Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MARCH 5, 2022 – If Australia’s Outback was hotter than Hades, the Egyptian desert was hotter yet. After standing for five minutes on sunbaked sand, I felt it burn through the soles of my Nikes. The most welcome hawkers I’d ever seen were the water vendors near the entrance to King Tut’s tomb. Not in …
MARCH 4, 2022 – In Cairo I visited with well-educated Egyptians over coffee and French pastries; stirred by curiosity, I haggled with perfume merchants in a district where every other car parked along the narrow street was a late model, high-end Mercedes; and famished for Western fare, I walked past the valets at the Ritz …
MARCH 3, 2022 – The day arrived when I’d get to see and touch the leading Wonder of the Ancient World—the Great Pyramid of Giza—along with its timeless but smaller two partners, and for extra credit, the nearby Sphinx. As the bus carried my fellow passengers and me through the countryside south of Cairo, I …
MARCH 2, 2022 – Based on enthusiastic recommendations of fellow undergraduates, during my junior year I took “Art of the Ancient Mediterranean” taught by the venerable Professor Beam. With mesmerizing exuberance and museum-quality slides, the good professor led a fascinating classroom tour of the artistic and architectural wonders of the ancient world. In planning my …
MARCH 1, 2022 – After several days of hiking near Pahalgam, I hiked (alone) farther east past the village of Chandanwari and up a switchback trail to a high point of Pissatop Pass (I kid you not), elevation 11,200 feet. I hit the trail at 7:00 a.m. and returned to base after nightfall—exhausted, famished, and …
FEBRUARY 28, 2022 – In my 12/16/21 post, Where the Scenery Never Failed Me, I gave a preview of my venture away from Srinagar and into much higher elevations and rarefied air. That post was a week before my life swerved radically off course and more than a month before I began a measured account …
FEBRUARY 27, 2022 – All oriental carpet hawkers attend the same institution of higher learning: the University of Huckster. In the field, this is how they operate . . . The initial contact occurs beyond the “rug factory.” In Kashmir, this contact was often at a restaurant. A Western-attired, well-spoken guy finds you—ideally in the …
FEBRUARY 26, 2022 – “My friends aboard the houseboat were exceptional people,” I wrote home. “We dined as a group and […] enjoyed long evenings of conversation and charas smoking. ‘Charas,’” I explained, “is the Hindu word for . . . hashish. “Now that you’ve recovered, Mother,” I added, “you may note that hashish is …
FEBRUARY 25, 2022 – (Cont.) The letter home continued . . . While the father and I held the pain-stricken girl, the doctor went straight to work. I doubt if a top-flight Western [nurse or physician] could’ve done a better or swifter job of cleaning and dressing those wounds. Also, I couldn’t imagine a person …
FEBRUARY 24, 2022 – Blogger’s note: As the dedicated reader will observe, this series (and previous posts about the Grand Odyssey) quotes at length from letters home. This feature should not be mistaken for torpidity. The extended verbatim extracts are used to provide a contemporaneous, and therefore, immediate and accurate account of my experience. If …
FEBRUARY 23, 2022 – Blogger’s Note: I dedicate this series to close friends and fellow world travelers (Including India!), Jack Hoeschler and Linda Lovas Hoescholer. Jack is currently experiencing a rough patch in his own Tropic of Cancer. With his unfailing sense of humor, he called me first thing this morning to report on his …
FEBRUARY 22, 2022 – If I’d traveled to Kashmir to experience its natural beauty, I first had to negotiate past the many people trying to make a living off the few people like me. Like a cloud of flies, Kashmiris pestered relentlessly. In my letter home, I describe the “shikara men” who surrounded our houseboat: …
FEBRUARY 21, 2022 – After three hours on the ever-climbing, twisting, jolting road, our bus stopped at a roadside stand for breakfast. John and I ordered chai and chapati, while the three of us—including Thierry—admired the breath-taking mountain views around us. We soon learned that the stop had a a more important purpose: allowing salesmen …
FEBRUARY 20, 2020 – After nine hours of bouncing and twisting our way to ever higher elevations, we reached in darkness our over-night destination: an “inn” at the center of a remote mountain village. We three white strangers—John, Thierry, and I—soon learned that “there was no room at the inn.” The next morning, we discovered …
FEBRUARY 19, 2022 – When I was a kid, I tacked a world map to my bedroom wall. Kashmir was depicted in white and blue stripes, reflecting that it was in dispute between India and Pakistan. No such striping appeared elsewhere on the map, thus rendering Kashmir especially exotic. Once I discovered that the world’s …
FEBRUARY 18, 2022 – I adapted readily to the pulse of Delhi. After my daily breakfast of toast, eggs, and bacon at the “Y,” I’d hit the streets. Each foray took me farther, mostly on foot, but I often hailed an auto-rickshaw to expand my radius. Besides, it was fun to make conversation with the …
FEBRUARY 17, 2022 – I stayed in Delhi for a week, but took a day trip to Agra, site of the Taj Mahal. On a guided tour, I saw that 17th century wonder close-up from a multitude of perspectives—accompanied by a fascinating account of its design and construction. I didn’t need a guide, however, to …
FEBRUARY 16, 2022 – With newfound confidence I flew to Delhi, where I checked into the YMCA, near Connaught Place—the center of things. The “Y” was scruffy but safe. In the dining hall, I could order a familiar breakfast: toast, eggs, and bacon. (“When in Rome, pretend you’re at home.”) On foot I explored immediate …
FEBRUARY 15, 2022 – As I reported previously, every traveler I’d met Down Under who’d passed through India had been stricken with a gastrointestinal disorder. All warned me, traveling the opposite direction, to avoid the “Tropicana Hotel”—a hospital in London specializing in the treatment of tropical diseases—by avoiding Indian ice, tap water, “counterfeit” bottled water, …
FEBRUARY 14, 2022 – Two posts ago I left off at the close of “the swindle.” It was the only time I’d be conned in a land where scams were a way of life. After my third “Gold Spot” where I’d been abandoned by the con man and his American accomplice—whose participation was salt in …
FEBRUARY 12, 2022 – Blogger’s note: This post is a “double-feature,” meaning it’s twice my daily limit of 500 words. Of the 999 posts of this blog thus far, this is the first to violate that rule. The second half of this post bears the 500,000th word of “Write Makes Might.” To mark the 1,000th post–tomorrow–I …
FEBRUARY 11, 2022 – I’m in my spartan hotel room, two floors up. Parched, starving, and exhausted, I pull from my backpack a granola bag, open it, and pour a serving into my mouth. Granola never tasted so good—or dry. I drink the last of my “safe” water—a thimble’s worth from my one-liter, plastic canteen, …
FEBRUARY 10, 2022 – Upon entering the domestic terminal, I was assaulted by the same pandemonium that’d filled the international terminal—except “Wendy,” of course, had flown off to Never, Never Land. I had to navigate on my own. In a foreign land, “on your own” inevitably requires interaction with strangers. Amongst a crowd, who has …
FEBRUARY 9, 2022 – Wendy spirited me through officialdom as if she were Indira Gandhi herself. Despite my questions on the fly, I received no explanation as to what her true role was or why a baffling reception had been reserved for a 26-year-old, American vagabond packing two bags of granola . . . not …
FEBRUARY 8, 2022 – As I reflect after 41 years, my introduction to India was even more bizarre than it seemed at the time. The British Airways flight to Bombay (Mumbai) took over 10 hours. As we broke through low-hanging clouds along our gradual descent, I saw the Indian version of an uninterrupted Dickensian slum …