Nepal and the Bus Ride from Heck

Note the Smashed Windshield

It was 1:40 in the morning and as dark outside as I imagine it to be deep down in a coal mine. There were about 40 of us on the bus, some 10 odd travelers, the rest Nepalese heading home from India for the Holi celebration, the festival that mirrors the water festivities in Myanmar and Thailand. We all sat in hushed silence, like little mice, not knowing what to expect next. It had taken us five hours to reach this point, only about 20 kilometers into Nepal and it had been a bit of an adventure so far. More was to come.

Rajasthan – Jai Ho!

March 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Jai Ho! 

As you would expect, Slum Dog Millionaire has hit India like a tsunami. The signature song by A. R. Rahman can be heard playing everywhere, and around the time of the Oscars, newspapers were full of stories praising Director Danny Boyle and the cast which featured real residents of Mumbai’s slums.

Kama Sutra for Dummies

Dear Family and Friends,

Khajuraho is said to be on the road from nowhere. To nowhere. But for tourists going to India, a trip to this remote area to see the village’s many famous temples has become as big a draw as has been the mandatory trek to Agra, to view the Taj Mahal, and to Varanasi, to visit the spiritual home of Hinduism.

My Bus From Gwalior to Jhansi

Incredible India

Dear Family and Friends,

Incredible India! This is the motto Tourism India has chosen to entice visitors to this amazing country. More than one billion people toil and roil in this, the second most populous, and seventh largest in geographic area, country in the world.

India is a country of considerable beauty ranging from the snow capped Himalayan Mountains to western deserts, to beautiful beaches, to forest lands and to the dazzling green paddies of rice in the south. It has 5,000 years of recorded, often glorious, history and it is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. As well, India has a generally working democracy forged from a culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse population.

Incredible it is for sure. But also in ways not intended by Tourism India. It is simply not possible to ignore the incredible squalor. Arriving in India is an assault on the senses more stupefying than anywhere else I have been. For the third time I have now come to visit, and each arrival takes my breath away, nothing seems to prepare one for the chaos one confronts, not even previous visits.

Me & My Rickshaw, Delhi

Bali Ha'i

Lorraine with Hindu God, Bali

Dear Family and Friends,

Bali Ha'i. South Pacific. That exotic and romantic story, play, and movie of interracial love popularized an unattainable place of innocence and happiness, the island of Bali Ha'i somewhere in the South Pacific. In the movie the song Bali Ha'i, as sung by Bloody Mary, was a haunting, enticing call of enchantment, but it was also a tantalizing call to anyone who had travel thoughts. As did I, in 1958, when the movie was released.

Bali Ha'i May Call You,
any Night, Any Day,
in Your Heart, You'll Hear It Call You:
"Come Away...Come Away."

No Worries

Dear Family and Friends, 

“Jelena’s Dream Over” screamed the front page headline of the Melbourne Herald Sun. Jelena Dokic, ex Serbian now Australian, had just lost her match in the round of sixteen at the Australian Open Tennis Championship, and with it Australia lost its hope for a ‘home grown’ champ in this year’s event. Jelena bowed out to Russian Diana Safina, who in turn, lost in the final to Serena-does-my-ass-look-big-in-this-outfit Williams. Oops.

Australia is the only place I know where the prime space in newspapers is reserved for sporting news. Not just some days, but pretty much every day The Australian, The Age, and other national newspapers reserve space on their first page for sports, whether it be ‘footy’, Australian rules, cricket, golf or any other sport followed by sports mad Australians. News of lesser import, turmoil in the mid-East, the global economic meltdown, domestic woes, and national politics etc. find space on inside pages.

Well, g'day folks, I'm traveling again.