Update after Hvar

Croatia continues to amaze. Hvar was incredibly beautiful and one of the most fun and interesting beach towns I have ever seen. We left by ferry this morning and got to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia earlier today. It is also incredibly scenic. In lieu of a further update, here are some photo highlights from the past few weeks.

Photo Hunt

I have finally gotten around to uploading a bunch of photos from my travels between Shanghai and Bangalore. Here are some highlights in random order.

Karoake in Shanghai

A taste of America in Hong Kong
Sign in Yunnan
Sign in Macau Lotus temple, Delhi

Me, sad Tibetan woman, Yak

Monastary, near Shangri-La

Ferryman's house, somewhere near Tiger Leaping Gorge

Yak tea with Tibetan monk, Shangri-La

Mountains near Shangri-La

Main Square, Shangri-La

New friends, Shangri-La

Random temple on bike trip, somewhere near Shangri-La

Field of flowers (poppies?), near Shangri-La

Much needed rest, near Shangri-La

Monastary view, near Shangri-La

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tso Moriri, Ladakh

View from teahouse, Lijiang

Riverfront cafe, Lijiang

Main square, Macau

Winding mountain roads, Ladakh

Well-decorated truck ("Fruit King"), Ladakh

View from airplane, Leh

Tso Kar, Ladakh

Runaway camel, Rajasthan

Finding some shade, Taj Mahal

Ruins, Jaipur

Fort, overlooking Jaipur

Sunset with Tibetan prayer flags, Ladakh

Welcome to India!

"Hello sir, welcome to my crazy country."

Most guidebooks or slogans about India say things like, "India is a feast for the senses." Or "Incredible India!", or something like that. Three different times today, someone has welcomed me to their crazy country. At this point, I would tend to agree.

In half a day here, I have seen large monkeys (baboons?) running on top of city buildings, grown accustomed to cattle in the streets, been attempted to be scammed twenty times at least, and had between 10 and 20 people come up to us asking to take photos with me, or Brittany, or us both. There are people and rickshaws and animals and trash and beggars and old cars absolutely everywhere. Its complete chaos.

Upon landing, it seemed like we entered the early 1970s. Our plane was probably 40 years old and was literally falling apart inside. Then, we made our way to a sketchy communist era taxi from the 1940s. Eventually, we found our hotel.

Delhi has been really interesting, overwhelming, and sweaty all at once. This morning we went to the red fort and a huge mosque in old Delhi. Definitely the only white people in the huge mosque that seats over 25,000 people. Elsewhere along the way we explored several bazaars selling everything from books to t-shirts and saris to car parts. We ate with our hands (don't worry mom, I used Purell first) at an amazing lunch at a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place called Karim's. We even found an iced coffee restaurant with AC to escape the heat and a great park by the parliament house with trees and therefore shade.


So far, its been quite an introduction to my new country of residence. I am not sure I can call it my crazy country yet. But I think I can call it crazy.

Lijiang - an epilogue

First - some background. I do not mean this to be negative or too stereotypical, but I need to make a broad generalization. Please don't be offended.

Chinese tourists love taking solo photographs in front of random places. Without fail, older Chinese tourists give a stoic semi-smile, and younger people flash a peace sign. All photos are individual only. In fact, Lijiang may only exist in order to give Chinese tourists random places to take individual photos.

Ok, enough context, on to the story.

My last afternoon in Lijiang I walked about 30 minutes north of the old town to Black Dragon Pool Park. Just a few steps inside, a torrential downpour started. I had no rain jacket or umbrella so I scampered to the nearest pagoda for shelter. Since I am Dola-e, I had many electronic devices in my pocket that I was not eager to get wet. So I sat under the pagoda and started to read my book.

After a half hour, I got tapped on the shoulder. It was an old Chinese woman, probably in her 50s, holding a camera and an umbrella. Thinking she wanted me to take her pictures, I stood up and took her camera. She gave me the umbrella also. A little surprised, I took it, then followed her out into the rain. She stood out in the rain at a few classic random spots, and I snapped photos. Then she ran back over, looked at the digital photos, approved, and took the camera and umbrella and headed back under cover. Now a mix of stunned and amused, but definitely getting wet, I followed her back to the pagoda.

Then she started to gesture excitedly and talk loudly to me in Mandarin. Eventually, I realized she wanted to set up a trade of sorts. I could take her photos along the way, and she would share her umbrella with me. I laughed, thought for a second, then agreed.

At first we walked along a little awkwardly. She would stop, set up a photo shoot, and I would take a pictures. But soon, we struck up a great dialogue. She spoke rapid Chinese. I replied in English. Neither understood a word the other was saying.

Eventually, we settled into a great routine. She even offered to take a few pictures of me random places, and I accepted.

As we got closer to town, we started getting some funny looks from strangers as we huddled together under the umbrella, but we just giggled like a happy couple and continued on.

Finally, we got to a big water wheel with some other people nearby, and I gestured to ask if we could get a picture together. She smiled, flagged down a stranger, and we took pictures on both of our cameras. I wanted to include the umbrella, she yelled at me to put it down. I held it awkwardly off to the side.

Soon though, we had to go our separate ways. She led us to a little store and arranged for me to buy my own umbrella for Y10. We turned and looked at each other one last time, she said "Bye-Bye", I laughed and said the same, then turned and headed home under my new lavender umbrella.