if only carrom boards weren't so big...

photos from orchha (near the border between madya pradesh and uttar pradesh). it was 46.2C when i arrived... that's 115F.

on the train from chandigarh to jhansi. sometimes indian landscapes really remind me of some kind of primordial environment, like i wouldn't be so surprised to see dinosaurs roaming around:the cenotaphs in orchha:
by the river:
women singing bhajans outside the ram temple:
exploring vacant palaces:

a heaven of passageways and hidden staircases:

most amazing blend of indo and islamic architecture i think i've ever seen:

walking back to town:
really friendly family:
the neighbors were nice too:

i got recruited to play carrom, suddenly getting to see a little piece of the warm social atmosphere of this tiny, one-street-corner town.

the california of india

photos from chandigarh, the capital of punjab and haryana, created after partition when lahore became part of the new pakistan. meant to represent the new face of india, city planning was developed by architect le corbusier.

creative street napping:i ate this for breakfast:

in the nek chand "rock" garden, a huge outdoor labyrinth of awesome junk art:
mosiacs:
swings!

getting the feeling like the figures are watching me as much as i'm watching them:

broken bangles into dresses:

umm... yes:
bizarre...?
in the bougainvillea garden ( here!):
um, this is india?

on the mall:
traffic in chandigarh:
bike store!! ahhh!! the guy in the photo in the reflection reflects how i feel about this:
there are maps in chandigarh that tell you where things are:
rickshaw walas:

and into the heat

lakshman jhula (bridge) in rishikesh. the ganga divides the city with two footbridges only connecting the two halves. due to the huge number of people (the kumbh mela taking place an hour away in haridwar), the military/police had made one bridge (ram jhula) one way, while the other remained two-way but hence had a huge queue:orange-yellow-crimson-magenta-chartreuse is the new black:
waiting to cross the bridge (indians are really good at carrying things on their heads):
i finally ventured out (it was also about 105F)
the ganga:

next day, went to haridwar for the kumbh mela.
offerings to the ganga:people bathing:

surprisingly cold!

wandering the streets:i had been expecting to see huge crowds of crazy babas/sadhus, but i think they were mostly hiding out in their tent camps unfortunately, but i did get some crazy eyes, big beards, and whorls of dreads.

momos and laliguras

photos from macleod ganj/dharamsala (himachal pradesh), the home of the tibetan government-in-exile:

mountains!! ahh!!prayer wheels:

stupa:
women monks making clay emblems:
i love tibetan people, despite all that's happened to them, they are some of the most warm, jovial, open, beautiful people i have ever met
evening prayers:

hiking to triund:
it was unfortunately quite smokey:

pine and rhodedendron:
on the circumambulation path:

library of tibetan works and archives:waiting along the road for the dalai lama to drive by on his return from delhi:



my tibetan amchi drugs (trying to kill off the bugs... again), they do taste incredibly horrible (like crushed up rocks and bitter herbs, go figure) but had no side effects, definitely a lot less painful than having to take another course of tinidazole, and so far just as effective: