It’s been a few weeks now & I’m finally psychologically “home” as in “back from travels” (In addition to our trip to the genetic LOMP (Land Of My People), we had a quick trip to the historical LOMP: North Carolina). As is the case after all my big trips, I return with lots of thoughts and reflections from my adventures… I like writing them down especially for myself, but also in hopes that some of you will find them at least entertaining.

If you want to skip all my blather & just go look at the pics, check out My Top 25 pix &/or the Next Best 60 pix, but otherwise, what follows is a series of thoughts & comments from our trip:

(Feel free to just jump around to the parts that sound interesting, or read it all the way through… )

• Were You Really Looking?
• My 3 Favorite Things
• Chains of Trust
• Chai Ho!
• Indo China
• TechnoTravels
• Bikes
• How Did the Missus Like It?

WERE YOU REALLY LOOKING?:

I’ve now traveled to India 3 times as an adult (in addition to a handful of times as a child) & think that I’m starting to understand it a tiny bit. I’ve spent more time in India than any other foreign country by a long shot. It’s a hard but rewarding country.

I never quite get it when travelers tell me that they “loved India” or “hated India” – to me it is always so much more complicated. To both sets of people, my question is “were you really looking?”, because in the same 5 minutes I’d find something I loved juxtaposed with something I hated.

I guess maybe people mean “I loved traveling in India” or “I hated traveling in India.” I can completely understand both of those sentiments. For a Westerner, India is loud, intense, smelly, trashed, and above all else, chaotic. It is also rich, colorful, fascinating, simultaneously ancient & new, diverse, and rambunctiously alive. In the end, India is all of the above, and intensely so.

(back to Contents) Click HERE for more…

[Ed. Note: This post is 4 months late. The trip was 8/15 to 9/10/11. Now that no one cares, I thought I'd post about it. I've been trying to write this for months, but really I was too focused on this project at work to make it happen...  If you want to just look at my PICTURES, here they are, but I think the pix are better if you read this post & vice versa...]

[Ed. Note II: I was in China for less than a month. I saw a tiny, tiny, fraction of the country in terms of square miles.  I met maybe 150 Chinese people.  I had more than a "Hi, can I buy that?" conversation with maybe 10 (being REALLY generous).  Nonetheless, I'm about to post something now that makes vast sweeping generalizations about an entire nation of over a billion people and thousands of years of history, with languages I can neither read nor write.  So please accept everything I say here as gospel from someone who knows everything.  I certainly do.

In all seriousness: I hope I don't offend anyone (esp. my Chinese friends) with my thoughts and impressions - I really am just trying to understand what I saw & felt while in a fascinating and very different place.]

 

 

Our hero in the Great Taklamakan Desert

 

A few months back, I was whisked off to China by my girlfriend to experience her step-mother country.  Kimberly, although pretty damn white, has studied Mandarin since she was very young & then majored in Chinese studies in college & lived there for a total of 8 years.  I knew she was missing China, so it should have come as no surprise when she hijacked our planned trip to India by taking us to China instead.

I recovered from this by planning to trade her for a panda. Perhaps two.

Unbeknownst to me, she subverted that plan by having us head to the far western deserts of China along the Silk Road.  Pandas are NOT in the desert. Sigh. (She’s tricksy!)

Luckily, I found a new fascination soon after arriving in China: looking for signs of happiness.

But, before we get into that, a brief map:

View China Trip 2011 in a larger map
We landed in Hong Kong, then flew to Beijing, spent a week or so there, and then started heading consistently west, more or less along the route of the Silk Road: We took an overnight train to the ancient capital Xi’an, spent a couple of days there, then took a 26 hr train ride to Dunhuang (sort of the gateway to the West). We then flew to Urumqi, the most remote city from any sea in the world according to Guinness, and the biggest city in Xinjiang, the western-most province. From Urumqi, we flew to Kashgar near the border with Pakistan, and spent a few days there exploring the edge of China, before flying east to Shanghai & then back to Hong Kong.

Click HERE for more…

This post is a brief collection of thoughts and impressions that didn’t fit into my in depth and more thoughtful (I hope) post on China (see above). I recommend that one if you’re only going to read one of my China posts. But if you prefer little tidbits sized chunks of randomness from my month in the PRC, here they are! (Also, if you want to just look at my PICTURES, click here.)

As I said in my other post: I hope I don’t offend anyone (esp. my Chinese friends) with my thoughts and impressions – I really am just trying to understand what I saw & felt while in a fascinating and very different place.]

