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.