To donate to the relief effort,
see the links at the bottom of the post
When I started to outline the post about Nepal in my head, it felt like it’d be a quick rundown with some nice pictures. I really enjoyed Nepal as a country, but it came at the end of our exhausting tour of northern India. The travel sniffles had set in and we were ready for a couple days of relaxing.
On our first morning in Delhi, we took a walk through the neighborhood near our hotel. I remember seeing the residential buildings in varying states of decay and remarking that it was easy to see why earthquakes in the region cause so many deaths.
On April 25, 2015, a massive and devastating earthquake struck about 50 km outside of the capital city of Kathmandu. The 7.8 magnitude quake was followed the next day by a 6.7 aftershock. At the time of this post, the official death toll is over 2,500 and another 6,000-plus have been injured in Nepal, India and Tibet.
The fault line responsible for the quake is the same one that created the Himalaya mountain range, enough upheaval over millions of years to create nine of the world’s ten tallest peaks. The quake also occurred at a shallow depth; shallow quakes cause the most surface damage.
Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu when we visited in FebruaryCracks in the stupa of Boudhanath in Kathmandu (Photo by @JigmeUgen on Twitter)
It’s a bit eerie now, looking through photos from our trip and reading the news coverage of the heartbreaking damage throughout the country. The stupa at Boudhanath, built shortly after the death of Lord Buddha, is the largest of its kind in the world. Buddha’s eyes can be seen from several vantage points all over Kathmandu. Today, the internet features images of large cracks in the 1,200-year-old stupa’s golden tower.
Extensive damage atop the Swayambhunath complex (Abhimanyu Chakravorty, Indian Express)The stupa at Swayambhunath in February. The old shops and monastery residence building is still standing. The pagoda can be seen in both photos.
Swayambhunath, a 1,500 year old religious complex, sits atop a hilltop to in western Kathmandu. 365 stairs lead to the top and is a popular trek for religious pilgrims visiting the complex. Known as the Monkey Temple for the holy monkeys that inhabit the grounds, it’s a sacred site for both Buddhists and Hindus.
Several old brick buildings encompass the stupa, housing souvenir shops and residences for the monks living on the grounds. Amazingly, only one death has been reported in the Swayambhunath area. The brick buildings surrounding the stupa have been destroyed.
Pashupatinath Temple experienced little to no damage in the quake
Karma’s sick and twisted sense of humor seems to have saved Pashupatinath Temple. Nepal’s answer to Varanasi, the sacred temple is open only to Hindus and Buddhists of Indian or Tibetan descent. Cremations take place all day inside the temple along the banks of the Bagmati River. Somehow, Kathmandu’s holy final resting place escaped Nepal’s deadliest earthquake in 80 years.
The spirit of the Nepalese people will get them through this difficult time, but Nepal is very much a developing country and will need a lot of help to get back on its feet. Rescue workers from all over the region arrived within hours of the quake and the international community is already hard at work on getting food and aid supplies into the country.
Please consider a donation to Mercy Corpsor Public Radio International has a list of other charities who have been pre-vetted and are contributing to the relief effort on the ground.
Over the course of a month of traveling, you’ll end up using a lot of different types of transportation. Obviously, there’s a bunch of taxis and buses, but southern Asians use a variety of different transportation methods as part of their daily lives. Here’s a sampling of how we got around India, Nepal and Thailand.
