When the plane in from Singapore just landed here a Vietnamese lady told me she was sorry for my visit because at New Year the city would be so boring. That has not been a problem, but only because I can be entertained anywhere. The city is dead.

All of the local Vietnamese shops, restaurants, whatever .. and many foreign ones are closed and shuttered. That leaves lots of security guards siting in doorways and a lot of tourists ambling around.

New Year came and went. There were great fireworks over the river, and lots of firecrackers on the streets.

They have firecrackers that explode with bright glittery confetti that covered the streets the next couple of days.   But the celebration was actually pretty tame. Subdued anyway, nothing like the wildness of Sinalog in Cebu.

The next day there were lots of very bright beautiful dresses on the women. And a lot of strolling around in them. For the holiday they decorated about a five block area with flowers and there was a large crowd promenading and the men taking pictures of the women.

This is a long holiday, four days off, which is customary in Asia. It is their biggest holiday and people need time to travel to the countryside because the first two days are supposed to be spent with the family.

These people are very friendly. It is their custom to say Happy New Year to each other on the new year day, and I had endless greetings and smiles everywhere I wandered. Seeing them off work I can say that they like to sit and drink tea, hot or cold with friends and family. They like all manner of games, board games of all kinds and card games. Card games everywhere. In the mornings there are discarded playing cards on the streets, I can only guess that if you lose it is the card’s fault.

They love potted plants, potted trees and any kind of flower.

It continues to be beautiful weather; beautiful blue sky, breezes, but between 10 am and 4 pm it is hot.

The tropical sun is brutal when it is overhead and I have had to use an umbrella for serious walking. And along a river/tributary where there is some breeze.  Cathy says the differential between the current lows in Bemidji and the highs here is around 115 degrees F. She also says that living there we do not sweat enough .. she should be here.

I have had a few French and Italian dinners, there are many many restaurants and cafes.

And I am not starving because my little hotel has about an acre of breakfast bar.

But with things starting to open up again I was able to find a Vietnamese meal last night. It was Chinese like, eaten with rice bowl and chopsticks. Everything I had was good, but I really cannot say much after one meal. Except that the South African Pinotage I had with it was surprisingly good.

As always, a few bonus pictures:

This one means little to anyone but me, but I used to see these penguin trash receptacles all over China 30 years ago, and they were the exact colors.

Incomprehensible ceremony:

In the old newsreels during the war the river was always full of floating green stuff.  And it is.

Road warier.

Local bully.

And I can never get enough of these local markets.   (Don’t eat the fish, I walked along the river and have smelled it)

They call it Ho Chi Minh city now.   But even though the American round of the many wars fought here is receding into the history books, it is still Saigon to me.

Perhaps coming here after three plus weeks in India is a factor, but I find the city quite beautiful. My camera does not take night photos well, but in the evenings the city is a riot of neon lights. Some streets even have neon decorations arching overhead for blocks.

There are sidewalks. And they are clean.

I am staying in the old city, but it has a many new buildings mixed in with some historic ones.

The air is quite clean (for Asia). It is hot around mid-day, but so far a nice breeze has been blowing.

The sun is shining and there are trees, green grass and flowers everywhere.

I want to start looking for remnants of the old French colonial days. Have not seen much yet.

Did have Cassoulet, Cote du Rhone and French cheeses for dinner last night. There are quite a few French restaurants here. Was talking with the chef (from Toulouse, been here 14 years). This sounds silly but is the kind of thing that happens on the road, about variations of Cassoulet. He showed me the sausage he imports and uses. He leaves the fat under the skin on his duck confit as rich as possible as opposed to rendering it for crispiness. I value some lamb, as it was served in the old market in Paris before it was torn down. He poured me a very large snifter of Calvados during this conversation, which made the morning start late. But I digress.

My hotel seems to be in little Tokyo. Even the signs are in Japanese. It is hard to find a Vietnamese restaurant between the French, Japanese and Argentine steak houses.

These people seem to be a very happy lot. I am very comfortable walking around everywhere, and feel safe and free from hassles.

But this is Asia. A 45 minute walk through nice suburbs and you reach some harder stuff.

At the moment the whole city is gearing up for Chinese New Year, which is a good and a bad thing.  Much of the city will be shut down as owners and staff travel to celebrate with family in the countryside.  But there will be parties, fireworks, street festivals, etc.  and I will try for some pictures.

Bonus pictures: A bicycle driven fish concentration camp.

Strange tourist crafts.

Unknown fruits.

