India is a country of many contradictions. It’s an extremely religious place, where people regularly exhibit their observance through visible signs on their person, like bindis and turbins, and visits en masse to their temples and mosques. Although the dominant religions encourage peace and respect, India’s history is replete with religious wars and religiously-motivated riots and assassinations. And yet, in this country of religious-based conflict, people of different faiths seem to coexist in harmony. Well, at least that’s what I saw. While India’s major religion [View Full Entry]

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Who would have thought that in the middle of India’s most organized city - a planned city designed by a Swiss architect using a grid system!!! - you could find a child’s paradise, the park that would have been in the yard behind Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The park is all fountains, waterfalls, archways only tall enough for an 8-year old to go through without bending, mosaics and hundreds of mini statues… The artist used recycled materials to build the park and his creations. Aside from the Taj, it’s the place where I took the most photos even though we were [View Full Entry]

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Upon my return home from the trip I was singing the praises of the Indian transport system when a friend pointed out that the news often reports on Indian train and bus accidents. His comment suddenly triggered my memory of collisions involving huge numbers of casualties, which I’d somehow managed to block out while I was there. But now while consciously aware of those realities, I’m still really impressed by the Indian transport system, the frequency of its buses and trains as well as the wide spectrum of classes available. Dave and I used what seemed to be every possible metho [View Full Entry]

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How can you visit the north without a trip to Agra? We had to build this in to the trip because I couldn’t imagine landing in Delhi and heading north without a quick detour south. Agra is not only the site of the Taj Mahal, but also several other architectural delights. In fact, we spent the greater part of the day visiting these other monuments before heading to the Taj itself. We first saw a mausoleum that people say was a model for the Taj and hence is referred to as “The Baby Taj.” It was fun to see the cows [View Full Entry]

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Before going, I imagined that I wouldn’t be able to eat Indian food for two weeks solid. Well, that may well be true, but even though I interspersed my Indian meals with Tibetan or other food, I pretty much ate only Indian during the trip and never got sick from or sick of the food. There was such amazing variety and I learned to love things I’d never tasted before. I recommend dosa masala (a paper thin crepe filled with spiced potatoes) and kulcha a.k.a stuffed parantha (more or less like naan stuffed with spiced potatoes, cauliflower, etc.) Yum!!! But… stay [View Full Entry]

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Dave and I didn’t have much of a plan. When we’d spoken on the phone, we’d decided that the best way to enjoy India was to avoid the cities. We thought we’d spend a good part of the trip hiking, either near Simla or Manali, to escape the summer heat and another part of the trip doing yoga in Rishikesh or close by. But, when I got to India and started reading the Lonely Planet and enjoying the sights, it was actually the cities that drew me in. And so… we saw 13 cities in 13 days. Here’s how it went: [View Full Entry]

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