Clockwise from left: Waiting for the metro train in Kawagoe; The Delhi Metro; Bangkok Metro (MRT)We had five flights on our trip: Tokyo to Delhi, Kathmandu to Bangkok, Bangkok to Koh Samui, Nakhon Si Thammarat to Bangkok and Bangkok to TokyoWe took a pink taxi in Bangkok similar to this one (Photo by Ilya Plekhanov, Wikipedia Commons)Tuk-Tuks or auto-rickshaws are a common way to get around in southern Asia. We used them frequently in India and Thailand.Business class seating in a passenger train from Agra to Jhansi in India. Pretty comfy and clean.Only electric vehicles are allowed near Taj Mahal as the pollution was beginning to turn Taj’s marble yellow. We rode a cart similar to this one to the gates (Photo from jotarofootsteps.blogspot.com)In India and Nepal, our tour group used private buses and vans to move shorter distances. Usually our luggage was tied to the top and usually someone climbed on top of the van to get it down.Inside the horror show that was the sleeper train from Orchha to Allahabad in India. A group of men argued loudly all night in the bunk across from us. (Hey Farren!)On the Ganges River in Allahabad, we drifted in sailboats to a remote beach where we camped and played cricket.In Varanasi, India, we used motor boats to watch the sunrise opposite the city’s famous ghats.Riding a bicycle rickshaw in the streets of Varanasi, India. We felt bad having another human being peddle us around, but it was better than having to walk back to our hotel.We rode a bus to the India/Nepal border, then crossed the border on foot before boarding another bus to our hotel in Lumbini, NepalIn the Narayani Zone in Nepal, we toured the local village on bicycles. We both got a “Hero Queen” bike.Our group loaded into two canoes and paddled our way to Chitwan National Park in NepalIn Chitwan National Park in Nepal, we saw one-horned rhinoceros and crocodiles from our safari jeepIn Koh Samui, we rented a scooter for the day and poked around the east side of the island. Later, in Nakhon Si Thammarat, we rode on the back of scooter-taxis to our songthaew to Kiriwong Village.To reach Thailand’s Angthong National Marine Park, you have to catch a ride with a tour boat. We camped on Angthong’s main island for a couple nights and returned with another boat.Both days we were on Angthong, we rented a kayak and paddled out into the Gulf of ThailandLong-tail boats are widely used in Thailand by fishermen and tour companiesWe finally pried ourselves off of Koh Samui and took a large ferry boat to the mainland. Dozens of cars sat below deck. Above deck, comfy seats, televisions, massage services and a convenience store were available for passengers.Songthaew‘s are one of Thailand’s primary public transportation methods. The modified pickup trucks stop along fixed routes and have padded benches in the covered truck bed. People hop on and off along the route. Twice we rode in the back of a pickup truck. In Kiriwong Village, Thailand, a Thai from Krabi helped us set up our homestay lodging and gave us a ride to the house.In Nakhon Si Thammarat, a woman named Joon helped us make change for our songthaew fare, then went out of her way to give us a ride to our hotel in the back of her pickup truck. Her mother was driving and stopped for a snack along the way while her two daughters enjoyed their 7-11 Slurpees.In Kiriwong Village, we hired a local guide to take us hiking to the waterfalls in Khao Luang National Park. He picked us up on his motorcycle. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see my wife again when I snapped this picture! 🙂In the old part of Bangkok, water taxis run up and down the Chao Phraya River, dropping passengers at the big tourist spots. They’re crowded and the boat attendants do a lot of yelling and pushing.
What’s the craziest method of transportation you’ve ever taken in your travels? Leave a comment below!
It was a clear, cold and quiet morning in the Tokyo area. As we rode the train to Narita International Airport, we could see Mt. Fuji in the distance. Our flight to Delhi was 10 hours, but the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was like flying in a hotel… a couple meals, a couple movies (including a charming Bollywood flick) and wide, comfy seats. Easy.
Those would be the last moments of calm for awhile.
Flying over Mt. Fuji on our way to Delhi
We arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport after sunset on a warm February evening, the modern Terminal 3 offered no clues to what was waiting outside. When we stepped through the doors, we were met by chaos. Dozens of taxi drivers hovered outside the terminal approaching aggressively while repeating “Where you going? Where are you staying? You need a hotel? You need a tour?” Fortunately we’d read that there’s one government-run taxi stand where you pre-purchase your fare so as to not be cheated by the driver en route to your destination.
