Images of Turkey

On my last full day in Turkey, I took a Bosphorous river cruise. I saw several palaces formerly belonging to the Sultans, as well as a castle built by Mehmet the Conqueror and many old homes lining the straits. After the boat ride Okan and I made our way to a pub in Besiktas district where we watched Fenerbahce football club beat their main rivals Galatasaray.


This huge theatre is part of the ruins of the old Roman city of Hierapolis.


This is one of the many fires that make up the Chimaera, which is a set of fires that perpetually erupt from the ground. In ancient times the flames used to be even bigger and sailors used to use it as a lighthouse.


This is a view of the Mediterranean from Kas. I did get to swim in the Mediterranean, and the view from underwater was bluer than anything I had imagined.


The Lycian Way trail runs 500 kilometers through what used to be the kingdom of the ancient empire of the Lycians. I did a section of the trail one day from Phellos down into Kas. Kas is a seaside town with a lot of boats and Phellos is a collection of ancient ruins atop the highest hill around.

This is the view north from Phellos. In the foreground are the remains of one ancient building, while in the background you can see the snowcapped peaks in the distance.

Turkey was great and I intend to return someday, perhaps to hike the entire length of the Lycian way trail. I have many more pictures of Istanbul and Cappadocia which I hope to post soon.

Escape in Uttaranchal

I finally got out of the cities and had a great time in the himalayan foothills of Uttaranchal state. First I went rafting on the Ganges river in Rishikesh, which was one of the greatest moments of my trip so far. I next went to Mussoorie where I went on a 26 kilometer hike to Kempty falls. Going on such a long hike succeeded in ridding my body of the lingering sickness, and I felt healthy again for the first time in a long time. This morning I made a sunrise walk up the hill in Mussoorie from where I could see the Himalaya mountains in the North.

Now I'm back in the madness of the city. I arrived in Delhi tonight after a long bus ride and found a good hotel room. Tomorrow night I will make my way to the airport from where I have an early morning flight to Istanbul

One Last Place to Visit in India

Here's a shot from the train of the Rajasthan desert countryside that I enjoyed seeing.

I'm finally starting to recover from whatever sickness I caught a few days ago. I'm really tired though, as the sickness took a lot of energy out of me. I holed up in Delhi for two days trying to recover. I did get out for enough time yesterday to tour the Red Fort in the heart of Old Delhi. It gave quite an amazing impression of the power that the Mughal emperors commanded.

Tomorrow I will catch a morning bus to Rishikesh, a small town on the Ganges river in the foothills of the Himalayas. I expect it to be crowded with tourists from both India and abroad, but I've been in the crowded madness of the cities so long that anything else will be a welcome relief. I'm excited to jump in the clear cold waters of the Ganges, for at this stage the famous holy river is more of a mountain stream than the wide muddy grave that it becomes on its journey south and east.

Rishikesh will probably be my last spot to visit in India, as I will fly to Istanbul on the fifteenth. I've learned an incredible amount in my two months here, yet I'm amazed at how much mystery is left.

Sickness

Somewhere over the course of the last two days I picked up a nasty stomach virus or bacteria. I guess that it was probably from drinking the water in the jugs at the restaurants. As a result I was sicker today than I can remember feeling in years. Despite being a shaking mess and completely unaware of my surroundings, however, I did manage to go on a tour to two towns in the center of Rajasthan state. The first town was Pushkar, where I saw one of the only Brahma temples in India. The next stop was a town called Ajmer, which is supposedly the second most important pilgramage destination for Muslims after Mecca.

While in Pushkar I got some really good advice on stomachache remedies from a man from Delhi. He told me to keep drinking water with lemon squeezed into it. It did succeed in settling my stomach quite a bit.

Jaipur

Here's a scene of life in Jaipur. As you can see, the buildings are perfect for gangs of bandit monkeys to make their way around in search of food to snatch.


Here's the Hawa Maheli as viewed from the street. All those windows are for women of the 1800s to look out upon the street without being seen. You can see from these photos why Jaipur is called the "pink city." It actually is more of a reddish clay color, but the pink comes out in the photos.



Here's a view inside the city palace of Jaipur. Just to the left of the center behind the pillars you can see one of the silver jugs that carried water from the Ganges in the story that I mentioned yesterday.

Festival of Colors

The Hindu festival of Holi passed just a few days ago. It is often called the festival of colors. Everybody covers themselves with red dyes and dances. Even the street dogs were covered with colors. The festival is supposedly to celebrate mid spring, and is particularly big around Mumbai, where I happened to be.