• Unsurprisingly, knockoffs of Western brands were plentiful but this is my MOST FAVORITE ONE EVAR: I give you Clio Coddle.
  When I first saw it I simply chuckled, but something about the name really stuck with me and I had to think about it for a few minutes. Suddenly I realized the “Clio Codile” was probably an Asian L-R-switch attempt to pronounce “Crocodile” – it is simply a filtered onomatopoeia! This cracks me up no end.
  

Click HERE for more…

This is a live Google Map so click & scroll away! (Created with My Maps Plus)

NOTE: This is my final post about my month of traveling – if you want to skip the chatter & JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE PIX, CLICK HERE – there is a SMALL set of PIX & a COMPLETE set of pix.
Also, if you want to see all my travel posts to this point click HERE.

As many of you know I just got back from almost a month in the Olde Country – India. It was a big and fascinating trip – and there was a lot I liked about it & honestly some big things I *really* didn’t like about it. There was both much fun and much not fun. Some of that had to do with India & some of that had to do with the fact that I was LARGELY BY MYSELF FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH. If you ever want to drive a hyper-gregarious, hyper-talkative person suicidal, send them to a large, fascinating & difficult country by themselves in the non-tourist season FOR A MONTH. Sit back & watch the fun! Anyway, it has been a week since I got back & now that my super-powers are returning, it is time to write up my impressions…

Before I get into what I liked & disliked about India it is important to understand that the key part of any trip is having resilience, curiosity and a good attitude. Normally these qualities are a strong suit of mine. But this trip, “curiosity” was the only one I could consistently muster. A variety of things combined to cause the others to come & go. As I said, the biggest factor by far was that I only had people to really talk to for maybe 4-5 days combined out of my 3.5 weeks in India: NOT GOOD FOR OUR HERO.* So I guess that means maybe if the circumstances of my trip were different my impressions would skew differently…

But that all being said, what follows are my impressions of India such as they are, for better & for worse. Here is the quick list for those of you skimming – feel free to click on just the items that seem interesting. (damn this is a long post! Did I mention I had no one to talk to for a month?)

Things I liked:

• Food
• Music
• Assimilation Skill
• History By the Ton
• Wildlife
• Cultural Mannerisms
• Mumbai

Things I did NOT like:

• Transaction as Argument
• Constant Honking
• Indians Trashing India
• Cheating Strangers Is To Be Expected

I should also state up front that I’m more curious and more demanding of India than I would be of many other places for a variety reasons. Obviously, being my genetic homeland, I’m going to be pretty curious, but also there are many people in my life (my immediate family for starters, but others as well) who expect that I SHOULD have a strong connection to India: “India is your home!” or “You just don’t understand that you ARE Indian” etc etc. This all leads to a closer scrutiny on my part.

Anyway, without further ado, lets get to the superficial impressions that I will attempt to pass off as facts. (hey look! “hubris” – I AM returning to normal!)

Click HERE for more…

So I’m in Mumbai a.k.a Bombay & thus it is a perfect time to mention Bollywood dance numbers – one of the best things about India. Here is an awesome recent one with an great song that has been the Official Theme Song for My Trip. I saw it on MTVIndia one night & the next day heard it again on a car stereo & was hooked.

Title track from Salaam e Ishq

I bought the movie too (Movie Night Soon!) & it isn’t bad (a little cheesy of course) & is full of amazing eye candy – Hellloooooo Priyanka!) and even more importantly great song/dance numbers. This video covers pretty much everything great about Bollywood dance numbers:

• great outfits
• spectacle
• ridiculous yet inspired choreography
• and finally, pure joy

That last one is it actually, there is something about a musical (& India seems to be state of the art) that just does JOY perfectly….

‘deep

.ps be home soon & very much looking forward to it

.pps “Salaam e Ishq” translates to “Love’s Salute” I think.

So I’m an American & I’m traveling in the third world (maybe India is somewhere in-between by now) & I feel it is important that I represent!  So I’m trying to use a hugely disproportionate allocation of resources while I’m here.  But it really isn’t easy. 

To wit:

• Showers: It is very very hard to take 1 hour scalding showers when it is 4 milion degrees outside.  Though that is in Celsius, so it is only like 2 Million degrees Fahrenheit.  (& with the wind chill factor it’s like 1.9999 Million degrees F.)

Click HERE for more…

In my past few trips abroad, I’ve discovered my favorite way to travel. I love it & India is a country that supports it fully. See the world, experience it as fully and immersively as you can (or as much as any tourist can) but share it with your friends as you do it & without compromising the experience itself. (I need a good name for it – electronic umbilical? e-travel?) Well one good way to think of it is travel with my Lil’ Electronic Friends. (DeepLEF?)