We drove toward our hotel, the lanes painted on the highways serving no purpose other than decoration. Vehicles weaved in and out, announcing their presence with a series of honks. Pedestrians waited for an opportunity to cross the eight-lane highway, edging through traffic like a real-life game of Frogger. A man led his two camels alongside the busy road, likely to the nearest river to graze.
Our hotel was in central Delhi. The hotel porter immediately wanted to set us up with a tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) tour of the surrounding area, but we opted for sleep instead.
In the morning, we walked for a bit, trying to find one of Delhi’s many outdoor markets. Shopkeepers do their best to keep the sidewalks and gutters clean, but trash still piles up in the streets. Cows, considered sacred in Hindu culture, wander the streets as freely as people and do their business wherever they see fit.
A school marching band walking down Patel Rd. in Central Delhi.
Soon, Delhi began to wake. A marching band walked by—young musicians on their way to school. The temples began to buzz as people headed to morning worship sessions. One by one, the doors on the shops opened up.
A vendor selling traditional Indian sweets in a street stall
Lacking a good breakfast option, we bought a box of Indian sweets called barfi from a vendor near our hotel—the beginnings of “a banner day for nutrition” says my wonderfully witty wife.
These boys asked us to take their photo as they walked to school
While we waited for our barfi, a group of boys headed to school stopped to say hello. “Will you take our picture?” one of them asked. This was the first of many such requests. Not “Will you take a picture with us?” or “Can we take your picture?” but to specifically photograph them and show them the picture.
Experience the tuk-tuk ride for yourself!
We returned to our hotel and, in short order, we were approached by the local tuk-tuk magnate. His fleet of auto rickshaws were waiting around the corner and for just 200 rupees (about $3.20), he’d take us on a tour of the local markets. We jumped in the back and began weaving through the streets of Delhi.
Feeding day-old Indian bread to the rhesus monkeys
Along the way, he stopped in a park where rhesus monkeys sat along the wall. A nearby vendor sold bananas you could feed to the monkeys, but our driver pulled out some day-old chapati instead. The monkeys were clearly accustomed to being fed by humans as they reached down from the wall and took the pieces of bread from our hands.
Those 200 rupees were really a down payment for a lesson in Indian economics. The “tour” took us to three shops where, if I had to guess, the driver had a deal with the shopkeepers—”I’ll bring you tourists, you give me a cut of the sales.” But, he also gave us a nickel tour of Central Delhi and took our picture “driving” his tuk-tuk (see top photo).
The Shops of Delhi (from left): Viktoria’s new salwar kameez; magic carpets; local artwork
The shops are elaborate labyrinths with only one way in and one way out. To reach the exit, you must navigate through scarves, clothing, knickknacks and carpets.
Each shop offers a riff on a theme. The scarf salesmen pull threads from the weave and burn them at the edges to prove they’re really cashmere/pashmina/silk (because they’re animal hair, the fabric singes where artificial fabrics burn like plastic). The carpet salesmen explain thread counts and show how the colors change depending on which direction you look at them. Elephants tchotchkes are carved from teak wood or camel bone and the symbolism is described by the shopkeeper in depth.
A vegetarian meal at a Delhi McDonald’s #JunkFoodVegetarian
The driver took us from one shop to another before we finally cried “Uncle.” We sheepishly asked him to take us to the McDonald’s restaurant we’d see on Google Maps nearish our hotel. He scoffed and rolled his eyes at the Americans traveling all the way to India to eat fast food, so I felt the need to explain. McDonald’s doesn’t typically offer vegetarian options (even the fries contain beef tallow), but since 40 percent of India’s population is vegetarian, the global chain offers up alternatives to meet the demand.
After lunch, we returned to our hotel to rest up before meeting our tour group for the first time. Our tour company’s promise of small groups was a big draw for us. We started as a group of six—joined by two teachers working in China, an American from the NYC area and an Australian from the Melbournearea. Four others would join us later, having toured Delhi as part of another tour.
