walk alongside me, to make sure I don’t stub my pinky toe or something.

Fifth: I’m actually an entirely reasonable dude. I guess we missed the original trek due to heavy traffic on the way to Pahalgam, so what we’re doing is the consolation prize. That’s fine. My guide Rasul and I hiked to Baisara which is about the most beautiful place ever.

Sixth: my guesthouse owners here in Pahalgam greeted me at the end of the day with “you are happy?”, then pulled a bottle of mango juice out from behind the TV and poured me a glass as if I were a pouting child. He returned with tea and toast on a tray. I am Sir Oracle.

Practical tip for Pahalgam: if you’re looking for a guide, Imran Ganai of Jungle Guyz Adventure seemed helpful and honest. imranbeachresort at the rate of gmail.com or 09419923810.

Travel Makes You Be Gentle With Yourself

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:34:00 +0000

I had contacted two couchsurfers in Srinagar, one who seemed a cool guy my age, and one that was a family. The guy my age had some last-minute obligations, and the family turns out to be a guesthouse, where instead of a free couch, I was given a nice room for Rs1000 ($20)/night, rather in the middle of nowhere. (I can’t even walk to an internet cafe.) Dang- couchsurfing lose.

Wait, it gets better: the guesthouse operator, Faisal, and his travel agent friend Altaf, are also pushy hiking guides! I mentioned that I might be interested to do some hiking in Kashmir, and they pulled out all the photos, gave me the whole spiel of All The Places You’ll Go, described how nice it is, pulled out a pen and paper (hoo boy) and started writing things down, called a dude, and quoted… US$965. For a 5-day hike and a couple of day tours.

Maybe this is an okay price for full-service trekking. I don’t know. I do know that $130/day is about $100/day over my India budget. Faisal’s friend Altaf later joined in the fun, offering something like $500 for a less amazing tour. Still a lot. I eventually just said no, no trekking for me. And they’ve talked about nothing else since. (“you know, we could do a 3-day trek. or day trips.” “what’s your budget?” and my favorite, “I’ve noticed it is only Americans who have this problem. French and Germans just make decisions but Americans think about it too much.”)

Anyway, three thoughts, each of which could take a whole post: 1. I hate being seen as a bag of money; 2. Nothing is explicit here, everything requires talking to someone; and 3. I guess when you’re traveling, sometimes you just get stuck in a dumb situation, and it is important to know that, accept it, and not beat yourself up for wasting a day.

More thoughts about Ladakh

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:00:00 +0000

they have a food called “tsampa”, which is just flour of this particular grain. You put a spoonful of flour in your mouth and then, before you choke, quickly drink some butter tea. It’s not unpleasant.
you know how to make a trip through Ladakh even more moonlike? Do it at night, under a full moon. Really neat.
as a whole, going from Leh to Srinagar is less excruciating than going from Manali to Leh, though it is still no picnic. Keep your bladder relatively empty. And yeah, the all-nightness of it is kind of lame. But I think the trip from 4pm to 8am is about all you can do, unless you book your own car or figure out some sharing thing well in advance. I met some great friendly Kashmiris named Javaid and… something else… who refused to let me pay for my tea.

need a place to stay? I heartily recommend the Gangs-Shun Homestay, run by Dr. Morup and his family. He’s a super friendly host, welcoming in a bunch of travelers and giving honest advice about Leh and Ladakh. And the rooms are very clean. He charged me 500 rupees/night in September (off-peak). Email morup_lee at india yahoo (that’s yahoo.co.in), phone at 094192-69525 or 098580-60706 or 01982-252603.

if that doesn’t work, there are a bunch of places that look nice on the way to the Gangs-Shun on Upper Tukcha Road. Changspa Road also seems nice. It’s peaceful to get out of the city center a bit.

More about the retreat

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Here’s how it went:

530 wake up

600 sitting meditation and dharma talk, then stretching/yoga

830 breakfast

930 sitting meditation and dharma talk, then walking meditation

1200 lunch and nap/whatever

200 sitting meditation and dharma talk, then walking meditation

430 tea break

530 yoga

630 dinner

730 sitting meditation and dharma talk

1000 sleep

Basic rules include the five precepts (don’t kill, steal, lie, sex, or drink), plus “noble silence”- don’t talk.

I guess this is all pretty standard. The hardest part was the “talk” part of the “meditation and talk”, because I didn’t see the point of it. The monk, Ven. Sanghasena, would just talk meanderingly about whatever for an hour or so. Often it seemed very basic or obvious. But then, he’s the enlightened one, and I’m just some guy.

I’m not sure if I want to run away and play video games, or sign up for a longer more direct retreat somewhere like Dharamsala. Probably the latter. Now seems as good a time as any to make some spiritual progress. Plus, India, y’know?

