I had a taste of the still-feudal side of India this past week. Saturday I met up with my friends … Continue reading Managing your Driver (first draft)

Another #&% early-morning bus, this time to Gaggal (pr Guggul), where the travel agent who had spent what seemed like hours uncomfortably hitting on me while I waited for him to book me a train ticket had claimed there would be a direct bus to Amritsar. There wasn’t. But at least I was on the six o’clock bus, not the four o’clock one I’d originally planned, and I saw the sun rise in clear skies over the shy snowy peaks behind McLo. Apparently my great-great-grandmother was born somewhere around here, but that’s all I know about it. Continue reading “Amritsar”

It was raining icy daggers at five in the morning when I left Manali. I had asked the elderly owner … Continue reading The Abode of His Holiness

To add to the list of things I do not recommend: a ten hour overnight bus ride on the bumpiest, … Continue reading Manali (Updated)

I am a heretic. For an architect not to worship at Le Corbusier’s feet is bizarre and suspect, but for … Continue reading Chandigardh

Camels are not attractive creatures. They seem to be constantly in the process of farting, burping, pooping, peeing, spitting, or baring … Continue reading In the Desert

I am my mother’s daughter. Here I am trying to live on the cheap to extend my trip as long as … Continue reading Jewelry

Monday morning I got up before the sun to catch the bus to Udaipur. I hadn’t slept well due to the marching band practicing outside my window much of the night (and my especial irritation that they seemed to know when I was about to look out and would dive for cover, furtively replacing themselves with a gang of street urchins banging on pots and buckets). So I was pleased to find a sleeper bus. Along a central aisle you have two levels of foam mattresses, with singles on one side and doubles on the other, upper level accessed by ladders, and curtains everywhere for privacy. If you were actually trying to get a night’s sleep you might be disappointed, as the beds were undoubtedly made for dwarves, but for a morning’s nap next to a huge operable window I was in heaven. Continue reading “Udaipur”