Our tour guide was fantastic. A native Indian from nearby Jaipur (about 170 miles southwest of Delhi), he knew the history of the areas we visited and was willing to answer all of the questions we threw his way. After taking care of a couple paperwork things, we loaded into tuk-tuks and headed for Old Delhi.
Walking through the alleys of Old Delhi
Established in the 1600s, the area is considered the heart of Delhi. We wandered through the narrow alleys, past food stalls and more scarf shops, eventually exiting near the steps of Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India.
Note: Generic photos ahead. We tried our best to photograph the religious locations without capturing the people in the middle of their worship.
The main facade of Jama Masjid mosque (Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim, Wikipedia)
Although nearly 80 percent of the population identifies as Hindu, Islam is still a prominent religion in India. When India gained independence from Britain in 1947, it also lost a large portion of its land and Islamic population as Muslims moved west, creating Pakistan. The mosque still makes daily calls for prayer and closes to tourists during prayer hours.
Standing atop Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, the primary house of worship for the Sikh religion in Delhi
From the mosque, we made the short walk to Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Delhi’s primary house of worship for the Sikh religion. When you see the stereotypical depiction of an Indian man, he’s usually wearing a turban, one of the Five Ks of Sikhism.
Sikhism is unique among Indian religions for many reasons, but its treatment of women stood out to me. While women are treated as subordinates in Hindu and Islam, the scriptures of Sikhism demand that women and men are treated as equals.
We were given scarves to put on our heads prior to entering the worship area. The ornate, gold-laden prayer room had a scattering of midday worshippers with traditional music played live in the background. Sikhs don’t have ordained priests, so nearly any Sikh can lead the congregation as long as they meet some minimum qualifications.
Women making chapati (Indian bread) at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib
The charity of the temple is on display in a large dining room alongside the main prayer hall. Anyone can join in the preparation and consumption of the meal. While men typically don’t participate in meal preparations in India, they were working alongside the women to prepare the large quantities of food for the congregation.
After a long afternoon of sightseeing, we had a group dinner back at the hotel and headed to bed. We’d be on an early morning train to Agra the next day to see what we all came to see: Taj Mahal.
Americans routinely use words like “broke” or “poor” to describe why we can’t go out with friends, take a vacation or buy a new car. We’ve coined the hashtag of “#FirstWorldProblems” to describe many of our daily trials and tribulations. We are spoiled.
India—or more accurately, Taj Mahal—was on our short list of “must visit” places in Asia during our time in Japan. An easy 10-hour flight from Tokyo, it was more accessible than ever. But you can’t fly 10 hours to see just one thing, so we looked for help crafting the perfect itinerary. In the end, we chose Intrepid Travel‘s Delhi to Kathmandu, Nepal trip.
An alley in Central Delhi near our hotel
Our trip began in India’s capital city of Delhi. Before arriving in Delhi, phrases like “developing nation” and “extreme poverty” were buzzwords on Sunday morning political shows or keywords in a college thesis. But they weren’t real. They didn’t have faces.
Aside from well-known landmarks like Taj Mahal or the Ganges River, the reality of India is largely ambiguous in the minds of most Americans, myself included. India is an emerging power on the geopolitical landscape. It is a large landmass in the center of an unstable part of the world with an increasingly wealthy upperclass. As such, it’s an important national security ally of the United States in the fight against terrorism. It’s battling China for the title of world’s most populous country with more than 1.2 billion inhabitants.
A main street in Central Delhi. Shopkeepers clean up the sidewalks as best they can, but the trash will pile up again throughout the day.
But it’s also a country with considerable poverty. Poverty unlike anything that exists in the U.S. and certainly unlike anything I’ve seen firsthand until now. According to World Bank, India has the largest concentration of impoverished people in the world. Delhi alone is home to 22 million people in an urban area the size of Jacksonville, FL. New construction dots the city, but not fast enough to replace crumbling residential buildings and spotty infrastructure.