I have some posts queued up

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:23:00 +0000

but I can’t get my computer to any internet. Argh! I am in a guesthouse in Srinagar now that is far from things, the only internet is on this guy’s USB satellite thing, and that is a bummer. The whole place is a slightly sticky situation (not dangerous, just annoying) which I will explain further in a couple of days. In the meantime, I’m going on some trekking: a 2-day 1-night trip in Pahelgam, and then a 1-day trip in Gulmarg. I am mostly excited about this. It’s only double my India daily budget (so, about $60/day), and I hear Kashmir is wonderful, and I guess I’m interested to try this guided trekking anyway. Okay, it’s actually leaving in about a half hour, so time to go. More real content and pictures in a couple days, honest!

Back, and 10% more enlightened

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:52:00 +0000

Well it was a good retreat and all. Not perfect: a little talky, a little Buddhism 101, and well let’s just say Buddhist rock made an appearance. (it is entirely as bad as Christian rock.) Buddhism’s tricky: I guess I follow some sort of non-denominational Buddhism, but as with Christianity, “non-denominational” can be a blessing or an annoyance. But it was overall nice. I think I adapted to it smoother than my last retreat.

I keep trying to figure out how I’m getting to Srinagar. It is another 18-hour trip, and I’d like it to be not awful. Everyone says “book a shared taxi, not a bus, it is much better.” Okay. And the rates are only a little higher (… in US dollars). Most of the trips leave at 4pm and go for 18 hours straight. I’d like to stop and sleep on a bed overnight, if possible. We’ll see. I have to go check on that… right now.

More later, but for now: I’m alive, spirits are pretty good, health is pretty good.

There are two very tall things in Leh

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:37:00 +0000

First, the Shanti Stupa:(from far away)(up close. how is it so shiny? first, constant maintenance; second, it is only 20 years old.)

(view from there)

And then there is the former Leh Palace, with Namgyal Tsemo Gompa above it.

view of the gompa from the palace

View of the city from up there

to one of my fellow travelers: “hey, could you get a shot with me in it, because I never take them and my family will want me to.”

(the view from there)

Other things in Leh because it is the Ladakh Festival right now include polo, and monks wearing masks and dancing:

Other things that are in Leh all the time include shopping! If you want some things, I recommend asking Useless Wali. And if he doesn’t have the junk you need, I know where to find more junk.

That is what is in Leh! This afternoon I am going to a meditation course at the Mahabodhi Center. Let us hope that my constant sniffles (India allergy again?) don’t disrupt anyone else. I will be there for 3 days, so I’ll see you after that.

Bros of Ladakh

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:22:00 +0000

As you’re going down your Ladakh road

you’ll get a lot of encouragement from your friendly local bros. As in “Bro! Time is money, but life is precious!”

But these are no popped-collar, cowrie-shell, Dave Matthews bros. Here we are talking about the Border Roads Organization, who has kindly taken it upon themselves to post cute rhyming driving tips:

as well as shameless self-promotion:

and, well, the occasional head-scratcher:

We are in the Land of Gompas

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:12:00 +0000

So after a remarkable feat of sleeping on day 1 in Leh, I wanted to go see a thing or two on day 2. But as it’s still unwise to exert oneself when one is acclimating to high altitude, I rented a motorbike. (questionable? perhaps.)

A few monasteries (or “gompas”) of Ladakh presented a nice day’s schedule. Shey on the way out at 10km, Hemis at 40km, and then Thiksey about halfway back.

The biking was good: I at least sorta remembered what all the controls do, I turned corners well enough, and only once did I stall out in the middle of a busy intersection. So much more fun than cars! Arguably safer, or at least easier, too: the main road here is about wide enough for a bike and a car, but not two cars.

The gompas were also good. So I thought I might be sort of religiously interested in these, ‘cause they’re Buddhist and all, but it turns out that the kind of Buddhism that builds statues like this:estranges me about as much as any other religion. Still, the fact that they did have statues like this:

is cool on a “big statues are neat” level. Also:

(there is a body to that statue too. It is some 22 feet tall.)At one point I wandered into a room where these monks were sitting around reading a thing, with occasional breaks to play discordant drums, cymbals, and these sorta oboe-sounding horns.

Finally, they look amazing on the outside. Hemis:

and Thiksey:

The Manali-Leh Highway, or: Wow, that was far and away the most difficult trip I've ever taken

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:10:00 +0000

“Highway” is a bit of an overstatement. Shoot, “road” is a bit of an overstatement. There were roady bits, and then there were bits where we monster-trucked it over dirt and rocks. So, okay, so riding on the Manali-Leh highway is a little bit like riding the Blue Streak for 19 hours. Fine.

Did I mention it took 19 hours? Yow.