Those of you who don’t like their cell-phones or don’t check email when they can help it, you and I don’t see eye to eye anyway, so the joys of this will be lost on you, and shouldn’t you be putting more coal in your calculating-engine to keep it running while you read this anyway? And check the inter-tubes for blockages while you’re at it

This is the deal: Place meets ‘Deep with his lil’ electronic friends: Mr. Cellphone, Mr. Computer, Mr. Thumb drive, Mama Net & of course a digital camera (neuter).

–

My first few days in New Delhi, I got a cell phone Click HERE for more…

While I was in France I suddenly noted how much happier I was when I was in Paris rather than the South & thought “Yep! I’m an Urban Monkey”* but then I got to Delhi & can’t say I enjoyed it much (though I never really gave it a chance – I was in the “suburbs” with the fam fam.**)
In any case, I’m not sure Delhi is big enough for 2 types of urban monkey:

spotted these guys in Delhi downtown, just as I walked out of Spider-Man 3 (cousin had free tix & took the family)

It is tough for an avowed urbanist to swallow, but so far India seems much more beautiful and interesting outside the cities. Maybe this is what the U.S. was like in the heydey of the Industrial Revolution…

Anyway, I’m just south of Chennai (city #2) and in a beach town called Mammalapuram… more soon…

*to be fair, the weather in the SoF was rainy & so we spent most of our time in the car driving around, not nearly the fun possibilities of sun/bike/Paris.

* more fairness: suburbs is a bit strong, Gurgaon is more like adjacent sprawl. I would imagine Delhi has more nightlife and restaurants, hustle & bustle etc.

(or “Favorite thing about Paris #284″)

[Ed Note: click on any of the pix for all my Space Invader shots, or read to the bottom to get the full scoop AFAIK.]
[Ed Note: Added a few new Space Invaders I found 5/5/07]

Way back in 2003, on my maybe 3rd visit to Paris*, I saw some graffiti off in the distance (here’s the shot) & thought – “Hey! That’s a Space Invader!”

Then I thought “Hey that isn’t paint – that’s tile work!”

 
Then I thought “That isn’t just surface tile work…they’ve taken the time to mount it INTO the wall!!”

Needless to say I was in love. Ah Paris

So now every-time I come back to Paris, I see more….

Click HERE for more…

It’s April 28th, 2007 & I’m high above some state in the western United States, where the land is flat and cut into huge yet precise blocks by roads – nothing exists here to break up human-imposed geometries. A grid state. Possibly Nebraska.

I’m currently sad, excited, scared, hopeful, wounded, content, anxious, fascinated, and oddly happy. I guess at 38, I can hold more than one at once. . I’m thinking about my friend Greg’s book “Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From The Air”, global warming, a girl, human population (the *real* hockey stick!), wondering how attractive Cameron Diaz really is (inflight movie), and mostly, the beauty of it all. (Don’t think that you know which of the emotions tie to which of the subjects at hand, the combinations are remarkable and fluid )

A while back (Nevada? Utah?) I passed a small wind farm. Maybe 10 giant white windmills, standing silently on a hill, motionless (slackers!). The future is here. It is going to be quite a ride these next few decades. Buckle up I can’t wait. (wow! bravado? sarcasm? hope? anticipation!? bring-it-on-let’s-do-this-coz-i’m-tired-of-worrying-and-what-is-the-name-of-this-feeling-anyway?*)

Natural features have risen to contest the brute-force human ones of the grid state now past. The results, the combination of human geometry and natural diversity, are beautiful! (contour and strip farming – Thanks Greg!).

I never thought the Midwest was beautiful. Landing soon. The beauty has given away to standard farmland & now suburbia, but Chicago! Chicago is majestic in the afternoon light….I’m off on my latest adventure: a week in the south of France followed by three in the south of India, I guess there is a Southern boy in here after all. Hmmm… BBQ yes!, NASCAR not so much… ok so much for that thesis. My agenda:

• Eat every mango I come across.
• Avoid getting married off.
• Face time with mega-fauna.
• Observe humans in their natural habitats (both current & historical).
• Marvel at people’s ability to lead apparently functional lives without direct contact with ME
• Finally see India after all these trips, rather than just see relatives (god bless them and their kindness & hospitality nonetheless).
• Try to keep you people entertained!

To my peoples back home, I’ll miss you (I always do!). Please remember what I said about not having any fun while I’m gone. No. Really.
‘deep

*I bet the Germans have a name for that feeling, they always seem to…. with their easy to-make-new-words-without-needing-hyphens language. I bet they have a name for that too! Damn!