Travel Blog Posts
March 30th 2010
Well, I been home for one week. It has been quite an experience. I feel very fortunate to have gone on this trip at this time with this group. We had a great time. The weather couldn't have been better. I liked the people of Nepal a lot. I'm not sure of their political future. The Maoists had another strike in Kathmandu while we were in Chitwan. Luckily, it was all over before we got to Kathmandu. Kathmandu is in a valley surrounded by mountains and is a city of almost a million people. The road leading to India to from Kathmandu is just a two lane road snaking through the mountains. It took almost two hours of heavy truck traffic to get into the city with significant smog. Once in the city, the roads branch ... read more
March 18th 2010
I am enjoying Nepal. I had a great birthday starting with sunrise view of the Annapurnas and hike down the mountain to Pokhora. (It was more challenging than I thought). Then breakfast at the hotel. At breakfast my fellow travellers gave me a Nepalese hat, a Tibetian singing bowl and a hand made birthday card with a picture of Shiva painted on a dried banyon leaf. Very beautiful... I'm going to frame it. Quite a way to start a birthday! We then drove by bus to Chitwan through the mountains to the lower plains arriving mid afternoon. I took a very interesting walk through the local village. The kids all wanted their pictures taken and I had fun taking them. Then we walked to an elephant breeding center. Before dinner we danced with a native tribal ... read more
March 15th 2010
Greetings from the top of the world! The day began at 5PM driving to the mountain at the edge of Pokhara. We drove half way up the mountain. It took about an hour to hike to the top from there. I was winded by the time we reached the top. Spectacular views. The mountains are amazing. The Annapurnas are only 800 meters lower than Mount Everest. It was still cloudy at sunrise but the clouds cleared after about half an hour. We then had early morning chai at a tea house near the top and then walked back down to the coach. We visited a Shiva temple deep in an underground cave and took a boat ride to an island in the middle of the lake for a visit to a Durga temple. Nice boating on ... read more
March 14th 2010
Last night we drove to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. There was a special festival next to our hotel last night for the dedication of new Krishna temple area. Singing and dancing and play acting of Krishna, Rudra and Gopi girls. very interesting (and very loud). This morning we visited Buddha's birthplace and stuppas. Surrounding this area are Buddhist monastaries from all over the world. We were supposed to go to Chitwa National Park today for a safari. However, there was a Maoist strike that closed the road to Chitwa so we decided to go to Pokhara instead. The trip was very scenic, driving through mountain villages with incredible views. We hope to return to Chitwa the day after tomorrow if things have settled down. Tonight we had dinner at an outdoor Nepalese restaurant next to ... read more
March 12th 2010
Very full days. Lots of experiences. Here are some of them. This has been a great trip. Last night after dinner in a large open air hotel courtyard, six of us piled in to a tiny auto rickshaw, including Bob hanging on th back, for a ride back to our hotel. We must have looked quite a site! Tomorrow we have a 10 hr bus ride to Lumbini, Nepal ... the birthplace of Buddha. Then a 3 day jungle safari. I doubt if I will have internet there.... read more
March 11th 2010
It's 8:40AM in Varanasi and we are waiting for our rooms to become available. We arrived by train at 6:30AM from Agra. My camera cable is packed in my luggage so I don't have any pictures to upload now but I took some good ones. Yesterday's sunrise over the Taj Mahal was breathtaking. You have to be there to experience it. Pictures do not do it justice. We also saw Akbar's red fort yesterday and his 40 acre tomb with deer and antelope. Palace included separate grounds and courtyards for each of his 4 wives (each of a different religion) and a large area for his 12,000 concubines. unbelievable! Last night we took a sleeper train. It was a large train station but a narrow road conjested road leading to it. The train station itself was ... read more
March 9th 2010
Today we had a long drive to Agar. The 4 lane toll road ran along many villages and farming areas. It was also used by more than motor vehicles. Cows in India are free to wander where they wish in the city or along the highways. Herds of sheep, cows and camel caravans also shared the road. There was also a constant pilgrimage procession of people walking in the opposite direction toward Jaipur on the road. Over 500,000 people are making a biannual 120 mile walk to a Hanuman festival this week near Jaipur. The stream of people was continuous all day on our trip from Jaipur to Agar. We stopped to tour the "ghost palace" about an hour from Agar. It was built by the first Mogul ruler of India. Very immense. It was only ... read more
March 9th 2010
Another full day. Jaipur is home of some of the maharajas of India. Their immense castles have survived more than some others in India because they made friends with who ever conquered them, including the Monguls and the British. Amazing wealth!! In the morning we saw the Wind Castle and the Vedic Observatory. The observatory was built 280 yrs ago and has 18 instruments or yantras, half of them are for astronomical and half for astrological measurement. very interesting. Also did some snake charming and went to a rug factory making oriental or in this case Indian rugs. Went through a museum displaying clothes, history and artifacts of all the past maharajas of Rajastan. The afternoon was spent touring more of the castles in the area. We finished off the evening at a local restaurant. You ... read more
March 7th 2010
It's 2AM. I woke up and thought I would do a little blogging since the one computer in the hotel seems to be being used much of the time. Started the day with a large breakfast at Hotel Connaught in Delhi. Then started our trip to Jaipur in Rajastan. We stopped at the World War 1 memorial and Parliment / Embassy buildings on the way. Then the long trip on a 4 lane toll road to Jaipur began. Toll road finished 4 yrs ago, mostly truck traffic. Many interesting scenes of rural Indian life as we passed by small villages with cows roaming where ever they wanted to. We checked into the Hotel Paridise on the outskirts of Jaipur about 4. Very nice hotel with large rooms and swimming pool on roof. We will be here ... read more
March 6th 2010
The trip over went well. We were delayed 90 minutes in Baltimore because of wind in Newark. My Dermetogolist and his family were on the same flight from Balt to Delhi for a 2 wk vacation. They are Indian. Was a little concerned about missing my connecting flight in Newark to Delhi but we made it with a few minutes to spare .... and my luggage made it too. 14 hr flight over Norway and Sweden, Moscow and Afghanistan to Delhi. The 777 plane was completely full but food and service was good and I managed to sleep some. Traffic here is amazing, no rules except that the largest vehicle has right of way. Horns are used (constantly) instead of turn signals. (no one uses turn signals.) Such a mass of people! Raunak hotel was nothing ... read more
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