But the best part is the elevation: it starts in Manali (6000 feet), quickly climbs to about 12000-13000, and then… keeps going up. We hung out at about 15000 for a while, and the highest pass is 17470. Eventually it goes down to 11500, in Leh. But what this all means for you, dear reader, is that your whole journey is a big spin of the Wheel of Altitude Sickness.

(Altitude sickness apparently strikes pretty randomly. I think the only thing that can prevent it is already being acclimated to a high altitude. Being, say, a fit and clever lad of 25 doesn’t seem to matter. Having previous experience skiing at 9000-12000 feet with no problems also doesn’t seem to matter.)

At 2AM I was chipper. At 6AM the sun rose and I could see how beautiful all these mountains are, and by 8AM I was a lightheaded, weak, uncontrollably-shivering wreck. I put on all my clothes. It helped. But I still spent the next 8 hours pretty much suffering. It was at this point that the title for this post came together in my head.

At lunch, around 4, a couple of Europeans noticed I was having trouble. Maybe because I was slumped over on the couch/bed with my wallet in my hand, having fallen asleep before actually paying for my food. And, bless them, bless them again, they knew exactly what was up, confirmed my suspicions of altitude sickness, and gave me some aspirin and Diamox. I survived the rest of the trip more or less okay. And by that I mean, I still want to sleep for 96 hours right now, but, y’know, I’m all in one piece.

Oh! But about the actual scenery of the Manali-Leh highway, which was the reason I took this route, and indeed, one of the guiding forces for the early days of this trip: it is sublime. Dang. The mountains are so big! How can mountains be that big! It is like a set from Star Wars- sort of like Tatooine but not actually that because it’s much bigger than Tatooine. Whah! Words or pictures* cannot describe the enormity of those mountains. My pictures sure can’t, as I usually didn’t feel well enough to reach in my pocket and get my camera. Here are some other people’s pictures that might look better: A cyclist (whoa) in 1996, More Plains, a particularly great stretch, on wikipedia, another guy’s photos.

So, do I recommend the Manali-Leh highway? I’m actually not sure. I’m not planning to do it again. But I’m glad I got a glimpse into this remarkable moonscape. I’m glad I hung out in some parachute-dhabas and chatted with other travelers about how sick we were or weren’t. And if I’d had some Diamox from the beginning, it would have helped. Perhaps my friend Justin is right, in both ways: “Manali-Leh is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

This happened maybe 5 times.

skippable side note: I was just reading “Consciousness Explained” by Daniel Dennett, and he talks about this device for blind people. It has a video camera, and whatever images it sees, it projects onto this array of little vibratey things on a panel taped to the user’s stomach. So if the camera sees a circle, a circle of these little devices buzz. So it’s low-resolution, but the users get used to it pretty quickly, and they can recognize what things are, walk down the street, etc. The neat bit, though, is that the images don’t trigger the emotional response that they usually would! Dennett suggests that the reason is not because of the stomach thing, but just because it’s low-res. Think about it: if you saw a fuzzed-out picture of a beautiful flower, you probably wouldn’t think about how that’s so beautiful, like you would if you saw the sharp image. Anyway, this is all to say, my photos actually can’t trigger the right emotional responses that I’d want them to, and without that, they just look like a bunch of hills. Maybe (maybe) I’m starting to come around to the idea that getting good at photography is worth it.

A few more thoughts about Manali

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:43:00 +0000

One good walk you can take is to keep walking uphill from Vashisht to Bahang (past the lovely waterfall and weird meditation tarp camps), then cross the river to Goshal, turn right to Shanag, Burwa, and then to the Solang valley.

In the Solang valley you can do some adventure sports, including paragliding (which I think is somewhere between hang gliding and parasailing?). There is also a bus back to Manali, although a kind paragliding pilot offered me a ride back on his motorcycle instead. So if you want to do some paragliding, Ram (9816170161 or email ram_skyrider at yahoo) is at least a nice fellow.

Manali seemed like a holiday spot popular with Indians. I’m told it’s also a popular honeymoon destination. (Leh, on the other hand, is about half white people. These are both fine.)

In looking for services (hotels, trekking guides, travel agents, internet, things to buy) it seems like the thing to do is just avoid getting bamboozled, as most folks are pretty straightforward, and most services are comparable. Avoiding getting bamboozled is mostly easy to do. (it has been easier in Manali and Leh than in Delhi.) Nevertheless, some recommendations: Valley of Gods were helpful with travel planning, and Hotel Bhrigu was good.

More photos:

Waterfall

Goshal village

Days in India: 1. Times bamboozled: also 1.

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:07:00 +0000

Don’t worry, it was a minor bamboozlement. And while I’m too embarrassed to tell you what it was, I’ll tell you it wasn’t paying 10x the going rate for a SIM card. Most definitely not. It also didn’t involve a guy writing down numbers on a piece of paper, spouting vaguely phone-related words, and then adding them all up and me going “doh, well, okay”. Oh! And it most certainly did not include me trusting a guy who started talking to me on the street. That would be embarrassing, to get bamboozled like that.

