tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9500705984174413542009-12-08T13:35:43.053-06:00jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-80064291994669914972009-12-02T21:16:00.022-06:002009-12-03T19:30:59.433-06:00

Once again, let me remind you that what I can give you are only the impressions of a tourist who has made a brief visit to each country. I am not a sociologist or a historian, nor have I lived for any length of time in these countries.Click on the photos to see them in larger size.

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-11210607586194042602009-11-26T16:18:00.019-06:002009-11-26T17:06:30.099-06:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.Last time I wrote about the overwhelming number of poor and homeless people in India, and the comparatively small numbers of the middle class. The balance appears to be something like Europe circa 1400, just before the arrival of the printing press. In Europe the advent of more and cheaper books, pamphlets, and broadsheets led to far easier

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-30709563642689604992009-11-11T20:13:00.023-06:002009-11-19T10:41:10.190-06:00

Where is India's middle class?I'm a TV addict and news junkie. Wherever I go, when I enter my hotel room I immediately turn on the TV and hunt for an English-language station. In Europe I usually find BBC and CNN, which provide very little local flavor. In India I found a wide range of English-language stations--generally about a third of the channels available, and in most places there were at

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-26132896135447111482009-11-09T21:43:00.029-06:002009-11-12T20:50:56.493-06:00

Having spent all of one week in India, I am hardly an expert on that country. I can only tell you what I saw while I was there, and when it comes to the majority of the population, what I saw was disheartening.In India the poor and homeless are everywhere, and their children are not in school. Most beggars are children, who swarm tourists in the city streets and even moreso at tourist attractions

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-15286583742133709202009-10-28T14:41:00.025-05:002009-11-05T19:18:46.154-06:00

A Guest Blog from Geezer-ChickMy husband and I spent a week in York UK. My husband went as a chemist (not a pharmacist). I spent the days as a tourist with my camera. This report is tempered by my prejudices. I don't like British cooking, so I ate at Indian, Chinese, Asian, Portuguese and Pizza places. I have a preference for older architecture, so most of my photos are of buildings I found

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-79199547472240217092009-10-27T20:32:00.034-05:002009-10-29T12:10:15.508-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.This week I'm going to show you some elephant pictures from my trip to India and Nepal that didn't fit into the journal entries I've just finished posting. Doesn't everyone love elephants? Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.One means of transportation to the fort in Jaipur, India.Elephants on temple frieze, Khajuraho.Here we are heading out

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-72490841240940669752009-10-21T19:11:00.017-05:002009-10-22T10:12:22.047-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.Last morning in Kathmandu. We walked down to Durbar Square and took photos of the temples and the palace, as well as the hippy-dippy Freak Street. *Sigh* Forty years ago our generation never imagined ourselves as one day being old folks feeling nostalgic for the 1970's!We were out before the hordes of tourists, so I got a couple of good photos in the

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-30872264411295297222009-10-14T18:36:00.022-05:002009-10-15T17:26:10.576-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.A beautiful day today. We flew from Pokhara to Kathmandu, through the Himalayas, in a little prop plane. Security at the Pokhara airport was strictly by hand and very lax--they didn't even ask to see an I.D.! On the other hand, they would not let Lois or me take our walking sticks on board, and they stuck nasty vinyl stickers on them with something like

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-4621679777812846632009-10-07T20:45:00.019-05:002009-10-09T17:47:27.736-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.We took an easy morning. Eric slept in, while Lois and I went in search of an ATM, and ended up doing some shopping along the way. I bought two neat embroidered T-shirts, but Lois found a gorgeous pair of brass elephant door handles. Then we went to see Devi's Fall, not much of a torrent at this time of year, but you can see the gorge that it has

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-41286892967798312612009-09-29T21:24:00.022-05:002009-10-01T19:00:47.210-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.Today the weather was beautiful. We started off right on time, but an hour down the road our bus was stopped in a roadblock having something to do with a labor dispute we know nothing about.People came up to our stopped bus trying to sell water, apples, oranges, roast corn, and a local snack food something like very spicy Cheetos. The Canadian girls,

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-12195716946462644712009-09-21T18:53:00.017-05:002009-09-24T18:30:08.108-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.Nepal - Chitwan - Part TwoAll around us we see conditions ever so much better than those in India. People are farming with oxen and buffalo, but their crops are good and their homes, though small, are tidy and freshly painted. Little kids call and wave to us--but they do not beg from us. Children in school uniforms file down the roadsides morning and

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-32366286290172693992009-09-13T20:59:00.030-05:002009-09-17T16:35:51.867-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.Chitwan National Forest - Part One Today was a beautiful day. We started with an elephant safari ride through the forest. I didn't care what it did to my back--I was determined to do it and I did. The forest is lovely. It looks like the set for a Tarzan movie, but it's real.By the way, click on any of the still photos to see them in a larger size.Our

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-44546720670544056182009-09-08T20:52:00.024-05:002009-09-10T17:50:25.287-05:00

Click here for Seven Reasons to Visit India.This morning we were told to put our bags outside our doors at 7am for an 8 o'clock departure. But as we were doing so, Bupendra came by and told us to put them back in again: Nepal was closed. (A whole country was closed?)All the roads were closed and the border was closed again. The cable was off, so there was no way for us to find out what was