Looking down at a typical Delhi street scene from Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, Delhi’s largest Sikh temple
As tourists, we’re discouraged from giving handouts of food or money. There’s a larger strategy at play to quell the national poverty problem. But try ignoring a toothless grin from an elderly lady at the train station or the children, undernourished and dressed in dirty rags, wading through traffic begging for change from passersby who drive a new Audi or Mercedes-Benz. These aren’t the guys in a Columbia jacket standing on the freeway ramp with a “Why lie, I need a beer” sign. This is real, life-and-death stuff and it’s heartbreaking.
Government propaganda encourages a “green” Delhi, yet trash piles up in the streets. An editorial in The Times of India newspaper claimed (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) that throwing trash in the street is part of the national identity. The government is also encouraging the use of toilets instead of doing business in the open. Since October 2014, a government program has provided more than 500,000 toilets in homes across the country, but is fighting a perception that indoor toilets are unhygienic.
Yet, in a situation that seems unresolvable, India is trying to move forward. The country was still buzzing from President Obama’s visit the week before we arrived. When we told people we were from America, they’d reply with a big grin and say “Obama!” More importantly, they see that the U.S. finally understands the seriousness of India’s successful development.
Today’s India is a country breaking free of an imperial past. Despite its ancient history, it’s only been independent from the British since 1947. It’s a country resetting the expectations imposed by a caste system that determines a person’s lot in life simply by the family they’re born into. There’s unprecedented access to education, yet many are still not participating, young women in particular.
My goal is that this is the last of the “book report” posts about India… our travels through the country were amazing, inspiring and enlightening. But, to present India only through the lens of its natural beauty is to do a disservice to the realities facing its people and the efforts of those who have literally given their lives in the development of the nation (Mahatma Gandhi and his daughter-in-law Indira Gandhi to name a few).
The world is a big place. We’ve tried our best to take advantage of our current locale to visit parts of the world that previously seemed unreachable. In August 2014, we spent two weeks traversing Australia. Japan on its own could fill years of travels, but we’ve started chipping away with trips to Kyoto and Osaka, Fukuoka and Mt. Fuji among others. However, our latest adventure has been the most epic yet. Spanning 33 days, three countries and every transportation method imaginable, we’ve had a taste of southern Asia that’s left us hungry for more.
From Tokyo to Delhi, Kathmandu to Bangkok… our 2015 tour de Southeast Asia. Click on the image for a closer view.
Beginning in Delhi, India, we toured the northern part of the world’s seventh largest country before crossing into Nepal. From Kathmandu, we flew to Thailand, where we lounged on amazing white sand beaches, explored national parks, lived with the locals and wandered through one of the world’s greatest cities.
A couple on vacation from Krabi helped us get settled in Kiriwong
Along the way, we met amazing people with both heartbreaking and heartwarming stories. We experienced the “real” India, Nepal and Thailand, but could also see the impact that tourism is having on the identity of these cultures. We ate what the locals ate and what the tourists ate—spoiler alert: they’re not the same.
The streets of Delhi
This trip was not only a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but also a perspective-altering one. The reality of seeing developing countries in different states of progress trumped anything I’ve ever read in Time or Newsweek. Our eyes and minds opened as we struggled to understand a way of life that flew in the face of what we know to be “right”—arranged marriages, extreme poverty, access to education and gender inequality.
Our made-from-mud duplex in Nepal
It also brought new opportunities. I can now say that I’ve played cricket (on the banks of the Ganges River, no less) and I generally understand this sport that mostly remains a mystery to Americans (despite being the second-most popular sport in the world). We slept in overnight trains, mud huts and bungalows—the latter included a 5 a.m. wake-up call from both a crowing rooster and a flying chicken landing on our roof with a thud. We gained a better understanding of Hinduism as well as the role it played in shaping Indian society and many of the world’s religions. And we learned a thing or two about toilets around the world (“squatty potty” anybody?).
Enough with the teasers. Let’s dive right in with a look at some of the best food we’ve ever eaten… anywhere! Meet northern Indian cuisine!