I’m glad to be out of Delhi. I found it difficult. When you’re on your own, and you’re not paying a lot of money, you have to be on your guard for everyone trying to take more of your money, or worse. Plus it is hot like bejeesus, and it’s hard to find a place to be by yourself or kill some time.

It’s cool though, ‘cause I did see Delhi’s Jantar Mantar

(it is similar to the one that was in The Fall)

and now I’m in Manali, and here is the view from my hotel room:

Looks like I’ll be staying here for about a day and a half, and then heading up to Leh via an 18-hour bus.

Oh, and by the way, apropos of nothing, if you need to reach me, you can hit me up at +91-8130978631. (aka 011-91-8130978631)

Logistical useful notes:

bus from Delhi to Manali: there are a ton of them, I booked mine through redbus.in
bus from Manali to Leh: apparently there are many 1-day buses that leave at 2AM and arrive at 8PM. There are some semi-frequent buses that take 2 days, with a stopover in Sarchu (not recommended due to high altitude). Then there are even rarer buses that stop over in Keylong. (it is the 2nd now, there are one-day buses every day, Sarchu buses the day after tomorrow, and a Keylong bus on the 7th.) Finally, you could share a jeep; there is one going up on the 5th that stops in Sarchu. Or you could book your own jeep. Rates: 1-day: 1100-1200 rupees. 2-day: Rs1900-2100. Book your own jeep: Rs12000. Note that these are all for 11-seat minibuses. And booking the day before, I had no trouble getting seats.

It is such a whirlwind coming here!

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 06:11:00 +0000

I am going to blog so hard. There are a million thoughts in my head. Holy cow. (an expression which is entirely appropriate when talking about India.) I’ll try to keep it concise, but no guarantees.

On Tuesday afternoon, my flight took off from Cleveland. This morning at midnight:30, I arrived in Delhi. Here’s what happened in the middle:

A wonderful layover in Boston. I got to meet up with my friend Catie whom I hadn’t seen in a while. Boston looks like this:

They have some great Italian restaurants. And cannoli. Boston! This might be my favorite American city I’ve never lived in.

A nondescript layover in Frankfurt. Frankfurt, erm, airport looks like this:

Consuming lots of media in the meantime. Noteworthy: Rang de Basanti. Indian films! They always throw me for about three loops! This one: haha, it’s the story of some college kids filming a thing, and there’s some historical context but they’re silly, until all of a sudden, bam, (ahem) stuff gets real.

And finally, yes, I am here, in Delhi Friggin’ India, sitting in my hotel. Oh yes, I am back in it, grotty cheap hotels (well, I let them upsell me from the $8 basic room to the $13 AC room; inflation happens), fake english (on trucks: “horn please; use dippers at night”), and genial extortion of a couple extra bucks here and there. (taxi driver: so you can pay the Rs600 ($12) taxi fee with the hotel later, but if you want to give a tip, for good service, or because it was so late at night, you can do that now [long pause]. me: You know, it is late and I am exuberant; here is Rs100. he: oh, just 100? but that is so small. In your country that is $2, that is nothing, people from your country have lots of money. me: [long pause] well that is just how it is.)

Dear Lord, Tao, Universal Consciousness: Thank you for my youth, because this is exciting!

Doxycycline: take on an empty stomach

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:22:00 +0000

(one hour before and two hours after eating). Don’t take within 2-3 hours of anything with a lot of calcium, iron, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, or bismuth. Take with a glass of water. Don’t lie down for 10 minutes after taking. Start taking two days before the trip; continue for four weeks afterward.

So I’ve got a small amount of antibiotics in me now, messin’ up my innards a tiny bit but also keeping me safe from malaria. And I’m leaving tomorrow.

Yes, I’m excited. I’m super excited. Something like this trip has been a bit of a dream since at least August 13, 2007, when I announced to my friend Beej that we were going on the Mongol Rally. (My other friend Ram soon pointed out that the Rally seemed like a race, and therefore less fun than was possible; meanwhile he and Beej and Aaron all went and got themselves reasonable somewhat-stable lives that you can’t just up and quit for a while, so the Rally itself fell by the wayside.)

This trip itself, in its current incarnation, has been in planning for the last year and a half. It’s been in planning for so long that I couldn’t even start applying for visas when I first conceived it. Of course it’s a little hard to believe it’s happening.

I would be lying if I said I weren’t a bit worried. Not that anything bad will happen; I’m worried that I’ll miss out, that this “once in a lifetime experience” will just start happening and I may not grab enough bulls by enough horns. You don’t get many free years in your life; don’t waste them.

But that is not an attitude that is conducive to bull-horn-grabbing. So I’ll continue to look forward to what is happening and not worry about what’s not happening. Tomorrow after the bardo of flight, I’ll be in a land that smells worse and better than here, beginning a year that will change me whether I like it or not. Charge on with furious gusto!

