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Like I said before, Bodhgaya was a definite highlight of the India trip. Not only did we stumble onto a lost carnival, but this was also the spot where Buddha stumbled onto nirvana. Let us take a moment and connect those two events, shall we?
More: India photo set.
This monk is peering through a thick wall which protects the Bodhi tree, the spot where Buddha first attained enlightenment. Here’s the tree in all it’s glory!
Before the Buddha was the Buddha, he was Prince Gautama Siddhartha. He decided that he wanted to seek something more than what he saw around him as his life and he meditated in this Mahakala/Dungeswari Cave for years. It was meditating in these caves that made him realize that fasting and depriving one’s body of nutrition is not the correct path to wisdom. (He’s saying: eat a sandwich and the truth will come!)
One of the highlights of our India trip was Bodhgaya, where Buddha found enlightenment. It was probably no coincidence that this was also the same place where we found a lost carnival amidst the dry, arid land.
More about enlightenment later, but for now enjoy the photos of the incredible carnie rides that we braved!
More: India photo set.
This attraction is commonly known as “Wall of Death,” with motorcyclists slowly ascending on a slightly slanted wall as they spin round and round and round.
It’s all smiles for the Wall-of-Death defy-er!
Marah and her new friends! She treated all these little boys to a hand-cranked carousel ride!
Filed under: China Be Trippin', Fotorama, Operation Engrish Prease, Travelzies
This is one of my favorite shots from my time in China and it conveys exactly what I desire at the moment. I’d like to be napping on a tattered lazyboy abandoned on to a anonymous street, neglecting my job and dreaming of better days.
In the middle of January, Katherine and I traveled to India during a term break. It wasn’t just any ol’ holiday, this was the vacation where my super friends, Gus y Marah, joined us too! Here are pics from the first part of the trip, when we were in Kolkata.
More: India photo set.
At Mother Teresa’s former home. This is her tomb, the only place we were allowed to photograph. On top of her tomb, formed by marigolds, it says “You Did It To Me.” Really? Me? I did it?
Holy cow! Gus is in India!
More: India photo set.
Last December I gave myself an Xmas present- a vacation in Bangladesh! Rather than stay in Chittagong during the week-long Eid holiday in the middle of the month, I traveled to the northwestern division of Rajshahi and visited the homes of five Bengali students in the northwestern Rajshahi district.
It was such a treat to meet their families and see the villages where their folks grew up. It was doubly enlightening to reaffirm that Chittagong is not Bangladesh, and that in fact, this country is exceptionally beautiful with wide expanses of farmland and quaint villages. Before coming to Bangladesh, I had vague notions of the rural villages, with pictures of cramped, dirty spaces in my mind. I had visualized urban slums which bear no resemblance to rural villages which were beautifully serene- to the extent that it almost felt like we were in a village theme park because they were so neat and clean and the people were so immensely kind.
This trip did something for me- something I never dreamt would happen in Chittagong. It made me fall in love with the country and its peoples. It was a given that I’d love my students, but the country was another story. Chittagong is not an easy city to live in- but all I had to do was to endure 14-hour bus rides out of town to find that Bangladesh is more than this port city.
As always, you can check out the whole set of photos here: Rajshahi Romance photos.
The ruins of the Buddhist Vihara at Paharpur, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Before/After: Eid-al-Adha, where animals are sacrificed and its meat is then divided between the poor, their neighbors and for oneself.
Flexing at the Rangpur Museum.
Napping in a sari really classes up the joint.
Makes the Greyhound feel like a first-class experience.
From Saigon, Vietnam. February 2007.
Happy valentine’s day (or another painful reminder of my one-year forced celibacy.) Don’t take it for granted, my friends.
During one of our last nights in India, I strolled up and down Main Bazar Road and peeked into shops searching for a bag of peanuts. I found a street vendor selling freshly-fried biscuits and perused his cart for a nutty snack, but there was nothing. As I looked, he asked, “What do you want?”
I shook my head and he repeated his question.
“Nah,” I reiterated.
Then he asked, his voice heavy with genuine concern and desperation, “Please tell me what you want.”
No one’s ever asked so directly before. Too bad he didn’t have what I wanted though.
E-mail to friend:
I’m at an internet cafe in Varanasi, India. This is where the Ganges is, its the river where you can bathe to wash away all of your bad ju-ju and begin anew with fresh karma. I haven’t touched the water yet. We’ll see how that goes.
Response from friend:
Hope you guys are having fun. If anyone needs their ju-ju bathed, it’s probably you.
Immediate follow-up message from friend soon thereafter:
Wait. That totally came out wrong.
Ah, shit.