Not much else to relate. Except that I had a 6 dollar haircut and now my head looks like a big white mushroom.

I used to come here when it was Bombay.

This place has cleaned up a lot.  New buildings, a few new roads, hardly any trash compared to the other places we have visited on this short trip in India.   A whole new area North of the old town with new hotels, restaurants, etc.

It is obviously a more wealthy city than say New Delhi.

They have got the cows and the bicycle rickshaws off the roads, but since there are 50 times as many cars on almost the same roads as 30 years ago the traffic is impossible.  Not bad, impossible.

It seems that throughout Asia as they clean up the poverty and disease and general dirtiness that made travel here so difficult in the past .. they have created such terrible air pollution and traffic problems that is still very difficult to travel here.

Took Cathy down to the old town area to show her the colonial buildings, areas I used to hang around, hotels I used to stay in that we cannot afford, etc.

Otherwise, we decided that we had seen enough of India for now and hung around the JW Marriott for some pampering.

We made some friends in the Concierge lounge and on Cathy’s birthday they brought her a cake and champagne.  Life is good.

Came to Sarnath to pay homage to Siddhartha Buddha at the place of the birth of Buddhism.

In 528 BC, Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment at nearby Bodhgaya, and became Siddhartha Buddha. Upon enlightenment he was allowed to perceive the interconnection between human desire and suffering.

Five weeks later, here in Sarnath he spoke of his knowledge for the first time, and revealed the eight fold “middle path” leading to the attainment of enlightenment and the escape from suffering and sorrow.

There is not much here now, but the place is still more significant than merely historical.

This was a mecca for Buddhists until maybe the 4^th century and occupied still into the 9^th century. Then a long decline started after the Muslim invasions.

This Stupa has been excavated and two earlier constructions are underneath. A pillar found nearby indicates that this is the place where Siddhartha Budda delivered his first sermon.

We are staying right on the waterfront of the river Ganges here in Varanasi; to Hindus what Rome is to the Catholics and Mecca to the Muslims.

Lord Vishnu, one of the three major Hindu gods, through one of his incarnations recognized the Ganges at Varanasi to be an especially holy place.  For reference, Vishnu is the god of maintenance/preservation. The other two major Hindu gods are creation and destruction. The fun loving rascal Krishna was one of Vishnu’s avatars (incarnations).

This site is so holy that to die and be cremated here greatly speeds the release from the cycle of re-birth. Maybe even a direct/immediate escape. So, lots of people come here to die. Our hotel was re-purposed from a 120 year old building built/donated for people to come and die in.

The next best thing is to die and be brought here for cremation and dispersal in the holy water.

The cremations go on at the water’s edge 24 hours a day.

These are photos of small areas for simple pyres for poor people. We could not photograph really elaborate areas.

All along the waterfront are buildings built by various past rulers, maharajas, etc. from all over the country and as far away as Nepal .. for their people to use. The donations enhanced their karma.

There are over 700 temples, countless shrines, schools for persons pursuing a life in the religious orders. Some religious instruction takes place in classes right on the waterfront.

Just a dip into the sacred Ganges at Varanasi will relieve one of their bad karma. Sometimes ever the accumulated bad karma from previous lifetimes too. Millions of pilgrims come here to dip and splash and wash in the river, especially in the morning. Bus groups from other areas arrive for this cleansing.

One can purchase a polyethylene jug to take some river water home for future use.

Every evening the Temples must conduct elaborate ceremonies (involving much fire/burning things) to encourage the river to continue to accept the bad karma.

It is easy to scoff at all of this, but numbering at around a billion there are probably more Hindu than Catholics. And as for the Lutherans, they should never let any controversy over these religious things come to a vote.

Along with the pilgrims there are 3 million people living here, thousands of sacred cows, all manner of loose farm animals (bullocks, goats, sheep, pigs, dogs) roaming around the two streets. With every manner of vehicle. So walking is impossible. A taxi which we clocked in two journeys made 5 miles an hour average speed.

Here are a few pictures though:

Tasty snacks

There are beggars everywhere in India.  But they swarm in Varanasi.  The woman with child is almost a caricature. I could not point the camera at the maimed, crippled limbless horrors.

Lots of rickshaw drivers and pestering potential guides.

Street entertainment. Like this man with a cobra in a basket.

Or, one could just relax and lounge with the dogs.

(title courtesy of C.A. Marchand)

I am pretty sure that no one would ever come to Agra except for the Taj Mahal. But I did not photograph the endless poverty and trash and dirt and yes, squalor. Nothing but nice things in this post.