I made a page about stuff I'm taking

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:08:00 +0000

If you are a red blooded American and like to buy stuff, or want to know why I don’t make fun of other people for buying clothes, or are wondering how I’m going to fit a year’s worth of gear in a 10 13 lb*, 28 L pack, have a look!

*My goal was 10 lbs. The juggling balls push it over.

Hack me.

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:45:00 +0000

Not really. But do take a look at my security plan and let me know if I’ve forgotten anything, or left anything a little less secure than it should be. That’s right, computery friends: have at thee! (warning to non-computery friends: this could get geeky.)

First, cyber security assumptions, which actually make the whole thing somewhat easier to wrap your head around: if you can log into my Google account, game over (or rather, the “game” of recovering from identity theft begins). You can recover passwords to lots of other stuff by asking them to email it to you. So I can reduce the security of a lot of other things to “as secure as my google account.” This is simple, and if I have to trust one company not to get hacked, Google is as good as any.

So, let’s look at possible scenarios:

Google password stolen (somehow): I just took the plunge and enabled 2-factor authentication. So you’d have to have my password and my phone to log into any of my stuff.

Google password forgotten: I don't think I've ever done this. But I could go through the forgot-your-Google-password rigamarole and eventually get back in.

Google auth token stolen, i.e. someone logs in as me somehow: that is bad. But they still don't have my password, so it's only a one-time disaster- they can't lock me out or anything, and if I see it happening, I can log them out.

Phone stolen: I’ve got a PIN lock on it. Sure, you could break that eventually. So I’ve installed “Android Lost” on it to remote-wipe it as soon as I get back to a computer. (it’s developed by some guy, and I’m a little leery of trusting so much to just-some-guy. You log in with your Google account, via oauth?, so I don’t think even the app maker can access it. The site’s not https, which I think is a bad thing: it means some guy snooping your packets could log in to the site as you and run any of the commands. Most of the time this isn’t disastrous; all info is sent to your email. But it’s on his radar, and I’ll not use the site much anyway.

Anyway, Android ought to come with a remote-wipe service; it does if you have Google Apps for your business, but not for consumers.)

Phone lost: Android Lost will take care of that much-nicer situation. I can send a message to the phone, get GPS coordinates of it, etc., so I’ll find it somewhere.

Passport lost/stolen: welp, next week is embassy week! Nothing to be done here. I’ve got copies of it and all my visas online, which might help, but it’s not like I can just print myself a new passport.

Incidentally, I just sewed a new pocket inside my pants.

If a pickpocket gets his hand in this pocket, I’ve got bigger problems.

Computer lost: It’s got a password lock on the screen, so it’ll be a brick to whoever finds it.

Computer stolen: that, plus the hard disk is encrypted.

Wallet lost/stolen: I’ve got an “emergency card” with my passport. It’s got contact numbers so I can call my banks and cancel my credit cards. It’s also got Google Authenticator codes so I can log into my Google account even without my phone.

All my belongings are taken from me and I’m teleported into an unfamiliar place, much like the Terminator: As soon as I get online, I can call my parents to help me get an access code so I can log into my Google account (backup phone number). Then I can get all my credit card phone numbers, embassy phone numbers, etc, and start fixing things. Then I’ll beat up some dudes and steal their clothes.

Moral of the story: the cloud is wonderful, and security is hard. So now! What bizarre recovery scenario have I missed, and what obvious security hole have I left open?

Travel Insurance, or, have I done anything wrong yet?

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:46:00 +0000

I got some insurance. I really only need medical insurance, so that in the case of a terrible catastrophe I don’t, in the words of my dad, “come back with a mortgage.” (he sure knows how to strike fear into my heart.)

I don't need much in terms of cancellation insurance or stuff insurance. If my stuff gets stolen or a flight gets canceled, I'll buy new stuff, for less than the cost of an insurance policy. Or maybe I'll just stay where I am! Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.

Anyway, medical. I'm looking for a high max coverage (mortgage mortgage), I'm not too picky about the deductible (nothing bad ever happens ever), and I don't want to get hosed. Approximate prices for a year of coverage:

World Nomads: $600, $100k max

International SOS, including medical: $1000

MedexAssist: $1500

Some other site I don't remember: also $1500

IMGlobal: $350, $500k max (customizable)

I feel like I must have missed something. How can different companies be off by a factor of 4? But I read through the plan a couple times and it looks pretty foolproof. And IMGlobal is a legit company. Chalk it up to truly just buying what I want, I guess.

Cleveland: It's Not Bad, You Might Like It

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:44:00 +0000

New marketing campaign. Or maybe “Our economy’s no longer based on Lebron James”.