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-44655507917759649752009-08-29T19:53:00.018-05:002009-09-03T21:09:44.567-05:00

We are off to Nepal on another cold, foggy day. The driver insisted that even though for once we have a nice tourist bus, it has no heating system, so despite everybody's being dressed pretty much in all the clothes we brought, we huddled and shivered through the morning.Breakfast was in a huge, cold, unheated and unlighted dining hall of some sort of camp. Eggs and hot chai helped somewhat, and

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-75283545155478548242009-08-26T19:43:00.016-05:002009-09-01T18:58:14.027-05:00

The afternoon activity was a trip into the Moslem area of Varanasi to see silk fabric being made. We were once more in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, watching people do magnificent work on hand looms. Three thousand families, we were told, earn their living in the silk industry. Horrible livings, in tiny dark rooms in squalor, while their children beg from tourists who come to see.Then we went

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-77147544259807492632009-08-19T19:24:00.012-05:002009-08-20T20:54:49.483-05:00

Cold, cold, cold!We were out on the Ganga by 7am, but although daylight came there was no glimpse of the sun. It was foggy and damp and just plain cold. The weather has turned nasty, foggy, all over northern India. Planes are being canceled and trains are late, as ours was yesterday.I have another complaint to add to the list for GAP tours: having us tromp all over the landscape without breakfast

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-81281092807083340672009-08-02T22:00:00.021-05:002009-08-13T22:10:48.434-05:00

Yes, it was one of those open bunk sleeper trains, not the four-person compartment we were promised in the tour literature. So I chained my suitcases to the bunk (they were under it and there was a loop for that purpose), and slept the sleep of exhaustion--par for this trip.Sharing the compartment were an Indian couple, who saw me writing yesterday's journal entry and asked what I was doing. As

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-69461187030154322452009-07-29T22:03:00.013-05:002009-08-05T19:49:59.264-05:00

Happy New Year!Today I had to be up at 5:00am again, to leave at 6:00 for Khajuraho to see the famous Kamasutra temples. Kyle stayed out till last night's party ended, but she chose cooking school and henna, so she could sleep in.We drove through fog out into the countryside--a four-hour drive over terrible roads with crazy drivers, motorcycles, bicycles, oxcarts, cattle, goats, dogs, pigs, and

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-38150589352232674592009-07-28T20:51:00.025-05:002009-07-31T08:54:03.174-05:00

Today began with a train ride through beautiful agricultural countryside as we made our way to Orchha. As our trip progresses, we are seeing more of the India we knew had to be there, but which was invisible the first few days. People in this part of the country do not live like sardines in a tin. There are nice middle-class homes here and there, and at the resort where we are staying there are

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-38172780498912924142009-07-22T19:28:00.015-05:002009-07-23T19:33:17.876-05:00

[This is a continuation of my journal entry about our very full day in Agra.]Above you see what should be a grand view of the Taj Mahal from Agra's Red Fort, but today the haze was so bad that we could hardly see that it was there. However, we were soon off to the Taj Mahal itself, this time by horse and buggy. Once again, though, we were dropped off more than a mile from the entrance, so after a

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-28770826977717294842009-07-15T21:08:00.015-05:002009-07-16T19:38:25.786-05:00

Up at 4am to be ready to go at 5:15. Of course the train to Agra was then 40 minutes late.We had four seats reserved in a compartment for six--but it was still made up as a sleeper compartment. Ugh! I am not looking forward to a night in one of those later this week!No privacy whatsoever. Six bunks on one side of the aisle perpendicular to the window, and two on the other side parallel to it--so

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-18620656649301354222009-07-09T20:55:00.011-05:002009-07-09T21:34:15.444-05:00

[Comments in square brackets are added now. Everything else is from my journal written during the trip. This is the fourth post about my trip to India and Nepal--the earlier ones can be found via the index on the right side of the page.]Today was extremely...interesting. Our guide told us to be ready to leave the hotel at 7:45. Everyone rushed around madly, getting ready while the hotel staff

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-80771498717542336642009-07-01T18:49:00.017-05:002009-07-05T09:36:42.414-05:00

[Notes in square brackets are added as I transcribe my journal for publishing. Everything else is what I wrote in my journal during the trip itself.]Up at 4:00am, picked up at 5:15 for the train station. People were sleeping all over the station floor--the homeless seeking to sleep under a roof. We had a hard time not stepping on anyone as we maneuvered our luggage to the platform. It's December,

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-34411791991876332132009-06-24T22:24:00.013-05:002009-06-25T12:09:21.954-05:00

[Note: notes in square brackets are being added now, as I post my journal entries. Everything else is simply transcribed from the journal I kept on our trip through India and Nepal.]We--Lois and Eric Wickstrom, Kyle Zieba, and I--arrived last night at close to midnight. As promised, we were picked up at the airport, where I took the opportunity to acquire 5000 Rupees, about a hundred dollars and

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-950070598417441354.post-28358958541358559722009-06-18T20:55:00.009-05:002009-06-24T22:22:13.595-05:00

Over the next few months I am finally going to transcribe the journal I kept while traveling in India and Nepal last winter. It's my impressions of two countries I had never been to before, and was not knowledgeable about.If you are from India, or have traveled there and uncritically loved it, I apologize for writing about the poverty, the pollution, and the squalor, along with the beauty, the

jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08850661003698077507noreply@blogger.com0