A very long day. Eight hours in the car coming and going. Our schedule just never worked for an overnight in Agra to see the Taj at dawn. But the morning fog did lift for us to enjoy a bit of blue sky.

Agra was the stronghold of the Mughals who ruled India from here for 200 or so years.

They built a number of palaces and forts around Agra, but their home base and strongest was Fort Agra, here in the city. Some pictures. It is a pretty enlightened place with fountains, markets, mosques, audience halls, a courtyard to grow grapes to make wine and a harem.

The third Emperor, Shah Jahan, built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for and memorial to his beloved third wife. She died in her 14^th childbirth.

And although this is certainly an ego driven construction it is also a monument to love.

Reportedly a learned man, he believed that all religions should be respected equally and as an example married three wives, a Muslim, a Christian and a Hindu. He hired three Architects for the construction of the Taj Mahal. A Turkish one, expert in symmetry. A local one expert in Italian pietra dura (stone inlay). And a Persian one expert in the construction of gardens. The Taj is within a symmetrical garden and the building is perfectly symmetrical from four sides.

Some gates to the garden area. Two were used as a Mosque and a guest house respectively.

I try not to think that in many ways this place has become yet another tourist “been there seen that” check off site, because this is one of the greatest works of art ever constructed.  Of course it is a World Heritage site. The particular translucent marble changes colors with the ambient light, brilliant white in the sun but shades of yellow and gold in low light. Originally the extensive inlays of semi and precious stones would reflect colors and light. The entire interior is covered with carvings and inlay. Sorry, no pictures allowed inside – but you do see some of the inlay work here. Just imagine it on every surface.

One thing I would especially have liked to photograph were the large screens carved out of single pieces of marble.

Vandals and invaders have removed the gold inlays (used fires to melt it out). And the precious stones (chisels). But the building is still stunning.

An interesting sidelight. Shah Jahan was deposed by his son, the last Mughal Emperor, and imprisoned in this apartment in the Agra Fort for the last 8 years of his life. He could look out the window and down the river at the Taj. After his death one of his daughters arranged for him to be entombed with his wife in the Taj Mahal.

You probably saw this picture of our dinner venue over the lake in Udaipur.

This could be a beautiful place someday.

While here we hired a car and driver and toured out to two sites in Rajasthan.   We are only one state away from the Pakistan border and everyone here is Muslim. Security is persuasive and serious.

This is a dry, denuded, barren area. Almost all of the trees have long since been cut down. And it is depressing to see the continuing pressure on the land: many people collecting branches off the living trees, along with bushes, sticks, leaves, any kind of potential fuel.

We travelled part way on a new (6 years old) divided highway, which was a surprise. But mostly on the narrow, one car wide typical country roads.

We encountered dogs, cows, camels, wild pigs, monkeys, cars, four wheels, tuc-tucs, busses, bullock carts .. The fields are small and hand cultivated although we did see a few tractors.

It seems to me that the severe denudation of the land is from the dryness, the press for fuel and the intensive goat farming. The latter so destructive to foliage. (I did have some goat curry the other evening though and somewhat understand.)

Some roadside notes: Lots of brick construction (no wood), and here is a brick works.

Although the place is very desert like there are streams and they use bullock driven pumps to lift water into their fields. Here is a (poor) picture.

They also collect dung for fuel. They hand shape it into patties, which is disconcerting the first time you see it being done. They dry the patties in the sun and then store them near the house in a pile with a straw roof to keep it dry. Here is a boy with some wet ones.

One destination was to visit a hill fort of the Mewari. Built in the mid 1400’s. Up on a plateau, two and a half miles of walls and cliffs enclosed 32 square miles.

Also went to another mid 1400 site, a marble temple, very holy to the Jain religion. To enter had to take off shoes and leave behind any leather articles (cows are sacred), belts, wallets, whatever.

The roads were impossibly narrow through some villages, but that can be said for Italy and France too. But these villages are amazingly dirty. Buildings half constructed, buildings falling down, bad shops and eateries, cow poop, trash of all kinds, piles of rocks and all kinds of building materials, plain old dirt everywhere. To be fair though the amount of people poop is substantially down from what I remember from 30 years ago. But it is part of the mix.

600 million Indian people poop outside every day.

People are everywhere you look. Not crowds, just everywhere, doing some farm or other work. Or, inexplicably walking in very remote places, or sitting on a rock beside the road high on a hill, or a family camping in a field. The women wear very brightly colored dresses. They carry amazing loads on their heads. Water in metal containers, baskets of leaves and twigs, branches, baskets of gravel, bundles of straw …

A note on having and having not.