How about “We got big piles of salt” or

“Come see our waterfalls and learn what tent caterpillars are” or

“Sometimes it’s sunny, and sometimes it’s stormy” or actually Amtrak says it best:

Yes! To be honest, there are a lot of great things you can point out about Cleveland: disproportionately many big museums, good restaurants, and fine arts; sports and more sports; most people are nice; it’s rather idyllic in the summer; and actually there are cool neighborhoods to live in. But unless you’re trying to decide where to move, don’t waste your time worrying about “which city is better.”

Because it’s not wonderful. It’s got a lot of issues: car-centric sprawl, crime, unemployment, etc. But the flaws make it exciting to explore, and Cleveland’s got lots of hidden corners. It feels bigger than it is. It feels huge. You can live in it for years and keep finding new parts of it. Not that you’d want to go back to, say, Garfield Heights all the time. But you might be there, and it’d be hot and bricky and there’d be restaurants with names like “Belly Backers”, and then you drive north and you’re in the land of historic big houses in Shaker Heights, and then a little further north you can hit up the Cedar Lee, Cleveland’s main (only?) non-mainstream theater, in Cleveland Heights. Or you might be out with a friend who’d tell you about the hidden Whiskey Island/Wendy Park, right on the waterfront but hard to get to. These are nice things.

When I'm at home, it's more talk, less pictures

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Sometimes I try to think about this trip, why I’m doing it, what I want to get out of it. When we think about big vague questions like this, without any clear directions, we end up telling stories. Some stories you can tell about long-term travel:

1. It doesn't sound like fun (the "satisficer" story)

This is one thing you could say, that I of course disagree with. Well, sort of. There are (at least) two kinds of "happinesses" and correspondingly at least a couple of kinds of fun. Travel is fun in the remembered mind; not as much in the moment. But this assumes that "fun" or "happiness" is a number you're trying to maximize. Hold that thought.

2. It's a long fun vacation, and therefore irresponsible (the "archie bunker" story)

3. It's a long fun vacation, and therefore totally rad, bro (the "hedonist" story)

Jason Peters's essay against "vacation" comes to mind here. In short, vacation is a symptom of the unhealthy outlook we've developed towards our lives. Traveling doesn't mean you're taking a break from something, and one would do well to integrate it with our lives instead of thinking of it as a time out before we get back to our crummy grind. In this case, I'd come down closer to the hedonists than the Archie Bunkers. But if vacation isn't the goal, what is?

4. It'll actually help you with your career, dear aimless college graduate (the "careerist" story)

Nomadic Matt would agree here. Nomad Lawyer Paul Karl Lukacs would then demolish him. 's fine. It probably depends on your industry; if you're something new and hip and entrepreneurial like a "social media consultant" (ugh), your travels probably will help you find or create a job. If you're something more established like a lawyer or banker (ugh), probably not. Either way, I'm heading to grad school (insh'allah), so I'm not so worried about that here.

5. It'll lead to some greater appreciation of life or whatever (the "deep travel" story)

I got the term from Tony Hiss. Any number of travel blogs will sell you this story. Wait, not quite, let me amend that:

6. It'll lead to some greater appreciation of life or whatever, but only if you get "off the beaten path" (the "not-a-tourist" story)

Any number of travel blogs will sell you this story. Some examples I used to read: Nomadic Matt, Everything Everywhere, Go Backpacking, Almost Fearless. Apparently travel blogging is a small industry now. (along with writing books like "Eat, Pray, Love" I guess.) I'm a little soured on most travel blogs because they posit traveling as the answer to everything, talk about really getting off the beaten path, and then write a lot about southeast asia, hanging out on the beach, making new friends, and trying scuba diving. There's nothing wrong with this! But it's nothing profound!

Backlash against travel bloggers sometimes makes a few waves, like Caitlin Rolls's essay in Thought Catalog. That's a little off too; I don't just want to go party with some new short-term friends. Jessa Crispin's response is probably closest to what I'm trying to say.

It's a lot of new experiences and a lot of different memories. Much like a machine-learning system can be improved in unpredictable ways by adding more data, life can be improved by adding more diverse memories. That's my story for now. That, and:

7. It seems like a good idea at the time. (the "Gramp" story)

Oh I am back in the Midwest!

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:12:00 +0000

And so here I am (post written on Tuesday) in Chicago, city of broad streets, where I remember some things about our country:

sometimes it is 80 degrees and humid
public water fountains are really lovely
sometimes people are not white
we love our concrete

Yes yes yes yay. It’s this last one that causes me to wax particularly nostalgic for a little bit of this post-industrial concrete wasteland, a little reminder of our country’s gritty past (if you’re rich) or present (if you’re not). It’s awful, it’s dirty, it makes heat ten times worse, but it is the city that I grew up in and the city I came of age in, and it is one distinct type of landscape, with its own rusted, chunky beauty.