Rajasthan is Real

I arrived last night in Jaipur, the capitol of Rajasthan state. Jaipur is immediately my favorite city that I've visited in India. The whole city was planned and built in the mid 1700s on a grid pattern, and all of the earthen buildings are painted a red clay color. I spent the day walking around the two palaces in the city center. One was called Hawa Mahal or "Palace of the Winds." The wall of the mansion as seen from the street is covered with many small windows from which women could watch the street from many small balconies without being seen.

The other palace was the Jaipur "City Palace" and had some beautiful buildings as well as collections of items possessed by the lineage of Rajas. Most interesting were the two 900 gallon water vessels made of pure silver. They were filled with water from the Ganges and brought to England in 1907 so that the then Raja could purify himself on his visit to England.

My train from Mumbai took almost exactly 24 hours, but it was an easy journey and I was easily occupied by watching the desert scenery of Rajasthan. On my first night in northern India I noticed that the food is much different. After two delicious meals I am certain that I prefer the food of northern India to that of the south.

Some Images of my Travels

Here I am at the top of a hill in Tibet. A group from the hostel and I hiked up behind the town of Litang to see what we could see. These pillars of stone and prayer flags are found on almost all the peaks. This was in early December.


Here is a view from Huang Shan in Anhui province, China. This was in late December. Huang Shan was one of the places I most wanted to see in China because it was historically the most painted place in old China.

Bengaluru

Today was another very hot day in South India. I arrived in Bengaluru this morning on an overnight bus from Madurai. I enjoyed the late night bus ride even though I couldn't sleep. I hung my head out the window and listened to Tamil music on my CD player.

Bengaluru is really big. Its one of the top five biggest in India. It is much more automobile-centered than the other cities that I have seen, so walking around is a bit more difficult. It took me quite a while to find a place to eat this morning, and even longer to find a place with internet. When I did find some food though, it was a really good rava dosa. I couldn't explain it if I tried. I noticed that all the restaurants here in Bangeluru are standing/eating places. I'm not sure if this is a local thing or if I just haven't noticed it yet in the big cities. We'll find out as I continue traveling.

A day in Madurai

The Mahatma Gandhi museum in Madurai.


A busy street in the center of Madurai.

Today is another hot day in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. I made it to the Gandhi museum, but it was closed because today is Monday. While traveling China, I always seemed to hit the museums I wanted to go to on Mondays, when they were all closed. It was usually the only reminder I had as to what day it was. It seems unfathomable now, but often in China I had no clue whether it was a Wednesday or a Saturday, a Friday or a Tuesday. Working in the volunteer program put an end to that, as we stuck to a weekly schedule.

Behind the Gandhi museum, a small bookstore was open where I bought five of his written works. I hope to find a cool place where I can sit and read them this evening.

Tonight I will take a late night bus that will bring me to Bangalore tomorrow morning. Near Bangalore is a town I hope to see called Mysore, which is famous for its ancient temples and caves.

On to Tamil Nadu

I took off from the volunteer site in Kanthalloor, Kerala state, on saturday. My first stop on my solo travel is Madurai, in Tamil Nadu state. Madurai is supposedly the oldest inhabited town in the southern half of India, which is amazing considering how old Indian civilization is.

The big attraction in town is the central Hindu temple complex, with rooms filled with hundreds of pillars. Elephants stand in the midst of the pillars and large bats flit about overhead. I walked around the temple once last night and again this morning.

Outside of the bus station a coconut vendor told me how to get to another temple on the outskirts of town. I caught the bus and found the temple, which was very different than the central one in town. People lay on the cool floor of the temple, escaping the burning sun outside. Fruit bats the size of small cats crawled around above my head, feeding on the bananas that people set out for them. Behind the temple was a huge rock that families hike up to picnic on. I climbed to a point where I could see the whole city and the countryside below me. Its great that such an ancient city still looks old and flat.

Tomorrow I hope to tour the Mahatma Gandhi museum, where several of his few possessions are held. The building was an old palace that was converted into the most important Gandhi site in southern India. Martin Luther King Jr. toured the same museum in 1959, so I hope to catch the historical importance of the place as I walk around the grounds.

Change of Pace in South India

I've been in the volunteer program Year Out India for three weeks now and I'm really enjoying getting to know the area. I first went to a tribal village on the edge of the Periyar tiger reserve in south India where I helped build a toilet for one of the families. Being in a small village in a house with no electricity or water was a great change of pace from the big city hopping that I had been doing for quite a while.

Made it to Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong a few days ago. Blogspot was blocked in China so I wasn't able to add anything. I'll try to add some photos and stories over the next few days. I will fly to India on the 14th. I'm really excited to see India. I expect it to be different than everything that I've ever seen.

Check back soon.
-Tristano