We talked with some people staying at the Oberoi.

I used to stay at the Taj and Oberoi hotels, venerable Indian hotel chains on business years ago. They were expensive then. They are breathtakingly expensive now. And today there are plenty of choices:   good local hotels and international chains. One night at either of the former in Udaipur, in one of the less expensive rooms will not leave you with little change from a thousand bucks. We are not staying there.

But that got us discussing.

India is poor. 20 % of the population of the country cannot make enough in a year and 50% of the population cannot make enough in a month to stay in one of these hotels.

Here is our hotel. Pretty, but only just comfortable.

But we have hot water, clean towels, a comfortable bed, aircon heat, a pool, very good restaurants. We climb up to the top of our hotel. On the rooftops surrounding us all manner of living is going on. One yard just off our room has chickens. A troop of monkeys is on the other side.

Two goats are on one rooftop. And, just across is a large operation drying dung patties. This is in the best part of town.

Everywhere we have been there are women who continuously sweep the gutters and edges of the street. With the poorest of brooms. Twig bundles. They sweep into piles and then bring along barrows and collect the piles. And the amount of litter and garbage and bad stuffthey collect  is incredible. I thought that they were the poorest of the poor. But then realized that they have jobs. The really poor are moving around with one piece of cloth around them and their belongings in a bundle.  Individuals and whole families.

This monumental amount of poverty especially with comparative (and real) wealth and luxury right along-side is very hard to reconcile. I could write more on this and perhaps will some later time.

Walked around the old town this morning and post here a collection of street scenes. (for anyone who has not seen enough of these)

We have flown southwest to Udaipur in the state of Rajasthan.   A city on two lakes.  Hotter and drier here.  This is a popular tourist destination because of the beautiful setting of the old city and the castle.  Here are some pictures around the lake area.

We spend much of today touring the Castle of the Mewar, an independent dynasty for over 1600 years.  This “new” castle was built in the mid 1500’s and expanded and continuously occupied until the 1930’s when it was divided into a museum, two hotels and a home for the current maharana, Arvind Singh.  He is still around and enjoys going to auto shows around the world to display samples from his extensive collection of antique automobiles.

Being an old Engineer I though that this little article in the living quarters was amazing:  an Italian built steam driven fan !!

Of course this is India and the town is rough.  Here are some street pictures.

Our hotel is across the lake from the castle. We have a very nice rooftop restaurant with a great view of the old city.  But it is a bit chilly at night. The hotel is a comfortable but very strange place, and I decided to add some pictures to this post.

Notice the door to our rooms where you lock a big padlock when you leave !!

Leaving Delhi today.  Posting some photos of yesterday when we were out almost all day.  Walked through some beautiful areas where the rich live.

Difficult to see their big houses though.

All behind walls with guarded entrances.  Often razorwire.

Went down to India gate now that the detritus from the big parade is starting to be cleaned up.

A flower shop outside the Christian graveyard.

Made our way to the Lodi gardens, a very nice park.

Not a lot is known about the Lodi.  When some Mughals sacked Delhi in the late 1400’s they killed the entire population.  And from this lesson the Lodi elected never to build a city, but left behind their impressive grave sites.  Who is buried here is unknown.  But the unique buildings remain.

Braved going to old Delhi again.  This time rode rickshaws around which was much better than walking.  Cathy wanted to go to a very large Mosque, and did.

Took some pictures of high tech wiring from the rickshaw.

Then to the spice market. Here are some pictures but I could not capture the exotic smells.

Out to the National Museum.  Very interesting place but also very foreign with plenty of statues and pictures of the stories of gods we do not know much about.  Ancient jewelry, weapons, coins, etc.

Took one picture.  This wonderful little dancing girl.  4700 years old. Cast in bronze using the lost wax process.  Technology and Art and the human sprit crossing time.

Went to some historic sites.  Notably the fortress/home of the last Mughal Emperors.  Pictures here.  One remarkable thing the pictures do not show is the extensive hydraulic engineering.  The fortress was on the river and they lifted a considerable amount of water fro domestic use, fountains, etc.  But also they flowed water like a stream through all of the buildings, for pleasure and to act as a natural air conditioning.

Interesting day too.  Rode in a taxi, a tuc tuc and a rickshaw.

We found that the area of our hotel is an oasis of calmness within an ocean of the real Delhi, and here are some pictures.  We missed a million good ones. But you will get the idea.