And you can find this grimy appeal particularly on the Bloomingdale Trail, an abandoned rail line near I think Wicker Park. Here’s more info, and here’s a photo or two.

The highlight of my stay, of course, was getting to spend some time with my good friends Erik and Dave. But more interestingly to you: The zoo is free. The city is so flat with a nice lakeside trail, so biking is quite a pleasure. Intelligentsia is apparently the coffee roaster, but a couple others whose names I forget are making an appearance. Pour-over coffee is big, figuratively and literally (16oz?!). And the Museum of Contemporary Art is one of the better museums I’ve been to recently.

Tracking my location: Latitude?

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:51:00 +0000

Dear techy friends: I’d like to keep track of where I am on this trip. I don’t really want to share it real-time, but it’d be nice to record my lat/long every so often (once a day is fine), even if I don’t have internet (italics means that’s important!), and perhaps publish it after-the-fact on my blog.

A bunch of apps will track you short-term, like if you're going on a run or a hike. The only one I know of that tracks you long term is Google's Latitude. It wants you to share your location with friends, but I could just not add any friends. The main sticking point is that I'm not convinced that it will work without internet. Any ideas?

Travel update: I'm in Chicago, it's big and exciting, and my friend Erik and I have walked to Intelligentsia, a zoo, and two delicious restaurants; drunk wines that I didn't know existed; and eaten the bellies of two different animals. (at the restaurants, not at the zoo.) It has been a wonderful, and decadent, day.

![](/images/itenseaslad/2011/img_20110807_175523.jpg)

It is hot here, flat and griddy, and sometimes it rains for serious. I like it.

My mom was afraid I'd have to sleep in a train seat for two days, or, Greetings from the Dharma Lounge

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 22:36:00 +0000

So it was nighttime, so I stumbled around the train, and found this cafe/lounge car. It has two rows of four seats each, which made perfect beds. One was taken, so I sprawled out on the other. The next morning, I found that my companion, Jampel, a twenty-something white guy like myself, was a Buddhist monk. His friend Tsundru joined us, and we spent the rest of the trip hanging out and talking Buddhism and things. (and juggling.)

It is interesting and humbling to hear about Buddhist experiences of other young folks like me. Well, it’s rare, is all. They brought up an interesting point: sure, Buddhism’s been around forever, but is young in America, so there aren’t these huge organizations about it. I might like Buddhism because I’m confident that it’s not hogwash, but I knew it before it was cool.

The train car attendant, Tashi, not only let us hang out in our own little lounge, but joined us and brought some tea. Turns out he was Tibetan, and used to be a monk himself for 17 years. Wonderful! ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་།! It is also exciting to talk about Tibet, Nepal, and India with fellows who know about it and can share my excitement.

Washington is bigger than I thought (and we slept through most of it), Montana is wonderful,

North Dakota is only a little less beautiful, and only in Minnesota and Wisconsin does it start to feel a little more developed. Oh, and we’re 8 hours behind schedule (bringing the total trip to 53 hours). There’s a water tap on the train, the food is a bit pricey but fine (I’d bring my own more next time), bathrooms and leg room are plentiful, the observation car has ceiling windows, rest stops are rare but enjoyable, and the whole thing feels a lot more human/less soul-crushey than planes.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Journey of Two Thousand Miles

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:23:00 +0000

To quote The Lion King Video Game, “It starts.” To quote LCD Soundsystem, “This is happening.” Well! This is Take One for the trip, the trial run, the first leg: 45 hours on a train from here to Chicago. I’m sitting in the station now, the train’s been delayed an hour and a half, I’m a little thirsty and pretty sweaty, and I feel a few emotions that average out to great!

First, there’s the catharsis of moving out. I finished packing up my apartment today. Weird how, even when you don’t like stuff, you accumulate a lot of stuff.

Clockwise from the top left: clothes, technology, a huge burrito of outdoor gear, desky things in a box, Domos and Androids, tools, my round-the-world pack 1.0, and fancy clothes in my grandpa’s classy suitcase. (not pictured: about 20 books.) And that’s just the stuff I’m keeping! The rest of it, I don’t have to worry about ever again.

Second, there’s the slight sadness. I’d expected it to be sadder; I’m either quite adept at dealing with the sadness or quite awful in that I’m just holding it in. I guess I’ve had a foot out the door for about a year and a half. (N.B. I don’t recommend this.) So the sadness is there, but it’ll kick in more later.

So third, finally, and primarily, now I’m left with the start-of-trip jitters/excitement. And not even jitters, because this part is easy: I get on a train, I see friends, I get on another train, I see family. I kick back in Westlake OH for a couple weeks surrounded by people I love. Life is easy, life is good, thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever.

Practical Shipping Tips: USPS parcel post tends to be about N + 5 dollars, where N is the number of pounds. Shape/size doesn't matter unless it's huge (length + girth > 108 inches; even the burrito there is only 78). You can ship stuff in duffel bags; just make sure the address is securely affixed. I shipped the burrito, grandpa's classy suitcase, the toolbox, and the office stuff (in another duffel), for about $90. Finally, shipping books is hella cheap via media mail; about half the price of parcel post.

I'm leaving on Thursday on a train, and some info about driveaways

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:19:00 +0000

A “driveaway” is where someone needs a car moved from A to B, so you drive it for them. It sounds like a great way to get from point A to point B! Here’s how you can set one up:

- find a friend of a friend who needs a car moved. This is ideal.

- post on a rideshare board, like erideshare.com, saying that you're looking for a driveaway.

- post on craigslist or something; I never got this to work so I don't know how's best to do so.

- go through a company called Auto Driveaway. They maintain (to put it generously) this site, and if you find a car you want to drive, call them up and work out the details.

The friend of a friend is best, because if you work this out with a stranger, there's no real official way to do it, so you kind of have to trust each other. The car owner's insurance will cover the driver, and you could try signing some kind of contract to work out the details, but no guarantees.

Auto Driveaway is great in theory, but in practice it's a bit sketchy. I noticed 3 cars listed online, so I called them up to find that those 3 were gone but there were 2 more available, and I agreed to drive one to Chicago. A few days later, I called back to find that that car was unavailable (a week before I planned to leave), but I could try to call back on Monday about another car going to Virginia.

More details about working with Auto Driveaway: generally, the driver has to pay the gas. They'll let you drive any route within 20% of the most efficient route (so if you're going Seattle-Chicago, which would be about 2000 miles direct, you can go 2400 miles) and they'll let you take up to 10 days. And if you're calling up Auto Driveaway Seattle, Tiffany is super friendly; Scott is rather... direct.

If you're willing to deal with the sketchiness, unafraid of having to deal with them if the car breaks down or something else unfortunate happens, and super flexible with your travel dates (i.e. you can just pick up and leave whenever), maybe doing a driveaway would be great! As it is, I am not.

This is a long way of saying, I was going to do this epic road trip, but now I'm instead going to do an epic train trip. Thursday-Saturday on the Empire Builder to Chicago, stay a couple days with Dave and Erik in Chicago, and then on to Cleveland on Tuesday. The wheels are getting in motion! The ignition sequence has begun! All around the world, here we go!

Sitting in the "real" Seattle, before setting out to the "fake" India

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:18:00 +0000

From the Atlantic: “What makes a place ‘real’?”

When you say “I want to get to know the ‘real’ New York” or London or Paris or whatever, you’re probably saying “I want to be an insider there”, and you probably don’t.

I follow the Couchsurfing Seattle message board. Probably about once a day, someone posts “Hey, I’m traveling through Seattle, want to recommend some places that are the ‘real’ Seattle? I’m not interested in touristy things, I’m more interested in the offbeat stuff, you know, off the beaten path, really just want to get to know what Seattle is actually like.”

Dear all of these people: I guess what you’re saying is “I want to get to know some people there.” And Couchsurfing is indeed one of the best ways to do that, as far as I can tell. The people you’re likely to meet are among the more outgoing folks, and you’re likely to make short-term, shallow friendships. This is all fine. Know that that is what you’re asking for.

Because if you “want to know the real Seattle,” you want to be an insider here. And to be an insider here, almost by definition, you have to live here. Get a job, find an apartment, every week go do something you don’t like in order to spend some time with people you think you might like. And there are opportunity costs to this! This is probably not what you want, especially if you’re just on vacation.

“But for people whose place was once in the center, accepting a narrative that places them somewhere else is a tough adjustment.” You’ll likely want to feel like an insider, even if you can’t be one. Here’s my challenge to you: be honest with yourself, realize that you are asking to be an insider, and accept that you are not. There’s no shame in that. And when you realize that that is all you want, it’ll be easier to let it go.

Insurance. Do you know about it?

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 03:41:00 +0000

I’ve been advised to get some travel insurance. Seems reasonable. (and by that I mean, seems unreasonable, but it seems like the kind of thing I ought to think is reasonable.)

I guess I’ll also need some health insurance for 3 months, because I turn 26 (and thus am off my mom’s health plan) in May, and don’t start grad school (where presumably I could get on the university’s plan) until August.

Here’s the thing. Travel insurance covers crazy emergency illnesses, loss of limbs, repatriation of remains*, etc. That’s the only thing I’m worried about anyway- if I get a tummyache I’ll deal with it myself. Could I get by with just travel insurance until August? Or does that mean I’m “off the rails”, there’s a gap in my Official American Health Insurance Coverage, and things get difficult or expensive when I try to sign up again?

This means “if you die we fly your body back home”. Why is this such a big deal? If I die, bury me wherever I am! Geez.